School Days Fall 2015

SCHOOLHenrico County Public Schools

henricoschools.us

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WELCOME BACK!

HenricoChristmas MotherMake someone’s holiday bright

MEALS TAXUPDATERepairs and improvements moving ahead

WELCOME BACK!

Page 3

(It’s going to be the best year ever)

Check out ournew website!

2 OC TOBER 2015 SCHOOL DAYS

Welcome to the 2015-16 school year! It was won-derful to see so many

bright and smiling faces in Septem-ber as we welcomed back our stu-dents. It’s an exciting time of year, and I’m encouraged that we are get-ting off to such a strong start.

One aspect of our “back to school” effort that I’m particularly proud of is the work put forth by our transportation team to make approximately 400 contacts dur-ing Labor Day weekend, just before we got underway. These additional calls and emails helped ensure that students and their families were well taken care of as the school year began. In addition to the Transpor-tation Department, I’ve asked all of our employees to “refine” their practices, no matter their position or department, in hopes of deliv-ering excellent customer service to our community stakeholders.

It was also nice to be the bearer of good news as it relates to a salary increase for our teachers and staff.

During the first week of school our employees were reminded of a pay raise that takes effect this month. The 2 percent increase affects all employees, including temporary and part-time rates. This raise, combined with a recent increase of up to 3 percent that was given back in January, means most of our em-ployees have received an approxi-mate five percentage point raise in less than one year. We are very ap-preciative to the School Board and Board of Supervisors for their con-tinued support and advocacy on behalf of HCPS employees.

Our focus is turning this month to the overall performance of our 72 schools and program centers. In October, the Virginia Department of Education will an-nounce its annual accreditation ratings, and here in Henrico we’re expecting some good news. Due to the dedication of staff and parents, as well as the hard work of students, we expect more of our schools to move back to “Fully Accredited.”

In addition, VDOE is expected to revise some of its terminology. No longer will schools just be designat-ed “Fully Accredited,” “Accredited with Warning” and “Accreditation Denied.” Instead, VDOE expects to move to a system that gives greater acknowledgment to schools that make tremendous progress. Look for updates on our website, henricoschools.us as soon as that information is released.

Finally, keep your eyes on our School Board meetings this fall. We’re undergoing a review of our various high school specialty cen-ters, and your feedback is impor-tant. More information about spe-cialty centers is available online at http://henricoschools.us/special-ty-centers/.

Thank you for being with us for the start of another exciting year! I look forward to seeing you in our schools.

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Welcome Back!

Dr. Patrick C. Kinlaw HCPS Superintendent of Schools

“

In August, the Henrico School Board appointed Pierre Greene to serve out the remainder of

the term of former Fairfield District representative Lamont Bagby. Bagby resigned from the Board in July af-ter winning a special election for the 74th District seat in the Virginia House of Delegates.

Greene’s appointment extends through the end of 2015. Fairfield District voters will go to the polls Nov. 3 to elect a representative to a new four-year term on the School Board. The winner of that election will take office Jan. 1, 2016.

Greene, a pastor and a finan-cial services manager, was selected by the other four members of the Board. The Board interviewed all five applicants for the vacancy in August, and heard public comments on the opening.

“I’m truly honored and over-whelmed to get this opportunity to fill Delegate Bagby’s seat,” Greene

said. “The Fairfield Dis-trict is where I’ve been liv-ing for the past eight years and I absolutely fell in love with the community. It’s exciting in the next four months to have the opportunity to add value to our kids, our adminis-trators and our commu-nity at large in any way possible.”

“We had five ex-tremely qualified appli-cants for this position,” said John Montgomery, School Board chair and Varina District represen-tative. “Any one of them would have been extraordinarily capable … We hope that the four who were not chosen, as well as Mr. Greene, will continue to be involved in our schools because they brought such an array of skills and ideas.”

Also in January 2016, the Board

will elect a new chair and vice chair. Lisa Marshall, Tuckahoe District rep-resentative, was elected by the board to serve out the final months of Bag-by’s term as vice chair.

JOIN your PTA

DONATE to HEF

VOLUNTEER

Join the PTA and become a voice for students and teachers in Henrico County.

By supporting the Henrico Education Foundation (HEF), you are developing tomorrow’s leaders and providing students the tools they need for success.

Volunteer your time and talents for your school, PTA or HEF. Your involvement makes all the di�erence.

Find out more at henricogives.org or by calling HEF (804) 652-3869.

How can I help my child’s school?

Board appoints Greene to serve remainder of Bagby’s Fairfield term

Pierre Greene - Fairfield district

A copy of the Policies and Regula-tions Manual of Henrico County Pub-lic Schools is available to students, employees and the public on the HCPS website, henricoschools.us. Any person unable to access the on-line policy may request a copy of a specific policy by contacting Records Management at 804-652-3828.

HCPS Policies and Regulations

SCHOOL DAYS OC TOBER 2015 3

What we did on your summer vacation...During the summer, the departments that support Henrico County Public Schools are hard at work, getting ready for fall or working on projects that can’t be done during the school year. We asked some HCPS departmentsto tell us five things they did during the summer:

HUMAN RESOURCES RESEARCH & PLANNING CONSTRUCTION & MAINTENANCEHired and processed 400+ new

teachers and 200+ support people

Processed numerous transfers, promotions and extended responsibilities within HCPS

Celebrated an award from the National Association of Counties for a managerial training program we created and facilitated for other HCPS departments

Helped school leaders grow by providing professional develop-ment opportunities

Danced to Pharrell Williams’ “Happy” each Thursday at 5:30 p.m. to let off some steam!

Created a Research and Planning Department blog

Applied for four major grants to support extending learning opportunities

Updated all school division maps and school floor plans

Completed five large state reports and updated info about HAT, SOL and NWEA testing data for parents

Developed the testing calendar for the 2015-16 school year and helped support summer school testing

Installed trailers, prepped cinder tracks and removed some trees

Striped parking lots in 45 areas

Created new instructional spaces from existing occupied areas

Undertook construction projects including: repairing bathrooms, parking areas, bus loops, tennis courts, roofs, HVAC improvements and lighting

“Mulched, mowed and moved”: We got our schools ready and made sure they had plenty of curb appeal

WHILE YOU WERE OUTDate

From

Message In November 2013, Henrico County voters showed their continued support for strong

schools by approving a 4 percent meals tax to support improvements and school operations.

Among the ways your tax dollars were hard at work this summer:

Henrico County Public Schools

Summer 2015 EXCITING NEWS!

Adding parking and driveway improvements at Longan, Pinchbeck and Laburnum elementary schools

Replacing kitchen HVAC and exhaust hoods at Holladay, Glen Allen and Jackson Davis elementary schools

Replacing kitchen pipes at John Rolfe Middle School

Installing gym �oors at Highland Springs High School and Tuckahoe Elementary School

Replacing old and broken ceiling tiles at Montrose Elementary SchoolRepaving and striping the main parking lot at Fair�eld Middle School


WELCOME BACK!


WELCOME BACK!

Friends, smiles, erasers and backpacks:

A new school year is

always exciting!: )

6 OCTOBER 2015 SCHOOL DAYS

Usually when Henrico and J.R. Tucker high school students take the basketball court to-

gether, it’s about competition. This summer, however, students from the schools were on the same team, and gave a tiny Costa Rican rainforest vil-lage a big win. Three students from Henrico, and one from Tucker, helped build a multi-use recreational court for the residents in con-junction with the group Courts for Kids.

The organization facilitates the construc-tion of courts for towns that wouldn’t otherwise have such recreational facilities.

The Henricoans – and one Chesterfield County student – joined a California group to build the cement court in the village of Ran-cho Quemado. A Peace Corps volunteer in the town had submitted grant applications to Courts for Kids to try to make the project a reality.

For the Henrico group, the trip was not luxurious. Participants raised funds to pay the $2,300-per-person cost of the trip and, upon arriving in the Costa Rican city of San Jose, made a tortuous eight-hour bus ride to the remote village. Once in Rancho Que-mado, they worked five long sweat-drenched days to help carve a court from rocks and roots.

With more relaxing sum-mertime options available, why did the Henrico students opt for the trip?

Henrico H.S. sopho-more Danielle Freeman said her impression on hearing of the project was, “Me and my mom could do this. We could totally do this.”

Freeman’s mother Hol-lee accompanied the Henrico County students as a chaper-one.

“It opened my eyes a lot along the way,” said Danielle Freeman. “We got a chance to interact with the locals and it helped my Spanish. … Once you started working, you just got in a flow. It’s really refresh-ing to be around people who are pushing themselves as hard as you are.”

The students and villag-ers forged bonds during the project. Courts for Kids gave each participant a daily chal-lenge designed to encourage them to break down barriers with village residents. These included catching a village chicken and convincing a lo-cal resident to provide a pig-gyback ride.

Henrico H.S. senior Joy Ma said her team’s hard work had an unexpected effect.

“The determined women and girls on our team inspired the young girls in the village to break through the typical gender roles and to come out and do the physical labor that was typically left to the men in their community.

“[It] exposed me to an incredible world that I never even knew existed.”

Building rainforest court a slam dunk for students, village

Do you have a favorite Christmas memory?

Yes, I got engaged to my husband Jack on Christmas Eve, so that was a wonderful Christmas indeed!

Caption?

us to use the book warehouse. There’s no other program in the area that has this relationship with the schools. On the government side, county employ-ees and agencies donate new toys, new bikes and cash donations. Their de-partments have cookouts and pancake breakfasts to raise money as well. The county pays for an insert that goes in the water bill to all Henrico County residents. That gives them the dates so that all of our citizens know when to come in and apply for the program. That’s huge: we couldn’t afford to do that mailer. Because of this unique partnership with Henrico County gov-ernment and schools, we can do what we do for our Henrico neighbors in need.

Is there a goal this year?

There is a cash donation goal of $195,000. Since the recession we have not met our cash donation goal, so this is the year to change that. No donation is too small. Your donation, combined with your neighbors’, can help buy a ter-rific toy, some clothing for a teenager or a full-sized blanket for a senior citizen. Just go to henricochristmasmother.org or our Facebook page to make a secure donation.We have several new partnerships this year, including one with the Henrico Citi-zen. In addition to reporting on what we’re doing in the coming months, they’ve cho-sen the Henrico Christmas Mother as the beneficiary of Henrico Restaurant Week. During Oct. 2-11, when you purchase food from a special menu at participating restaurants, the proceeds go to Henrico Christmas Mother. Another great reason to eat out in Henrico!

You have a busy season ahead.

I can be so exhausted coming out of the warehouse, and it doesn’t matter because of what you feel in your heart. Just know-ing that you made somebody’s Christmas special, whether they’re a stranger or not, it’s a great feeling.

CHRISTMAS MOTHER Continued from Pg. 8

Henrico Christmas Mother assistance applications and interviews take place in-person at the warehouse, 361 Dabbs House Road, on four Mondays in October (this is a change from past years).

• Monday, Oct. 5 from 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.• Monday, Oct. 12 from 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.• Monday, Oct. 19 from 2-6 p.m.• Monday, Oct. 26 from 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.Proof of residency and income, birth certificates and Social

Security cards are required, along with proof of disability and custody, if applicable. See henricochristmasmother.org for detailed information about what to bring.

How to apply for help

Courts for Kids’ Chris Cobb with Danielle Freeman, Macauley Parker, Joy Ma, Shreya Dwibedy and Hollee Freeman at a group reunion in September.

Henrico County students traveled to a remote Costa Rican village in August to help build a court for basketball and other activities.

Find us on Facebook BadgeCMYK / .eps

facebook.com/HenricoCountyPublicSchools


Bulletin BoardSOME IMPORTANT DATES

Student half-day: Nov. 1 1Thanksgiving break: Nov. 25-27Winter break: Dec. 21 2015 - Jan. 1, 2016Get the full calendar:henricoschools.us/pdf/Calendar2015-16.pdf

THANK YOU,SPIDERS!University of Richmond athletics is supporting our students with its Virginia 529 Scholastic Stars program (free hoops tickets for student honorees!) and its Dream Big Day. To find out how your school can get involved, call 804-287-6314.

Follow us on Twitter!@HenricoSchools

“Education is the best

provision for the journey to

old Age.”~ Aristotle

Check out the new Henrico Schools website at henricoschools.us.It’s brighter, easier to navigate and works great on your phone, too!

NEW! Looking Back:School Days Vol.3 No.10 1970

WINNERSSchool Days, HCPS initiatives honored

HCPS’ School Days news quarterly was recently named one of America’s four best school print publications in its catego-ry by the National School Public Relations Association!

HCPS departments won a host of awards from the National Association of Counties and the Virginia Association of Counties. Among the programs recognized were:

• Parents Night Out, which used Springer Preschool Acad-emy child-development students to create a community child

care opportunity (Career and Technical Education Department).• A program to teach STEM skills through racing, in conjunction with Richmond International Raceway and VCU (Career and Technical Edu-cation Department).• A culinary program to give students real-world catering experience while answering the need for food at a festival (Career and Technical Education Department).• The Un-Initiative, Dr. Patrick Kinlaw’s policy housecleaning contest (Communications and Public Relations Department).• A professional development program for HCPS Operations that used in-house expertise to help leaders grow (Human Resources Department).• Creation of a systemic process for evaluating education programs (Re-search and Planning Department).

In September, the National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors recognized the HCPS Communications and Public Rela-tions Department for its social media and HCPS-TV programming.

Thanks for your support, and congratulations to all!

Applying to a specialty center?Application is available Nov. 23, Application deadline is Jan. 15


Sp tlight On:

Henrico County School Board

Lisa A. Marshall Vice Chair, Tuckahoe District

P.O. Box 231203820 Nine Mile RoadHenrico, VA 23223-0420804-652-3600 School Days is an award-winning publication

produced quarterly by the Department of Communications and Public Relations of HCPS. If you have questions about School Days, call 804-652-3725 or email [email protected] C. Kinlaw Superintendent

Beverly L. CockeBrookland District

Michelle F. “Micky” OgburnThree Chopt District

John W. Montgomery Jr. Chair, Varina District

Pierre L. GreeneFairfield District

henricoschools.usTwitter: @HenricoSchoolsFacebook: facebook.com/henricocountypublicschools

Chris OBrion - Editor, WriterApril Sage - Graphic DesignerLarry Willis Jr. - Digital Content Manager

One thing I noticed when I Googled “Christmas Mother” was that there really isn’t any such thing outside the commonwealth of Virginia. For peo-ple who may have moved here, what is the Christmas Mother?

We get asked that a lot. First of all, there isn’t an umbrella of a lot of different pro-grams. Many localities in Virginia have their own unique programs. Ours in Henrico County has been going on for 73 years, and it was started by a teacher – Mrs. Nelson from Varina – who saw the need in her community and had her students make baskets of food to give to local families. Even today the bulk of the food comes from our Henrico County students. The partnership we have with schools is something unique to our pro-gram and is not in, say, Bath County or Chesterfield. We also provide food, new toys, new books and new clothing. “New” is an important word there – ev-ery child likes to get something brand new at Christmas time.

So how does it work? What’s the gen-eral process?

There is an application process. Primar-ily, we have three groups that we help: low income families with school-aged or-younger-children; disabled adults; and our seniors 65 and over. In total, we help around 5,000 Henri-coans. There are spe-cific qualifications that need to be met, and then each applicant, with all of their required docu-mentation, comes in

on certain application days and has an interview. They sit down with us for 15 minutes one-on-one. I’ve volunteered with this program for many years, and especially around the reces-sion, I’d be sitting across from someone I knew. It could be a parent I see at a meeting or the grocery store. Our applicants are people from neighbor-hoods throughout the county, in all five districts. For a lot of families, they’re deciding which bills they’re going to pay, and buying gifts for their chil-dren isn’t in their budget this year. That’s where our program comes in to help.

How does it get to the peo-ple who need it?

It’s elves – all volunteers. We have one part-time employee who does administrative work, but the rest of our program is run by volunteers who give their time, money and talent to spread Christmas love.

So the Christmas Mother herself is really heavily in-volved.

Oh yes. This is not a figurehead position. You have to be invested in this program, so it’s a real honor based on the work that you’ve done in the past.

Do the applicants come in and get the items themselves?

Yes, and our guys in [HCPS Construc-tion and Maintenance] carry it to their cars for them. During the application process, recipients are given a date and

time to come back. When they come back, the HCPS book warehouse is trans-formed into this magical department store, if you will. We have a book area,

a clothing area, a toy area, a senior area and food area. And you choose books based on your child’s reading level. You pick out a book because your son likes trucks. You pick out a toy because, oh my gosh, your daughter is crazy about “Fro-zen” and we’ve got one last Frozen doll – how cool is that? I like to say that it’s a shopping experience filled with smiles, choice and dignity. And, to me, that’s why I keep working: because of that dig-nity that it restores to our recipients. It’s like no other program.

How do you get to be a Christmas Mother? Is it a vote? An appoint-ment? Do you have to pull a holly-and-ivy sword out of a stone?

No magic here – just hard work. It depends upon your service to the organization. You have to be a volunteer on the Henrico Christ-mas Mother Council. Every magisterial dis-trict is represented and the Henrico Christmas Mother is chosen on a rotating basis. I’ve been volunteering with the program for nine years, but truly my relationship with the Henrico Christ-mas Mother goes back to when I was a student at Longdale Elemen-tary School. I remember bringing in cans of food. And then flash forward a couple of decades to be-ing a mom at Glen Allen Elementary, and being the one who helped say, “Don’t forget your can of

food today!” There was that tradition of having my daughters bring in the cans, and then of counting the cans of food, so that your class teacher would be the “Can Queen or King.” It’s been embed-ded in me, living in Henrico County for over 50 years. I grew up with the belief that we are blessed, and that we give back to our county, to our community, as best we can. And the Henrico Christ-mas Mother is the most wonderful way to do that.

This is one of only two programs that are divisionwide HCPS partners, along with the United Way.

Yes, and that partnership with our schools is part of what makes it so spe-cial; our students bring in the bulk of the food that is given out to our Henrico neighbors in need. The schools allow

Henrico Christmas Mother

Brookland District School Board representative Bev-erly Cocke is serving as

Henrico Christmas Mother this year. We sat down with her to find out more about the holiday campaign. (Our questions are in bold.)

To find out how you can help, go to henricochristmasmother.org or like the campaign’s Facebook page for updates. Cash donations may be made by mail or by PayPal. Donations of new toys and new books are also needed. Donations are accepted year-round. See the “Volunteer” page of the website to apply to help at the warehouse. see CHRISTMAS MOTHER, Pg. 6

How to help Henrico Christmas Mother

Brookland District School Board represen-tative Beverly Cocke sorts canned food in the Henrico Christmas Mother warehouse

School Days Fall 2015

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