US Sen. Tim Kaine pays the area a visit
After posing for a photograph with Highland View Elementary second-grade students Wednesday morning, one asked U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine if he had a Facebook account and if the photo would appear there.
Another student requested Kaine’s telephone number while another inquired if he knew and worked with the president: a series of lighthearted moments prior to a serious discussion about some of the problems facing city educators.
During the meeting, city school Superintendent Mark Lineburg, Principal Pam Smith and others outlined efforts of the school division to educate children in poverty, including implementation of the national Communities in Schools program.
The meeting wrapped up a series of visits across Southwest Virginia this week for Virginia’s junior senator.
Smith discussed creating an after-school program that serves about half the school’s 224 students, efforts to continually engage families and the community in school activities and other ways to promote learning when more than 80 percent of students live at or near federal poverty levels and the transiency rate is more than 40 percent. “When I came in July [2013], the teachers told me we had students with reading-intensive needs and math-intensive needs and the day isn’t long enough,” Smith said. “The school day is over at 3 so we had to create the after-school program and that’s where CIS and our partnership came in. Through CIS, we were able to create a program that met the needs of our children and the stresses that caused their lives more difficult.”
The efforts, Smith said, are designed to meet a range of personal needs and improve standardized test scores.
After hearing the presentation, Kaine said he can relate.
“We had wonderful experiences with our kids going through the Richmond public schools. They went to schools that — under a lot of state formulas — would have been considered ‘failing’ schools, but they got spectacular educations from fantastic teachers and being able to go off to challenging colleges because they got such a good education,” Kaine said.
The senator also touted his efforts to promote education for the youngest and oldest students.
“They [Senate] didn’t need me to lead the parade on early childhood education, but career and technical education, in the Senate there wasn’t anybody working on that,” Kaine said. “I’m trying to work on that and that has such applications for students. There are so many great jobs out there that our students aren’t training for because they aren’t aware of them — especially if you’re from an impoverished background — what do you know about the world of work? They may not know what a welder gets paid or a Dominion line person gets paid. There are some great jobs out there our students don’t choose because they don’t know anything about them.”
Earlier Wednesday, Kaine toured the nearly completed Clean Energy Research & Development Center near Interstate 81’s Exit 7. The facility will be managed by the Southwest Virginia Higher Education Center and was built with funds from the Virginia Tobacco Commission.
“This is an amazing facility and I’m glad to tour before the grand opening,” Kaine said. “They’re looking for signature tenants and — even though I’m not on the Energy Conservation Committee — being on Armed Services, so much good alternative energy research is being done — either by DOD (Department of Defense) or innovators working with the DOD because our military needs energy and they need it reliably.”
Some of that private investment could be a fit with the mission and efforts of the research center, Kaine said.
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