Inside A6 Labor Day Festival celebrates community
Powhatan, Virginia
B1 Powhatan football players’ attendance at workouts strong ahead of delayed season
Vol. XXXIV No. o. 11
September 16, 2020
9/11 remembrance run honors fallen officers By Laura McFarland Editor
POWHATAN – When Russ Holland Jr. realized about 44 miles into his 72-mile 9/11 remembrance run that he couldn’t go on, he was acutely disappointed. The Powhatan runner had organized a 72-mile run on Sept. 11 around the Village area to honor the 72 law enforcement officers who died in the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. In 2019, he organized a similar run by doing 343 laps around the Powhatan High School track in honor of all of the
firefighters who died on 9/11. The plan this year was for Holland to begin at midnight and run 4-mile stretches every hour that started and stopped at the Powhatan Rescue Squad Building. People could join in at any point in the day. Holland was focused on seeing the task through to completion. But a little over 40 miles into the event, Holland said his left knee became so tight from running hour after hour on concrete that he literally couldn’t loosen it up enough to keep running. “It was initially disap-
pointing but it didn’t last long at all because so many people rallied around it that we didn’t miss a single lap. It really made me realize that all those folks who were there had bought into the vision of celebrating those 72 officers,” Holland said. “I never really wanted it to be about me running a distance anyhow. I was, for lack of a better term, using a stupid human PHOTO BY LAURA McFARLAND trick, to get people to have First responders and community members join Russ Holland Jr. for the those conversations and last stretch of his remembrance run on Sept. 11. focus on celebrating first responders and remem- the goal was to keep the names of four officers be- their pictures, which were bering how united we purpose of the event fore- ing honored for each of on display. most in people’s minds. those 4 miles were read The pictures had been were right after 9/11.” and Holland pointed to Before each lap, the Throughout the day, see RUN, pg. 5
Middle school commemorates Patriot Day By Laura McFarland Editor
Prsrt. Standard U.S. POSTAGE PAID Powhatan, VA Permit No.19
POWHATAN – Powhatan Middle School students and staff honored the victims of the terrorist attacks on Sept. 1, 2001, with a special Patriot Day Flag Ceremony held on Friday on the 19th anniversary of the tragedy. The remembrance event involved a special flag ceremony put on by Scouts BSA Troops 1823 and 1833 and the middle school’s eighth-grade band. Firefighters from Company 1 also attended the ceremony. This was the second year the middle school has honored the fallen in this way. Because of social distancing requirements,
By Laura McFarland Editor
PHOTO BY LAURA McFARLAND
Local Scouts and the eighth-grade band participate in the second Powhatan Middle School Patriot Day Flag Ceremony on Sept. 11.
only a small group of people attended the outside event, but it was recorded and shared with students
during the day, said Samantha Martin, principal, after the ceremony was held.
While troop members raised the flags, the band see PATRIOT pg. 6
Almost 7,000 voters affected three polling place changes By Laura McFarland Editor
DELIVER TO: Postal Patron Powhatan, VA 23139
Schools keep adapting to meet needs
POWHATAN – Three of Powhatan County’s polling precincts will be temporarily relocated for the Nov. 3 General Election because of COVID-19 and space concerns. Four members of the Powhatan County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved the temporary relocation of the three sites. This is considered an emergency relocation since it falls within the window of 60 days prior to the election usually required for a change in polling precinct. Chairman David Williams, Mike Byerly, Bill Cox, and Karin Carmack, who were all present at the meeting, voted for the temporary relocations. Karen Alexander, director of elections, spoke to the board of supervisors and school board during a joint meeting held on Thursday, Sept. 10. While the supervisors’ vote was not
necessary for the change, Alexander said she wanted to extend them the professional courtesy and make sure she had their support. The county currently has 22,692 registered voters as of Sept. 11, and 6,925 (about 30 percent of all voters) will be affected by the relocation of the polling precincts, Alexander said. Two of the changes are because of those polling places not being made available to the county because of COVID-19, and one move is due to spacing concerns. Alexander pointed out that in the last presidential election in 2016, Powhatan was recognized for having 85.93 percent of active registered voters participate in the election, which was the highest percentage of all 133 jurisdictions in Virginia. She added she expects a significant portion of registered voters to vote early either with a mail-in ballot or the see ELECTION, pg. 3
POWHATAN – Now a few weeks into the 2020-2021 school year, Powhatan County Public Schools continues to adapt to its new circumstances and make adjustments to keep students and staff safe. The Powhatan County School Board heard two presentations from staff members on Tuesday, Sept. 8 about the adjustments that have already been made and the plans they have to keep the school district moving in the right direction for students, regardless of whether they are on the hybrid or virtual model. The overall message delivered to the board was that the division has seen some challenges with the start of the school year, but the process was made easier by the massive efforts toward safety and guideline compliance made by everyone – staff, students, and parents. “It really has been a great school opening. We were the first, and one of the only, school divisions in the Greater Richmond area that started in-person instruction as well as virtual instruction,” said Dr. Eric Jones, superintendent. “It took a true team effort for everybody to come together. Everybody worked ex-
tremely hard and it couldn’t have gone much smoother.” Dr. Tracie Omohundro, assistant superintendent for instruction, pointed out that the school board only made the decision to allow the hybrid model on July 28, so the planning and scheduling the school division usually does over the course of several months actually happened in less than four weeks before the start of the school year on Aug. 24. During the two presentations, staff members touched on a variety of topics, including how the hybrid and virtual instructional models have been working, class sizes, transportation, technology, health and safety, and maintenance and cleaning.
Class sizes During Omohundro’s presentation on the instructional models, a substantial period of time was spent talking about class sizes, both in the virtual and hybrid classrooms. In the virtual classrooms, class sizes in kindergarten through second grade as well as the fifth-grade classes hovered between 18 and 22, depending on the grades, Jones said. In third grade, there are two virsee SCHOOL, pg. 4
PCPS reinstates free meals for all Powhatan youth By Laura McFarland Editor
POWHATAN – All Powhatan County Public Schools students are now eligible to receive seven days’ worth of free breakfast and lunch through Dec. 31, 2020. Effective Sept. 1, the division’s meal distribution program was granted a waiver to reinstate serving free breakfast and lunch to all students who attend Powhatan County Schools and to any other child
18 years or younger. This is the same seven-day program that was used to provide meals for youth from March to August 2020. Before this change, participation in the school meals for the first few weeks of school was very low and the food services was losing money every day, Larry Johns, assistant superintendent for finance and business operations, told the school board at its meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 8. Over the summer, the division
had been providing free food for any youth 18 or younger. However, when the school year started, only children on the free and reduced plan still received free meals. The school division received guidance from the Virginia Department of Education that it could get a waiver to restart the program that allows all students to eat for free, whether they are hybrid or virtual, on the free and reduced plan or not, he said. see MEALS, pg. 7