Candidates for Charlottesville School Board

According to the Virginia Department of Education, the drop-out rate for Charlottesville high school students is 13 percent.

How would you address this question? What measures would you recommend, specifically, to lower the rate?

Ned Michie
(Incumbent)

As of last year, the state is calculating the dropout rate in a new, more accurate manner than in prior years, tracking individual students starting in ninth grade. Obviously the factors leading to a student’s high school success or failure start much earlier than ninth grade; therefore it is impossible to defeat the dropout problem even over several years of making all the right moves educationally. Moreover, because the educational needs of all children start at birth, every positive educational change will ultimately increase his or her chances of remaining in school. 

As a public school division, we take all comers regardless of aptitude, educational background, grade level, or other circumstance. While every school division has a set of challenges, Charlottesville’s student population presents a particularly unusual array of educational challenges for a small division.

On the one hand, we have a large number of children who will go on to the finest universities and become doctors, lawyers, scientists, entrepreneurs, and captains of industry. We ensure that these students stay challenged by providing an excellent gifted education program, honors classes, and about 20 AP and dual enrollment courses. On the other end of the spectrum, we have many children with great educational needs. For example, about 10 percent of our students use English as a second language (with about 50 different native languages). Half were refugees arriving with little or no knowledge of English; many had no education even in their own countries. Charlottesville also has a large number of group homes and, sadly, still has a significant population of economically disadvantaged families whose children are statistically at risk educationally.

We love that our schools look like America—full of diversity and cultural richness.  None of the educational challenges our division faces makes it okay for any child to drop out, but it is important for us as a school division and community to recognize the challenges in order to better address them.  Our division’s stated mission is “personal and academic success for all.”  We have made great strides toward this goal, particularly under Dr. Atkins’ leadership the last three years.  I could not begin to state all the positive changes that have been made in that time.  I am proud that the Board has provided not only support for Dr. Atkins’ initiatives but also leadership and positive initiatives of its own during this time. 

The data show significant, clear progress by the division over the last several years.  Since there is no one program or set of programs that will address all our children’s academic needs, we need to continue on the path we have been on under Dr. Atkins—working to engage every student with well-trained and supported teachers, having a consistent and high quality curriculum, using data to analyze each child’s needs, continuing to infuse 21st-century skills and technology into classrooms (virtually all the division’s classrooms have Internet-connected digital smart boards), working toward more parental support and involvement where needed, and generally adopting proven best educational practices.

Leah Puryear
(Incumbent)

There are 134 school divisions in the Commonwealth and each is faced with different challenges. In Charlottesville, we must meet these challenges head on and I feel that is being accomplished through strong leadership and with the creation and expansion of programs to assist in the performance efforts.

Regarding AYP [Adequate Yearly Progress indicators], one must recognize that each year the bench marks change and so each year our division makes progress but the measures change. In addition, our division has made strides in a two—year period, as it relates to the narrowing of the achievement gap, but the evidence of these gains will not be recognized in a larger percentage point range for approximately three to five years. That being said, during my tenure on the School Board, our division has showed tremendous achievement growth. In reviewing data from the Commonwealth, the overall achievement from 2006-07 to the present has gone down by 2 percent, while in the City of Charlottesville, the achievement rate has risen by 10 percent. One area of particular pride is with the students in the economically disadvantaged grouping, in the Commonwealth these students have increased performance by 3 percent, while in the City these students have increased performance levels by 9 percent.

Research shows that students who have early intervention and exposure to education perform best. To that end, the City of Charlottesville is in its second year of our three-year old program. In addition, we have many programs in place such as WALK [Work Achieves Lasting Knowledge], ISAEP [Individual Student Alternative Education Plan], RiPP [Responding in Peaceful and Positive Ways], Talent Development, and ISBI to accommodate various learning styles for our students to ensure equal access to all and affording all students an opportunity for a high quality of education. These initiatives coupled with our divisions’ commitment to 21st century learning skills are vehicles for obtaining a high school diploma and college readiness.

The division’s policy of having high expectations for all students is seen in the growth mentioned earlier. We have strong teachers and school leaders and parents who support their students in order that everyone maximizes their educational opportunities. With the hiring of our superintendent Dr. Atkins, there is new energy and a true commitment to all students learning and achieving. Our division prides itself on performance outcomes just as our United States Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan. Our motto of personal and academic success for all is being achieved and I look forward to continued success and greatness from the Charlottesville City Schools. Thank you for giving me this opportunity to speak to the students and community for which I hope to continue to serve.

Juandiego Wade 
(Incumbent)

Thank you for the opportunity to respond to this important community issue. The Charlottesville School Board is not happy when any student decides not to complete school. Education is vitally important in today’s economy and a high school diploma is the minimum one needs to obtain in order to find a job that pays a living wage. Each and every student that drops out of school has a reason or reasons for making that life changing decision. Our job is to find out why and to prevent it from taking place. 

Charlottesville City Schools’ current drop rate is based on students that entered the Ninth grade in the 2004/05 school year.  Charlottesville’s first School Board was elected in May 2006 and Dr. Rosa Atkins, the current Superintendent, began in July 2006. Since the new School Board and Dr. Atkins have been working together, the dropout rate and many other student indicators have already shown improvement. The improvements to the School System are due to the extraordinary efforts of our teachers, students, and the vision of the Superintendent and her staff. The efforts of these individuals and the parents working every day in the classrooms are making a difference.

A few of the programs that have been implemented in the past three years by the new Board and Superintendent that have and will continue to reduce the dropout rate include: Problem Based Learning, Parent University, Reading and Math Specialists, Early Intervention Teams, Ninth Grade Transition, Technology Integration, Theme Based Summer School—just to name a few.  One particular program is the three year preschool program. We will not see the direct impact of this program for many years, but the ground work has been set. We know that the earlier we begin working with students, the more impact we can have.

Again, the current dropout rate as calculated by the state does not factor in these programs and many others implemented in the past three years. The ninth grade class of 2010/11 will be the first class that fully recognizes the efforts of the current School Board and Dr. Atkins. I am confident the public will be pleasantly surprised at the dropout rate.

My tenure on the School Board has given me the opportunity to serve our community’s most precious asset —our youth. It has been a most rewarding and enlightening experience.

At Charlottesville City Schools, we strive for personal and academic success for all.