Dear Colleagues,

As another remarkable year of accomplishment by our students concluded this week, I wanted each of you to know how deeply grateful I am for your service to our school division. I often have written to you about how visiting schools is one of the joys of being superintendent because of the opportunities these visits give me to talk with and be impressed by our students. There’s another opportunity I value—the chance to see so many of you interacting with our students and going well beyond your job description to make each student successful.

A fitting story at year end about what makes our division so extraordinary presented itself last week at Darden Towe Park. That’s when a group of 8th graders from Sutherland gathered together to put the finishing touches on a year-long volunteer project. The students, with the help of teachers and staff, were about to launch a balloon designed to sail more than 100,000 feet into the air to collect weather data and video of the earth’s curvature.

The student engineering team spent the year researching, designing and planning the launch. They developed prototypes, designed components, and used a 3D printer to manufacture them, refining their work as they proceeded. This entirely was a labor of the love of learning. Students worked on their own time—before and after school and on days off. Each student made a unique contribution—one knew about specialty knot-tying, one was an indomitable researcher, one was excellent in design work, another on developing a tracking device.

The project was an educator’s dream—students learned math, science, engineering, planning, communications and collaboration. They learned about regulations and how to work with a government agency to procure flight approval.

Last Saturday, the balloon refused initial lift off. On the spot, students identified the problem—a slight miscalculation resulted in too much weight. After an adjustment, the balloon soared to an estimated 104,000 feet, but a tracker malfunction prevented its same-day recovery.

What happened next was the best part. Students immediately took to their computers and developed nearly 50 ideas on how to find the balloon. They programmed their cell phones, and today, received a signal. They are off to retrieve the payload.

This past week another project in our school division reached its conclusion. A documentary film crew, looking to highlight and educate a national audience about the importance of innovation in the classroom, finished their videotaping and interviews here in Albemarle.

It’s unsurprising they chose our teachers, staff and students to tell their story. As the students at Darden Towe demonstrated, learning is about deep thinking, creativity, teamwork, risk, and it is about discovery. And most of all, it is about what interests, engages and excites our students. That’s where each of you comes in.

Have a healthy and enjoyable summer,

Pam

Pam Moran
Superintendent