Dear Colleagues:

Education is a profession of people, not easily given to the precise use of numbers alone to measure progress or achievement. Yet, numbers can, on occasion, serve a useful purpose, and one of those occasions is this week as we prepare to conclude our 2016-17 school year.

The precise number I have in mind is 73.51, which is the percentage of voters who on November 8 approved the first school bond referendum in Albemarle County in nearly 40 years. Generally, end-of-the-ballot items draw upwards of 30 or 40 percent fewer votes than the top line candidates for public office. There just is not as much interest. Last November, 56,726 ballots were cast for president and 54,747 ballots for schools.

That was a remarkable statement of both interest and confidence in our division and in our employees, but not the only one. In their survey of millions of students, teachers, parents, and community leaders, Niche, the national survey organization, ranked our division in the top five in the state, among the top three for teachers in Virginia, and in the top five percent of all public school divisions in our nation.

So, by two highly significant yardsticks, 2016-17 was a very good year.

It also was a year when, for the first time in many years, we will begin the next school year with a fully funded budget, one that finally accomplished our goal of full-time nurses in all of our schools. It also includes one of the most powerful commitments a public school division can make to its sacrosanct mission—the elimination of learning opportunity gaps for all children. Our Social, Emotional and Academic Development Team will take us on our initial steps down that path with a pilot program at four urban ring schools.

On the broader subject of curriculum, we had nearly 200 members of our community join us for a discussion around High School 2022, and we began our high school of the future facilities study. Both of these activities will keep us and our graduates on the cutting edge of where a high-performing, innovative, and interconnected school division should be.

So will the upgrade this year that increased our bandwidth at all schools by a factor of five. Our 10-gigabit capability is comparable to that of the most modern businesses and is matched by very few school divisions anywhere in Virginia. It will speed forward the range and depth of what our teachers can accomplish in globally expanding learning communities and in what our departments can accomplish in the field.

This past year also was the first time in a long time that we were able to fund every professional development reimbursement request, reflecting the strong support of our School Board for our employees and the difference they make to the success of our important work.

The Board approved two other actions that reinforced this view: After a number of frustrating attempts in prior years, we finally were able to address salary compression, and the Board also authorized the first formal study of our teacher compensation policies in more than 15 years.

Several of our teachers earned national, state and regional awards this year, as did many of our students and schools. Our division was recognized as a National Green Ribbon School. Our Transportation team reached six million safe miles without a student injury; our Child Nutrition team served nearly two million meals to children and adults; and our Building Services team made impressive progress on such high value projects as the Woodbrook addition, school security upgrades, new science labs, modernized classrooms, and building operational improvements.

Among the most traditional and meaningful conclusions to any school year occurs on the high school graduation stage. As I watched so many eager, excited and happy faces pass before me, it was difficult this year not to wonder which students will be the Noble Prize Winners of future years, the designers, the builders, the inventors, the executives, the healers, the peacemakers, the political leaders, the writers and artists, the humanitarians.

I know there will be much more than a few, and I know that each and every one of you will have had something to do with making that possible. There are no numbers that adequately can measure the value of that.

It is with much gratitude and pride in your contributions that I thank you for an extraordinary year.

I hope that over these next few weeks and months, you will make it a personal priority to take advantage of the essential opportunities to enjoy friends and families; to pursue other passions; and to find plenty of time to rest, relax and rejuvenate.

All the best for a happy and healthy summer,

Pam

Pam Moran
Superintendent