As we celebrate Teacher Appreciation Week, I want to take this time to thank our employees, our families, our volunteers, and our community supporters for the daily work that you do for our students! This week, we pause and celebrate public education in Goochland and the many individuals who contribute to the excellence of Goochland County Public Schools. There is A LOT to celebrate!
We should all be incredibly proud of the work we, as a school community, do to provide a first-class education to our community’s children. Excellence is ever-present in every aspect of our school division – facilities, daily instruction, food service, student wellness, transportation, and other support services. Together, we provide our students with life-changing experiences that prepare them to make a positive difference in our local and global communities.
You may or may not know that I periodically invest time to talk with our students to learn more about their school experiences. This group is a cross-section of our student body that includes students from all backgrounds and school experiences. As you can imagine, they are very candid and openly share their feelings on the topics we discuss. I hear it all! I begin every meeting by asking them what it is like being a student at their school. Without hesitation, they share stories of encouragement, engagement, support, and how much they love their school.
These informal conversations with students about their experiences are an important measure of the work we do every day. There are many others also. This year, our division has been hyper-focused on our belief in student growth. On a daily basis, our staff has made individualized instructional decisions for students and modified their instructional approach to maximize each student’s potential.
Through our team’s efforts this year, our students have experienced a significant amount of growth based on our reading and math results. In math, nearly 20% more students met or exceeded their growth goals, while almost 10% more students met or exceeded their growth goals compared to last year’s results. This success has come as a direct result of our instructional team’s work and the support of our operational teammates and our families. Thank you for your tireless efforts that contributed to these strong results!
Goochland County Public Schools continue to serve as a model for delivering excellent public education in the Commonwealth! Our employees, our students, our families, our volunteers, and our community supporters make this possible. I am extremely grateful to serve alongside you on this team.
We have something very special in Goochland! Let’s pause for just a moment today to thank one another and celebrate our entire team for a job well done!
Yours in Service,
Jeremy J. Raley
Superintendent