Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Patrick Henry School Initiative?

The Patrick Henry School Initiative is comprised of approximately 250 members of our community (and growing) who are committed to finding an economically viable solution to retain the Patrick Henry building for the purpose of offering a high standard public education in a nurturing environment to all children in our community regardless of race or socio-economic background.

What is a public charter school?

A public charter school is a public school in which the school board has granted a community the right to operate the school. In exchange for this privilege, the school board holds the community-appointed board of directors accountable for all aspects of the school including student performance, accounting, hiring of staff and decision-making. A public charter school is open to all children of the community without enrollment fees or testing. The governing body of a charter school is the Board of Directors, on which members of our community, educators and parents will serve. This method of leadership will give our community direct involvement in the way the school is run, including the selection of the school's principal and teachers.

For more information on charter schools visit: http://www.uscharterschools.org/pub/uscs_docs/index.htm

What is the Patrick Henry Charter School's Mission?

Our mission is to provide a K-5 community-based school with meaningful involvement by parents and community. The school endeavors to provide our diverse socio-economic neighborhood community a traditional, academically-rigorous curriculum with high standards, focusing on the sciences and arts. Students will achieve academic excellence, develop personal values, foster an appreciation for the arts, and internalize scientific core understandings necessary to become effective citizens in an evolving natural and technological world. The school's focus on community will include mandatory parental involvement, interactive experiences with the natural learning environment of Forest Hill Park, and extensive partnering with the local science and art museums and centers. The school seeks to provide a traditional neighborhood community atmosphere within the larger city limits. Patrick Henry Charter School will foster an environment where students, parents, staff, and the community are necessary partners in the educational process and achievement of all children.

How would it be funded?

It will be funded in the same way that other public schools are funded -- by a per-pupil sum that is comprised of local, state and federal dollars allocated for education. We are sensitive to the school boards concerns about energy cost and handicapped accessibility and are currently pursuing corporate and private funding in addition to grants to find the capital resources necessary to improve the building. We also are currently working to create a 501(c)(3) to aid in fundraising.

Why the Patrick Henry building?

The Patrick Henry School building was built to serve as our neighborhood school with the purpose of creating a sense of community among the neighborhoods surrounding Forest Hill Park. Retaining the pinnacles of our community is not only socially-responsible; it's in our best interest.

From an educational stand point, the Patrick Henry School's proximity to Forest Hill Park offers unique educational opportunities in the arts and sciences that no other school in the city or surrounding counties can boast. It has historic significance and is a beautiful "storybook" school that is within walking distance for our children.

From a neighborhood standpoint, having a neighborhood school will help retain neighbors and ensure a thriving community.

For more information on preserving historic schools, visit: http://www.nationaltrust.org/issues/schools

Will it be focused on the environment? Science? Arts? The focus on science will be the starting point for study in different disciplines of learning. For example, in studying wildlife, children will make graphs (Math), write a short story (Language Arts), learn vocabulary such as habitat, camouflage, nocturnal (Language Arts), learn what role wildlife played in Native American life (Social Studies), make plaster casts of animal foot prints (Visual Arts). Every discipline of learning can be taught from science and with a holistic approach, we feel we can offer a more engaging learning experience than can be offered by teaching subjects individually.

Is the school year round? If so, why was this chosen? Yes, we are proposing a "progressive quarter calendar" (PQC), which is what many people call year round. We are not using that term though as it leads most people to think that it means kids are in school longer. In fact it is the same number of school days in the year, just distributed more evenly though out the year. Studies have shown that students perform better at a PQC school because they don't forget information over the summer, class time in the fall is not devoted to playing catch-up, teachers don't get burned out and with our science and environmental focus, kids will be able to use the park more often (better weather in summer) and study all the seasons. There is still a 5-week break in the summer so parents need not be concerned about taking summer vacation. Also, vacations during the regular school year are more possible and less crowded at popular vacation spots. Lastly, we are also looking into offering day care during vacations to address concerns of working parents.

How will the diverse children of Richmond be served so that all children's needs are met.... in other words, those who may have learning disabilities, lower achievements, behavior issues?

We feel that most problems children have in their current learning environments will be significantly reduced or alleviated altogether by the combination of a progress quarter calendar, required parental involvement,an interdisciplinary approach to learning and our outdoor classroom environment. We are currently working with Mr. Gregory Stallings who won Teacher-of-the-Year two years ago for his unique approach to learning that brought students into Forest Hill Park and utilized the park's learning opportunities. He is a former teacher at Patrick Henry and is helping to develop our curriculum. He said that his students all performed well and had no behavior problems. At that time 80 percent of students at the school were considered "at-risk". All children respond better to a hands-on approach to learning. At the elementary level in particular, children will internalize information that they can make direct relationships with better than if required to think in the abstract. Children with learning disabilities particularly benefit from a more hands-on approach for this same reason.

What is the application process to attend?

Children and their parents jointly apply to attend the school. There is no tuition and no test to qualify. All that is required is a willingness to learn by the child and a willingness to playan active part in their child's education by the parent. We have not yet set the number of required hours of parental involvement, but it will be similar to other charter schools in the country. The school will be open to the entire city, and if demand exceeds the number of slots, a lottery will take effect.

If a student wants to attend but the parent(s) are unable to be involved due to work or economics will this be a problem since paren tinvolvement is required?

We are sensitive to parent's time constraints and will work with them to fit their involvement into their schedule either by allowing them to do something for the school at home and log their hours, or allow other family members to donate their time on the parent's behalf. We will do everything we can to help a parent who really makes an effort to be involved, but for whatever reason falls short of the required time. Parental involvement is for the benefit of the childeven more than it is for the school. That is why we require parental involvement and that is why we will do everything we can to see that each parent participates. Economics should not be a factor in parents' participation as parents will never be required to make any kind of monetary contribution to the school.

How will this school help change and strengthen student achievement in Richmond and provide services that the current schools are not providing?

Three very significant differences will be found at the Patrick Henry School of Science and Arts and those are:

-- Our interdisciplinary approach to subject matter. The different disciplines of learning will intermingle and students will learn how each subject relates to another and the practical applications for the information. Currently many schools teach each subject individually and children are required to learn in the abstract (Math is an excellent example) or students learn different subjects without drawing any apparent connection.

-- Our outdoor classroom at Forest Hill Park will provide hands-on learning opportunities that cannot be found at any other school in Richmond and possibly the state. Hands-on learning provides a more engaging learning environment and students respond well to it. Case in point is Mr. Gregory Stallings' class at Patrick Henry two years ago. He brought students into the Park for hands-on lessons and saw an increased awareness and achievement in his students. He won Teacher-of-the-Year for his innovative approach to teaching and advancement of his students.

-- Our required parental involvement. Parental involvement improves student performance. There simply is no substitute - students do better when a parent is involved in their education. Only a charter school can require parental involvement.