Piney Branch Elementary School, built 2011, is set to open for its second school year with a new principal, who will face the daunting, yet exciting task of defining the school's vision and mission statement.
“We’re still a new school, so we’re still developing our culture and our climate for our building. We’re still learning about our processes, working with the staff and helping students learn,” said Principal Janet Herrit.
Herrit, who formerly served as assistant principal at Henderson Elementary School in Montclair, will apply what Prince William Schools calls the Continual Improvement Process, modeled after the Baldridge Education Criteria, which requires administrators to define their visions for their schools and solidify them through mission statements.
“Baldridge establishes processes,” said Herrit, “You establish a culture through your vision of a quality student, a quality teacher, a quality principal.”
In the following months Herrit will be consulting with her staff to see if that motto accurately reflects the vision they want for the school, or if they should go in a different direction. Currently, Piney Branch subscribes to the statement, “Ensuring that everyone learns and achieves.”
Either way, Herrit expects STEM will play a big part of the curriculum.
“What we’re hoping to do is to move into a STEM (Science, Technology, Education and Math) school within the next few years,” Herrit said.
While STEM incorporates the sciences, it also has many cross-curricular applications.
Moreover, STEM requires higher-level thinking and research-based inquiries that should prepare students for the upper grades.
“The feedback, I’ve had from the parents that I’ve talked to has been positive. We still have to cover the Prince William County curriculum, but STEM also incorporates higher-level thinking skills, hands on learning and the research component,” Herrit said.
She is also interested in applying a multi-tiered approach to helping Piney Branch students reach their academic potentials. The approach involves identifying students who need remediation and providing them with extra attention and assistance.
“We monitor students; we implement different types of interventions,” said Herrit.
Amongst the types of interventions she hopes to offer are supplementary reading and math groups, computer tutorials and one on one instruction whenever possible. However, the interventions are not just for academically struggling students; she hopes to provide enrichment to advanced students as well.
As the school year progresses, Herrit expects that it will also attract more clubs and activities.
“The important part was getting the school up and running. We do work with robotics. We will work with our PTSO,” Herrit said.
They have also partnered with Bristow Smart Markets as a corporate sponsor that will help them to earn the Governor’s Gold Fitness Award through healthy initiatives, such as growing their own learning garden.
It fits with the fact that Piney Branch was designed to be a green school or what the county calls a “lead school,” meaning that the school was built to be environmentally sound and energy efficient.
Although it sounds as though Herrit has some challenging work ahead of her, she also has the change to put her stamp on a brand new school.
On behalf of herself and her staff, Herrit said, “We’re just excited to be here and looking forward to a successful school year.”
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