Charter’s New Principal Making a Difference

By M.J. McAteer

Some schools have a bulldog or a tiger for a mascot. Middleburg Community Charter School has Leonardo Da Vinci. It keeps a bust of him on prominent display in its lobby.

Principal Stephen Robinson explains that the great Renaissance genius was probably the most curious try-it-and-seewhat-happens learner, maybe ever, and that’s the route to knowledge that his school is trying to chart.

“Not the textbook, worksheet model,” he said. “We take a more hands-on approach.”

The Middleburg K-5 charter is Loudoun’s first. It’s a public school, and enrollment is free and open to any student in the county system. The school has been operating for about six years, but Robinson is in just his first year as principal.

After earning a master’s degree in educational leadership and administration from Liberty University, the Gainesville resident taught for eight years at the highly-rated Imagine Hope Community Charter School in Washington, D.C. He was named teacher of the year in 2010 and in 2015, became that school’s vice principal. Robinson was commuting from Manassas, and wanted more time with his wife and three children. He contemplated leaving the area when he heard about the principal’s opening in Middleburg. From his first interview, he felt he’d found “a natural fit.” His first year on the job, though, has found him mostly in learning mode himself.

“I’m spending lots of time on observation,” he said. “What’s working, what is not working.”

What’s been working from the start of his tenure is his intense engagement with the school’s 120 children. He’s always in search of ways to ensure their trust, whether it’s playing with them at recess and purposely taking the odd hit in dodgeball, or eating lunch with the students every day.

He does not refer to his flock as students, however. “We address them them as scholars to show that we believe in them,” he said.

That’s a message parents obviously like to hear, and many volunteer regularly at the school to show their support.

Britain Blakeslee of Aldie started her three children at the school in January, 2019. Robinson “has a way of building relationships with everybody,” she said. “It promotes a sense of community and belonging like we matter, with respect for everyone.”

That respect is integral to the mission of the school, which, in addition to the traditional 3Rs of education--reading, ’riting and ’rithmetic-- has the 3Rs of character building: Respect yourself, respect others, and respect property. Both individually and collectively, positive behavior and academic initiative are the goal.

The young scholars’ achievements and comportment, for example, can earn them Da Vinci dollars they can redeem for prizes such as T-shirts and hot chocolate.

“I’m big on character,” said Robinson, with a goal for his school to become a national school of character, a designation that recognizes charter schools that foster ethical and caring young people.

The school follows a STEAM curriculum, an acronym for science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics. These subjects are taught in blended classrooms, with kindergarten and first grades combined, as well as second and third grades, and fourth and fifth grades.

The project-based curriculum in these blended classrooms is based on Da Vinci’s seven principles of learning, which include curiosity, empirical testing, and the recognition of the inter-connectedness of all things.

This approach has led the charter school scholars to feel that they can make a difference in their community, even in the wider world, even at age 5. When some children realized the town had no children’s museum, they created one themselves, a whimsical fairy garden of bright plants, painted rocks and heartfelt messages,

That experience reflects Robinson’s firm belief in his young charges. “Every kid,” he said, “has the potential to be amazing.”

Photo by M.J. McAteer

Middleburg Charter Principal Stephen Robinson with Leonardo.