At Woodville Elementary, an extra early start to new school year (2024)

Throughout the third week of July, teachers at Woodville Elementary School in Richmond’s East End prepared classrooms for future students, who were enjoying the last week of a shortened summer break.

The fifth-grade science teacher was busy transforming her classroom into a Harry Potter wonderland while kindergarten teacher Finesha Washington lined walls with characters from “Lilo & Stitch.”

The 2000 N. 28th St. school will open to students Monday for the first day of school — the first of 200.

Principal Dana Allen-Miller, who has been at Woodville for seven years, said she’s hoping to follow in the success of Fairfield Court Elementary School, which implemented its first 200-day school year last year and saw significant gains in student reading.

The move has yielded results.

The percentage of children at Fairfield Court from kindergarten to second grade who passed the state literacy assessment grew from 61% in the 180-day 2022-23 school year to 82% last academic year, which had 200 days.

Gauging the impact of poverty on academic performance

Across the U.S., high poverty schools almost always perform worse academically than middle-income schools, usually by a lot. Fairfield’s 82% pass rate puts it at seventh-highest in the school district out of 26 elementary schools while also having the highest poverty rate for elementary schools in the district.

“Family income does not have to be destiny if we give kids what they need,” said RPS Superintendent Jason Kamras in a June interview.

Students who attend Woodville Elementary School live in the Creighton Court, Mosby Court and Whitcomb Court housing projects and the area in between them.

About 89% of the school’s students are economically disadvantaged.

The typical summer breaks in between academic years can cause serious learning loss for children, especially for low-income students, research shows.

Last year, about three-quarters of Woodville’s families voted in a survey in support of the additional 20 days.

“I definitely believe parents want the best for their students. They’ve heard the success that Fairfield has had, and they said, ‘We want our students to be able to read, too. We want our students back in the learning environment and getting the things that they need as well,’” Allen-Miller said.

“A lot of our parents are excited and they definitely want to see that their sons and daughters are getting the high level of instruction that they are entitled to,” she added.

Woodville’s new assistant principal served as Fairfield’s academic dean last year and helped implement the extended curriculum. The early grade levels have a heavy focus on literacy.

Woodville has increased its early literacy scores over the past few years from a 44% pass rate on the state literacy test in 2023 to a 53% pass rate last school year.

Allen-Miller partly credits the school’s improvements in attendance, and the fact that about 95% of students receive reading intervention every day.

A tight-knit community school

Quintett Bowers, a kindergarten teacher at Woodville who was preparing her classroom on Tuesday afternoon, said the first few weeks of school will be focused on reading and building relationships with the students.

“If they enjoy it, they may learn more and they remember more,” Bowers said. “It’s a great opportunity for the kids because during the summertime they forget so much. The extra 20 days give us a chance to incorporate what they learned last year or to just hit the floor running.”

Many Woodville students entering kindergarten have never been in preschool, child care or any educational setting, so they need to learn how to do things like walk single file, sit down criss-cross applesauce and be nice to other kids when playing.

Another added benefit of the school year starting in July is that students spend more time in a safe place during the summer months when neighborhood violence tends to spike.

Before the school board voted in April to implement the extra 20 days, a school employee made the case before the board that the additional days “can keep (students) off the streets and in a safe space during the summer hours.”

Multiple staff at the April meeting noted that a former Woodville student died over spring break.

“They don’t need the streets. They need us,” a teacher said at the meeting. “They need the ABCs, the 123s, the fractions, the money, reading comprehension, things like that.”

Woodville is a small, tight-knit community school, where the fifth-grade science teacher attended the school as a child and the cafeteria monitor is a Woodville parent. It serves approximately 240 students and employs 30 classroom teachers.

“We literally have everybody pouring back into or coming back to give to the school,” Allen-Miller said. “None of our students walk home alone. If there’s a mom that’s walking their student home, she makes sure that everybody’s babies get home so we don’t ever have to worry about a child being left out. We just really rally around each other and make sure that everyone is taken care of.”

With the first day of school on Monday, Allen-Miller and her staff are hopeful for a triumphant year.

“Watch out for the success that we’re going to have this year,” Allen-Miller said. “Please continue to support us.”