STONE RIDGE, Va. — Loudoun County Public Schools is set to start next week with two brand new schools: Henrietta Lacks Elementary School and Watson Mountain Middle School.
Henrietta Lacks ES will also be the first and only primary school within LCPS, with kindergarteners to second grade students. It's now the 99th school to open in the county.
School officials say more than 800 kids are expected to attend, with 14 teachers who are either new to the profession or to the school system. Three of them have been recruited from other countries to help with the overall teacher shortage.
Henrietta Lacks ES Principal Leigh Boyd was previously the assistant principal at Pinebrook Elementary School. She pushed for the motto “Kids Can,” which aims at making sure students are creating things and using the latest platforms to demonstrate their learning. There’ll also be a focus on sparking conversations about their lesson plans in the context of everyday life.
Boyd also is prioritizing teaching the latest technology tools at an earlier age.
“Instead of having a paper-pencil worksheet or a paper-pencil test, offering them a variety of ways,” Boyd said. “Can they make a podcast about what they’ve learned? Can they create a Canva presentation or infographic about what they learned? Can they use other technology to code something about what they’ve learned?”
“Our goal for students is never technology for technology’s sake but to proficient in technology as they’ll be proficient in other skills that they will need in their lifetime,” Elaine Layman, Director of Elementary and Charter Schools, added.
The school has features to accommodate all children including an accessible and inclusive playground built with soft rubber grounds instead of mulch.
Each of the 41 classrooms will have a bathroom, not just for kindergarteners, to avoid disruptions.
The gym also has a cushion underneath the wooden floor to minimize the stress of joints and legs.
The library, also dubbed the media center, will hold about 19,000 books. Once you step inside, the school’s mascot of a honeybee highlights a bigger symbol.
“There are the books that the honeybee is holding,” Boyd added. “One is heroes of health and that is a tribute to Henrietta Lacks because she was a hero in the health world.”
The first day of school is on Thursday, Aug. 22. School is from 7:30 a.m. until 2:50 p.m.