Henrico County Public Schools

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Henrico County Public Schools
Location
Henrico County, Virginia, United States
Information
School type Public, school division
School board John W. Montgomery (Chairman)
Lisa A. Marshall (Vice-chairman)
Linda L. McBride
Lamont Bagby
Diana D. Winston
Superintendent Dr. Patrick Russo
Staff 3,761
Enrollment 48,822 (2009-10)
Athletics conference Capital District
Colonial District
Central Region
Website http://www.henrico.k12.va.us/

The Henrico County Public Schools system is a Virginia school division that operates as a functional and independent branch of the Henrico County, Virginia county government, and administers public schools in the county.

Contents

[edit] Statistics

Schools Total Schools - 69; Elementary - 45; Middle - 13; High - 9; Technical Centers - 2.

Students Total Students - 48,822; Elementary - 22,254; Middle - 11,004; High - 14,859; Other - 705; (projected data for 2009-10)

Pupil/Teacher Ratios Elementary - 19.8; Middle - 21.5; High - 21.2

Graduates 2009 Graduates - 3,419; Continuing Education - 84.8%; Scholarships in 2009 - $18.5 Million accepted; Dropout Rate - 2.23%

Ethnic Distribution Asian - 5.6%; Black - 35.7%; Hispanic - 4.2%; White - 47.8%; Other - 6.7%

Nutrition Free Lunch - 31.2%; Reduced-Price Lunch - 8.8%; Full Price Lunch - 60%

Transportation Buses - 616; Special Education Buses - 104; Drivers - 431; Driver Aides - 88; Miles Traveled Daily - 42,423; Students Transported Daily - over 46,000

Finance Operating Budget - $477.4 Million; Per Pupil Expenditure - $8,957

Economic Deprivation - 33.2%

Teachers - 3,761

Employees - 6,402

[edit] School Board and Superintendent

The newly elected Henrico County School Board took office Jan. 1, 2008 which includes four new faces and a returning board member: Diana D. Winston, Three Chopt district; John W. Montgomery Jr., Varina district; Linda McBride, Brookland district; Lisa A. Marshall, Tuckahoe district; and Lamont Bagby, Fairfield district.

Superintendent Dr. Patrick Russo took office July 1, 2009. Dr. Russo had been superintendent of Hampton City Public Schools since 2004 and the school division thrived under his leadership. Russo has more than 33 years of experience as a teacher, principal, assistant superintendent and superintendent. [1]

[edit] New Schools

Glen Allen High School and Holman Middle School are planned to open in Fall 2010. Holman Middle School's new principal is expected to be Dr. Brian P. Fellows, principal of Tuckahoe Middle School. Glen Allen High School's new principal is expected to be Tracie Weston, principal of Pocahontas Middle School.

[edit] Pupil Transportation

The Henrico school division is noted for one of the larger school bus programs in Virginia as well as in the United States. Transporting over forty thousand students each day, Henrico County Public Schools utilizes a fleet of over five hundred school buses. Most buses are Type D, or Transit, including the International Genesis, International FE, International RE, Thomas Saf-T-Liner HDX, and Type C.

[edit] Notable persons and accomplishments

[edit] Virginia Randolph

Two local educators associated with Henrico County Public School became notable for contributions to the development of educational programs for African-American students in the late 19th and early to mid-20th century.

Virginia Randolph (1874-1958) became notable for her many years and contributions to the development of educational programs for African-American students during the days of segregated schools in Virginia. Educated at Richmond's Armstrong High School, in 1892, Ms. Randolph opened the Mountain Road School in the north central part of the county. As a teacher there, Randolph taught her students woodworking, sewing, cooking, and gardening, as well as academics. [2] In 1908, Henrico County Superintendent of Schools Jackson T. Davis named her to become the United State's first "Jeanes Supervising Industrial Teacher".

As the overseer of twenty three elementary schools in Henrico County, Virginia Randolph developed the first in-service training program for black teachers and worked on improving the curriculum of the schools. With the freedom to design her own agenda, she shaped industrial work and community self-help programs to meet specific needs of schools. [3] During her 57-year career, although she remained at work in Henrico County, she became recognized worldwide as a pioneering educator, humanitarian and leader, especially in the field of vocational education. She retired in 1949.[4]

In Glen Allen, the Virginia Randolph Home Economics Cottage was made into a museum in memory of Randolph in 1970. The Virginia Historic Landmarks Commission designated the museum a State Historic Landmark. In 1976 the museum was named a National Historic Landmark by the United States Department of Interior, National Park Service.[5][6] Randolph reportedly had an office in the building. Her grave site is on the grounds. Randolph is interred on the museum grounds. In modern times, Virginia Randolph Community High School in Glen Allen, Virginia and a special education center are each named in her honor. [7] The Virginia Randolph Foundation, formed in 1954, annually awards scholarships to Henrico County high school students who will be attending a 4 year college or university. [8]

For more details on this topic, see Virginia Randolph.

[edit] Jackson T. Davis

Jackson T. Davis (1882-1947), a Richmonder, was graduate of the College of William and Mary and Columbia University. He headed school divisions in Williamsburg and Marion before coming to Henrico as Division Superintendent in 1905. After his tenure at HCPS, Dr. Davis became state agent for African-American rural schools for the Virginia State Department of Education from 1910-1915. He went on to also become an internationally known leader in his field. [9] Henrico County's Jackson Davis Elementary School, dedicated in 1964, was named for him. [10] His collection of photographs of Virginia's negro school facilities of the era is notable among many items of his career which were donated to the University of Virginia and are among the special collections there. [11]

[edit] Laptop Program

Henrico County Public Schools (HCPS) was one of the first school districts in the United States to distribute laptop computers to students, during the 2001 school year. Initially, the $18.5 million dollar project was for high school students alone. However, the middle school program was also phased in 2002. Up until the 2005-2006 school year, Apple computers were used; however, that year, Dell won over the contract with HCPS for high school students, due mainly to polls conducted which indicated that students would prefer PCs over Macs. Another reason was because Dell would repair any non-vandalized computers for free. The earliest date for the middle schools to receive Dells will be 2010 because in the 2005-2006 school year, the school board signed a 5 year contract with Apple.

Response to the laptop program has been mainly positive. During a random survey where 796 homes were polled, 88% of parents were in favor of continuing the program. It has received much acclaim nation-wide as being a "trail-blazer" in technology for public schools.

Despite this, there are still some criticisms. Many students believe that the computers are not being used to their full advantage, and the idea that it would replace heavy textbooks has yet to come to a reality, as most students just view it as an additional note-taking device.

Additionally, during the 2006-2007 school year, filters that were previously only implemented at school were placed on the computers for students who had internet at home as well. This received a harsh backlash, mainly from students, due to the filter's unreliable reputation for blocking things it shouldn't, such a websites given to the students to do online assignments for classwork. The filtering software does provide a link to report a mistakenly blocked page to administrators, but ironically, this link itself is also blocked. In the 2009-2010 school year, the county is using the web filter designed/created by Lightspeed Technologies instead of the filter by 8e6 Technologies in previous years.

[edit] Awards and accolades

  • Henrico County Public Schools was named one of the "Best Communities for Music Education in America," the only school division in the nation to earn this designation 10 years in a row.
  • Henrico High School celebrated recognition from Newsweek as one of the 1,500 top U.S. high schools in the country in 2009.
  • Deep Run High School's robotics team, known as Blue Cheese, took home the state title at the FIRST Tech Challenge competition held at the University of Virginia in 2009.
  • The media services and media relations departments were recently awarded five Awards of Honorable Mention in the National School Public Relations Association's 2009 Publication and Electronic Media Contest. The departments were also honored with three Bronze Certificates of Merit at the 62nd Annual Virginia Public Relations Awards Ceremony, sponsored annually by the Richmond chapter of the Public Relations Society of America.
  • Twelve Henrico Schools have received the U.S. Department of Education Blue Ribbon School of Excellence Award. Shady Grove Elementary School was selected in fall of 2007.
  • Henrico schools received five National Association of Counties (NACo) awards for implementing groundbreaking programs.
  • Eight Henrico schools earned the Governor's Award for Educational Excellence and 34 schools earned the Board of Education's VIP Awards.
  • Two schools won a silver medal ranking by U.S. News and World Report's "Best High Schools in America."

[edit] Districts

[edit] Brookland District

  • Dumbarton Elementary School
  • Echo Lake Elementary School - The school serves over 710 students in kindergarten through fifth grade. Echo Lake has a variety of programs ranging from special education classes for students with learning challenges to programs for gifted and talented students. The staff consists of over fifty teachers.[12] The PTA sponsors many programs co-curricular and extracurricular activities for students. Some more prominent examples include the Reflections program, Destination Imagination, and chess team.[13]
  • Glen Allen Elementary School
  • Greenwood Elementary School
  • Hermitage High School
  • Hermitage Technical Center
  • Holladay Elementary School
  • Hungary Creek Middle School
  • Charles M. Johnson Elementary School
  • Lakeside Elementary School
  • R.C. Longan Elementary School
  • Maude Trevvett Elementary School
  • George H. Moody Middle School
  • Mount Vernon Middle School

[edit] Fairfield District

[edit] Three Chopt District

[edit] Tuckahoe District

[edit] Varina District

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://www.henrico.k12.va.us/superintendentscorner/bio.html
  2. ^ http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0887003.html
  3. ^ African American Registry: Virginia E. Randolph, a teaching pioneer!
  4. ^ Henrico County Manager's Office
  5. ^ "Virginia Randolph Cottage". National Historic Landmark summary listing. National Park Service. http://tps.cr.nps.gov/nhl/detail.cfm?ResourceId=1500&ResourceType=Building. Retrieved 2008-04-21. 
  6. ^ James Sheire (July 31, 1974), National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination: Virginia E. Randolph Museum - Virginia Cardwell Cottage / Home Economics CottagePDF (32 KB), National Park Service  and Accompanying one photo, undated (plus an unrelated photo of Poe Shrine, "oldest house" in Richmond, Virginia)PDF (32 KB)
  7. ^ VA Randolph Community High School
  8. ^ The Virginia Randolph Foundation, Inc
  9. ^ UVa Special Collections Library: Jackson Davis Collection
  10. ^ UVa Special Collections Library: Jackson Davis Collection
  11. ^ Interior of one-room school
  12. ^ Principal's Message, retrieved August 13, 2008
  13. ^ PTA Programs Page

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henrico_County_Public_Schools"