We need ALL HANDS ON DECK in Henrico County's school buildings. Our HCPS community has suffered from the lack of normalcy over the past two years AND YET, we are ALL still supposed to return to "NORMAL", the world before Covid.  

Though academics are important, our schools are filled with students who DO NOT have the social and emotional skills necessary to absorb content. Our teachers are required to manage classroom behaviors WHILE teaching specific subjects at unrealistic pacing. School staff are feverishly creating and managing processes to allow the school to flow as "normal", and oftentimes failing at their attempts due to lack of resources. THIS YEAR IS NOT NORMAL.

There are NO substitutes, which means teachers cover classes daily. Teachers are unprepared for their own classes because there is no time for planning with colleagues. Students are "sometimes" in class, but due to fighting, quarantining, and emotional/social issues that cause delays, students miss significant class time. To add to the list of issues, central office constantly pushes unrealistic expectations down to the schools WITHOUT an accurate perspective of what's happening at the school level.

What if...

ALL CENTRAL OFFICE STAFF  spends at least TWO FULL WORK DAYS per week in a school building - working in any capacity necessary (ex: substituting class, lunch and breakfast duty, bus duty, etc.)?

This would help to eliminate many of the shortages and offer next-level support to the issues at the school level.

This petition is created to get some REAL PERSPECTIVE to HCPS Leadership. Staff is burned out. Students and families are exhausted. The time to make REAL change is now.