May 7, 2021

Teacher Appreciation Week! A Note from the Superintendent and a Resolution from the School Board!

Schoolfield Welcomes the First Lady of Virginia and the Secretary of Education!
The First Lady of Virginia, Pamela Northam, and Virginia's Secretary of Education, Atif Qarni, visited Schoolfield Elementary to celebrate educators and staff during Teacher Appreciation Week! A friendly, upbeat meet and greet session with teachers followed a warm message of appreciation from First Lady Northam and Secretary Qarni over Schoolfield's public address, or school intercom, system. Educators and staff received doughnuts, a Virginia lottery ticket, and tokens of appreciation. Thank you, educators!

Picture (L to R):

Dr. Hairston; Ms. Davis, instructional paraprofessional; Ms. Whittle; Lady Northam; Ms. Elam, Title I interventionist; Ms. Cobbs, School Board Chair

Lady Northam and Ms. Simmons, Proud Principal of Schoolfield

Lady Northam; Ms. Elam, Title I interventionist; Ms. Scruggs, Special Education Teacher; Ms. Stringer, Special Education Teacher

Check out this video of the event from Patrick Stowe.

EBI Donates 3,000 Masks to DPS and $350 to G.L.H. Johnson!

EBI donated 3,000 masks (valued at $1,000) to the school division! The company is a high performance, high quality upholstered furniture and mattresses manufacturing facility based here in Danville.

Pictured below: Donald Coleman of our wonderful Maintenance Department picking up the masks from Angelika Matczak, CEO of EBI.

AND....

EBI is donating $250 directly to G.L.H. Johnson Elementary School for Teacher Appreciation Week, and its CEO, Angelika Matczak, is personally donating an additional $100 for the same school.

Mrs. Matczak sits on the board of the DPS Education Foundation and believes education is the key to success. Benjamin Franklin once said, "An investment in knowledge pays the best interest." #PartnershipsMatter

If you know of a company who would like to "adopt" a school, please reach out to Anne Moore-Sparks at asparks@mail.dps.k12.va.us.

Womack Foundation Awards Grants to DPS Totaling $85,000!

The Womack Foundation awarded DPS and the DPS Education Foundation with three grants totaling $85,000 during this grant cycle. The grants include:

• $50,000 to the George Washington High School Band (to purchase aging instruments and instruments/equipment lost during Hurricane Michael in 2018)

• $25,000 to George Washington High School Athletics

• $10,000 to the DPS Education Foundation for the Start on Success Program - the Start on Success Program at George Washington High School is designed for special education students seeking a standard diploma and have a need to develop soft skills within the community.

Thank you to the Womack Foundation and to the Womack Family for these most gracious and generous gifts! We are humbled by your dedication, commitment and passion for the 5,500 students in our division. Chatham Star Tribune Article

#PartnershipsMatter

Danville Soccer Club Holds Tryouts!

If you have questions, please contact Kristin Mills at kmills1@mail.dps.k12.va.us.

Otterbotts Partner with GLHJ!

G.L.H. Johnson and the Danville Otterbots are excited to announce the Summer Coding Camp to be held at Johnson Elementary from June 14-18. This week-long camp will introduce STEM and coding to third, fourth, and fifth grade DPS students. More exciting details to come - If you have questions, please reach out to Principal Kevin Bowman at kbowman@mail.dps.k12.va.us.

#PartnershipsMatter

How Shopping Through AmazonSmile Can Help DPSEF!

Make a difference this Mother's Day - Shop for gifts at smile.amazon.com/ch/65-1269109 to generate donations for the Danville Public Schools Education Foundation (DPSEF)!

If you educate them, Toyota will come!

The Toyota factory representative and the Service Manager from Danville Toyota talked to the senior automotive class Tuesday, May 4th.

Danville Toyota reached out to Mr. Brann, the automotive Instructor at G.W. this week. The Service Manager, Randy Gatewood, and a Field Technical Specialist (Factory Rep) Nelson Pimentel, wanted to speak to the graduating automotive class, and play a little "show and tell". They showed up in a 2021 Toyota Celica Supra with a price tag of $51.000.00. The students were able to get pictures of them in the car, and several group pictures with the car. Mr. Pimentel and Mr. Gatewood spoke to the class about the career options at Toyota. Lots of questions were asked by the students and answered by either the Field Rep, or the Service Manager.

Some of the topics were: employment after high school, training offered by the dealer at no cost to the new technician, benefit packages from Toyota, pay, and advancement opportunities within the Toyota Family. Both Randy and Nelson were impressed with the students, their engagement in conversations, and even took pictures of the shop layout and the up-to-date equipment the students are using at the high school level. "One of the nicest high school automotive labs I have ever seen with state-of-the-art equipment," said Mr. Pimentel. #PartnershipsMatter

Child and Family Clinician's Host Meet and Greet!

During the week following Danville Public Schools Spring Break, our Child and Family Clinicians (CFCs), Stacy Owens, Erin Motley and Angela Parks, went out to Danville City schools to help share information about new counseling services provided by DPS and provide resources to teachers and staff to improve their self-care and well being. CFCs provided coffee, donuts, snacks and other beverages. Brochures and handouts including self-care tips, links to helpful YouTube videos for positive student interventions, parenting tips, and pamphlets explaining the MH OP Counseling Services and Mobile Crisis Unit were all handed out during these events. The “Meet & Greets” were well attended at each school site and clinicians received positive remarks in regard to the support and awareness provided. We are excited to continue to grow and build this program and the services CFCs can continue to provide to Danville Public School students and staff.

Tote Boys Donates 2,000 School Supplies to DPS!

Tote Boys, a wholesale and liquidation bin store in Riverside Shopping Center, donated over 2,000 school supplies to the division! Items included notebooks, folders, hole punchers, plus many more surprises!

The store offers a variety of items in bins for one low price. The price you pay depends on the day with $7 being the highest amount on Thursdays and $1 for all items on Mondays. Check out this River City TV video of the grand opening.

Pictured below: Donald Coleman with our Maintenance Department (center) picks up the supplies from co-owner Marvin Martin (right).

#PartnershipsMatter

And Charlotte Melton Thought She Was in Trouble with Lancaster and Fain...!

When you get called into a meeting with your principal and Athletic Director, you immediately go "uh-oh", so this was a nice surprise for Charlotte Melton! GW serves as the region treasurer for VHSL Region4D & Charlotte keeps the books. "This is a well -deserved award," stated Jonathan Fain, the DPS Athletic Director. "Mrs. Melton is an outstanding region treasurer and a good friend to many."

Region 4D consists of eight schools which incorporate athletic and academic programs: GW, Amherst, Blacksburg, Salem, EC Glass, Halifax County, Pulaski County, and Jefferson Forest. Each school's letter is represented in a wonderful token given to Charlotte.

T*E*A*M
That's what these guys are! In the pouring down rain this morning, the Maintenance Crew banded together to get 132 boxes of books delivered to Gibson Elementary so they could be distributed to the children today. Always dedicated and quick to respond!

Pictured: Donald Coleman, Brooks Wilson, Anthony Rice, Danny Haymore, Herbert Faulkner, and Keith Johnson

#Teamwork

From Schoolfield Student to Schoolfield Teacher to VA Teacher of the Year!

Anthony Swann returned to his roots at Schoolfield Elementary to share words of inspiration with his Schoolfield family! As a young student at Schoolfield,

Mr. Swann experienced life-changing childhood trauma and housing instability; however, the love and encouragement he received from his fourth grade teacher, Ms. Jaretta Wilson, proved to stand the test of time. With Ms. Wilson's guidance, Mr. Swann later became a certified teacher and taught third grade at Schoolfield Elementary. Currently, Mr. Swann is the 2021 Virginia Teacher of the Year! Teachers have the ability to positively influence a child's trajectory in life! Happy Teacher Appreciation Week!

Pictured (L to R)

Ms. Shelton, First Grade Teacher; Mr. Swann; Ms. Cassidy, Second Grade Teacher

Mr. Swann and Ms. Simmons, Proud Principal of Schoolfield Elementary

Mr. Swann and Ms. Wilson, retired Danville Public Schools educator

#DPSStrong

GWHS NJROTC - Book Sorting Project

Over 29,000 books were donated to DPS and they arrived in hundreds of boxes. The boxes had to be sorted and arranged in groups according to which school would receive the books. The wonderful GW NJROTC students unstacked the books, read the titles, and put them in stacks for each school. This was a huge task. The students will also return and help with loading and unloading the books. The students were under the direction of Master Chief Daryl Green.

Pictured are Cadets: J'Niah Barton, Logan Rigney, My'Kerrah McCray, Tamiya Harris, Jameila Canada, Irieasia Dickerson, Ta'Khayla Carter. and Robert Younger

#PartnershipsMatter

Flipgrid Message Board Created to Encourage PA Students Taking SOL's!

Lori Hanks, the Library Media Specialist at Park Avenue, created a Flipgrid message board to encourage the school's amazing students who are taking the SOL's.

In this video you will see teachers, community leaders, a city council member, and other familiar faces as they leave encouraging messages to our students.

Woodberry Studies the Plant Life Cycle!

Jessica McCray, a Special Education Teacher at Woodberry, and her students planted two different kinds of plants last week when they were learning about the needs of a plant and the plant life cycle. Their green bean plant has grown a lot! And their watermelon plant has finally sprouted as well. Her students, both virtual and in-person, love to check in on it every day. McCray's in-person students help her water them and make sure they get enough sunlight.

Have an Amazing Weekend!!!!