Each time Stephanie Carter searches for a skilled tradesperson to repair or rebuild something in her home, she’s reminded of why CATEC is important. “We know there’s a nationwide trend that shows trade skills on the decline,” she says, “even as there’s so much work that needs those skills.” In her new role as director […]
Jessica Maslaney remembers trying to navigate the complex maze of child care options before her first child was born. “It’s a confusing process where everything matters, from cost to educational environment to teacher qualifications, and you’re just scrambling to figure it all out.” After toting her baby son to work with her at the Piedmont […]
In 2010, Charlene Green, now head of Charlottesville’s Office of Human Rights, was directing the city’s first Dialogue on Race, an initiative to engage residents in an ongoing discussion of race, racism, and diversity. “As I was having discussions with people around the community on these issues, I began to wonder: ‘Who knows all this […]
Faced with a recent decline in enrollment, the city’s first co-operative preschool, which has operated for more than 50 years, is struggling to stay on its feet. Molly Michie Cooperative Preschool was founded in 1967 as the city’s first integrated preschool, with an emphasis on learning through [...]
Charlottesville City Schools has opened up a dialogue on racial disparities in its schools, with a survey to parents and a series of community forums, the first of which was held on October 23. Though data on the black/white gap in city schools—in everything from suspension rates to [...]
A year and a half after 16-year-old Patrick Clancy was hospitalized following a soccer practice on a blistering July day, he filed a $2 million civil suit against the coach, Stuart Pierson, and Matthew Pearman, the Monticello High School athletic director. “The rules were in place that day, and [...]
Science class was in session at the October 25 Albemarle County School Board meeting, when board member Jason Buyaki paused to question not only the existence of climate change but also the nature of fossil fuels themselves. Buyaki, who represents the Rivanna district, recently wore a tie [...]
On an overcast and humid evening on the Downtown Mall, multi- media artist Golara Haghtalab seems to fill the Mudhouse with light. She recognizes a barista from when she worked there “a long time ago,” and though Haghtalab can’t remember his name at first, she still strikes up a spirited [...]
You can tell it’s spring when the birds return—and start crashing into the windows at Charlottesville High while drunk on Japanese pagoda tree berries. Avid birder Walker Catlett, 17, a junior at CHS, saw cedar waxwings flying into windows, and so far has documented at least eight dead and [...]
What’s it like to be a teenager in 2018? We figured nobody’s better plugged in than newspaper editors, so we checked in with the editors at Charlottesville High and Western Albemarle, as well as a CHS junior. Here’s what we learned about the differences between city and county schools—and what [...]
With election day less than a week away, some are questioning a school board contender’s candidacy because of her involvement in a certain nonprofit. Katrina Callsen is running for the Rio District seat on the Albemarle County School Board. The stay-at-home mom and former Teach for [...]
Every March thousands gather in Charlottesville for the Virginia Festival of the Book, now in its 22nd year, to celebrate storytelling and literacy. With most events free of charge and open to the public, the festival encourages book-lovers from all over to attend readings and panels, to see [...]
Charlottesville City Manager Maurice Jones presented his proposed budget for fiscal year 2017 to City Council on March 7. The $161,871,784 budget is a 3.5 percent increase over 2016’s fiscal year budget, which was approved at $156,391,435. The latest budget is Jones’ sixth version. “The biggest [...]
Visiting the library of Woodbrook Elementary School, Dr. Pamela Moran, superintendent of Albemarle County Public Schools, was in her element. A group of third-graders were busy showcasing their reading skills for a pair of small collies, therapy dogs provided by the Charlottesville-Albemarle [...]
It took two men with a vision to create an all-girls village On the Tuesday before winter break, a spirited debate has broken out in Jamie Knorr’s sixth-grade history class at Village School, the all-girls middle school he and Proal Heartwell founded two decades ago. A few of Knorr’s students [...]
A group of Charlottesville High School students are on an espionage mission from NASA to capture photographs of a competitor satellite while managing a limited store of energy and avoiding having their own satellite’s photo snatched by the competitor. BACON, or the Best All-around Club of [...]
The parent of an eighth-grader who receives special education at Buford Middle School says her daughter doesn’t appear like she’s disabled. Lisa Torres’ daughter is moderately to severely dyslexic and has some difficulty with speech articulation, but she’s enrolled in advanced classes and also [...]
When Manuel Lerdau heard from his seventh-grader a couple of weeks ago that a Christian youth organization was recruiting at Buford Middle School under the guise of a party, he became concerned. “Representatives from WyldLife were at Buford during lunch recruiting students to attend WyldLife [...]
Students, faculty, and supporters of Sweet Briar College are breathing a sigh of relief that the home of the Vixens will stay afloat for at least another year. Following months of uncertainty over the future of the women’s liberal arts college after President James F. Jones announced in March [...]
“Good news,” tweeted Amherst-area Delegate Ben Cline. “VA Supremes endorse our Sweet Briar argument. Back to Bedford Circuit for rehearing and hopefully injunction to stop closure!” With its opinion rendered less than two business days after an already accelerated [...]
By now, practically everyone in academic circles has heard the official explanation—declining enrollment and revenue—for why the board of directors voted to close Sweet Briar College. Harder to understand is the follow-up question, particularly now that an alumni group claims to have raised at [...]
College presidents don’t usually skip commencement, but the leader’s absence is just one of the bumps endured by the Sweet Briar College Class of 2015, which graduated Saturday. The largest earthquake in memory struck during their registration in August 2011. And now their college [...]
When the Sweet Briar College class of 2015 walks the stage at commencement on Saturday, May 16, hundreds of their family members, professors and friends will be present to see what may well be the school’s last graduation ceremony. Sweet Briar Professor Marcia Thom-Kaley is urging one [...]