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Community-Supported News. Free to all.
VOL. 9, NO. 41
23
AUGUST 22, 2024
Welcome Back New Start Times, New Teachers, New Programs BY ALEXIS GUSTIN
agustin@loudounnow.org
More than 83,000 students headed back to class today as the new school year kicked off at 7:30 a.m. for some of the county’s youngest learners. Some students will enjoy a slightly later start this year. In May, the division staff proposed adding a third standard start time and moved 10 elementary schools with the earliest bus pick up times to a 7:45 a.m. start this year after parents objected to having students boarding a bus before 6:30 a.m. No other school start times have changed since the initial shift in 2022 when the division implemented staggered
start times to help with bus driver shortages. Nineteen elementary schools still start at 7:30 a.m., while 30 others start at 8 a.m. Middle schools start at 8:30 and high schools start at 9:30 a.m. The year begins with 615 new licensed teachers, with 52.8% holding master’s degrees and 3.6% holding doctorates. The division is also welcoming 40 ambassador teachers from countries including the Philippines, Kenya, Columbia and Jamaica. The ambassador teachers are part of a new partnership with a company called Participate Learning that brings teachers from all over the world to the U.S. to teach for three years. Director of Recruiting Bob Phillips said Participate Learning helps the teach-
Alexis Gustin/Loudoun Now
Ambassador teacher Jacinta Maundiko, who is teaching fourth grade at Sterling Elementary School, assembles a culture corner in her classroom featuring her home country of Kenya in preparation for the first day of school.
ers secure their visa after they are hired by the division and assigned a school. The
BACK TO SCHOOL continues on page 33
Loudoun Opens 100th School This Week As school starts for the 2024-2025 school year, Loudoun County is opening its 99th and 100th schools, including the division’s only primary school and a middle school opening to 540 sixth graders only this year.
4 Stories at Watson Mountain
At Henrietta Lacks ‘Kids Can’ BY ALEXIS GUSTIN
agustin@loudounnow.org
Henrietta Lacks Elementary School, the division’s 99th school, opens this fall to over 800 students in kindergarten through second grade. The 115,000-square-foot building will have
12 kindergarten classes, 11 first grade, 12 second grade and six pre-school classes. Named after Henrietta Lacks, a Virginia woman whose immortal cancer LACKS continues on page 32
BY ALEXIS GUSTIN
agustin@loudounnow.org
Watson Mountain Middle School, the division’s 100th school, opens this week under the leadership of Principal Lenny Compto and assistant principals Gela Russell and Kjersti Oliver. The 211,000-square-foot building is
the first four-story school in the division and will open with 540 sixth graders its first year, with plans to extend to seventh grade next year and add eighth grade by the fall of 2028. The school is named for an area that MOUNTAIN continues on page 35
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