Dr. McDade recognizes future educators, importance of the arts, more

Last Saturday, 88 of our students, who are a part of the PWCS Growing Our Own Teachers program, and their teacher leaders, participated in the annual Educators Rising Student Leadership Conference and Competitive Events. Educators Rising Virginia is a career and technical education student organization focused on training and teaching future educators in middle school, high school, and college. 

I am proud to share that several PWCS students exceled in the competition, including nine first place wins from Brentsville District, C.D. Hylton, Gar-Field, and Osbourn Park High Schools and nine second place wins from Brentsville District, C.D. Hylton, Forest Park, and Osbourn Park High Schools. First-and-second-place winners are eligible to represent PWCS and Virginia at the Educators Rising National competition in June. We are immensely proud of our future teachers, our program graduates who return to our classrooms, and our teacher leaders for their amazing contributions to our schools. 

Throughout March, PWCS celebrates several observances, including National Arts Education Month, which encompasses Music in Our Schools, Theatre in Our Schools, and Youth Art Month. To promote the importance of the arts, I invite you to attend one of our spring 2025 theatre arts productions across elementary, middle, and high schools. 

This week, we celebrated National School Social Work Week, recognizing the invaluable contributions of school social workers in supporting students’ well-being, academic success, and social-emotional growth. Their dedication to bridging gaps between home, school, and the community plays a crucial role in ensuring every student has the resources and support they need to thrive. Please take a moment to express your appreciation for our social workers.  

On Wednesday evening, we shared the first semester academic data with the School Board. Two key takeaways include the continued improvement of our chronic absenteeism numbers and the data-driven work of PWCS, especially in early literacy. Thank you all for your continued support and dedication to our collective vision to see every student graduate on time with the knowledge, skills, and habits of mind necessary to create a thriving future for themselves and their community. 

As a reminder, the summer Discovery Enrichment Program registration opens on March 10. A wide variety of courses are offered from arts, career and technical education, gifted, math, and English language arts. Course descriptions and registration information are listed on the Discovery Enrichment Program page. 

Lastly, earlier today, we communicated directly with all families who submitted a specialty program application regarding problems with the ParentVUE Specialty Program software. Following an extensive investigation, we found errors that resulted in an overallocation of seats in a small number of programs. We are working as rapidly as possible to rectify the error and will continue to communicate directly with those impacted as we resolve this issue. We recognize that such an error undermines trust and sincerely apologize for the undo stress this causes our students and families.