With final passage of a budget by the General Assembly, the Chesterfield County Public Schools board met in a special meeting on June 21 and approved their final fiscal 2023 financial plan. It includes $6 million in one-time bonuses for staff and two-year funding for the Chesterfield Recovery Academy. The latter will get $864,000 this fiscal year and $500,000 next year. With the one-time funds, the school district was able to complete Phase I of Salary Study 2, according to Kimberly Hough, chief of human resources. The salary study began in October last year and compared Chesterfield with 13 other…
Browsing: Teachers
As part of their April 6 business meeting, the Chesterfield County Board of Supervisors approved a fiscal year 2023 budget and a 3-cent reduction in the real estate property tax from 95 to 92 cents per $100 of assessed value. The commodity portion of water and wastewater bills will be going up an average of $1.54 per month from $59.17 to $60.71. However, George Hayes, director of utilities, said Chesterfield’s rates are “the most competitive rates in the region, if not the commonwealth.” The increase is targeted to result in an additional $3.1 million. As part of the $905.5 million…
Erin Woodby
Erin Woodby became an educator because she finds joy in helping others learn about the world around them and seeing them grow in their knowledge and understanding. Both of Woodby’s parents are educators – her father was a teacher who worked in administration for CCPS, her mother a diabetes educator – and she said they instilled in her a passion for learning at a very young age. Woodby, who is in her 17th year of teaching, is currently the instructional designer at Carver College and Career Academy. She has been at Carver for nine years, and prior to that, she…
Brooke Kistner
Brooke Kistner loves building relationships with students, especially those in middle school. Kistner remembers how awkward, stubborn and out of place she felt as a middle schooler and said it is rewarding to be a support for students in the same boat. “I was never one of the popular kids in school; in fact, I was extremely quiet and preferred to go unnoticed,” Kistner said. “So to be that teacher who purposely notices students to build a relationship so that they know they are loved, valued and needed is priceless.” Kistner has been teaching since 2008 and is currently in…
Jessica Felice
Ask Jessica Felice about her teaching style, and she’ll tell you her goal is to be Miss Frizzle from “The Magic School Bus.” Felice said she incorporates any and all teaching styles that reflect her students’ needs while also trying to make the content come to life. “I try to make my students live what we are learning,” Felice said. “If they are experiencing it, they are talking about it, having feelings about it, questioning it and teaching others about what they experienced in my class.” Felice hails from New York, where she received her bachelor’s degree in Childhood Education…
Brooke Moseley
Marguerite Christian Elementary’s Teacher of the Year recipient is a CCPS alumna. Brooke Moseley attended Gordon Elementary, Midlothian Middle and Midlothian High. She said she has many fond memories of growing up in the system from field day to orchestra, soccer practice to Latin class, and many more in between. “Many of my teachers made a meaningful impact on me throughout elementary, middle, and high school,” Moseley said. “Once I graduated from Radford University, I made it a priority to seek employment in Chesterfield County. I hope to make such an impact on my students throughout their time in elementary school.”…
Allison Becker
Watching the growth of her students from the beginning of the school year to the end is very rewarding for Alison Becker. Becker, is a first grade teacher at Salem Church Elementary School and has been an educator for five years. Becker taught pre-K in Georgia for her first two years as a teacher, then second and third when she moved to the area.For the upcoming school year, she will be teaching first grade. She said working in different grade levels helped her to grow and stay current in education, and she mentioned her fondness for second graders. “Second grade…
Sarah Jurewicz, who teaches Culinary Arts I and II at the Career and Technical Center @ Courthouse.
In an unconventional year, Chesterfield County Public Schools took an unconventional approach to announce their teachers of the year for each division by surprising them at home. Superintendent Merv Dougherty presented the honors with an Ed McMahon approach, complete with flowers, balloons, and yard signs – less the sweepstakes check. This year’s honorees were Sarah Jurewicz (CCPS and overall high school), Katie Moore (middle school), and Heather Russell (elementary school). Sarah Jurewicz, who teaches Culinary Arts I and II at the Career and Technical Center @ Courthouse.Katie Moore (second from left) a sixth-grade social studies teacher at Falling Creek Middle.
Renita Davis-Kelley’s mother always told her “When you’re nice and kind to people, that will always show up,” and that has been Davis-Kelley’s motto ever since. The teacher believes being nice and kind and showing students that she cares goes a long way and it will make the environment safe to learn. Davis-Kelley is an economics and personal finance teacher at the Chesterfield juvenile detention center and has been there for 18 years (she has 25 years in education overall). She said her courses are in relation to what the market demands, and personal finance, a state requirement for students…
Although they weren’t happy about it, the Chesterfield County Public Schools board unanimously approved a $726.9 million operating fund request for Fiscal Year 2020-21 during a special meeting on Feb. 25. The proposed financial plan was reduced from Superintendent Merv Daugherty’s initial request in January of $777.3 million. The $726.9 request — which would need to be approved by the county board of supervisors — reflects a $55.5 million, or 7.5-percent, increase, over the Fiscal Year 2019-20 adopted budget. Thomas Taylor, the school district’s deputy superintendent, said that the 2-percent increases for faculty and staff that would be allowed under…