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Wednesday, January 25 at 7 pm, Western Albemarle High School Auditorium

Post-screening discussion to be held in the Cafeteria:

June Jenkins, Director of Safe Schools/Healthy Students will facilitate the discussion. Panelists will include Lori Wood, Region Ten Prevention Director; Amy Wright, Chair, Western Albemarle HS Guidance Dept.;  Marc Dawkins, Safe Schools/Healthy Students, and Dyan Aretakis, UVA Teen Health Center

The screening is being sponsored by the ACPS Western feeder pattern PTOs, Health Advisory Board, and Parent Council. The PTOs of the Western feeder pattern schools have paid for the screening; donations to cover their costs will be accepted at the door. Western feeder schools include Brownsville Elementary, Crozet Elementary, Henley Middle, Meriwether-Lewis Elementary, Murray Elementary and Western Albemarle HS.

Seats can be reserved via this EventBrite link.

More information on the film, including background on the issues covered, can be found here.  

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Two items of note from the Henley Middle School newsletter:

MESA – OPEN HOUSE

MESA, Albemarle County Public Schools Math, Engineering and Science Academy, is having an open house on January 25 from 5-8 in Rooms 241 and 242.

As always please let me know if there are any questions.

Jeff Prillaman?
Director Math Engineering & Science Academy Albemarle High School 2775 Hydraulic Road Charlottesville, VA 22902 434-975-9300 x 60624

————————————————————

RACE TO NOWHERE COMING TO A THEATER NEAR YOU!

Save the Date for The Race to Nowhere! It is going to be held in the WAHS Auditorium on Wednesday, January 25th at 7pm. There is no charge for admission, but donations will be accepted. There will be more information coming including a link to reserve a seat.

This initiative is being sponsored by the schools in the Western Feeder Pattern.

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“Daddy! More people should ride bikes! There’s less traffic!”*

What a nice surprise to get to Crozet Elementary this morning after riding just over a mile to find that the bike rack had been moved to a more visibly prominent location. I even heard kids discussing the new location.

Little things matter.

* When do 2nd graders not speak in exclamation points?

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Henley has a wind turbine! Congratulations to everyone at Henley Middle School who worked for so long to accomplish this.

I’ll update this story as the news reports on it.

As promised … the Newsplex has a story up about it .

Update 2: Charlottesville Tomorrow has a thorough account and background about the renewable energy center.

Interesting discussion also at my personal Facebook page.

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From the Henley Matters listserv:

Join the Henley Community on December 16 at 10:00 a.m. as we celebrate/dedicate our new Renewable Energy Resource Center.   The Center will include a SkyStream wind turbine, solar thermal panels, solar photovoltaic panels and an electronic display where students can monitor energy savings. This is the only center of this type in the state! Along with expertise from Building Services, many students and teachers did an amazing amount of work over the past three years to make this happen.

So join us on the 16th. We’ll start outside as the wind turbine is put into position and then move into the gym for a few remarks. If you can’t make it on the 16th, drop by the library during the next two weeks as a SkyStream turbine head has been placed in there for students to examine at close range.

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Western Albemarle Theatre Ensemble presents The Fifteen Minute Hamlet by Tom Stoppard on November 4 at 8pm in the auditorium of Western Albemarle High School.

Tickets available at the door by donation. Featuring improv theatre and followed by dessert and live music to benefit SARA.   Contact 434-823-8700.? 

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via press release:

The Field School of Charlottesville? convenes its annual Spirit Walk on October 21-22.

Crozet, VA, September 16, 2011: Historical haunts return once more to Crozet Avenue on October 21st and 22nd when the Field School of Charlottesville convenes its third annual Spirit Walk to celebrate the history of Crozet and Western Albemarle. The Spirit Walk gathers the Crozet community — the very past, past, and present — for a family friendly evening of visits with the likes of Samuel Miller, Paul McIntire, Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and other famous figures.

The Spirit Walk begins at the Field School where guests are greeted by a delightfully ghostly guide who shares tales of old Crozet on the short bus ride down to The Square where they then disembark to begin the short return walk up Crozet Avenue to the Field School. Along the way the guests are introduced to our famous friends who share their history of our community. The tour ends at the Field School where hot apple cider, donuts, baked goods, and the Field School’s famous home-made apple butter are available for purchase.

“We at the Field School take great pride in being a part of the Crozet community and are passionate about preserving and celebrating our community’s history. The Spirit Walk is a fun way to connect with our past and learn from those who shaped it,” said Todd Barnett, Head of School.

Tickets for the Spirit Walk are $10 for adults and $5 for children. Tickets can be purchased in advance at Green House Coffee in Crozet and Greenberry’s Coffee and Tea in the Barracks Road Shopping, or at the event.

The Field School of Charlottesville is located at 1408 Crozet Avenue, Crozet, VA.

The Field School of Charlottesville is a middle school for boys with the mission to develop well-rounded boys of character and accomplishment.

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From the Friends of Western Albemarle Cross Country, Track & Field:

WAHS is holding its first cross country meet on its new Old Trail course today. The meet starts at 5:00, so drivers should know that they should be prepared to stop for runners. There will be signs and people at the road crossings – by the trailhead for the nature trail close to 250, by the soccer field and also on Golf Drive. A second and final home meet will be held next Wednesday, October 5 at 5:00, so the same caution applies for next week.

Kim Connolly
President
Friends of Western Albemarle Cross Country, Track & Field

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Mark your calendars – Race to Nowhere at Crozet Methodist Church.

I recommend we all go – so that we can see and affirm that we’re not alone in recognizing that our educational system has failed. And then we can figure out what to do about it.

Watch the video then read this at RealCentralVA.

When:  Friday, September 9, 2011
Time:  7-9 p.m.
Where:  Crozet United Methodist Church Sanctuary
Sponsor:  Coalition for Childhood

Advanced tickets sold on line for $10.00 or at the door for $15.00.

Update from the comments:

Did you know about the Bartleby Project?

“The Bartleby Project begins by inviting 60,000,000 American students, one by one, to peacefully refuse to take standardized tests or to participate in any preparation for these tests; it asks them to act because adults chained to institutions and corporations are unable to; because these tests pervert education, are disgracefully inaccurate, impose brutal stresses without reason, and actively encourage a class system which is poisoning the future of the nation.” Read John Taylor Gatto’s full statement on the Bartleby Project (it’s long).

Update 2: Seth Godin writes –

Large-scale education was never about teaching kids or creating scholars. It was invented to churn out adults who worked well within the system.

…

As we get ready for the 93rd year of universal public education, here’s the question every parent and taxpayer needs to wrestle with: Are we going to applaud, push or even permit our schools (including most of the private ones) to continue the safe but ultimately doomed strategy of churning out predictable, testable and mediocre factory-workers??
?
As long as we embrace (or even accept) standardized testing, fear of science, little attempt at teaching leadership and most of all, the bureaucratic imperative to turn education into a factory itself, we’re in big trouble.?

?The post-industrial revolution is here. Do you care enough to teach your kids to take advantage of it?

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Western Albemarle has a bike rack this year:

Crozet Elementary’s is starting to fill up regularly.

I haven’t been to Brownsville or Henley this year to see if they have bike racks.

With nearly 25% of Albemarle people qualified as obese, one would think people would want to encourage more exercise.

For some context as to how far our society has devolved in 30 years:

So anyway, I ran across this very interesting checklist of items to assess whether or not your child is prepared for all-day first grade. This book was first published in 1979, so I have to say it comes across as quite dated at times. So let’s take a look, shall we? The idea here is that about 10 yesses out of this list of 12 would indicate readiness for 1st grade.

1. Will your child be six years, six months or older when he begins first grade and starts receiving reading instruction?
…
6. Can he ride a small two-wheeled bicycle without helper wheels?
…
8. Can he travel alone in the neighborhood (four to eight blocks) to store, school, playground, or to a friend’s home?

- hat tip: Free Range Kids blog

* This is one of the last times hat I will write about walking or biking to school. The community is aware of the need to walk or bike to school, they are aware of the impediments, and it’s ultimately up to them as to whether they want to encourage their offspring to be independent and able to recover from a sweaty back.**

A 30 min walk is really no problem – I think it is more that the kids are used to AC and do not want to get sweaty/stinky walking to school. Backpacks do really make your back very wet under even moderately warm temps or if you sweat a lot.   I know they use anti-persperant but that doesn’t address your back/chest/face etc.

** I am intentionally selecting a specific sentence from the above comment in order to make it more broadly relevant.

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Every fifth grader at Crozet Elementary School in Albemarle County uses an iPod Touch for classes including math, social studies, and science. Paula White is the Technology Lead teacher and said last year, the class used them for a scavenger hunt.

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Easy-peasy. Go to Harris Teeter’s page and link your VIC card to your school. You can also do this at Kroger and probably any other big grocery store.

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Be aware:

Our local schools begin their school years on Wednesday. Plan ahead, be patient and please be careful.

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More context to come, but for now …

I asked Crozetians for the services of a teenager to photograph the walk from Trailside Coffee in Old Trail to Henley Middle School. From sidewalks to paths to the bridge back to a path, it looks like a pretty nice walk to me.

To the kid who took the pictures, thank you. To the administration of Albemarle County Schools, please be reasonable and allow kids to walk to school.

Update: Thank God for bureaucracy. How ever would our children survive without it?

Related:

- How many residents in Old Trail walk to School?
- Walking to School – do you do it?

Update: a very relevant and timely story, Are We Overprotecting Our Kids?

Update #2: From Jessica with the Crozet Trails Crew:

Thanks for the slide show. The Crozet Trails Crew would like to work with Old Trail, the Schools, and the County to improve and/or maintain this trail so that school officials, parents, and kids feel like it is a safe option for getting to and from school. We would be happy to meet with all interested parties on site and to schedule a workday as early as September 4th. Please contact Jessica@crozettrailscrew.org to volunteer or with suggestions.

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Thanks to its decision to remove A Study in Scarlet from the 6th Grade reading list.

A sampling of the national attention:
- Forbes
- Time
- The LA Times

- The Toronto Star points out that the issue may have been less about the content of the book and more that the curriculum wasn’t addressing the context:

What clinched it for Koleszar was that teachers “weren’t dealing with these issues. Sixth graders might not have an understanding that it has a bias.”

I said my piece on Twitter.

“Sad to see Albemarle County choose ignorance rather than teaching. http://t.co/oBZE7Ym Give students credit rather than talk down to them.”

1 – Did the system work? The County listened, formed a committee, and then decided.
2 – One person is powerful, and that is a bit comforting but it’s equally, if not more distressing that one person can affect the educations of so many.

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Now … how are we going to pay for it?

Aaron Richardson at the DP reports:

According to the report, Meriwether Lewis Elementary, Crozet Elementary, Monticello High School andWestern Albemarle High School all will need expansions in the next five years. The cost of renovations to Western Albemarle, which the committee recommended accelerating by three years, could run as high as$15 million.

…

“We do see accelerated population growth in the western feeder pattern,” he said. “We are now expecting [Western Albemarle High School] to go beyond its capacities earlier than expected.”

I’m baffled how anyone who’s been here for more than five years can be surprised by the fact that Crozet is growing fast. Crozet’s population in 2000 was 2,820 and the population in 2010 was 5,565.

I wrote more about this at my real estate blog, looking at this “surprise” from the APF angle.

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Whenever I see these signs, I always try to remember to look them up. This time I actually remembered. If you’ve seen and wondered about Sign #91 in front of Henley, it’s for Henley’s Wind Turbine:

VA201100003 Henley Middle School Wind Turbine (Signs #91): Request variance to increase the maximum height for a proposed wind turbine structure from 35 to 51 feet. Property is located on the north side of Route 250 West just past the western intersection with Rt. 250. Tax Map 56, Parcel 17A is zoned Residential (R1) and Entrance Corridor Overlay (EC). 

I’m searching for an update on the status of Henley’s Wind Turbine …

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“Western Albemarle High School in Crozet was the only school in Central Virginia to make the NEWSWEEK list of America’s Best High Schools.”

Better schools = higher house prices.

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The last day of school is a celebration for everyone.

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via email:

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

5:30 to 8:00 PM

J.T. Henley Middle School, Crozet

Free — everybody welcome.

Proceeds from the Peace by Piece Auction of student-made crafts: quilts, furniture, bird houses, floorcloths, jewelry, and more (plus friends- and family-made crafts) will go to locally based organizations to:

–Build 3 elementary school classrooms in Grissom-Garde, Haiti

–Purchase 3 chlorinators for water systems in the Limpopo region of South Africa

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Bolshevik.

“For his first-place victory, Xu will receive a paid trip to the national bee June 1-2, $240 in savings bond and gift cards, a copy of Webster’s Third New International Dictionary and a one-year subscription to Encyclopedia Britannica Online.”

Very cool.

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Western Albemarle Jazz Band Dance – February 12 from 7 to 10 pm. Proceeds support the general band fund.

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Pancake Breakfast at Applebee’s on Pantops, 2005 Abbey Road
To support Henley Middle School’s Model UN Program
Saturday, Jan. 22, 8-10 AM
Tickets are $5 per person; max. $20 per family
 
In Model United Nations simulations of actual UN conferences and assemblies, students acts as ambassadors from UN member states to research and debate current UN agenda issues. Funding will help Henley Middle School students to travel to New York for an April Model United Nations Conference.

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It’s about time this is studied. As far as I know, most of the kids attending school no longer help work the farms.

Where’s the Crozet focus of this story? Our legislator is suggesting the study.

Why we should get rid of summer vacation .

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Read all about it at NBC29:

Thanks to that grant, and $40,000 in fundraiser money, the school will soon be outfitted with solar panels and other renewable resources that will power classrooms, heat the water system and lower energy costs. But, it’s also a hands-on learning experience.

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