In brief

City schools hires safety coordinator Regine Wright, Charlottesville City Schools new coordinator of school safety and security, will oversee the major components of the division safety model that were adopted in 2021. They include: safety and crisis-planning and training, monitoring of security systems, and the Care and Safety Assistant program. Wright, who was hired on […]

In brief

Botanical garden plans move forward   City Council unanimously approved the lease of city park land to the Botanical Garden of the Piedmont at Monday’s meeting, a significant step forward in the decade-long endeavor to establish a garden in McIntire Park.  Formerly called the McIntire Botanical Garden, the garden’s name was changed by the board […]

Rough road

By Mary Jane Gore The wheels on the bus go ’round and ’round—until COVID hits. And since the start of the pandemic, city and county bus systems have encountered many bumps and unexpected curves. Before COVID, the city averaged about 2,600 bus riders per day. Currently, that number is down to 1,033, and some buses […]

Logged on

It’s been over a year since the coronavirus forced local schools to shut their doors and teach thousands of students online. Thanks to a significant drop in COVID cases and the arrival of the vaccine, many students and teachers have returned to the classroom, with health and safety precautions in place. Some students, however, continue […]

In brief

Mayor’s poem sparks conversation  Last Wednesday morning, Mayor Nikuyah Walker posted a poem on her Facebook and Twitter pages. “Charlottesville: The beautiful-ugly it is. It rapes you, comforts you in its cum stained sheets and tells you to keep its secrets,” the mayor wrote.   The poem grabbed the attention of people in and outside […]

First look

City Councilor Heather Hill and Mayor Nikuyah Walker’s terms expire at the end of the year, and four candidates have thus far declared their intention to win those seats. Earlier this month, social entrepreneur Carl Brown announced his bid for City Council, joining Charlottesville School Board member Jaundiego Wade, UVA project manager Brian Pinkston, and […]

In brief

Welcome to Governor’s school Governor Ralph Northam came to town last week, stopping by Venable Elementary on Thursday to check in on city schools’ gradual reopening of classrooms. In February, Northam directed all schools in Virginia to make some in-person learning available to students by mid-March, after the CDC released information about managing virus transmission […]

Face lift

In the best of times, it’s difficult to balance the big-ticket projects in Charlottesville’s Capital Improvement Plan, the city’s five-year budget schedule for large infrastructure projects. That’s only become more challenging during the pandemic, when municipal coffers have taken a hit. Last week the Planning Commission debated the merits of a variety of upcoming projects, […]

Eat up

Since the spring, Charlottesville City Schools has given out hundreds of free to-go breakfasts and lunches daily. But for many students, particularly those with special dietary needs, these meals have not been enough to alleviate food insecurity—now at an all-time high. “Families are struggling to put enough nutritious fresh foods on the table…and the meals […]