Wanda Campo Teacher of the Year-Patrick County, VA
December 11, 2008
Wanda Campo, who teaches fourth grade science and social
studies at Hardin Reynolds Memorial School, has been named the
community Wal-Mart Teacher of the Year.
Ms Campo was very pleased to find out that she had been nominated for the competition,
but doesn’t know who nominated her. She will receive a $1,000.00
gift card from Wal-Mart for her classroom and a $500 gift card for
herself. She is already making plans on how to use the funds to
enhance her classroom. Ms. Campo says that she has been teaching
for fifteen years and that she “Always wanted to be a teacher, even as
a little girl!� Congratulations, Ms. Campo!
Across the division on a daily basis phone calls are made to parents to inform them that that their child is
absent. Why? For the safety of each child. Virginia law requires that schools attempt to notify a parent if a student is absent. This is to ensure
the safety of the absent student in case the parent is unaware of the absence. In addition to safety concerns, schools also call
parents because each school tries to have 100% of
students present every day. At an average daily
attendance rate of 96.687%, our school division does a
great job of ensuring that each student is present to
receive his or her education. However, to maintain and
increase this high percentage, school secretaries,
teachers, principals, and the school visiting teacher,
Joanne Hill, work together to try to have every student
present every day.
School attendance is part of a school’s and
division’s AYP (Adequate Yearly Progress) calculation.
Every school, as well as the division, has met AYP for the
past three years. A crucial component of this achievement
is attendance. To put it simply, Ms. Hill says, “Try to be at
school every single day. If you have a fever stay home,
but just a sore throat is no longer a reason to stay home.�
If a student is not in class, he or she will be missing
valuable instructional time. When possible, try to plan
vacations around the school schedule. In our school
division, education is the most important time your child
spends.
Attendance is a Daily Concern
Destination Differentiation
Education is not the filling of a pail,
but the lighting of a fire.
-William Butler
Yeats
