Engineering and robotics students at The Carmel School constructed air filters for buildings on the school’s campus. (Photo courtesy The Carmel School)
Filtering Knowledge
Students build air filters at The Carmel School
Engineering and robotics students at The Carmel School helped keep their classmates and teachers safe from COVID-19 and allergens by making the air filters used in buildings on campus.
The three Wildcat Air Filters, built by the students in February have been used in the lower, middle and upper schools and the athletic center at the K-12 Christian school located in Ruther Glen. The students worked on manufacturing workstations for two weeks to assemble the filters. Engineering and robotics teacher Kember Forcke says the units filter 60,000 cubic feet per hour and will last approximately six months.
After building the filters, the students presented their product to the head of school, as well as the heads of the lower, middle and upper schools. At the presentation, they explained how the filters would be part of the school’s plan to protect students, faculty, and staff from COVID-19 and how they were assembled.
The Carmel School has offered in-person classes since the beginning of the school year. Head of School Carolyn Williamson credits social distancing, masks, hand-washing and, now, the air filters built by students as essential in helping the school stay open during the pandemic.
“We prepare students to solve the problems of the future, and what better way to do that than by addressing the needs of the day,” Williamson says. “As our country shut down due to COVID-19, our students developed creative solutions that helped keep us on campus and learning in person. That’s who we are. That’s what we do.”
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Cindy Trask of St. Catherine’s School (Photo courtesy St. Catherine's School)
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Devin King of Cardinal Newman Academy (Photo courtesy Cardinal Newman Academy)
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Colley W. Bell of St. Margaret’s School (Photo courtesy St. Margaret's School)
New School Leaders
Changes coming to independent schools
As the fall of 2021 brings a greater sense of normalcy, several private schools in the Richmond area will be undergoing leadership changes. Cardinal Newman Academy, St. Margaret’s School and St. Catherine’s School will begin the academic year with new heads of school. Meanwhile, students at St. Andrew’s School said goodbye in June to their head of school.
Cardinal Newman Academy welcomes Devin King as its head of school. King earned a bachelor’s in liberal arts at Thomas More University and taught at Tyburn Academy in New York. He also taught Latin, Euclid and History at Veritas Preparatory School in Williamsburg.
On June 30, All Saints Catholic School President Ken Soistman retired after 25 years of service. Soistman began at All Saints in 1996 as principal, and he served as president for eight years. He worked with organizations such as the Segura Program, a program for Catholic Hispanic immigrant families. He also used his skills as a handyman, bus driver and school lunch chef when needed.
After 12 years as St. Andrew’s head of school, Cynthia Weldon-Lassiter has announced she will step down at the end of next year. During her time at St. Andrew’s, Weldon-Lassiter increased funding to provide students with healthier school breakfast and extended the school year from the state-required 990 hours to 1,400 hours a year. St. Andrew’s is accepting applications for the position.
As St. Margaret’s School in Tappahannock celebrates 100 years, it also welcomes Colley W. Bell III as head of school. He starts his tenure at the Episcopal, all-girls boarding and day program school with a focus on STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and math) education, a rowing program and environmental studies. Bell will reside on campus with his wife, Edwina.
Cindy L. Trask, a former science department chair, assumed head of school duties on July 1 at St. Catherine’s School. Trask returns after serving as director of the upper school for The Westminster Schools of Atlanta. She will live on campus with her husband, Brian. Terrie Hale Scheckelhoff stepped down in July after serving as St. Catherine’s head of school for eight years and more than 40 years working in education. She was followed by interim head of school, Lila Lohr.
Passion Project
St. Catherine’s Middle School club raises money for Latino Artisans
Photo by Allison Felton
St. Catherine’s School’s Eñye/Freñye club, named after the Spanish alphabet’s letter ñ and designed to offer a safe space for students of Hispanic descent and their friends and allies, sold handwoven purses and bracelets for the Pulsera Project. Founded in 2009, Pulsera, which means “bracelet” in Spanish, supports artisans from Nicaragua and El Salvador by providing a market for their products in the United States. Since its initial sale, the organization has sold more than 1 million bracelets in over 3,000 schools, with 100% of the proceeds returned to the artisans.
Twelve middle school students crafted a campaign at St. Catherine’s to sell bracelets and purses, writing emails to teachers asking them to educate students on the project and setting up photo shoots to market the products. The students raised $2,300, more than any other school involved in the effort.
“It’s a wonderful way to educate students of all ages, so we were able to quickly disperse information to teachers so they could teach each of their students, and some even created lessons to go along,” says Allison Felton, a St. Catherine’s middle school Spanish teacher and the club’s sponsor. “It’s just wonderful to see how [the girls] can see really quickly how they can make an impact on their community.”
Photo courtesy Sabot at Stony Point
Building a Future
Sabot at Stony Point construction set to finish by spring 2022
“We’re ready for this new home,” says Shannon Montague, Sabot at Stony Point’s interim head of school, of their building upgrade.
The $4.5 million project, which broke ground in 2018 and is set to finish in spring 2022, aims to increase the number of classroom spaces to accommodate new students at the school. They incorporated the construction into their curriculum, as when they gave third graders the opportunity to speak with the project’s geothermal engineer to learn more about his job during construction.
Offering classes for students in preschool to eighth grade, Sabot at Stony Point places students in the core of teaching, Montague says.
“I think that this was a really great opportunity for us to kind of mark and show Sabot’s growth as a school and as a community and the fact that we are ready for this kind of next step in our history and in our story,” she says.
Photo courtesy Lynnhaven School
A New Haven
Relocation and expansion for Lynnhaven School
Lynnhaven School moved from its Forest Hill location to the 25-acre campus of Glendale Community Bible Church in eastern Henrico last month.
“The acquisition of this new campus allows us freedom and autonomy like we’ve not experienced before as a school,” founder and Co-head of School Jonathan Harris says.
The school, which has average class sizes of eight to 10 students, will be K-12 starting in fall 2022. The move aims to expand the independent progressive day school’s experiential and outdoor programming for students in an environment Harris deems “refreshingly free of distractions.”
Lynnhaven School, named in memory of Harris’ late sister, Jennifer Lynn Harris, who worked as a nurse, is an accredited member of the Virginia Council for Private Education and the National Association of Independent Schools.
“I am excited about fulfilling the school’s vision to be a ‘haven’ for all students as they learn, think and grow,” Harris says.
