INSIDE Goochland schools serve Virginia grown vegetables > page 3
Volume 57, Number 46 • November 18, 2010
Goochland class sizes on the rise GHS, GMS classes are nearing state SOQ limits By Ken Odor jodor@goochlandgazette.com
Photo by Ken Odor
World War II Medal of Honor recipient Col. Van Thomas Barfoot, above, salutes the crowd last Thursday at American Legion Post 215’s Veterans Day ceremony at Goochland High School. Below left, Barfoot gets a hug from Chris Peters, widow of former American Legion Post 215 Commander and Virginia Department Commander Jack Peters.
Celebrating our veterans location at the courthouse to the auditorium of Goochland High School this year and gave students and others a chance to meet one of the few surviving WWII Medal of By Ken Odor Honor winners. jodor@goochlandgazette.com Now 91, Col. Van Thomas American Legion Post 215 Barfoot was most recently moved their annual Veterans see Veterans > page 5 Day program from its usual
Goochland students meet a hero on Veterans Day
INDEX
Calendar Classifieds Features People Letters
Opinion 16 - 19 Sports 3, 5 TV Listings 2, 4 6 -7
6 11 - 12 13 - 15
SPORTS Cougars come up short in two state championships > page 12
Class sizes have increased in Goochland schools this year as compared with 2009. At last week’s G o o ch l a n d Co u n t y School Board meeting Superintendent Linda Underwood presented members statistics broken down by school and grade. These numbers showed that class size increased county-wide in all grades except kindergarten. At Goochland Middle School 7 th and 8 th grade class sizes jumped from 14.5 students to 20.7 per class, approaching the 21 to 1 ratio set by Virginia’s Standards of Quality. At Goochland High School class sizes averaged 20.2 pupils in 2010, up from 17.41 one year ago. The SOQ maximum
T H E
for high school is also 21 to 1. “So we’re coming close to the standards in the high school and middle school?” asked District 3 Board Member Ivan O. Mattox. “Unfortunately with budget cuts come bigger class sizes,” said District 1 Member James L. Haskell. Under wood noted that statistics for GMS reflected the recent addition of three English and two math sections, added after the county received money from Federal Education Job Fund Resources for additional positions. District 2 Member Raymond A. Miller was curious about the consequences should class sizes continue to increase. “What is the penalty for exceeding SOQ standards?” he asked. Underwood replied that exceeding class sizes could affect accreditasee Schools> page 2
L O C A L
west SERVING EASTERN GOOCHLAND AND WESTERN HENRICO
Ridge Elementary Schol recycles pumpkins