Urban outdoors takes kids to new heights Godwin High School Senior Connie Henshaw went on her first hiking trip with her uncle when she was 9. As she finally reached the top of the mountain and looked down at the scenery beneath her, she felt something she had never felt before. “It was beautiful,” Henshaw said. “I had never felt anything like it. It was a struggle to get up there but once I finally did, it felt amazing.” That feeling, along with supportive parents who have a bit of experience in the non-profit arena, has inspired her to start a non-profit organization called Urban Outdoors. Henshaw and several recruited vol-unteers plan to take 15 inner-city seventh graders on multiple outdoor adventures throughout the year. “We have already gone to Pocahon-tas State Park,” Henshaw said. “We have a lot more planned, though, throughout the year.” Henshaw has set aside multiple weekends to take these kids to the moun-tains, to a waterfall, on a snow-tubing trip, a stream cleanup, and camping. “People just assume these kids would rather sit inside and play video games, they say ‘Oh, they don’t like the outdoors,’” Henshaw said. “But how would they ever know if they just haven’t had the opportunity to be exposed to it?” This idea of “first introduction” is something that Henshaw strives to give to every child she works with. She says

WHAT’S INSIDE: 1st Day Fun | Pg. 3 Against All Odds | Pg. 5Spotlight on:

ACA | Pg. 8

HEF SS Challenge reaches 7,000 students Last year, a Sandston Elementary School student was living in hotels. Her mother was without a job and stressed about how she was going to support her child. At back to school night, the mother shared concerns about her daughter’s fear of not “fitting in” with the other kids because she didn’t have a backpack to hang, or supplies to use in the classroom.

Quickly, the staff at Sandston took the girl to the guidance office, found a polka-dot-ted pink backpack, filled it with supplies and the little girl then came dancing back to her mom with a smile. The girl’s mom cried tears of joy to see her daughter so excited. “It was a moment we have all treasured,” Sandston Principal Tracey

Seamster said. This moment would not have been possible without the Henrico Education Foundation’s SS Challenge. From August to September, with a hurricane in between, boxes brimming to the top with school supplies were

backto

SCHOOL

SS CHALLENGE, Pg. 8

URBAN OUTDOORS, Pg. 8

2 October 2011 school days

With leaps and bounds the journey continuesDr. PatrickRussoSuperintendent of Schools

Welcome to the 2011-12 school year! We are excited to start the year and to welcome back

nearly 48,500 students and 6,700 employ-ees, as well as parents and community members. The Henrico County Public Schools’ Vision is to be The Premier School Division in the United States, and we have established a great foundation to continue our journey. Following are a few highlights for the upcoming school year.

This year, we have added eight new preschool classrooms at several locations and school buildings across the district. This will help us to give a jump-start to the K-12 education of more than 144 children who might not have had the op-portunity otherwise. This is also the inau-gural school year of the Advance College Academy. Forty-two students are taking the opportunity to earn a high school diploma and an associate’s degree in just four years. This partnership between J.

Sargeant Reynolds Community College and Henrico County Public Schools will be housed at Tucker High School and will fast-track participating students’ college educations. We will also continue the first full year of our Learning Leaders Teacher Incentive Fund grant. This grant allows us to offer incentive pay to keep teachers at some of our hardest to staff schools. This is also the first year of our Succession Plan, which places associate principals in many of our schools and allows HCPS to begin growing and grooming future principals and leaders. In these schools, the associate principal will be the deputy leader to the principal and will work with assistant principals and faculty to support providing the best possible edu-cational environment for students and staff. Finally, we are proud that in spite of an additional $11.5 million reduc-tion in this year’s budget, we were able to minimize the impact on staffing positions and instructional programs. We are also

proud that we were one of the only school divisions in the state to give employees a salary increase for the coming school year. We continue to take pride in our extra-curricular programs and depart-ments. Once again, Henrico Schools has been named a top school division for music education in the country. HCPS is the only division in the country to re-ceive this designation for 12 consecutive years. Also, our school division library services department is the reigning Na-tional School Library Division of the Year. These recognitions are acknowl-edgements of our commitment to offer a complete education to all of our students and to make sure we are supporting both their creative and academic education and development.

You can see we are off to a running start for another school year, and we look forward to partnering with the com-munity to reach our goals. Once again, welcome to the 2011-12 school year, and I look forward to the year ahead!

Traveling to and from school every day can be daunting for students, but together we can make this the

safest school year possible in Henrico County Public Schools! Please review these safety tips with your children, and feel free to learn more by visiting the Safety and Security page on the HCPS website: henrico.k12.va.us/SafetySecurity.

Check students’ backpacks to ensure they are not too heavy and are worn properly.

Routinely use pupil transportation.

Teach children to arrive at the bus stop early, stay out of the street, watch for cars, and wait for the bus to come to a complete stop before approaching the street. Be prepared to show a photo ID

when picking up children from school or at the bus stop.

Teach children never to bend down in front of the bus to tie their shoes or pick up objects. The driver might not see them.

If your child walks to school, walk the route with him or her, providing safety awareness tips along the way.

Help children form a walking team from the neighborhood, so they are not walking alone.

Teach children not to go near the car of a stranger if the stranger calls them over to the car.

If you drive your child to school, arrive early, follow the school’s traffic safety plan, instruct your child to exit on the curb side of your

car, and be patient in traffic lines.

Ensure that children who ride their bikes to school wear helmets.

Make sure your emergency contact information is always up to date.

Teach your child his or her phone number, address, and the contact information for a few other responsible adults in case he/she cannot reach you.

Have a SAFE and happyschool year!

Back to SchoolSafety Tips for Parents

Notes from the Board -A regular feature in School Days highlighting discussion and action at the Henrico County School Board’s monthly meetings and work sessions.

April 14, 2011, Monthly Meeting: • Approval of math teacher inresidence program funding: The board approved funding for the mathematics Teacher in Residence Program at the elementary and middle school levels for the 2011-2012 school year. May 12, 2011, Work Session: • The board adopted the 2011-2012 Annual Financial Plan.

May 26, 2011, Monthly Meeting: • TheboardrecognizedtheHCPSschool library program as the recipient of the 2011 National Library Program of the Year Award given by the Ameri-can Association of School Librarians.

June 23, 2011, Monthly Meeting: • The school board recognizedHCPS receiving The Excellence in Edu-cation Awards, which honor exemplary public school and community college programs across Virginia. Henrico County Schools was honored for its “Henrico 21 Awards” program, which recognizes students and teachers for 21st century projects and lessons.

August 11, 2011, Monthly Meeting: • Tim Mertz, director of SchoolNutrition Services, recognized the superintendent, board members and the entire School Nutrition Services department for receiving the 2011 Dis-trict of Excellence in School Nutrition Award given by the School Nutrition Association. • TheBoardaccepted$606,489.44from the Virginia Department of Education for Career and Technical Education funds through the Perkins Act. • The Board approved the 2011-2012 State and Federal Grant Funding in the amount of $12,278,262.53, which will be used for staffing, professional development and academic services to pre-K through 5th grade students.

•••

Monthly meeting6:30 p.m.New Bridge

school days October 2011 3

Backto school

Matthew Harris,

a third grader

at

Sandston Elem

entary School,

brushes

up on his com

puter skills.

Sophia Futterman and Nizaiah Gaskins sit in class and work on coloring at Echo Lake Elementary School.

Students pose for a picture on the first day at Byrd Middle School.

Bang

with aRain on the first day didn’t dampen any spirits at

Tucker High School.

First-grader Violet Allen raises her hand to answer a question at Glen Lea Elementary School.

Daniel Spasic (left) and Ramez Taufek

stop and smile for a p

icture while in

class at Hungary Creek Middle School.

First-grader Savannah Green smiles for the camera during lunch at Pemberton Elementary School.

4 October 2011 school days

Imagine waking up at 7 a.m. every morning to get to school by 8, going home for a rushed 30 minute break, and then heading back to class from

8 p.m. to 10 p.m. This already sounds like a lot, but this wasn’t even half of what 16-year-old Abdulaziz Al-Qahtani had to do in order to graduate from J.R. Tucker High School before his expiring Visa sent him back to Saudi Arabia. Once he finally got home after night classes, instead of sitting on a couch and putting his feet up, he sat at a computer to take yet another class. After his online course came homework, and then at around 3 a.m., Al-Qahtani could finally crawl into bed only to get barely enough sleep to start this same routine the next day and then the next. “Needless to say I didn’t sleep much,” Al-Qahtani said. But this kind of hard work and dedication was not something foreign to him, but rather ingrained in him since childhood. “My dad would say, ‘You’re not like everybody else, you’re special, you can be something great,’” Al-Qahtani said gazing up toward the ceiling pensively. When asked what the great some-thing was going to be, Al-Qahtani laughed. “I’m not sure, I’m only 16. But I know I want to be a businessman, and I want to be like my dad, only better.” The idea of Al-Qahtani finishing high

school in two years started as a joke be-tween him and his parents. But after some research and a lot of help from Al-Qa-htani’s school counselor, Ms. Blackman, they realized it was possible. And once a pipe dream became a definite possibility, Al-Qahtani had no choice but to put forth the effort. Not that he objected of course. “I knew it would be hard, but my parents have always pushed me to work as hard as possible,” he said. “They knew I could do it.” Ms. Blackman had no doubt that Al-Qahtani had it in him to graduate by his August 4, 2011 deadline, either. “When he was charged with the task of graduating high school in two years, (just) months into his first year of high school, he was game. My impression was that he took pride in the challenge,” Blackman said. “This kid has the perspec-tive and world view of a man well beyond his 16 years. He completely understands that education and sacrifice are essential to his future success.” In his native country, students were expected to take up to 18 courses a day. But Al-Qahtani had been in America since he was 7 years old and wasn’t used to this kind of rigor, at least not until he began his accelerated graduation sched-ule in the summer of 2010. He completed English 10 during the summer and then English 12 and US History via the fall session of evening school. He also completed Government and Algebra II online and completed Bio II and PE 10 through the spring session of evening school. After those courses were complete, he had two elective cred-its outstanding. He took Creative Writing through Independent Study and Spanish I this summer. He did all of this while taking seven full-year classes during the school day, not to mention he was on the honor roll for the duration. During

the 2010-2011 school year, he completed 14 full-year classes, an accomplishment that seems near impossible. In the last months of Al-Qahtani’s stay in America, he was without both his mother and father. His father is a political figure in Saudi Arabia and had to return home, and his mother was forced to go back to tend to her ill parent. “This has definitely been the hardest year of my life,” Al-Qahtani said. “It was very hard for me when my mom and dad left.” His sister, Reem sacrificed a job in Saudi Arabia to stay with her little brother while he finished school. “I owe her big time,” Al-Qahtani said. “I’ll make it up to her though.” As per Saudi tradition, studies were not to impede on family time. “It is important to us to have this time,” Reem said. “To have lunch and dinner together and drink tea and talk. I tell him we have to have friendship inside our house. It is important for us to rely on each other.” In the U.S., Al-Qahtani did his best to not let his immense workload inter-fere with this quality time with his three brothers, two sisters, and his parents even if it meant the interaction was via the computer. “My dad and I would have dinner together on webcams over Skype,” Al-Qahtani said with a smile. “We tried our best to keep in touch.” Al-Qahtani’s relationship with his

father is one of the most important things in his life. His father is his role model and best friend. “He has a great leadership style and treats everyone equally. He never judges anyone and always wants to help,” Al Qahtani said. “He told me not to com-pete against others, to only compete with myself.” Al-Qahtani graduated August 4th and went back to Saudi Arabia on the 5th. His embassy appointment was on the 6th to apply for another visa. Although he has bits and pieces of memory from living in Saudi Arabia, the U.S. has become his home. “I have trouble with my own lan-guage sometimes,” he said. “I don’t know much of Saudi history, either. I know the kings but that’s about it.” His sister, Reem, gave him a smile when he said this. Reem is 24 and has a larger grasp on Saudi history and tradi-tions. Al-Qahtani doesn’t know what he would do if he had to attend college in Saudi Arabia, “I could never pass their version of the SAT,” he said. “I don’t know anything.” He hopes to come back to America as soon as possible, and perhaps to even attend VCU in the fall. “I will miss people I have met here, people who have helped me. Especially my best friends Arsalan and Rachel,” Al-Qahtani said. “But at least the McDon-alds in Saudi is WAY better.”

Against All OddsExceptional SaudiArabian StudentSurpasses GraduationExpectations

October 5th was International Walk to School Day and Crestview Elementary School celebrated the event for the health of it. Crestview, Ridge, Longdale and Maybeury

are four elementary schools in Henrico County who each received a $2000 grant from Prevention Con-nections to promote healthy activities, like walking to school. Crestview Elementary students led the way on a half-mile hike to school with the Tucker High School Marching Band. Approximately 335 students, 60 staff members and 50 par-ents participated. Not to mention school board members, members of the local fire department, as well as members of the Hen-rico County Police Department. First Lady of Virginia, Maureen McDonnell, joined in the fun as well. She walked alongside the school’s mascot “Big Red” the cardinal and held hands with students as they walked from Christ United Methodist Church to school.

ATTENTION:

Students, do you have any unique talents that you would like to showcase on the

HCPS website?

Teachers, do you have students that you think would be good candidates for our

How To or Kids 4 Kindness sectionsof Student Zone?

Email studentzone@henrico.k12.va.usand tell us!

First Lady of Virginia, Maureen McDonnell, walks to school with kids from Crestview to promote healthy living.

school days October 2011 5

Gavin Bennett, Jordan Washington and Michael Townley walk together to school holding hands.

t Walk to School

Day

It was all fun and games as Crestview students walked to school to the beat of the Tucker High School Marching Band accompanied by their mascot. t

6 October 2011 school days

R.E.B Leadership Award nominees sought Nominations for the 2011-2012 R.E.B. Awards for Distinguished Educational Leadership are now being accepted. The Awards will seek to recognize those principals who go beyond the day-to-day demands of their position to create an exceptional educational environment. Four principals will be publicly recognized, one in each school district of the metropolitan area, i.e. the Counties of Chesterfield, Hanover, and Henrico, and the City of Richmond. Each award will consist of a $7,500 cash grant to the principal, and an additional $7,500 for the principal’s school for projects chosen by the principal. Nominees must be principals who: H Manage effectively to promote excellence in education H Foster cooperation between the school and the community H Demonstrate leadership and exemplify commitment H Maintain dialogue with students, parents, faculty, and staff H Inspire their students and are advocates for their school and their faculty H Have been principal of their school for at least three years H Encourage team spirit The Community Foundation, in partnership with the R.E.B. Foundation, invites principal nominations from the school community and from the public at-large. Principals may not nominate themselves. The nomination should take the form of a letter, and explain the nominee’s distinguished educational leadership as well as address the personal and professional qualities of the nominee as they relate to the criteria of this award. The original nomination should be no more than two 8 ½” x 11” typed or computer generated pages in length. The nomination may be accompanied by up to three (3) additional one-page letters of support. Nominations are due to the Foundation by 5:00 p.m., on or before Wednesday, November 2, 2011. Nominations should be addressed to:

R.E.B. Awards for Distinguished Educational Leadershipc/o The Community Foundation

Attn: Susan Hallett, Program Officer7501 Boulders View Drive, Suite 110, Richmond, VA 23225

Steve Zanetti packed his bags in preparation for his trip to South Africa this summer; he had his passport and gifts for the students

he planned to meet. He had prepared to watch how South African teachers taught their students and planned to give them pointers on what they could do better. Zanetti had the impression that South Africa would be far behind the rest of the world. Little did he know, he would not only come back with a few souvenirs, but perhaps a little perspective.

When Zanetti went to his first South African school, he realized how little students really had.

“Many students walk three miles to school. There are no buses, no provided lunches, no heat and no air conditioning; yet these kids manage to show up every single day,” he said.

Z a n e t t i describes the attitudes of South African students as a kind of drive that countries like the United States should keep in their rear-view mirror. “I was so surprised by the sense of student responsibility there. These kids are figuring out things on their own, they have no choice but to grow up,” Zanetti said. “Sometimes they are taking care of their brothers and sisters because their parents have passed away and they still make it to school.”

Zanetti is currently a U.S. history and economics teacher at Freeman High School. He has spent nearly 20 years

as a teacher and remembers a time not too long ago when students were a little more independent and determined.

“I saw something in the students there that I don’t see as much now

in kids in the U.S. Unlike kids here, kids in South Africa have no

sense of entitlement because they don’t have anything.”

South Africa recently end-ed Apartheid, which was a

system of legal racial segrega-

tion enforced by the National Party

governments of South Africa between 1948

and 1994, under which the rights of the majority, who were ‘non-white’ in-habitants, were restricted and white supremacy

was maintained. Up until the end of Apartheid, Afri-

can students were given a very limited education, which is why many students

now hold education as a promising oppor-

tunity and an utmost priority. “When students talk about Apart-heid, they in some ways dismiss it. It is not like they have forgotten, but they want to put it behind them,” Zanetti said. “To them, it’s all about moving forward.” According to Zanetti, most parents in South Africa aren’t pushing their kids

to become educated either. In a lot of plac-es in South Africa, especially among older generations, education is not emphasized. Yet, these students are constantly trying to improve on their own accord, and solely for their own self-improvement. Subjects are all taught in English, too. So not only are students learning new material, they are learning it in their second language. “When South African students don’t do well on a test, they don’t look at the teacher as the problem,” Zanetti said. “They look to themselves and ask ‘What am I doing wrong? What do I need to do differently?’ and that is hard to say about many kids in the U.S.” In the past 20 years, there has been a shift in attitude among students Zanetti said. He assures, there are still plenty of students in America with the kind of drive he saw in Africa, and for them all of the resources here will make them un-stoppable. It is just a matter of allowing students to branch out on their own and really think for themselves. “We need to have more of an empha-

sis on problem solving and creative ideas,” he said. “I

came away from (South Africa) thinking, ‘I’m

not gonna whine and complain as much as I did be-fore I got here.’ We have so much here for our kids…to be successful.”

So perhaps it is time to take a lesson

from students in South Africa, and remember that

education isn’t always a right, it is a privilege. A privilege that all too often gets taken for granted.

school days October 2011 7

Students in 10 schools across the county ecstatically flipped through pages of brand new books after The Henrico Education

Foundation (HEF), along with I Have A Dream-Richmond, provided books for every student in each of the 10 schools as a part of the Read More Books Initiative. Volunteers from Capital One, University of Richmond, Richmond International Raceway and HCPS Central Office distributed books to

Read More Books campaign has storybook ending

More than $51,000 worth of books distributedto Henrico students

students ranging from pre-K to fifth grade. “We typically expect students to only get ex-cited by the ‘bells and whistles’ of a video game or other new gadget,” HEF Program Manager Paula Roop said. “ But the joy on students’ faces when they receive a brand new book is priceless.” Roop along with Ken and Gail Henshaw from the ‘I Have A Dream Foundation-Rich-mond’ worked for three months to get the book distribution underway.

things like the SS Challenge open other conversations between schools and part-ners for additional areas of impact.” And the Sandston Elementary School students, teachers and even parents are living proof of that. Seamster has story after story of how the SS Challenge has helped the kids at Sandston in a multitude of ways. According to Seamster, many stu-dents who arrive to Sandston are in newly evolving homeless situations or are kids of parents who are struggling financially. “The relief of the parents and chil-dren, to be able to go ‘shop’ in our guid-ance office for much needed supplies is a priceless moment for our new stu-dents as well as the staff. This is just one of the impacts that this program makes,” Seamster said.

8 October 2011 school days

Henrico County School Board Contact Us Awards & Credits

Lamont BagbyChairFairfield District

Linda L. McBrideBrookland District

John W. Montgomery Jr.Varina District

Diana D. WinstonVice ChairThree Chopt District

Lisa A. MarshallTuckahoe District

Dr. Patrick RussoSuperintendent

P.O. Box 231203820 Nine Mile RoadHenrico, VA 23223-0420804.652.3600www.henrico.k12.va.us

School Days is an award-winning publication produced quarterly by the Department of Communications & Community Outreach of HCPS. If you have questions or concerns about this publication, call 804.652.3724 or send an email to nnallen@henrico.k12.va.us.

Natalie Allen - EditorChristie Harman - Production Manager

piva

that if her uncle hadn’t taken her on her first hike, it’s possible she would have never realized her passion for the out-doors and even environmental science, which is what she plans to study in college. “I don’t know what would have happened if he’d never taken me, so I want to give kids that first intro and show them how great (the outdoors) are,” she said. “Who knows, they could become scientists or make hiking a hobby, even if it means they take their kids on one hike later because they remember enjoying it as a kid, I’ve accomplished something.” According to Henshaw, kids have an amazingly long attention span outdoors as compared to in a classroom. “If I am teaching them about animals and the environment in a classroom they can sit and listen for like 15 minutes,” Henshaw said. “But when you take them outside and have them looking at snakes and turtles and fish they will pay atten-tion for hours. And they ask the most amazing questions, questions I wouldn’t even think of.”

yURBAN OUTDOORSySS CHALLENGE Henshaw’s parents run a non-profit called I Have a Dream-Richmond, and her parents are who she credits with her start in community service, as well as her experience in the non-profit sector. On a whim, Henshaw went to the Outdoor Nation Conference in Atlanta, where they were giving out grants to start non-profit programs. Henshaw was one of four people to win a grant. “I didn’t even know about the grant opportunity until I got there,” Henshaw said. “I developed my idea for Urban Outdoors there and was determined to win.” When asked whether she would continue Urban Outdoors once she’s in college, Henshaw assured that flexibil-ity was one of the great things about her idea. “I can really take it anywhere, even if I have to tweak it a little bit,” she said. “I can never see myself not do-ing community service,” Henshaw said plainly, as if it were not her choice but just a matter of fact. “I love it.”

handed down an assembly line of vol-unteers to principals and teachers at 40 different schools across Henrico County. For the 11th year in a row, The Henrico Education Foundation (HEF) collaborat-ed with corporations and organizations big and small to give pencils, backpacks, binders and even calculators to more than 7,000 students in need. “We were able to collect 19 boxes of supplies and more than $600 that (was) used to purchase gift cards from Target to be used by the teachers should sup-plies run low during the year,” said Sarah Mejia of Markel Corporation. “It’s always so rewarding knowing that your com-pany supports efforts like this, especially helping children in need.” According to HEF’s Program Man-ager Paula Roop, the foundation strongly encouraged all the partners to directly deliver to their school in order to foster a connection. “I am pleased to report that they did just that. And I think that’s signifi-cant because the school system is only as strong as our community partners,” Roop said. “Often what we find is that

The Advance College Academy (ACA) is a newly designed pro-gram that allows students to obtain

an Associate of Science degree in Social Science, in partnership with J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College, during their four years in high school. This unique opportunity affords students college credit and experience at no cost to the fam-ily. As a member of the National Alliance of Concurrent Enrollment Partnerships (NACEP), Henrico County Public Schools follows an assigned curriculum. Upon successful completion of the program, 61 college credits are eligible for transfer to more than 20 top Virginia colleges and universities. ACA is a four-year program begin-ning in the 9th grade where emphasis is placed on core subjects, world language and transition into AP courses. This con-tinues through the 10th grade. Begin-ning in the summer of sophomore year, students take their first college courses.

Throughout 11th and 12th grade years, students take the remainder of their 61 college credits tuition free.

Students Speak About Why They Chose ACA:

“I feel like it gives me a broad choice when deciding what it is I want to do,” Bui said. “It’s something new, and I thought it would be a smart thing to try out.”

“My parents said it was a great op-portunity,” Flowers said. “I’m leaving my friends but it’s worth it to get my (associ-ates) degree, we will still keep in touch.”

“I like the idea of an open air campus, it’s just awesome.” Clower said.

“I shadowed here and the teachers seem really nice. Getting an associates degree helps me to get out of college sooner and into the real world, I want to go to UVA and then law school.”

“I think it will be a better experience than other specialty centers,” Genesie said. “My parents like the idea.”

For more information on the ACA curriculum and application procedures, please visit: http://teachers.henrico.k12.va.us/tucker/aca/

Spotlight On: Advance College Academy

Enyiah Genesie is coming to ACA from Tuckahoe Middle andeventually wantsto be a chef.

Paul Flowers is from Elko Middle School and is in it for the degree.

David Clowerwent to Moody Middle and really likes the idea ofcoming to Tucker.

Patricia Bui hales from Brookland Middle and isexcited to come to ACA at Tucker.

To Learn More