By a 4-1 vote with Carrie Coyner dissenting, the Chesterfield school board on Nov. 12 requested authorization from the Chesterfield Board of Supervisors to spend $4.5 million in county reserve funds and $3.8 million for increased student growth. The Board of Supervisors unanimously approved the request at its Nov. 13 meeting. The school board approved a plan by Superintendent Merv Daugherty that would remove lockers to make more classroom space at Cosby, Clover Hill, Matoaca and Meadowbrook high schools at a cost of $1.6 million; replace laptops and desktops for 1,435 teachers, administrators and support staff at a cost of…
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Marguerite Christian Elementary’s Teacher of the Year had dreams of being a social worker and started her career at Richmond Memorial Hospital. Sarah Robenson did short-term rehabilitation and was responsible for assisting patients with care once they returned home, or she placed them in a nursing home if they weren’t able to go home. At some point, Robenson’s vision of being a registered nurse no longer aligned with the hospital’s, so she made the switch to education. Her 19 years of experience helped her with being a teacher, and she said she has more of an understanding because of her…
Kimberly Burnett is her classroom at Curtis Elementary. (Danielle Ozbat photo) “The louder, the better” is Kimberly Burnett’s teaching philosophy. She is a self-proclaimed “hands-on, out-of-the-box teacher” who likes to transform her classroom in order to keep her students guessing. “It’s almost like we’re in competition with their life outside of school and their video games and their constant movement, but we just really want them to love learning,” Burnett said. She has been teaching for 13 years, nine in Prince William County and four at Curtis Elementary. She has taught second and third grade, and currently teaches third-graders. Even…
Burlington store manager Edward Lewis, Salem Middle School principal Lashante’ Knight and award nominator Avis Baker are pictured Oct. 22 at the school. (Catherine Tompkins photo) As a food service associate at Gates Elementary School, Avis Baker sees daily the amazing learning experiences that “Team Chesterfield” teachers provide within the remarkable learning environments they create. Hoping to support teachers in her community, Baker recently entered her two children’s middle school into a national K-12 sweepstakes held by Burlington Stores, Inc. and AdoptAClassroom.org. On Oct. 22, Burlington and AdoptAClassroom.org officials paid a surprise visit to Salem Church Middle to announce that…
Kelly McDougald is completely content being a kindergarten teacher for the rest of her career. McDougald calls teaching kindergarten her passion. She began as a special education teacher in kindergarten and first grade, but switched because she wanted to be on the “general education” side in a collaborative setting. She earned a bachelor’s degree in elementary education and master’s degree in special education/curriculum and instructional specialist from Longwood University. This is her eighth year as a kindergarten teacher at Bensley Elementary School, where she was recently named “Teacher of the Year.” Kelley Hetrick, her second-grade teacher at J.B. Watkins Elementary,…
Deanna Gravely When Deanna Gravely was a little girl, she wanted to be a teacher and had many influential cousins who were teachers. She would pretend to write on a chalkboard of her fictional classroom and line up her stuffed animals and dolls in a row as if they were sitting at their desks. Gravely started her career teaching English, but after finding the classroom too predictable, she became a librarian. Gravely has been in education for 20 years and has taught middle and high school. She said she enjoys teaching older students because she can joke around with them…
A groundbreaking for the new $24.57 million Ettrick Elementary School was was held Monday, Oct. 7. Oyster Point Construction Co. of Newport News was awarded the contract. The total budget for the project is $27.1 million, including an estimated additional cost of $1 million for an expanded gymnasium. The school – which is scheduled to open in the fall of 2021 – and Reams Elementary are the last two of 11 schools to either be renovated or replaced as a result of the $304 million bond referendum that voters approved in 2013.
When Eleanor Kotowski applied to college, she wasn’t sure if she wanted to open her own business or become a therapist. She had an interest in education and even toyed with the idea of being an English teacher, but eventually settled on getting a bachelor’s degree in finance from Virginia Tech. Kotowski decided to hold off on grad school and worked in Washington, D.C., as a financial litigation consultant for three years. Outside of work, she volunteered as a tutor through a non-profit organization and realized she loved working with students. So she went back to school and got a…
Laura Coppler has been a science teacher for 13 years and said she has always been a science nerd. Her father was always out in the garden during her childhood, and she said her fourth-grade teacher was the first teacher to ignite her interest in science. Coppler teaches science at Elizabeth Davis Middle School, where she has been for the last four years and where she was chosen as Teacher of the Year. She previously taught at Matoaca Middle School. “I always wanted to get back into the classroom and try to encourage students to love learning and love science…
Monique Booth stands next to a mural in a hallway at Salem Church Elementary School. (Caleb M. Soptelean photo) Monique Booth likes being a “princiPAL.” So much so, she recently wrote a paper about it for the George W. Bush Institute’s School Leadership Initiative. Her article, “Here is why you want to be ‘that’ parent and get to know the principal of your child’s school,” was posted on the organization’s website Aug. 27. In it, she noted that “research says 25 percent of a school’s total impact on student achievement is attributed to the principal.” The school principal is an…