City schools recognized for support of military families

Also, the high school orchestra performs an original piece of music, and the School Board discusses chronic absenteeism.

by Adele Uphaus
MANAGING EDITOR AND CORRESPONDENT

The Fredericksburg City School Board on Monday celebrated being one of just five school divisions in Virginia to receive a Purple Star designation for its support of military families.

Stafford County Public Schools also received the distinction. Individual schools have received the award, which is given by the Virginia Department of Education, since 2018, but Fredericksburg and Stafford are two of just five school divisions who have earned the designation for every single school in the division.

Col. Michael Brooks, the commanding officer of Marine Corps Base Quantico, said at Monday evening’s School Board meeting that he is “delighted” to have been able to work with city schools to help them earn Purple Star status.

“This is very important to military families,” he said. “There are approximately 1.1 to 1.3 million military-connected children in the (Department of Defense). We move around every two, three or four years. That means that when a child starts kindergarten, by the time they graduate they will have moved six to nine times.”

With 80% of families connected to Marine Corps Base Quantico living in the surrounding communities of Stafford and Fredericksburg, it’s important that the local school divisions have staff on hand who understand the particular challenges these families face, Brooks said.

“This piece is dedicated to us”

About a year ago, at the invitation of orchestra teacher Kevin Bartram, noted composer and music educator Brian Balmages hosted a workshop for orchestra students at Walker-Grant Middle School and James Monroe High School.

“He was so taken by the spirit and energy of our students that unbeknownst to me, he spent Christmas break writing (a new piece of music),” Bartram told School Board members on Monday. “In January, I received an email from him saying, ‘Surprise! Here is a brand-new piece I wrote for you guys, and it’s free.’”

The piece is “Ode to a Joyride.” Balmages took Beethoven’s famed “Ode to Joy” theme and imagined the composer listening to it while driving a fast car with the windows down and the wind blowing in his hair.

Bartram said it would normally cost “well into the five figures” to commission an original piece of music from a composer such as Balmages.

“This piece is dedicated to (the students of Fredericksburg City Public Schools),” he said. “Our name will perpetually be on the cover of this piece.”

Last month, Balmages conducted the James Monroe High School advanced orchestra and the Fredericksburg Symphony in the world premiere of “Ode to a Joyride.” The students performed the piece again at the division strings concert and for the third time in its history for the School Board on Monday.

Chronic absenteeism update

Also on Monday, Lori Bridi, chief academic officer, presented the board with its monthly update on chronic absenteeism.

Defined by the VDOE as missing 10% or more of the academic year, for any reason, chronic absenteeism rates are up in divisions across the state since the COVID-19 pandemic.

Students who are chronically absent are at risk of falling behind academically. As part of his ALL IN VA plan to address learning loss recovery, Gov. Glenn Youngkin has established a Chronic Absenteeism Task Force and the General Assembly is providing supplemental funding to school divisions to address this problem.

The city school division will receive $1.14 million in restricted funding to use on improving chronic absenteeism rates as well as implementing the Virginia Literacy Act and high-intensity tutoring for grades 3-8.

Bridi told the School Board Monday that the goal is to have a chronic absenteeism rate of 15%.

Chronic absenteeism rates at Hugh Mercer Elementary School have decreased from 21.6% in August to 19.8% in October, Bridi said.

However, rates at Lafayette Elementary School have increased slightly from 18.7% in September to 19.5% in October, and rates at Walker-Grant Middle School went from 15.3% to 19.1% between September and October.

Bridi said data from James Monroe High School is not accurate at the moment because of a problem with the app that tracks and calculates attendance. Michael George, chief operations and information officer, said the division is working with its student information system PowerSchool to develop a new version that he hopes will be ready next month.

Members of the administrative team for each of the four division schools did not have explanations for the increase in chronic absenteeism at Lafayette and Walker-Grant, but they did describe what they are doing to decrease these rates.

Each of the four schools has a weekly “attendance day” during which the attendance teams reach out to the families of students with attendance problems to find solutions.

As Pamela Diggs, an assistant principal at Lafayette Elementary School, told the board, if the team members cannot reach a parent by phone, they will go to the family’s home.

“We do whatever it is we are capable of doing,” Diggs said.

Thomas Johnson, an assistant principal at James Monroe High School, said sometimes the solution is as simple as buying an alarm clock for a student whose parent has to leave for work before the student wakes up.

Johnson said the message to students is always, “We want you in school. We want you here. We want you to be part of our schools’ community.”

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-Martin Davis, Editor