LoudounNow LOUDOUN COUNTY’S COMMUNITY-OWNED NEWS SOURCE
[ Vol. 2, No. 24 ]
[ loudounnow.com ]
A Pint-sized Pitchman
18
Apr. 20 – 26, 2017 ]
Williams Lays Out Path for Universal FullDay Kindergarten BY DANIELLE NADLER
itored the hallways, greeted students during their lunch break, and gave the morning announcements just as he always does, except he ended the announcements with a particularly loud and drawn out, “Goooo Titans!” “That was the first ‘go Titans’ we’d heard in awhile. A lot of students smiled and cheered,” Jackson said. “He was everywhere today—I don’t know how he did it,” Dominion English teacher Karrie Rinder said. It wasn’t just a business-as-usual thing, she added. “It was more like full speed ahead.” Brewer declined to comment to the press; likely being careful to not upset school system administration on his first day back. But the dozens of Brewer supporters who gathered for his “welcome back” party talked over one another as they described what the principal means to the Dominion community.
Just 18 months ago, full-day kindergarten was the most repeated three-word phrase on Loudoun campaign trails. Candidates running for local, state and even federal offices promised to push school leaders to hurry up and provide a full academic day to every kindergartner in the county. At that time, the then-newly appointed superintendent, Eric Williams, was criticized for not being able to deliver a price tag for what it would cost to provide universal full-day kindergarten, a program every other school division in the region offers. But Williams and administrators in the school planning and instruction departments have been at work behind the scenes. For the first time on Tuesday, they unveiled specifics about what obstacles stand in the way to expand the full-day kindergarten program and what it will take to get over them. Since 2014, the school system has increased its full-day kindergarten offerings from 11 percent to 52 percent. The plan for now is by this fall to provide a full school day to as many as 4,600 kindergartners, or 82 percent. But the trick will be getting that figure to 100 percent. That will take creative options to free up classroom space in fast-growing parts of the county where school buildings are already cramped. “To get to full-day kindergarten at a lot of these schools, we need to take some sort of action,” he said. In his presentation to School Board members Tuesday, Williams went through each of the district’s planning zones to explain what it would take to expand the program. There is space in every elementary school in the Western Loudoun and Eastern Loudoun planning zones. But the remaining planning districts—Ashburn, Central Loudoun (Leesburg area), Dulles North and Dulles South—have several elementary schools that will not have consistent space for full-day kindergarten through fiscal year 2021. In Ashburn, those schools are: Steuart
BREWER >> 10
KINDERGARTEN >> 25
Douglas Graham/Loudoun Now
Dominion High School Principal John Brewer was greeted with hugs and cheers at a “welcome back” party Monday. It was his first day back on the job after he was suspended in December.
Brewer’s Back
Dominion Principal Welcomed with Open Arms BY DANIELLE NADLER
J
ohn Brewer started his day early Monday. He arrived at Dominion High School just after 7 a.m. And even before he could reach the front door, he was talking with students. Football players at an early-morning practice took a break to applaud their principal as he walked into the school. It was his first day back on the job after his three-and-half-month suspension. “He hugged and greeted every player by name,” junior Jackson Steele said. “We were really happy to see him.” Brewer, named Loudoun County Principal of the Year in 2010, was near-
ly fired last month. He was placed on leave Dec. 2, and Superintendent Eric Williams moved to terminate him. The superintendent’s decision followed a Florida news article that stated Brewer had written a letter of recommendation for former Dominion band teacher Brian Damron. Damron was later accused of making sexual advances toward a 15-year-old student there, although no criminal charges have been filed. In a split vote on March 20, the School Board technically terminated Brewer’s previous contract and, a minute later, rehired him as Dominion’s principal on a probationary period, with contracts to be renewed annually, for three years. Monday was the first day of his new contract. It’s as if the principal picked up where he left off, said students and teachers who threw their principal a “welcome back” party at a Mexican restaurant Monday evening. Brewer observed a few classes, mon-
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