Henrico school boundary change proposal up in the air; Tucker HS students and staff urge school board to address school's crowded conditions
Happy Friday everyone! If you have been receiving some of those toll payment texts like I have, don’t click on them!! They are a scam (so are the UPS package texts)
The Henrico School Board voted to hold off on a proposal that would change the school attendance zones of four high schools. Several students and teachers from Tucker High School urged the school board to address overcrowding in the building.
School board stalls boundary changes
Henrico School Board members decided to hold off on a proposal to change the attendance zones of four high schools by a 3-2 informal vote at their Feb. 27 meeting.
The proposal would shift school boundaries to move 190 students from Douglas S. Freeman High School to Mills E. Godwin High School in order to alleviate overcrowding at Freeman, and would also change boundaries to move 76 students out of Highland Springs High School and add a total of 139 students into Henrico High School to help balance capacity between the two schools.
'Enormously over capacity'
Makayla Swailes, a senior at J.R. Tucker High School, has seen the common area of her school so crowded during lunchtime that many students end up standing, sitting on the ground, or eating their lunch in the bathroom.
“I have had personal experiences of my friends and I having to search through the crowds for places to sit,” she said.
What is even more concerning is the impact the school’s population has had on school safety, Swailes said, with student fights attracting crowds of hundreds of students as administrators struggle to take control of the chaos.
Limits on school diversity initiatives
Virginia colleges and universities are on notice: the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has warned that institutions failing to eliminate race-based decision-making could lose federal funding.
The supplemental guidance, released Friday, follows the federal government’s directive for schools to stop considering race in admissions and other policies. It clarifies how the Supreme Court’s Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President & Fellows of Harvard College ruling applies to ‘racial classifications, racial preferences, and racial stereotypes,’ and how OCR will enforce Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Events
🎨10th Annual HCPS Arts Festival at Glen Allen High School
10 a.m. - 4 p.m., March 8
10 a.m. - 4 p.m., March 9
💵Virginia GRASP workshops on FAFSA at Capital One Cafe Carytown
10 a.m. - 1 p.m., March 8
10 a.m. - 1 p.m., March 22
👨🏫10 a.m. - 2 p.m., March 11 - HCPS job fair at HCPS Parham Road offices (1910 East Parham Rd)
💊5:30 p.m., March 11 - “Hidden in Plain Sight” drug abuse awareness event at Hermitage High School
🎓now - March 15 - Application period for Henrico Education Foundation scholarships for high school seniors
📖7 p.m., March 27 - “All Henrico Reads” with author Ruth Reichl at the Henrico Sprots & Events Center
🎓now - April 8 - Application period for $10k Gailes Scholarship offered to high school seniors who attended Quioccasin MS
MORE IN HENRICO
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47 Henrico Schools educators earn or renew National Board certification
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Application period opens for $10k scholarship for former Quioccasin MS students
MORE IN VA
Virginia schools still struggling to fill critical teaching positions, new report finds
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NATIONAL NEWS
Trump to sign executive order calling for closing Education Dept.
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