Don’t call it groundbreaking.
Prince William County Public Schools on Wednesday, April 27 celebrating the Rising of Rosemount Elementary School near Manassas. The new $40 million elementary school is scheduled to open in August and will house 700 students.
Photo by freestocks on Unsplash[/caption]
A new partnership between Virginia Tech and Northern Virginia Community College offers students in the Washington, D.C. area a path to a degree in cybersecurity.
Originally launched by Virginia Tech in the fall of 2019, the joint program known as BIT-Cyber is a work-based course of study in cybersecurity and analytics within the university's Business Information Technology major. The work-based method of teaching allows students to put what they learn in the classroom into practice with real-life experiences.
NVCC has been expanding its footprint in the tech field. The community college announced in March 2022 that a $5.1 million data center lab would be constructed at its Woodbridge campus as part of the school's Workforce Development Center.
The goal of the program seeks to fill some of the 64,000 openings in the cybersecurity field in the Greater Washington D.C. area, including Northern Virginia.
Because of the program's online accessibility, many who would not have been able to take such classes without physically attending the university's Blacksburg campus have benefited from the program.
According to an impact study by Virginia Tech's Pamplin College of Business, 80 percent of those beneficiaries have been born outside of the U.S. The majority of the students, about 95 percent, are citizens of the United States while the remaining students hold green cards.
"It is my privilege to help serve a population that would not normally have an opportunity to access a Virginia Tech undergraduate degree," said Program Director Svetlana Filiatreau in a comment on the Virginia Tech website. "BIT-Cyber has positioned Virginia Tech to reach a very diverse student population, who are often unable to come to our Blacksburg campus due to their unique circumstances."
Since the coronavirus pandemic, educational institutions such as Virginia Tech and NVCC have further adapted their online class offerings in order to accommodate students. Many of these offerings have benefited students across the social-economic spectrum giving them access they may not have gotten prior to the pandemic.
Potomac Local News recently reported on Germanna Community College's College Everywhere program which has shown high success rates among male students, particularly African-American male students. The number of male students graduating from educational institutions like Virginia Tech and Germanna had been on the decline for several decades.
The Stafford County School Board adopted a $374 million budget for the 2022-2023 school year on Tuesday, April 26, 2022.
The budget allots $20.6 million for the employee raises scale, giving teachers and licensed staff will receive pay increases between five and nearly 20 percent, in what the school division calls “the first step in correcting a salary scale that has been compressed over several years.”
Stafford County Public Schools says it didn’t send that text message.
According to the school division, parents reported receiving a message today about schools being dismissed early due to law enforcement activity. That’s not the case, the school system assured the public.
The Washington Post has named Amy Schott, principal at Alexander Henderson Elementary School in Montclair, the 2022 Principal of the Year. After receiving the 2021 Prince William County Public Schools Principal of the Year Award, Schott was nominated for this annual award.
Schott is serving in her first year as principal at Henderson Elementary after serving 13 years as principal at Rockledge Elementary. She has worked for Prince William County Public School since 2001.
Dr. Lucretia Brown was the first high-profile hire by Dr. LaTanya McDade, who took over as Prince William schools superintendent after Dr. Stephen Walts retired a year ago. Before coming to our area, Brown was the Deputy Superintendent of Equity, Accountability, and School Improvement for Allentown School District in Pennsylvania.
Now at Virginia’s second-largest school district, she’s made few public appearances and has yet to address the county School Board. In light of the recent focus on critically responsive teaching, a statewide gubernatorial election that put Critical Race Theory under a microscope, and a string of School Board meetings with parents demanding a more significant role in their children’s public-school education, it’s fair to say many of us are curious about her, and what she plans to do in her new role.
Dr. Sam Hill announced his retirement at the end of the spring semester after a five-decade career in higher education.
Hill joined has served as provost at the Woodbridge Campus of Northern Virginia Community College since 2005. Over his 17 years, Hill has grown campus enrollment, adding to and updating the physical campus, expanding transfer and career programming, and welcoming signature student support programs like Year Up.
Kitty and Ben Wafle made a $250,000 donation supporting Germanna Community College’s Early College programs in honor of her late parents, Douglas Earle Quarles, Jr. and Kathryn “Kitty” Maddux Quarles.
In Germanna’s Early College program, students can complete and graduate with an Associate of Arts and Sciences Degree in General Studies while concurrently enrolled in high school.
