A new day at Patrick Henry

Welcome Banner featuring art from last year's students.

 

Today is the first day of school for Patrick Henry School of Science and Arts in the newly cleaned up outside and in, ADA compliant, freshly planted, painted Patrick Henry building. Over the course of the 2 days this weekend over well over 500 hours of labor went into getting it ready for students. Volunteers came from all walks of life. Some volunteers were recruited with the help of HandsOn Greater Richmond, sororities, there were parents, students, neighbors, PHSSA board members new and old, teachers, teacher’s family members, and former teachers and students of Patrick Henry. This was just the latest volunteer effort. There have been many more which have created an ADA compliant playground, fought erosion, and established gardens.

A community has come together and worked on the goal of improving a building so that students throughout Richmond can enjoy a unique and wonderful education. There is still some underlying tension in the air about the future of the school and in particularly the relationship with RPS Board but for now let’s just take a moment and applaud those that have made this day happen. Throughout the day I’ll be posting links from the media about today’s opening. At some point today I’ll have a post that outlines what it has taken for Patrick Henry to get to this point.

NBC12 Story 1/8 - Ignore this line, “It’s the first day of classes at the first charter school in the city.” We all know that the school has been open for over a year and it’s just the first day in the new building.
RTD Story 1/9 - Best part is a photo of Killian Winn using the chair lift to get up to main floor.
CBS6 Story 1/9 with video

Some photos from the Patrick Henry Facebook.