April 2024 News & Highlights

A Word From Dr. Gurley 

Dear Cville Schools community –

As educators, we endeavor to teach our students how to respond to challenges with grace and innovation. 

This past week, CHS students demonstrated just how this is done by reviving a cherished tradition from years past called Diversity Week. Students showcased music, dance, and poetry from their home cultures during an all-school assembly. There was also an international fashion show and a global food day. After a difficult fall at CHS, this student-led week of events was one example of how the school has “bounced forward.” It was also a chance for our CHS community to get to know one another—for students to understand better who they go to school with and feel better understood in return. Our teens were able to showcase the best of themselves and, most important of all, have fun.

Brava to the staff (Tina Vasquez and Kara Menfi) and student organizers (Fortune Aberra, Hope George, and Mariam Sadat) who worked for months on this project, and to everyone in the CHS community who contributed and participated.

As our positive school culture continues to grow, we are also working on other aspects of school safety. See updates at the bottom of this email in the School Board section. And read on for more good news and opportunities to get involved in our schools.

Dr. G

Staff Celebrations 💐Join us in giving flowers to the following: Buford art teacher Lou Haney, shown here (photo courtesy Kristen Finn). Ms. Haney's exhibition “Leisure Suit” is on view at Second Street Gallery until May 24. Find more information on the Second Street Gallery website.  Program administrator for Lugo-McGinness Academy and Knight School, Lamont Trotter, who successfully defended his dissertation at Virginia State University earlier this year. CHS teacher Jim Daly, the Central Virginia girls basketball coach of the year! Four Charlottesville City Schools teachers who were named among the “Family Favorite” teachers by Charlottesville Family magazine: Jane Evans (Burnley-Moran), Emily Hamilton (Clark), Kathryn Rogers (Greenbrier), and Amy Wissekerke (Walker).   🍎🍏 Congratulations to our Golden Apple Winners! Winners will be honored at a ceremony at 5pm on Wednesday, May 8 in Lane Auditorium at the County Office Building at 401 McIntire Road in Charlottesville. Thanks to Better Living Building Supply and Cabinetry and the Nunley family for sponsoring this recognition of area teachers! Alton Coleman, Buford  Teresa Amasia, Burnley-Moran  Matt Richardson, CATEC Matthew Miller, CHS Madeline Hermsmeier, Clark  Kathryn Rogers, Greenbrier Rachel Lieb, Jackson-Via  Kelly Walters, Johnson  Megan Greenwood, Venable  Edward Cash, Walker   Let’s Celebrate our Retirees! Our annual retirement celebration will be held at Charlottesville High School in B Commons on Thursday, May 23, at 4:30pm. Thanks to the following folks for their service to our schools! Patricia Barbara, Clark Elementary School (24 years) Marica Bell, Jackson-Via Elementary School (18 years) Lisa Black, Hospital Education (21 years) Norma Dobbins, Hospital Education (39 years) Karin Gianniny, Walker Upper Elementary School (33 years) Sarah Hathaway, Greenbrier Elementary School (17 years) Eursaline Inge, Division Administration Annex (31 years) Elizabeth Jones, Jackson-Via Elementary School (18 years) Susan Joseph, Division Administration Annex (3 years) Stella Kleinschmidt, Venable Elementary School (7 years) Denise Meyer, Hospital Education (10 years) Loretta Randle, Buford Middle School (25 years) Penny Teague, Division Administration Office (27 years) Deborah Tewksbury, Charlottesville High School (11 years) Linda Thornton Greenbrier Elementary School (31 years)

STUDENT ART EXHIBITION RETURNS TO DOWNTOWN MALL IN MAY!  Building on last year's success, the Cville Schools "Art Connections" exhibition is returning to business windows all along the Downtown Mall.  Opening Reception, Friday, May 3, at Ting Pavilion We invite you and your family to join us at the opening celebration at the Ting Pavilion as part of First Fridays on May 3. The CHS Jazz band performs at 5:30 pm, and throughout the evening, a slideshow of CCS student artwork will be cast on the big screen.  A virtual exhibit will go live on April 29. Stay tuned for field trip information for when your child tours the exhibition with their classmates! Poster art by Carrie Orban, CHS, Grade 9. NEWS YOU CAN USE ☀️Looking Ahead to Summer: A List of Opportunities for Our Students Looking for camps, internships, or other learning opportunities? We have compiled a listing of opportunities that our partners have shared with us. These offerings are run by the the schools, the City, or our program partners, and the activities are free, financially accessible, or offer scholarships. Is something missing? Please let us know in the comments! Find the listing here! 🍂  Looking Ahead to Fall: A Registration Timeline This school year is about to wrap up, but we know you're looking ahead to the fall. Here's an overview of instructions and timelines for different scenarios: Preschoolers: apply on the Go2Grow website. Learn more about preschool here! Kindergartners (both new and returning students): Register as a NEW student in SchoolMint. And don't forget Kindergarten Visit Day today, Thursday, April 25! New students (grades 1-12) starting in fall 2024: Register as a NEW student in SchoolMint. Non-resident students (grades K-12, both new and returning). Apply in SchoolMint. Returning students: Re-registration forms will open in SchoolMint on May 20. This will include your bus request forms.   ❤️‍Understanding Restorative Justice in Schools Workshops, Saturday, May 11: Join Family Engagement Coordinator Bianca Johnson to learn more about restorative practices. RSVP here for the morning (10am-12pm) or afternoon (1-3pm) session at the Division's "Annex" offices at the back of Charlottesville High School. 🏫3 School Name Changes Begin This Fall: The school name changes that the School Board approved last year will go into effect this fall. CATEC will receive a slight adjustment (to Charlottesville Area Technical Education Center). Clark Elementary will be Summit Elementary. Venable Elementary will be Trailblazer Elementary. Learn more here. 💻 PowerSchool is More Powerful: If you have logged into the web version of PowerSchool lately to check grades or absences, you may have noticed that it now shows information such as past standardized test scores (check the left menu for Test Scores) -- or even other items such as school portrait claim codes (check the left menu for Demographic Info). Thanks to our IT Department for giving families more ways to find the information they need. (This is for the web-based access only; the PowerSchool app cannot be customized in this way.) Need your access codes to set up your PowerSchool account? Call your school. 🕶️ Return those Solar Eclipse Glasses to Your School or Warby Parker! We won't need those glasses in Virginia for many decades -- let "Astronomers without Borders" give them to people who can! Watch the NBC29 story here.

• Left: Clark hosted a publishing party for families to celebrate 3rd graders' environmental writing.
• Middle: Jackon-Via students play chess. (Notice the handshake in background! 😍)
• Right: At Venable, Mr. George "Roger" Inge made local history personal by sharing the story of Vinegar Hill and Inge's Grocery Store.

All 3rd graders toured the Charlottesville High School Urban Farm as CHS students and Cultivate Charlottesville volunteers led planting, tasting, and outdoor activities. Plus there were chickens! Watch NBC29 here. Want to support this Urban Farming program? Go to their plant sale at the Y on May 4! All 2nd graders attended a water safety day at the Brooks Family YMCA. (Kids are shown above blowing bubbles.) The YMCA gave free swim lesson vouchers to students who most need to improve their water safety skills. Watch NBC29 here.

• Left: Like students & staff at all schools, Greenbrier students enjoyed eclipse-watching!
• Middle: Johnson was one of the Cville Schools participating in the Girls on the Run 5K.  
• Right:  Families at Burnley-Moran came for student-led conferences and collaborative activities.

🏆Congrats to the Buford Debate Team on its recent tournament success! Students Callie Sun and Kiera Yates (below left) were the tournament champs, and Laila Rasnake and Robin Reid placed 4th. 🌍As part of their "People and the Planet" unit, Buford students wrote essays and created board games, which they shared at a family and community learning event (below middle). 🌷Walker students recently enjoyed both a bingo night and a spring fling (below right), and the school also hosted rising 5th graders for instrument selection night. 👷🏽Updates on Charlottesville Middle School: Construction, Design, and Mascot We continue to see progress on the modernization of our middle school! Thanks to current students, staff, and families for their patience as the work advances. Interested in learning more? Watch the May 2 School Board meeting for an update about construction and environmental design. And if you haven't taken our survey about the new mascot, now is the time! Thanks to the staff, students, and families who have served on advisory committees throughout this process. (Middle image photo credit goes to Matthew Gillikin.) HIGH SCHOOL HIGHLIGHTS

🏅Congratulations to senior Ev Wellmon, the CHS scholarship finalist for the Emily Couric Leadership Scholarship program!  🏅Senior Darmal Danish is the recipient of the first-ever Ryan Vaughan Community Builder Award given by ReadyKids. The award honors an area student who has gone above and beyond for their community in small but meaningful ways, demonstrating kindness and character in all they do. Learn more about the award and why they selected Darmal. 🎤Congratulations to 5 CHS upperclassmen, who have been partnering with students from UVA and Hampton University and will present their engineering ethics projects at the 2024 Systems and Information Engineering Design Symposium in May! The students and their topics are: Fortune Aberra, Social Equity in Engineering; Myleisha Bolden, CRISPR-CAS9 and Embryonic Research; Troy Brown, Engineering Processes in Solar Energy; Hope George, Water Transportation and Dam Management; and Jayden Vaughan,  Engineering Protocols and Boeing. ⚾🏀Congratulations to our CHS student-athletes who have committed to college sports programs! They are named as they appear in the photo (shown left to right): Malachi Paschal, Randolph Macon College, baseball Rayquel Allen, Louisburg College, basketball Aidan Yates, Williams College, basketball Elliott Plehn, Beloit College, baseball Luka Matic, Christopher Newport University, basketball Want to cheer on our spring athletes? Find schedules at gocville.org. 🎓🎓Speaking of sports, did you enjoy #MarchMadness? Thank two CHS alum -- Kevin Leatherwood (yes, that Leatherwood) and Mo Brown (of Pam Brown fame), whose teams met up at the Final Four. Kevin is Assistant Coach/Director of Player Development for NC State Basketball. Mo is Director of Marketing & Fan Engagement for the women champs, University of South Carolina! #pixoritdidnthappen 👟If you loved Medford League Basketball, stay tuned for kickball updates! ✍🏻 Freshman Rose Brennan-Wilkinson was just named the Jefferson-Madison Regional Library’s 24-25 Teen Poet Laureate! Rose’s poem “Wedding Day” will also be one of the poem scrolls distributed at JMRL branches for Poem In Your Pocket Day (April 29). 🚍 Students at Lugo-McGinness Academy have enjoyed two recent field trips, one to see Pride & Prejudice at the Blackfriar’s Playhouse in Staunton, and another to visit the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History & Culture in partnership with UVA’s Equity Center. While in DC, they ate at Ben's Chili Bowl, the eatery that fed the Civil Rights Movement, and even got to meet Ben's co-founder, Ms. Virginia Ali!  🚘Congrats to senior Taher Aman for successfully garnering an internship at Flow Audi! The CATEC Auto Service Tech student begins his work-based learning experience this month. 🎤Students in Public Speaking II held their annual luncheon to meet with administrators. During the meal, students raised CHS-related issues and potential solutions to prompt a productive discussion. 🎺Did you catch the CHS Band in the Dogwood Parade? We've got a few pix below courtesy CBS19 (bottom row).

School Board Update: Mini-Minutes, Safety & Budget Updates March 28 Mini-Minutes are here. Note: due to spring break, this was the "April" meeting. Similarly, the "June" meeting will be May 30 to avoid a conflict with graduation on June 6. CHS SAFETY UPDATE: Find a summary of the safety discussion in the 3/7 Mini-Minutes. The key ideas are that (in keeping with community support shown on the recent survey), CCS and CPD will continue learning more about the "community youth officer" model for school-police partnership, and on 3/28, the Board approved the purchase of weapons detectors for use at CHS sporting events.