Theater teachers press Henrico Schools about lower pay than athletic coaches; long after his death, Highland Springs HS band student's legacy lives on

Jun 20, 2025

Henrico Schools theater teachers called on the Henrico School Board to raise their after-school pay to the amount that athletic coaches receive. Chatsworth School, a one-room schoolhouse during segregation, has been named a National Landmark and is now open to the public to visit.

Landon Artis, a band student at Highland Springs High, passed away this past January, but leaves behind a legacy of love and passion for music.

Leveling the playing field

Last summer, after J.R. Tucker High School drama department chair Lisa Dyer raised concerns about the after-school pay she and her colleagues receive, Henrico School Board members assured her that the county was “taking care of it” and that she would soon see “big changes.”

“At that point, I had been advocating for two years,” Dyer said. “So I basically said to the group of theater teachers, ‘Guys, maybe we shouldn’t blow this up. Maybe the county has our back and we should trust that they’re going to do what they say they’re going to do.’ Boy, was that wrong.”

If you walk into the band room at Highland Springs High School, you will pass by a large mural of 16-year-old Landon Artis playing the tuba. The image was spray-painted by Landon himself back in November, to the amusement of his band director, Davon Yonkers.

Now, that particular mural holds a lot more significance.

Just a few weeks after painting the image, Landon was unexpectedly diagnosed with a rare heart disease, spending the next month in the hospital. He died Jan. 30.

Lloyd Gregory Smith has many memories of Chatsworth School – the desk near the window where he would sit and watch planes fly overhead. The smells of pork chops and bologna sandwiches that would fill the one-room schoolhouse during lunchtime.

But Smith also remembers a time when Chatsworth was in shambles. After the all-Black schoolhouse was shut down in 1956, amidst efforts of school integration, the school was left to deteriorate, with junk piled up around the exterior and the inside wholly abandoned.

The Henrico School Board will meet for a 12:30 p.m. work session and a 6:30 p.m. monthly meeting on Thursday to vote on $13.7 million in federal grant funding for the 2025-2026 school year – a slightly lower amount than what was received last year.

While Title I funding has remained the same as last year, the number of designated Title I schools – schools with high numbers of low-income students that receive federal funding – would change from 22 schools to 20 schools. Both Charles Johnson Elementary School and Seven Pines Elementary School would no longer be identified as Title I schools.

Events

🏈5 - 9 p.m., June 20 - Juneteenth Jamboree parade and football game (Varina High School)

🎶4 - 10 p.m., June 21 - Henrico’s Juneteenth Celebration (Dorey Park)

📚 now — Aug. 1 - Henrico Library’s Summer Reading Challenge

Photos of the week

A momentous first meeting between Hazel and Loki (new foster cat)! Only a few hisses and swats…maybe more than a few

Henrico Education Weekly

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Theater teachers press Henrico Schools about lower pay than athletic coaches; long after his death, Highland Springs HS band student's legacy lives on

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