BRISTOL, Va. – Students return to the classrooms in Bristol Virginia Wednesday.
Open houses were held Monday night at schools across the city so families and teachers could meet and prepare for the new year.
Instructor Dana Rasnick was preparing her Van Pelt Elementary classroom Monday, in anticipation of her 35th year of teaching.
“I’m very excited to get my kids back in the classroom,” Rasnick said. In response to a question, she said a lot has changed over that span of time.
“I don’t think the children have changed as much, but the world is different now than it was when I first started teaching. They’re [children] growing up in a different world,” she said. “One thing that has stayed the same is you’ve got to get to know the families. It is the most important part because that is what makes us tick. That’s what makes us who we are. That is the one thing that has stayed the same is the relationship is the most important part of what we do.”
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Changes at Van Pelt
School officials broke ground earlier this summer on the city’s first new elementary school in 50 years. That construction has blocked off much of the Van Pelt property and a new access road is currently being built along the back of Suncrest Park.
“Here at Van Pelt, obviously construction has started on the new elementary school. That has changed the entire traffic pattern for the school and the entire neighborhood,” Perrigan said. “The biggest change at Van Pelt is how we do our car-rider line. We will now be dropping off [students] on the west end of the building. There will be no access to the property through Colony Circle, like we’ve had in the past.”
Starting Wednesday, parents who bring their children to school will line up via Grandview or Spring Hill Terrace. At the front of the line, staff members will be waiting to escort children into the building, via a gravel pathway. Vehicles will then exit via Spring Branch Road while buses will approach the school on Spring Branch and turn right onto school property.
Perrigan said those changes have and continue to be communicated to parents.
“We know, the first couple days of school – whether you’re making changes or not – the car-rider line is a little bit chaotic. We expect that to be the same. Even though we’ve planned and planned, we know there will be glitches so we hope everybody will be real patient with us as we find our way through that,” he said.
The arrangement will be temporary as the new access road is expected to be complete and in use in October.
Construction zones
Students can expect to encounter changes and construction projects in several city schools.
“At Virginia High and Virginia Middle we will start the school year under construction due to some supply chain issues,” he said. “We have three projects at Virginia High School. We’re adding a safety vestibule at the high school so that office will be different and we’re doing a restroom renovation. We are also adding a new program and construction on that space is to be finished by Labor Day.
“Steel has been the big issue with completing those projects. We’re also doing a restroom renovation at Virginia Middle School. They are really close so, once the steel comes in, it will be really fast to finish. Most of the work is done, but we’ve got to install steel door frames,” Perrigan said.
Work is complete installing new security vestibules at Washington-Lee Elementary and Highland View Elementary, much like ones now in place at Van Pelt and Stonewall Jackson.
“Even though we are closing those schools we are not forgetting about all the important safety features. We’ve added another layer,” Perrigan said.
School security
Perrigan said school security remains atop the school system’s priority list.
“Our board’s number one priority every year is to provide a safe and secure environment for our students and our staff. We’ve invested a lot of money into our existing schools – even those schools we’re closing – to make sure we’ve created as many barriers as possible to prevent someone with the intention to do harm from coming into our buildings or onto our properties,” Perrigan said.
The division will again have school resource officers in every building.
“We’re thrilled to be back to fully staffed with school resource officers. Chief [John] Austin announced that the other day. We were short one last year and didn’t have the personnel to fill it so we’re excited about that,” the superintendent said. “Giving a trained, armed resource officer as much time as possible to take out a threat is the best defense that we have.”
Perrigan said safety was a primary design element in the new school as well.
“I think the school we’re building will be a model for how to provide a safe school environment. Nothing is perfect and there is no guarantee that any safety measure you put in will be 100% effective, but we truly believe putting as many barriers between the bad guys and us is the best way.”
New program
Starting after Labor Day, Virginia High School will provide a new program offering day-care services for 3-year-old children.
“It will serve community members with 3-year-olds, staff members with 3-year-olds and gives our high school students an opportunity to get a child care certification by taking a class where part of that includes caring for those 3-year-olds,” Perrigan said. “The teacher we hired is actually going to be offering that as dual enrollment. So students who want to go on and be a teacher can get those credits, go to the community college and take early education courses there and go straight to a four-year university.”
Perrigan said there is a community need for child care services and the class can accommodate up to 18 children.
Second clinic
The division is adding a second health care clinic, at Virginia High School, through its partnership with Southwest Community Health Systems. The first clinic opened last year at Van Pelt, serving students and staff members with access to urgent health care and telemedicine.
“They will provide the same services we have here at Van Pelt and some additional services more tailored toward high school, such as providing athletic physicals,” he said
Enrollment
City school enrollment is expected to again hover around 2,100 students.
“For the past two years, the city schools have seen larger-than-expected kindergarten classes and we’ve had smaller graduating classes from Virginia High. If that trend continues, enrollment could climb,” Perrigan said. “You really never know until the kids are sitting in the seats what those numbers are.”
One factor is students who transfer in or out.
“A lot of schools don’t start until after Labor Day. If we have a child leave us and go to one of those divisions, they remain on our roll until the new school requests their records. Typically they don’t request it until the student comes for the first day of school,” Perrigan said. “We count very closely the first 10-15 days of school, but we don’t get an accurate number until Labor Day. We submit our number for funding by Sept. 30.”
Homelessness
Another factor that can cause enrollment swings is students whose families are homeless. Last year the division ended the year with just fewer than 100 students classified as homeless – whether that is unsheltered, having only temporary place to live or episodic where families have regular bouts of being homeless or those couch-surfing with friends or other family members.
“We have not seen great increases in the number of homeless families we’re serving, but that number was very significant from the get-go,” Perrigan said. “We continue to have a lot of transient students who come for a little while, then leave us for a little while and then come back. That makes continuity of services very difficult for those families, but we do try to focus on meeting the needs of those students. Homeless has three or four definitions and regardless of how you define it, we want to make sure we’re serving those families the very best we can.”
He said those who have no shelter are the most difficult to serve.
“What the public thinks of homeless is the most difficult family to serve if they don’t have a steady place to lay their head down at night or take a bath or get access to meals. That certainly makes it difficult,” he said. “We have all kinds of partnerships to help with those types of needs. Communities in Schools, for example, provides a transportation service for students in homeless families.”
Schedules
Elementary schools operate daily from 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Virginia Middle is open from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. and Virginia High School from 8:35 a.m. to 3:35 p.m.
Buses begin arriving at elementary schools at 7:30 a.m., at 8:15 a.m. at Virginia Middle and 8:20 a.m., at Virginia High. The afternoon’s first buses leave the elementary campuses at 2:30 p.m., at 3:30 p.m., from VMS and 3:35 p.m., from Virginia High School.