Elementary grade enrollment is the fastest growing cohort in Harrisonburg City Public Schools, leading the division to create a new position to handle instructional needs.
The person filling that post, Waterman Elementary School Principal Jeremy Weaver, will have a big job ahead.
In January, Weaver will become the first executive director of elementary education for the division, coordinating instruction among five schools and a new one in the making.
“The needs of our school division have grown significantly,” Superintendent Scott Kizner said.
The division has more than 2,200 students from kindergarten to fourth grade enrolled this year and predicts having more than 3,000 students for those grades within three years. That’s according to estimates by the architectural firm VMDO, which the division hired to plan for a new elementary school.
Kizner said that Weaver, who has been principal of Waterman since 2010, was the perfect candidate for the new position because of his background in elementary instruction.
Before working for HCPS, Weaver was an elementary school principal and assistant principal in Waynesboro for six years.
“It’s just a great opportunity to kind of coordinate our instructional efforts between all the elementary schools,” he said.
As of Monday, Weaver is still the principal of Waterman and said he plans to help Jill Hart, assistant principal and his successor, interview candidates for her replacement.
“Being by yourself in a building of [543] students is not easy to do,” he said.
He will discuss his transition with administrators on Thursday, but in the meantime he will be moving between the division’s central office on Court Square and the school on Chicago Avenue.
As executive director of elementary education, Weaver said he will work with federal and state education accountability measures for the division. He added that he is looking forward to becoming better versed in the division’s dual-language immersion programs, which were added to kindergarten classes at Waterman this year.
Thirty-eight students in two classes spend half their class day speaking Spanish at the school, Weaver said.
Prior to creating the new position, Harrisonburg City Public Schools consolidated some central office roles, Kizner said.
The language arts and Title I coordinator positions combined into one role, while the career and technical education coordinator combined with the foreign language position. Meanwhile, Sandi Thorpe became director for special programs and no assistant director was hired, Kizner said.
Weaver will have a few years in the role before the division adds a sixth elementary education campus.
Construction on the school for as many as 750 students is expected to begin in 2017 on Garbers Church Road. The building will have an adjacent pre-K facility for up to 250 students.
“Having one person who’s kind of in charge of that many buildings is very helpful in terms of helping the division move forward,” Weaver said.
He does not expect to have a role in designing the new buildings but as their openings approach, he plans to help hire staff for the schools.
Courtesy of the Daily News Record, Dec. 16, 2104