see RESIGN

Powhatan celebrates Independence Day

Powhatan residents shared so many photos to show how they celebrated July 4 that the submissions needed to be split over two editions.

RESIGN

Continued from pg. 1 Cella requesting that he issue a writ ordering Alexander to hold a special election to fi ll the vacancy that Walters will be creating upon his resignation effective July 31, she said.

The remaining school board members have until Tuesday, Sept. 14 to appoint a qualifi ed voter in District 4 to fi ll the vacancy until the special election is held, Alexander said. If the school board does not or cannot make a decision within that time frame, the circuit court would make the interim appointment. The interim District 4 school board member would serve in this capacity until the winner of the special election is sworn into offi ce. The interim would be allowed to run for offi ce. Whoever is elected in the special election would serve the remaining time of Walters’ original term through Dec. 31, 2023.

The earliest possible special election date would be Tuesday, Dec. 28, although it would be extremely inconvenient due to the holidays, Alexander said. It is also a legal option to request that the judge hold the special election in conjunction with the 2022 General Election, which would save the county a signifi cant amount of money and give potential candidates plenty of time to decide to run and campaign for offi ce.

Joe Walters

In his comments during the meeting, Walter s said it has been his honor and privilege to serve on the school board for fi ve and a half years, four of those as chairman, but he has “recognized that I simply do not have the personal time necessary at this point in my life to continue to dedicate to this important position, my professional career, and, most importantly, my family.”

“As the other board members are aware, the time necessary to serve in this position has increased signifi cantly over the past 18 months,” he said. “My family has faithfully supported me without hesitation as I have served our wonderful community as a school board member, and I owe them, and they deserve, much more of my time than I am currently able to provide.”

Waters said he is proud of the school board’s accomplishments during his years in offi ce, including the school division’s response to COVID-19 and projects such as the construction of Powhatan Middle School and the joint transportation facility, both completed on schedule and under budget.

“No one could have imagined the impact of COVID-19 on our school system, but I fi rmly believe the decisions made utilizing established health and safety protocols, consistent with guidance from the Virginia Department of Health, kept our students and staff safe and permitted valuable learning opportunities to continue in the classroom and virtually,” he said.

He also thanked the District 4 residents who offered encouraging comments, calls, and emails.

All of the items on the 7 p.m. meeting agenda were discussion items, so Walters said he would not attend it. He suggested the school board begin discussion about the steps they need to take next, but the members tabled discussion on the matter until they have more information on the steps they need to take.

At the end of the regular meeting, Ayers thanked Walters for his service, saying he has been an extraordinary board member and that he was always calm and a mediator.

“I understand his desire to be with his family and his children, but it is a loss for this board not to have him here with us,” she said.

In a separate interview, Jones also thanked Walters for his fi ve and a half years of service on the school board.

“His steady leadership, professionalism, and integrity enabled the school system to reach new heights during his tenure. We will miss his expertise in human resources and, on a personal level, I will miss his unwavering support and clear guidance," Jones said.

Mike Massa

In his letter to PHS employees, Massa said he recently took a road trip with his family through the Great Lakes region and realized it was the most time he had spent with them in a while. He realized that “while I have given everything I have in me to support our students at PHS, I am not able to say the same related to the attention, time, and engagement I have been able to give my family.” The realization prompted him to submit his resignation on July 13.

“This was a very diffi cult decision for me; however, it is one that I know will benefi t the needs of my wife and children,” he wrote in a letter to staff.

Massa told the high school staff that working for them for the last fi ve years has been the best years of his professional life.

“Your dedication to our craft, the strength of your instruction, and your support and care for our students have been inspirational to me. The courage you have shown in providing our students with a safe learning environment and quality instruction during COVID was a resounding and remarkable success,” he wrote.

In addition to thanking his staff, Massa praised Jones and the division leadership team for their support and accessibility over the years

“I can’t imagine there is another county with such available, engaged, and supportive central offi ce personnel. I have also been blessed to have worked with a great administrative team. I will miss them dearly as they are not just my coworkers but also people who I admire and who I am proud to now call my close friends,” he wrote.

Massa fi nished by saying he didn’t know what he would be doing next but it would be an adventure that allows him to have time and energy for his family “while also fi nding the time to support public education.”

Jones said the school division will miss Massa's leadership and passion at Powhatan High School and praised him for the work he has done in the last fi ve years to “ensure that each and every student had the opportunity and support needed to succeed.”

“Whether it was driving a homeless student to school every day to make sure he could fi nish his senior year or a simple conversation with students in the Commons, Dr. Massa's personal connection and commitment to students served as an example that will not be forgotten. I wish him the best as he takes time to be with his family and know that he will be successful in whatever path he chooses to take next,” Jones said.

BOARD

Continued from pg. 4 ple have been describing it as a form of critical race theory, which it is not. She shared a Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) link that addressed what social emotional learning is, found at https://www.doe. virginia.gov/support/prevention/social-emotional/index.shtml#content.

Social emotional learning is the “process through which all young people and adults acquire and apply the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to develop healthy identities, manage emotions and achieve personal and collective goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain supportive relationships, and make responsible and caring decisions,” Hymel read from the VDOE website. “Social emotional learning begins at home and continues through adulthood. Embedding SEL intentionally in school culture advances the work that begins and continues at home.”

In accordance with HB 753, passed during the 2020 Virginia General Assembly, the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) established a uniform defi nition of social-emotional learning and developed the Virginia Guidance SEL Standards for all public students in grades kindergarten through 12th grade in the Commonwealth, according to the website.

Jones said those standards are still being developed and are supposed to be fi nished this summer. However, Powhatan does not have to adopt the state standards for social emotional learning.

“If there is something in there that we feel like doesn’t meet our needs or our students’ needs or refl ect our community, we do not have to adopt those standards. So we do have fl exibility there to devise a social emotional learning program that meets the needs you said earlier but for our community,” he said.

Two years ago, teachers asked the division for more consistency with SEL, which led to the division looking for programs that could help, Jones said. One of those programs, Sanford Harmony, has been criticized recently in public meetings in the way it approaches SEL in some areas.

The last year has been a pilot year using the SEL programs, which are large programs the school division has been able to pick from to fi nd lessons that work in Powhatan, Jones said. The school division has been receiving feedback from teachers and staff that is overwhelmingly positive, he added. The division also has a community group that will be meeting to evaluate the programs, how they are being used, and if they are an asset.

“As I talked about with VIC, now that we have a year’s experience and we have been able to pull what lessons work for us, we could not use Sanford Harmony anymore and just build our own lessons moving forward,” Jones said. “Now that we have some experience in doing it, we could put together a committee of primarily teachers that could build next year’s lessons that would build on what we have done, or we could continue using Sanford Harmony, or we could look at a different program.” Laura McFarland may be reached at Lmcfarland@ powhatantoday.com.

July 21, 2021

What roads in Powhatan do you think need the most attention? E-mail answers to editor@powhatantoday.com or share them on the Powhatan Today’s Facebook page.

Page 7A

Road projects will be key to county development

By Laura McFarland

Editor

POWHATAN – Country roads, take me home, to the place I belong.

John Denver’s song is about the beautiful and windy roads of West Virginia, but it wouldn’t be out of place to listen to it while driving through some of Powhatan’s more scenic roads with the windows down. Some people, including cyclists, come here specifi cally to experience those beautiful country vistas.

But there are others who don’t know they exist. Like it or not, for some people traveling through Powhatan, the only impression they are ever going to have of the county is the major thoroughfares – in particular Route 60. And we all know that is not anything like the country roads Denver was singing about, except maybe the very real threat of deer and other wildlife crossing the road.

A story ran in the July 14 edition of the Powhatan Today about the U.S. 60 Corridor Study recently released by the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT). The purpose of the study was to give Powhatan and other localities in the 103-mile stretch studied some cost-effective innovative intersection design improvements that are tailored for submission as SMART Scale applications. SMART Scale is a statewide competitive funding program for transportation projects in Virginia.

Most relevant for our readers, the study looked at eight intersections along Route 60 in Powhatan and made a recommendation for a signifi cant change at every single one of them.

During interviews with them, both VDOT (Virginia Department of Transportation) and county staff members stressed that these are recommendations on how to improve traffi c safety based on current information and projected growth. None of them are offi cial SMART Scale applications – much less approved projects – until they have gone through a full vetting process with public input and the approval of the board of supervisors.

But the fact that the report is an advisory document doesn’t make it less valuable or less important, especially as the subject of how Powhatan wants to grow in the next 20 to 30 years continues to be such a potent issue.

Writing that story was time consuming – in large part because it took a good amount of time to simply read it and understand the report enough that I felt comfortable asking the VDOT representative some pointed questions. I have no background in transportation issues and the bulk of what I do know has been gleaned from covering county government in Powhatan for the last seven years. The key, I have found, is using every resource you can.

If you read the story, you might notice I provided a few website addresses. One was the actual study website, where you can download the 235-page report with the fi ndings and all of its supporting documentation. The website is https://www.virginiadot.org/projects/lynchburg/route-60-corridor.asp.

If you had trouble understanding the VDOT recommendations outlined in the story, I understand. Even though I am a writer, I am a visual learner. I only really understood the options with visual aids. Specifi cally, I recommend looking in the report at Appendix C: Sketch Recommendations (pages A-65 to A-70 were really helpful).

If you still have questions, visit www.virginiadot. org/innovativeintersections/. The VDOT website offers overview videos and more explanations on the different types of innovative intersections that VDOT is starting to recommend as alternatives to more signalized intersections. Some of them would be a real departure from anything we have in the county.

So what is the point of mentioning all this? If any road in Powhatan County matters to the county’s future growth and development, it is Route 60. It affects so many residents’ lives in their commute to and from work and our basic travel in and out of and around the county. It is where much of the commercial growth that the county would like to see (or not see) is likely to occur.

While the applications for the next round of SMART Scale won’t be due until 2022, discussions will start in the coming months as the board of supervisors begins to hear recommendations from staff and narrow down their choices.

At the same time, they are currently updating the county’s long-range comprehensive plan. As part of that, the supervisors are talking about updating the county’s Major Thoroughfare Plan to make it much more realistic. Considering the current plan lists $1.13 billion worth of potential projects that is defi nitely a good idea.

And on top of all that, the county is now receiving funds from the Central Virginia Transportation Fund (CVTA) that can be used on transportation projects. After the fi rst year of collections, the county has already received $1.08 million in CVTA funds and that number will go up by a few hundred thousand dollars as the fi scal year is closed out. That opens up doors to possibly fund our own projects or offer matching/ complimentary funds to make any applications for grants Powhatan applies for more competitive.

All of this is simply to say, the coming year could be a key time in transportation and how it develops in Powhatan County. There are many things people may not feel passionate about, but how long they are stuck in traffi c while driving to or from work and how risky the roads are for them, their children, and even their grandchildren when they start driving is a key part of life in Powhatan County and worthy of our attention.

Laura McFarland may be reached at Lmcfarland@powhatantoday.com.

SUMMER

Continued from pg. 5

She pointed out that even with the high number of students attending classes this summer, they have kept class sizes to 15 or less.

Having elementary students attend summer school for a full day led to some big operational changes that took a great deal of planning and collaboration, Worrell said. But it also led to some changes that further enhanced the experience for the children enrolled in summer school.

One of the facets she was most excited about was the summer camp component. Students attend academic recovery classes in the morning and have lunch. The afternoons have been set aside for physical education and week-long camps, she said.

Special summer camp teachers are assigned to a class each week in subjects such as French, Spanish, dinosaurs, pirates, mindfulness, art, LEGOs, games, and leatherwork.

“Before with half day they did academics and went home. This allowed kids to have the whole day experience and then to have camp experiences they may not have had before,” Worrell said.

The rising sixth-graders have also been attending some of their camps at the middle school, working with school counselors and doing activities to help them get used to their new school, Worrell said.

“It is nice for them because they are getting to see the building over there so it won’t be so new for them when they get over there,” she said.

Summer school transportation for the elementary students was a huge undertaking for the transportation department, Worrell said. Instead of the hub pick-up and drop-off locations, which the middle and high schoolers still use, 19 buses are traveling the county and picking up each student at their homes.

Worrell said the transportation department has been supportive of the summer school program, as has Sodexo, which is serving breakfast and lunch. She added that the meals are free for any child who wants them.

Secondary students

Summer school at the secondary level is going well, and the approach isn’t much different from previous years’ summer schools, said Phaup. The reasons why students didn’t achieve passing grades and needed the additional help are varied though, she added.

“Some of the students were virtual and that didn’t work out for them and when they switched to hybrid they couldn’t catch up. Some families were impacted by COVID and it was diffi cult for the students to be able to recover what they missed,” she said. “We did offer an after school recovery program during the school year and that helped a lot of students to recover the assignments they were missing.”

The middle school had more students who needed to focus on math recovery this summer than English, Phaup said. The offerings in the fi rst two sessions will be English and math, but the third session at the end of the month will only focus on math.

“It is the eighth-graders in the third session. It is closer to the beginning of ninth grade so it will be fresher when they start high school,” she said.

Because of the spacing, the school was also able to keep class sizes at 10 students or less, she added.

The middle school is also offering an optional boot camp for students who wanted to have some enrichment to be prepared for next year’s grade level. This program covers math and English content.

The high school offered both faceto-face teachers available at the middle school and virtual classes for the students needing online credit recovery, she said. She pointed out that the school also had students taking advancement courses such as driver’s education and physical education so they didn’t need to take them during the regular school year.

High school students have been able to recover certain classes in person while others are only offered online, Barak said. The face-to-face offerings include English 9, 10, and 11, Algebra I, Geometry, Algebra Functions, and Biology. Other subjects are offered for online credit recovery.

“Math and English courses make up the majority of our face-to-face students. As such, we certainly hire in a manner consistent with creating smaller class sizes,” he said.

Online instructors Lisa Simonick and Karen Wilson have been utilizing resources from APEX and Virtual Virginia, but students are only enrolled through these programs in a small number of cases, Barak said. They are assigned work through Schoology and closely monitored by Wilson and Simonick.

“There are many students who choose to come to the building to work with our online instructors face-toface, even though their course is presented online. Some students choose this option as a means of having access to an instructor, some choose it for internet access, and some simply work better in a more structured, school environment,” he said. Laura McFarland may be reached at Lmcfarland@powhatantoday.com.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Uncontaminated well water not a guarantee

Dear Editor,

Most families who move to our Powhatan community from an area with public (city) water, think that their well water is as pure and clean as Rocky Mountain Spring Water. Not so fast. Your well can be easily contaminated by illegal dumpling; by buried rusted and leaky heating oil, diesel, or gasoline tanks; as well as by improperly applied pesticides. These contaminants can travel underground in the water table from a neighbor’s property or from a property some distance away. If you have a shallow well less than 100 feet in depth your drinking water is at greater risk from contamination.

When you buy a home with a well in Powhatan, Virginia only requires the seller to test for coliform bacteria. Other than the coliform test, Virginia has no regulations or requirements that protect private residential wells. Part of our rural character includes having clean drinking water. Buttt...all is not lost; there are things that can be done locally in Powhatan with the help of our Board of Supervisors to protect our Virginia Constitutional right to Clean Drinking Water. Please stay tuned for further information.

Keith Buch Powhatan County

CALENDAR

Continued from pg. 2

collection effort will accept items through Monday, Sept. 6. For more information about this project or joining a 4-H club, contact Cathy Howland at the Powhatan Extension Office at 804-598-5640.

Backpacks of Love is collecting wine corks as a fundraiser called Wine Corks of Love, which will run through October. People can turn them in at

Backpacks of Love at 3035 Lower Hill Road, Powhatan or visit www.backpacksoflove.org for more drop off points!

8460 Times Dispatch Blvd., Mechanicsville, Va 23116 Phone: 804-746-1235 Toll Free: 877-888-0449 Fax: 804-344-8746

Publisher Joy Monopoli jmonopoli@rsnva.com Managing Editor Melody Kinser mkinser@mechlocal.com Production Manager Denine D’Angelo ddangelo@mechlocal.com Editor Laura McFarland lmcfarland@powhatantoday.com Sports Editor Nick Vandeloecht nvandeloecht@powhatantoday.com Sales Representative Tom Haynie thaynie@mechlocal.com Classifieds Cindy Adams cadams@mechlocal.com

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