John Marshall rejoins the Play It Smart program, having participated previously from 2004-2006. This season marks the first year for Armstrong as a Play It Smart school.

Nationally, Play It Smart programs are located in 140 schools in 82 cities and 35 states. According to program officials, 96 percent of Play It Smart seniors graduate and 79 percent of seniors enroll in college. The program is sponsored by the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame, Inc.

For more details, contact William James at 804-698-3026
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Lynwood Spell, a 2008 graduate of Richmond Community High School, placed first in the Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) National Public Speaking II competition held June 26-30 in Atlanta.

Spell qualified for the national event by placing second at the FBLA state event held March 30-April 1 in Reston, Va.

Two years ago as a sophomore, Spell finished second at the nationals held in Nashville, Tenn.

Another Richmond Community student, sophomore Khalilah Young, also advanced to this year’s national competition in Atlanta by placing first at the state event. Young did not, however, place at the nationals.

Teacher Laura McDonough is the FBLA sponsor at Richmond Community High School.
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The Richmond City School Board, at its July 7 meeting, has appointed deputy superintendent Dr. Yvonne W. Brandon to serve as Richmond Public Schools’ interim superintendent, effective August 1.

Dr. Brandon, a 30-year veteran with the city school system, will replace current superintendent Dr. Deborah Jewell-Sherman, who previously resigned to join the faculty at Harvard University.

“I am deeply honored by the School Board’s expression of confidence in me to continue Richmond Public Schools’ progress towards excellence. The steady, some might say extraordinary, improvement in student achievement under the leadership of Dr. Deborah Jewell-Sherman, coupled with the efficient use of each dollar entrusted to us by our taxpayers, will remain our primary focus,” Dr. Brandon said. “Again, I am grateful to the members of the School Board for the opportunity to lead our school district. After over 30 years in the district, I am humbled by this opportunity and pledge my full and total commitment to serving the students, parents and teachers of Richmond Public Schools.”

Dr. Brandon, who started in Richmond Public Schools in 1977, has worked as a teacher, guidance counselor, assistant principal, principal, director of instruction and assistant superintendent. She has been the district’s deputy superintendent since 2006.

A graduate of Randolph-Macon College, Dr. Brandon earned her master’s degree at Virginia State University and her doctorate from Nova Southeastern University. She has been a fellow at the College of William and Mary Leadership Institute, the Darden School of Business Administration/Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia and the Broad Urban Superintendents Academy.
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The Richmond Public Schools Performance Learning Center, an alternative, self-paced educational program designed for students who do not succeed in the traditional school setting, posted some impressive statistics after its first year of operation.

Richmond’s PLC, located in the Richmond Technical Center, is funded by a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The Richmond program, coordinated by the school district and Communities in School, is the first to be launched in Virginia.

The PLC opened last fall with 68 students, according to T. Jasen Cooper, the program’s service learning coordinator. Of the 27 seniors eligible to graduate, 21 earned diplomas and five received certificates of completion. Those who earned diplomas graduated with their peers at Armstrong, George Wythe, Huguenot, John Marshall and Thomas Jefferson high schools.

Cooper also reports that during the course of the year, only two of the 68 students left the program. He adds that 35 of this year’s students plan to re-enroll in Richmond’s PLC program for the upcoming school year.

“We are quite pleased with our Performance Learning Center, especially when you consider it opened just this year,” said Dr. Yvonne Brandon, deputy superintendent. “The PLC is designed to provide students with a unique, nontraditional learning environment that creates a business-like setting. The self-paced instruction emphasizes real-world and project-based learning, problem solving and communication skills. And the data certainly suggest that the approach works. Eighty percent of the seniors enrolled in the program met the state’s high school graduation requirements. Simply put, because of our PLC, these young men and women went from being potential school dropouts to high school graduates.”

For more information about the Richmond Public Schools Performance Learning Center, contact T. Jasen Cooper at 780-6187.
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Eight Richmond Public School teachers have been selected to participate in national seminars as part of the Yale National Initiative, a program designed to help strengthen teaching in public schools. The teachers, named Yale National Fellows, will become acquainted with the Teachers Institute model of high quality professional development with a focus on increasing content knowledge. The model, which encourages teacher leadership, has been in use at the Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute for thirty years, and Institutes already exist in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and Houston, Texas.

The Richmond City district is one of 15 exploring the establishment of a new Teachers Institute. Participating teachers include: Emily Betts, Open High School; Ram Bhagat, Open High School; Clary Carleton, Open High School; Shelley Freedman-Bailey, Lucille M. Brown Middle School; Sarah Hall Kiesler, Mary Munford Elementary School; Valerie Schwarz, Mary Munford Elementary School; Jesse Senechal, Armstrong High School; and Kimberly Turner, Lucille M. Brown Middle School.

The establishment of a Richmond Teachers Institute would allow for program expansion to other schools throughout the district, and would involve a partnership with one or more local universities. For more information on how to get involved or to participate in 2009 seminars, contact Clary Carleton at 780-4661.
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Richmond’s Thomas H. Henderson Middle School is one of 11 schools in the nation to receive the 2008 National Excellence in Urban Education Award from San Diego State University’s National Center for Urban School Transformation (NCUST).

The designation includes a $1,000 cash award.

To qualify for the award, schools must have a majority student population that meets low-income criteria, use no selective admissions criteria, post achievement scores that exceed the state average and exceed all No Child Left Behind (NCLB) adequate yearly progress requirements.

Schools must also maintain high student attendance rates, low suspension rates and high percentages of students in advanced courses of study.  Fifty-three schools met the award criteria.  From that group, 20 were named finalists and received on-site visits from teams of researchers and educators.

“We are honored that our school has been selected for a 2008 National Excellence in Urban Education Award,” said Henderson principal Dionne Ward.  “The designation validates the quality of the total instructional program we provide at Henderson Middle School.  The award is truly a testament to our teachers, administrators, students and parents.”

Richmond’s Summer Hill/Ruffin Road Elementary School has received a $10,000 school nutrition grant from Hidden Valley, according to Dr. Vista Suarez, the district’s director of school nutrition services.

Summer Hill/Ruffin Road is one of 51 elementary schools nationwide selected to receive the grant through the Hidden Valley Love Your Veggies Nationwide School Lunch Campaign.

The schools were among 89 in the state to receive the award, which is part of a new incentive program for schools and school districts called the Virginia Index of Performance program.

To receive the award, schools must have met all state and federal achievement benchmarks for at least two consecutive years. Also, schools must meet Governor Tim Kaine’s achievement goals for elementary reading, enrollment in Algebra I by eighth-grade, enrollment in college-level courses and attainment of advanced diplomas or career certifications. Schools, if eligible, must also participate in the Virginia Preschool Initiative.

Several other Richmond City schools received the VIP Excellence Award. Elementary schools honored include: Broad Rock, Clark Springs, Ginter Park, J.E.B. Stuart, John B. Cary, Linwood Holton, Overby-Sheppard, Southampton and William Fox.

Open and Richmond Community high schools also received VIP Excellence Awards.

Finally, eight Richmond City schools were awarded the VIP Competence to Excellence Award. They include: Amelia Street, Bellevue, Chimborazo, Elizabeth D. Redd, J.B. Fisher, Miles Jones, Summer Hill/Ruffin Road and Henderson Middle School.
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Richmond Public Schools and the JustChildren program of the Legal Aid Justice Center have extended a partnership aimed at reducing the number of violent behavior incidents in schools and the amount of time that children with disabilities miss from school without educational services.

As part of the partnership, the school district will implement an array of new programs and placements for children with disabilities whose behavior may warrant suspension, expulsion or an alternative approach to education. The district has also agreed to hire additional hearing officers to help eliminate any backlog and ensure that discipline cases are heard on a timely basis.
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Richmond’s Westover Hills and Woodville elementary schools have been awarded $3,000 Dominion Educational Partnership Grants for the 2007-2008 school year.

The grants are awarded to school projects designed to improve math and science education for students in grades K–12.

At Westover Hills, the grant will fund an outdoor learning center to provide students with fun, hands-on, multi-sensory math and science activities. The center will create a habitat for birds and butterflies and also include gardens for vegetables, herbs and flowers.

At Woodville, the grant will fund SPLASH, a program that features field trips for students and parents to the James River and its parks. The trips will provide hands-on activities to supplement the students’ classroom studies in math and science.

Dominion received nearly 400 grant proposals this year. Westover Hills and Woodville were among the 105 applicants chosen to receive grants.

For details on Westover Hills’ grant, contact Sarah Pitts at 780-5002.
For details on Woodville’s grant, call LaChaunne Perry at 780-4821.
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The number of Richmond City schools that meet the Annual Yearly Progress (AYP) requirements of the federal government’s No Child Left Behind Act continues to climb, according to preliminary results released by school officials today.

Of the city’s 49 schools, 41 met AYP standards – with another three to be determined. If the figure remains at 41, the percentage of schools meeting the No Child Left Behind AYP requirements stands at 83.67 percent.

If the three schools in question meet AYP guidelines, the percentage will rise to 89.79 percent.

In both cases, the number is higher than last year’s results when 40 schools, or 80 percent, made AYP. Richmond also exceeds the statewide average of 72 percent.

“We are pleased that our AYP numbers continue to climb,” said School Superintendent Dr. Deborah Jewell-Sherman. “We are especially encouraged by our increase since this year’s math and reading AYP benchmarks were higher. This is a testament to our teachers and to the instructional model that Richmond Public Schools has implemented. Although our numbers compare favorably to other area school districts – despite a much higher poverty level – we will only be satisfied when all of our schools achieve AYP.”

For details contact Felicia Cosby at 780-7100.
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Funded by an $80,000 grant from Philip Morris USA, the University of Virginia College Guide program will begin this school year at Richmond’s Armstrong High School.

The outreach effort is designed to raise the percentage of Virginia high school students who attend and complete college.

According to program officials, College Guides work with all students but focus primarily on making connections with those who are high-achieving, low-income students, or who will be first- generation college students.

At Armstrong, one Guide will work exclusively with seniors, and the second will work with all underclassmen.

College Guides participate in a five-week training program at the University of Virginia that features sessions on communication skills, college admissions, essay writing, financial aid, completing the FAFSA form, understanding the SAT format, working with school guidance counselors and issues surrounding first-generation college students and their parents.

The pilot program will be evaluated at mid-year to determine if a second year is feasible.

For more details, contact Beverly Mountain, guidance coordinator, at 780-6574.
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Seven Richmond City schools will reap benefits through grants provided by Virginia Commonwealth University’s Council for Community Engagement.

At Chandler Middle School, the VCU Art Education and Interior Design departments will help develop and build a permanent exhibition space in the school’s cafeteria.

At Miles Jones Elementary School, VCU Life Sciences will design, promote and stage two community environmental festivals to engage citizens who live in the Reedy Creek watershed.

VCU’s Adult Learning Center, Honors College and School of Education will provide peer counseling and introduce Web-based instruction to students who attend the Richmond Public Schools Adult Career Development Center.

And finally, the VCU Schools of Education and Engineering will work with students at Armstrong, George Wythe, Swansboro and Thompson to teach robotics and create new, high-tech educational opportunities using FIRST LEGO League and FIRST Vex Challenge.

VCU’s Council for Community Engagement awarded one-year grants totaling $100,000 to nine university-community programs.

For more details, contact Miriam Davidow at 819-4382.
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Richmond Public Schools has been awarded a $25,000 grant from the Robins Foundation to fund a program that will train volunteer and partnership coordinators for twenty schools.

“Our long term goal is to provide successful and effective coordination and management of volunteers and community partnerships in every Richmond City school,” said Miriam Davidow, the district’s specialist for school-community partnerships.

A volunteer coordinator training session, conducted by the Virginia Mentoring Partnership, will be held in August.

Coordinators, who will receive a stipend, will be responsible for promoting, recruiting and training for all volunteer/partnership activities.

The yearlong program will be evaluated every six months.

For more details, contact Miriam Davidow at 819-4382.
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Richmond Public Schools has received nearly $1 million to fund a program designed to improve the way American history is taught.

The city school system will use its three-year, $996,975 federal grant to fund its Teaching American History Academy, a professional development program that will train 35 middle-school teachers each year.

The academy is a joint venture with the University of Richmond, Virginia Union University, the American Civil War Center, the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History and the Pepper Bird Foundation Field Study Program.

Program goals include raising student test scores on the state’s SOL history tests by 15 percent over the next three years, improving teacher content knowledge and strengthening partnerships between Richmond City teachers and university instructors.

For more details, contact Thelma Tunstall, instructional specialist for social studies, at 780-7765, or Cozette McIntyre, grants manager, at 780-7791.
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Five Richmond City school PTAs have been recognized by the national organization with this year’s PTA Unit Achievement Award. To qualify, a PTA must have increased its membership either by 5 percent or equal to one member per student; conducted at least one program that featured parent involvement; conducted at least one program that increased parental awareness about student achievement or school success issues; and participated in the state PTA’s convention.

Richmond schools recognized were: J.L. Francis Elementary, E.S.H. Greene Elementary, Overby-Sheppard Elementary, J.E.B. Stuart Elementary, and Henderson Middle School.

Nationwide, 461 school PTAs were recognized.
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