1) Gifted Summer Programs Announcement
2) Richard Bland College and PCPS sign historic agreement: Middle College High School program
3) They came from Petersburg, too – dignitaries wow city students

1) Gifted Summer Programs Announcement

The Petersburg City Public Schools announces: Summer Challenges, Summer Enrichment for Gifted and High Achievers,sponsored by the Petersburg City Public Schools Gifted Education Services, for rising first through seventh grade students.

The enrichment program will be held from July 7 to July 10, from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., at the Appomattox Regional Governor’s School, Petersburg. Lunches are provided. Transportation is also provided if you are a resident of Petersburg.

You do not have to be a resident of Petersburg to apply!

Some of the classes offered:

* Discover the World of Watercolor Archaeology
* Weaving Through Art Newsblasting with Podcastin!
* Looking for Shel Silverstein? Could That Be YOU? Dolly and Me
* Instrumental Music Ms. C. Musical by Design
* Computers (Introduction and Robotics)

Applications may be found online at www.petersburg.k12.va.us under the Gifted Education Department, or at individual schools’ administrative offices.

2) RBC, PCPS sign historic agreement: Middle College High School program

With parents and students eagerly watching, Dr. James M. Victory, Superintendent of Petersburg City Public Schools, and Dr. Jim McNeer, president of Richard Bland College of the College of William and Mary (RBC), signed the memorandum of understanding on Tuesday that officially launches their Middle College High School (MCHS) partnership.

Middle College High School allows up to 25 Petersburg High School juniors per year to begin to complete their high school education on the RBC campus, while simultaneously working towards their Associate’s degrees. At no cost to parents, the students will have access to the college’s resources and opportunities and still be able to attend or participate in PHS extracurricular events.

Those college resources include RBC’s expanded library and medical center. RBC has also just announced that a $19 million science center will be constructed on campus.

“MCHS will make a real difference in these students’ careers, and in their lives,” Dr. McNeer said.

Dr. Victory praised RBC’s swift acceptance of the program and called MCHS “part of the journey that the Petersburg City Public Schools are on to reach world class status, not simply to achieve the minimal requirements of the State Standards of Learning.

“We will eclipse those,” he said. MCHS students, he said, are part of a legacy that will affect generations yet to be born.

After the signing ceremony, the students were brought to the RBC admissions center, where they were photographed and received RBC college identification cards.

The MCHS students, to be joined by another class of juniors in the 2009-2010 school year, will have a great responsibility, said Kenneth Pritchett, Chairman of the Board of the Petersburg City Public Schools. They will be required to have the maturity of college-level students and they will be representing the Petersburg City Public Schools.

“Make the grade and prove to the community that you can succeed,” Pritchett said.

Photo: The first MCHS class gathers in the expanded RBC library, one of the many
resources that will be available to them on the campus.

3) They came from Petersburg, too – dignitaries wow city students

The students stepped in absolute silence onto the plush carpet of the Omni Hotel’s Potomac Room. They seated themselves carefully at tables where a plethora of salad forks and dessert spoons might trip up the etiquette-challenged. And they listened quietly as men and women who have made state and national history, men and women who also happen to be from Petersburg, challenged them to succeed.

Wrapping up a day of touring the state buildings of Richmond, these students from R.E. Lee and A.P. Hill elementary schools are participants in an after-school partnership between the Petersburg City Public Schools and Olivet Christian Academy. The program they attend, the “21st Century Community Learning Center,” gives them not only a safe place to be after school, but also an academic boost and even the chance to have some fun. And it was this program, and those students, and their leaders, that was celebrated on Tuesday, with a Galaxy of Stars luncheon.

Lizbeth Sanchez, an AP Hill fourth grade student, has improved her grades in math and reading through the Learning Center. She also learned some sign language and said that she wants to continue that. As an ESL student, she has empathy for communication challenges.

“I know about how hard it is to be deaf because sometimes it is hard for me to understand English,” Sanchez said.

The Hon. Judge Roger L. Gregory, presidentially appointed federal judge on the Fourth Circuit, U.S. Court of Appeals, made history as the first African-American to achieve that position.

A native of “The Heights” in Petersburg, his message to the students was simple: Believe in yourselves, heed the teachers and parents who are the engines to your dreams and let no one and nothing deter you from your dreams.

Delegate Rosalyn Dance, who represents the 63rd district of Virginia, formerly served as a mayor of Petersburg.

“You are on your way to becoming leaders because of what you are learning,” Dance told the students.

Other special guests at the event included attorney Fred Marsh, nephew of Senator Henry Marsh III, and administrators, parents and teachers of Petersburg City Public Schools as well as of Mount Olivet Christian Academy. Sharde Gannaway, a third grade student, from Lee, mesmerized the audience with a solo rendition of “I Believe I Can Fly.”

“When you walk the streets of Petersburg, you walk streets that national and international leaders have walked. Petersburg is not a limitation, Petersburg is a beginning, a launch pad to a bright future and a wonderful destiny,” said Dr. James M. Victory, Petersburg Superintendent of Schools.