Our commencement exercises yesterday at the Altria were fantastic. This class of 174 students includes 61 students who were either national merit semi-finalists, finalists, or national merit scholars; 5 students were presidential scholar candidates and 1 was a presidential scholar semi-finalist; the average GPA is over 4.0 and the average SAT is almost 2100. The class of 2015 with the assistance of some precocious underclassmen brought home 9 VHSL team state championships and 2 second place VHSL team finishes. The class of 2015 also includes leading members of our BoB Squad and Math Modeling teams which both finished 5th nationally, our We the People team was 2nd in the nation, amassed slightly more than 36,000 community service hours and captured 18.95 million in scholarship offers. This class will attend 58 different colleges/universities and we will miss this awesome group of students and families.
This year also saw our community make significant progress on the operational front. As you may know, for the second consecutive year our school board and superintendents were able to support us with a tuition increase (in addition to an increase from the Commonwealth). Because of this, our faculty and staff will again receive compensation and benefit increases, as well as increased compensation for extra-curricular activities, and coaching. We are purchasing new textbooks in several areas, building our technological infrastructure, and purchasing a new activity bus. In addition we are adding a Physics position and a Global Studies position in order to control class sizes and this summer we will begin a renewable energy project (including solar and wind) as well as take care of a couple of other facility improvements (painting and roof). We appreciate the effort and effectiveness of our PTSA advocacy and are hopeful that the Commonwealth will resolve funding shortfalls for all Governor’s Schools soon.
In terms of our school’s direction, this year we built our first (organic) strategic plan that includes goals around student recruitment and retention; curriculum and instruction; faculty and staff; and, facility. Our plan’s development included a collection of representatives from every corner of our community and was unanimously approved by our Board in May. The plan can be found on our website under the “About” tab.
This year we also bid farewell to three Mil-wigs teachers; Dr. Broenimen, Ms. Yagel, and Ms. Chiodo. We extended our sincere appreciation and thanks to these educators for their service to this outstanding institution at our end of year PTSA luncheon. Our Board is slated to entertain our recommendations for new hires at its meeting this month.
We also sincerely appreciate your generous gifts of time, talent, and treasure to our school, our PTSA, Booster Groups, and Foundation. We have again enjoyed another exceptional year in this arena.
Our students and families serve as constant reminders of what a privilege it is to serve in this wonderful community. Please accept our wish for a wonderful summer.
