Governor Glenn Youngkin has recognized January 14-20, 2024, as Virginia School Principals Appreciation Week, and we will start by honoring Isabella Worrell, principal of Flat Rock Elementary School. The governor’s proclamation recognizes that school principals work cooperatively to direct, develop, and inspire all members of the school staff and student body, and to communicate effectively with parents to engage them in the learning process. Principals work collaboratively with teachers, staff, students, parents, and the community at-large to proactively prepare students to be self-reliant and productive citizens. Virginia School Principals Appreciation Week is an opportunity to recognize the hard work of Virginia school principals and to recognize the importance of school leaders in ensuring that every child has access to a quality education. Thank you, Principal Worrell, for all you do! #wearepcps #teampowhatan
Powhatan County Public Schools will open on a two-hour delay on Wednesday, January 17, 2024.
The Powhatan County School Board will hold its workshop at 4 p.m. today. The board will elect its leadership for 2024, but the rest of the agenda may be amended due to concerns about road conditions after 5 p.m. Any items on the agenda that are not heard will be added to a workshop and regular meeting on Tuesday, January 23, 2024, at 5 p.m. and 7 p.m., respectively.
Martin Luther King Jr. fought tirelessly for education equality and opportunity for all, leaving behind a lasting legacy in his field of education. His efforts continue to inspire educators and policymakers to this day as they work to ensure that every student has access to a quality education. #wearepcps #teampowhatan
Due to weather and road conditions, Powhatan County Public Schools will be closed on Tuesday, January 16, 2024. Offices will be closed, and staff will not report. Any after-school or evening activities will be rescheduled. A decision will be forthcoming about the Powhatan School Board workshop and meeting scheduled for Tuesday, January 16.
Some interesting noises were coming out of Ms. Brooks’s fifth-grade class at Pocahontas Elementary when they studied a unit on sound. The students’ acoustic explorations included making bee hummers (when you swing them, they sound like a swarm of bees near you), pitch pipes using straws, and old-fashioned telephones using cups and string. Yet another station with a row of bottles demonstrated how varying amounts of water can change the pitch when tapped. #wearepcps #teampowhatan
Powhatan Elementary third graders in Mrs. Rose’s class worked on debugging skills in Mrs. Henley's computer resource class. They used the Robot Mouse to find bugs in algorithms that prevented them from going to the correct shape. On their Chromebooks, they found bugs in algorithms that prevented them from connecting dots to create a square or prevented the monster from eating the fruit. At each station students not only had to find the bug, but they also had to fix the algorithm to make the code correct. #wearepcps #teampowhatan
Mrs. Ayers’ first grade class at Flat Rock Elementary School completed story maps to explore the content of “Tacky the Penguin.” The story maps help students pinpoint story elements such as characters, setting, and the story’s problem and solution. #wearepcps #teampowhatan
Mrs. Vallent’s AP Biology students studied oxygen delivery and feedback mechanisms by examining how heart rate increases with increased demand for oxygen. The students did jumping jacks to increase their heart rate and then took their pulse. They graphed the effect of exercise on heart rate by monitoring the rate at resting, after exercise, one minute of rest, and two minutes of rest. This was one of several stations aimed at learning about cell signaling, while other stations focused on blood clotting, fruit ripening, and osmoregulation. #wearepcps #teampowhatan
The Powhatan Ruritans recently donated 100 dictionaries to Pocahontas Elementary School’s third grade students. Jane Ruehrwein, president of the Ruritans, (shown speaking) presented the dictionaries as a gift before winter break and then the third graders shared the gift of song with their holiday performance. The students will use them at school for instruction but then they get to take them home to keep so they each have their own individual dictionary. Many people do not realize that using a dictionary is still a Virginia SOL for language arts (3.4.g reads: Use word-reference resources including the glossary, dictionary, and thesaurus.) After the presentation, the third graders and their teachers snapped a photo with Jane as well as the reading coach who coordinated the delivery. #wearepcps #teampowhatan
The January 9, 2024, school board meeting has been moved to January 16, 2024.
Due to weather and road conditions, Powhatan County Public Schools will be closing two hours early on January 9, 2024. All after school activities will be canceled.
A decision about the school board workshop and meeting will be forthcoming.
Dismissals will be as follows:
PHS - 12:30 p.m.
PMS - 12:25 p.m.
Elementary Schools - 1:30 p.m.
As of 7:00 p.m. this evening, there are still many families in Powhatan without power. There is concern about additional power outages and road flooding as the rain and wind continue in our area.
After consultation with local emergency officials, Powhatan County Schools will be closed on Wednesday, January 10, 2024.
We are aware that some families did not receive information this morning from our new notification system and for that we apologize. For this reason, we will use both our new and old messaging systems for the remainder of this weather event. Any updates will also be posted to the division website, Facebook, Instagram, and local media.
After this weather event, we will send out communication through your child’s school to all families about how to access our new system and who to contact if you did not receive today’s notification.
Ms. Wood’s first graders at Flat Rock Elementary couldn’t go outside for recess because of rain, so the students engaged with LEGOs supplied by Bricks 4 Kidz for enrichment activities. #wearepcps #teampowhatan
On the evening of Monday, Dec. 4, PCPS will be conducting a community-wide test of our new notification system. Our new website vendor, Apptegy, provides a messaging platform that will enable us to more effectively reach parents with time-sensitive information. Not only will we be able to reach you by phone, text, and email as we do currently, but we'll also be able to simultaneously broadcast to all our social media platforms, including our new Facebook and Instagram pages, as well as directly to your phone if you have downloaded the PCPS website app.
Please be on the lookout for messaging beginning at 6 p.m. on Monday the 4th. If you have questions, you may reach us using alerts-help@powhatan.k12.va.us.
Hoops and cheers! Mrs. Garner and the Powhatan Middle Cheerleaders took a moment on their way to cheer on the boys’ and girls’ basketball players at their season opener in Amelia to snap some group photos. #wearepcps #teampowhatan
Sound detectives at work! Mrs. Simon’s second graders at Powhatan Elementary unlocked language secrets by using a word sort to focus on the sounds different letter combinations can make. #wearepcps #teampowhatan
Before the Thanksgiving break, Mrs. Cable’s kindergartners at Powhatan Elementary read “How to Hide a Turkey” and completed activities around it, did an activity about thankfulness, and made thankfulness placemats they could take home. Mr. Lopez, a PES Watchdog, and Mrs. Ryman, instructional assistant, helped the busy classroom tackle all those fun activities. #wearepcps #teampowhatan
Susan Shepperson, president of Alliance of Wild Animal Rehabilitation and Education (AWARE), recently brought in a barred owl and talked with Pocahontas Elementary kindergarten students about nocturnal animals and their features and adaptations. Mrs. Shepperson lives in Powhatan and offers educational programs to the community. #wearepcps #teampowhatan
May the odds be ever in your favor! Mr. Barnes’ Probability and Statistics and AP Statistics classes at Powhatan High School were invited to Mr. Beasley’s Engineering Explorations 1 class to collaborate on an activity involving unfair carnival games. The engineering students designed and built unfair carnival games, and Mr. Barnes’ students were tasked with calculating the probabilities of win percentages. In a future unit, the students will revisit the data to run hypothesis tests comparing the calculated probabilities to the claimed win percentages. #wearepcps #teampowhatan #elevateeducatorsva
