Mac OS User Tabbing
For Mac OS users, there is a system setting that may not allow you to tab onto several types of elements in a web page. To change this setting:
Open System Preferences and go to Keyboard:
Select the Shortcuts tab. Make sure the box for "Use keyboard navigation to move focus between controls" is checked.
Additional settings for Safari Browser.
Open Safari Preferences:
Select the Advanced tab. Make sure the box for "Press Tab to highlight each item on a webpage" is checked.
On the radio this month, you can hear students from Walker School thanking community partners for the special programs they make possible. One student chose to thank City Schoolyard Garden for creating and supporting our garden classrooms, and for working with the Local Food Hub to support our “Harvest of the Month” fresh and local snack. Another spoke about her swimming lessons at Walker, made possible by the City’s Parks and Recreation department and the Ben Hair -Just Swim for Life Foundation. Two students spoke about U.Va., the first thanking engineering students who helped Walker students learn to code and the second recognizing the university’s Fralin Museum of Art for sponsoring the Writer’s Eye competition. These are just a few of the partners that our students thanked, and the list goes on well beyond those they mentioned, from business and nonprofit partnerships to extensive relationships with U.Va. and PVCC and other area school divisions.
New this year for winter closing notifications: This year, all families will receive emails and calls at all times (including early morning) unless families customize their settings via PowerSchool. 
A big congratulations to Dr. Polly Sibert of Walker and Laura Mulligan Thomas of CHS. These two orchestra directors received statewide recognition this week for their continued excellence and leadership. Dr. Sibert won the JMU Outstanding Music Educator Award, given to one alum annually. Laura Thomas won the Philip Fuller Award from the VA Band/Orchestra Directors Association. Details are here.
Mr. Ernest Chambers, physical education teacher at Burnley-Moran Elementary, was profiled in the Virginia Education Association’s Journal of Education.
Rodney Redd was named athletic director at Charlottesville High School, bringing broad experience as an athletic director, coach, and teacher. Welcome!
Across the division, Charlottesville Schools participated in the international Hour of Code, a event designed to expose students to computer programming. Charlottesville Schools has extensive and growing support to help students learn to code.
Basketball season’s underway, and the boys’ and girls’ teams are off to a strong start. In the first game of the season, Alaijah Ragland reached the rare milestone of scoring more than 1000 points in her high school career; she was also named 
Piano students enjoyed a workshop with sixteen-year-old prodigy Matt Savage. Savage, who is on the autism spectrum, has toured the world and performed for heads of state. Thanks to the Charlottesville Jazz Society for the opportunity!
The volleyball team also qualified for the play-offs, and both the boys’ and girls’ cross country teams qualified for regionals.
Environmental science students at CHS have been busy, whether they are heading outside to do water testing in McIntire Park or analyzing the data of for the energy gained from the school’s solar panels.
Art students have been using scratch programming to add sound to their art. Does that maken them enginartists?
Eighth-grader Marco Lopez won the middle-school category of the Charlottesville Public Works’ “Imagine a Day without Water” art contest. Congratulations!
The waiting list is long for Buford students who want to spend their lunch going to neighboring Johnson Elementary to help young friends read. The weekly program is so popular that a once-per-quarter limit has been implemented for Buford students.
Buford students celebrated Veterans Day three ways. Civics students attend Veterans’ Day events at the Jefferson School African American History Center. The school held a program with area vets who shared their stories of military service. And the band performed in the celebrations at Highland.
History students in sixth grade enjoyed a colonial market activity. As seen in the photo, Connecticut offered maple syrup, apple cider, and smiles.
The Walker Peace Squad hit the road to all six Charlottesville elementary schools, presenting their own adaptation of the award-winning picture book One. After their play, Walker students led their elementary friends in a discussion of the book and ways to stand up for kindness in their schools. Continuing the theme of kindness, back at Walker, students and teachers celebrated a wacky, tacky dress-up day to show that it’s wacky to be mean.
Students in the functional skills classroom have started a small business called Hands-On greeting cards. They make and sell cards for holidays, birthdays, and general notes.
The first-ever all-elementary tailgate was a success. Their cuteness and cheers propelled the CHS football team to a big win. Thanks to the Burnley-Moran PTO for organizing the event.
As part of the new iSTEM program, third-grade engineers in every school designed, built, and are testing frost-covers for their schools’ lettuce plants. Who can keep their lettuce healthy this winter?
Burnley-Moran students used their garden for both history and science this fall. Kindergartners studied “long ago” by “hunting” with arrows made with the garden’s corn cobs (using baskets as targets). First graders boiled cabbage leaves to see how adding either a base or an acid will change the color of the purple cabbage water to either blue or red.
Clark third-grade bakers practiced their math skills twice, by measuring ingredients and then laying out the cookies in even rows for multiplication practice. Students also held their own Thanksgiving Day parade (with floats) after reading Balloons Over Broadway.
Greenbrier students collected 1,199 cans of food for the Salvation Army, and students have been watching the progress of their new garden shed’s living roof. All that’s left is the planting! Thanks to City Schoolyard Garden and volunteers!
Johnson hosted a number of special events, from an art workshop hosted by the Embassy of Oman, to their annual International Day celebration honoring their students’ varied backgrounds, to a kindergarten and pre-k soup supper, and a Thanksgiving pow-wow with kindergarten-aged native Americans. Plus, the students earned a school-wide dance party by earning so many compliments!
As part of their celebration of International Education Week, Venable students practiced saying hello non-verbally in the style of different cultures. And then they made a mannequin challenge to document those greeting poses! Venable students have also been using their voices (singing the national anthem for UVA women’s soccer), their hands (making useful objects out of gourds from the garden), and their ears and eyes (finding matches during bingo night).
At their November meeting, the Board voted to renew Dr. Atkins’ contract as superintendent. They heard updates on the long-term facilities planning, reviewed key measures of academic success, and learned about the process for developing the school division’s 
Upcoming events include:
