The PCPS elementary schools' fall festivals are about to start! We hope everyone has a safe and joyful night. We would love you to snap a photo in front of one of your school's cool decorations, share it here, and tell us your kids' favorite part of the night. #wearepcps #teampowhatan
Oct. 16-20, 2023 is National School Bus Safety Week, and we want to give a huge thank you to the men and women who make it possible to transport our kids to and from school, field trips and extracurricular activities. We are sharing photos of many of the awesome PCPS Transportation employees who keep us rolling forward, including School Bus Drivers, Car Drivers, Bus Aides, Mechanics, Dispatchers, and our Transportation Office Staff. Thank you for all you do! #wearepcps #teampowhatan #schoolbussafety
Mrs. Stout’s third grade class at Pocahontas Elementary recently indulged in creating blanket forts with friends so they could read by flashlight for their participation in Wellness Wednesday. Anybody else having flashbacks? #wearepcps #teampowhatan
Powhatan County Public Schools is recognizing Bullying Prevention Week from Oct. 16-20. We are asking our students to “pledge to support others that have been hurt or harmed and treat others with kindness.” #wearepcps #teampowhatan
Zachary Durrbeck has chosen to build tab collection boxes for his Eagle Scout project. Pop-top tab collections are an easy way to support Ronald McDonald House Charities of Richmond. We are hopeful having collection boxes throughout the community will encourage more participation. He presented the school principals with the boxes for their school at the Oct. 10 school board meeting, where school board members thanked him for his thoughtful gesture. #wearepcps #teampowhatan
A recent $50,000 donation to Powhatan High School’s Electricity program by a former industry nonprofit organization has sparked a great deal of joy.
Mike Payne, the high school’s electricity and building trades teacher, was notified in September that one of The Builders’ Exchange of Virginia’s last acts as an industry organization would be to donate its remaining funds to local schools and organizations, including the program in Powhatan.
Adam Foege, treasurer of The Builders’ Exchange of Virginia, presented the check at the high school during the Electricity 2 class, where he toured the facilities and spoke with students. Foege also represented the former trade group at a meeting of the Powhatan County School Board on October 10 and was recognized for the generous donation to the program.
The organization, which lasted more than 100 years, used to raise money to help offset blueprint costs for contractors making bids on jobs, Foege said.
Career and workforce development programs like the electricity program at PHS are instrumental in furthering trade industries, said Foege, who is also the president of the Central Virginia Electrical Contractors Association. He applauded the work the program does in preparing students who want to pursue a career in the electrical field and said donating to it was an excellent legacy for The Builders’ Exchange to leave behind.
“It lays the foundation for not only their work for the employers but it also sets them up with the right tools that they are going to need in the trade,” he said.
When Foege first called to tell him about the donation, Payne said he was blown away by the large amount. He hopes to use part of the money for requests that don’t fit into the program’s allocated budget.
However, the use he is most excited about is setting up scholarships that will offset the startup costs graduates face when going into apprenticeships.
“I am hoping it will benefit as many students going into the trades as it possibly can. What we have done here in Powhatan in the last few years with the partnerships, I think this shows how important those partnerships are with business and industry,” Payne said.
Kathryn Garrett, the division’s Career and Technical Education Coordinator, expressed deep gratitude to Foege and The Builders’ Exchange of Virginia for the generous donation.
“These funds will be used to support students in their pursuit and training of a career in the electricity field, and the benefits of this donation will impact our electricity programs for many years to come. We appreciate this partnership immensely,” she said.
Join us for Unity Day! PCPS will celebrate Unity Day by wearing ORANGE
for KINDNESS on Wednesday, Oct. 18, 2023.
Mrs. Lewis’ fifth grade class at Powhatan Elementary focused a recent English lesson on sequencing, or order of events. Students were given pieces of a story on several sheets of paper and had to read through and organize them in an order that made sense. #wearepcps #teampowhatan #elevateeducatorsva
School bus transportation plays a critical role in the education of our nation's students, and is the direct link between your homes and the classroom. More than 25 million children ride the yellow bus every school day, and National School Bus Safety Week serves as a reminder for students, parents, teachers, and the community to keep school bus safety in the forefront. Here are tips to keep our children safe at the bus stop. #wearepcps #teampowhatan
Mrs. Ford and Mrs. Konvicka’s kindergarten class at Pocahontas Elementary paused for a minute on their way to lunch last week to show off how their students dressed for Pajama Day. #wearepcps #teampowhatan
Throughout the year, Dr. Beth Teigen meets with groups of students at each school who are on her Superintendent Advisory Committees to get their feedback on various topics. Last week, she met with this year's committee of fourth and fifth graders at Flat Rock Elementary and asked them questions about the school calendar to gather their perspectives. Football fans may be happy to know several of the students are in favor of the Monday after Super Bowl Sunday being a holiday. #wearepcps #teampowhatan
We love having the halls of our schools decorated in student work. Mrs. Garner and Mrs. Wasosky had their civics and economics students at Powhatan Middle School complete the “If you could walk a mile in my shoes” project, and the results adorn one of the upstairs hallways. The purpose of the project was to connect with the students on a deeper level than just asking them basic get-to-know-me questions. #wearepcps #teampowhatan
Mrs. Beach took her fourth grade class at Powhatan Elementary School into the courtyard to review weather tools. The class looked at the anemometer, barometer, thermometer, and rain gauge. #wearepcps #teampowhatan
School bus transportation plays a critical role in the education of our nation's students, and is the direct link between your homes and the classroom. More than 25 million children ride the yellow bus every school day, and National School Bus Safety Week serves as a reminder for students, parents, teachers, and the community to keep school bus safety in the forefront. Here are tips to keep our children safe at the bus stop. #wearepcps #teampowhatan
Powhatan County Public Schools will be recognizing Bullying Prevention Week October 16-20. We are asking our students to “pledge to support others that have been hurt or harmed and treat others with kindness.” We are asking all PCPS students to wear orange on Wednesday 18, 2023, for “Unity Day.” #wearepcps #teampowhatan
The week of October 9-13 is Fire Prevention Week, and Pocahontas Elementary's Mrs. Britz and Mr. Freund talked about ways to help prevent fires and how having an emergency plan at home is so important. Students in kindergarten and first grade were gifted Fire Prevention pencils and firefighter hats from Powhatan County Fire and Rescue. They also played a tag game where students practiced "Stop, drop and roll" and crawling if/when they are trapped inside a smoky building. #wearepcps #teampowhatan
Duck and weave! Sixth graders in Mrs. Acampora’s PE class played a cardio endurance game called The Matrix that saw them taking turns running the length of the gym dodging balls or being the ones throwing the balls at the runners. #wearepcps #teampowhatan
Students and families at Powhatan High School came together on Oct. 4 to learn more about the community-based internships that students will be participating in during the 2023-2024 school year. Look for them around town at: Powhatan County Public Library, Elizabeth Randolph Lewis Powhatan YMCA, Sodexo, Powhatan State Park, Rise and Grind, Backpacks of Love, and Herff Jones. #wearepcps #teampowhatan
Mrs. Walthall and Mrs. Carneal (math coach) took a fantastically innovative approach to their math lesson about place value with their Place Value Surgery Day. This room transformation saw the fourth graders at Flat Rock Elementary School don hospital gear and rotate between five math stations. Practical applications included comparing prescriptions and placing the right prescription in the bottle; “dissecting” numbers and breaking them apart in their values; cutting and gluing the standard forms next to the word form to diagnose them correctly; finding out what operating room the patient is closest to; and placing the numbers on the correct place on a diagram of the body.
Mrs. Walthall said she saw the room transformation activity on a teacher page she follows and knew she had to recreate it for her students. “I’m hoping that they are finding a love of math through transformation and real-world experiences,” she said. #wearepcps #teampowhatan #elevateeducatorsva
Through the action of a committed group of youth with disabilities, the General Assembly officially recognized October as Disability History and Awareness Month (DHAM). The youth also developed this credo: Disability history education and awareness will promote positive attitudes in schools creating a culture of mutual respect, understanding, and equal opportunities for all.
This month highlights the success that Virginians with disabilities have had reducing barriers they have faced to employment, healthcare, education and community living, while helping raise awareness of the ongoing contributions and achievements that they bring to the Commonwealth throughout the year.
