About Charlottesville City Schools

2009 – 2010 Awards Summary

Academic Highlights

  • U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan visited Greenbrier Elementary School in October to personally present the school's Blue Ribbon School Award at a special assembly. He was accompanied by Congressman Tom Periello and Virginia State Superintendent Patricia Wright.
  • Charlottesville High School had four students named as 2009 National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists: Olivia Dahl, Conner McCarthy, Thomas Reid, and Anna Russell. There were 17 students commended by NMSP at CHS.
  • Continuing a five-year trend, Charlottesville High School students who took the 2009 SAT exams scored well above the state and national averages.  Students also saw gains in all three areas—critical reading, mathematics, and writing.
    • CHS students saw a 22 point increase in critical reading scores, which is 47 points over the state average and 57 point above the national average.
    • CHS students saw a 12 point increase in math scores, which is 16 points over the state average and 13 point above the national average.
    • CHS students saw a 14 point increase in writing scores, which is 47 points over the state average and 52 point above the national average.
  • The 2009 four-year on-time graduation rate for all Charlottesville High School students is 76.5%. The rate reported by the state in May 2009 for all students was 74.6% —a substantial increase from the 70.8% figure initially reported in October 2008 before data was refined and verified.
  • In 2009, 43 CHS seniors graduated, due to their participation in the WALK program (Work Achieves Lasting Knowledge) and intensive support from their classroom teachers at CHS.
  • Sarah Hooper, Charlotte Keeley, Adam Geilker, Haley Arata, and Eliza Lane won awards for their science projects at the 29th Annual Virginia Piedmont Regional Science Fair at JPJ Arena.
  • Eliza Lane, Jenna Zschaebitz, Jessie Press- Williams, Champrea Frye, and Kelli Wisbauer on being one of four teams selected by NASA to build a payload for their balloon launch at the NASA Glenn Research Center in Ohio. The competition included submissions from students all over the country. NASA will fly the winning team to the GRC for BEHALF Flight Days, May 25-27. The CHS team is sponsored by Matt Shields.
  • Selected CHS students read their work at "Teen Read" Night as part of the Virginia Festival of the Book. Honorees were Fakhria Abdul-Jamil, Luna Adler, Emma Arata, Guthrie Brown, Taylor Brownrigg, Zongwe Buluma, Charlotte Erb, Sonya Hayden, Emily Hays, Harris Holland, Mahtab "Lili" Jamalreza, Jane McGinnis, Jack Nachmanovitch, Irene Newman, Abass Osman, Emma Paine, Bella Reyes, Zoe Rosner, Kate Seidel, and Omar Winstead.
  • CHS students placed in the regional VHSL Forensics tournament: Robin Burns placed 4th in Poetry Interpretation, Jane McGinnnis and Caroline Hylton, placed 4th and 5th respectively in Humorous Interpretation, and Austin Bouchard and Laura Hughes, who earned 4th in Duo Interpretation.
  • In Lincoln-Douglas Debate, Cameron Bills placed third and Omar Winstead sixth. Logan Hall and Claire Hart won fourth place in Public Forum. In Student Congress, Peter Nakamoto was champion speaker; Alex Moody was second, John Imbrie- Moore fourth, and Max Holland sixth. In the speech events, Zunaira Arbab was champion speaker in Declamation, and Charlotte Boatner-Doane was fourth. Robin Burns won second place in Oral Interpretation, and Ryan Averill was fourth. Jessie Press-Williams came in fourth in Extemporaneous Speaking. Ingrid Nelson was sixth in Dramatic Performance. 14 students qualified for the national debate tournament in Omaha. Lyzzie Hylton was state champion Lincoln-Douglas debater. Ivy McCall placed 8th in the state.
  • AP English students Champrea Frye and Ephua Yarney both won honorable mentions (only 10 in the state) for their submissions to Letters About Literature, a contest sponsored by the Library of Congress and the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities. Champrea and Ephua wrote letters to their favorite authors.
  • Ephua Yarney won $500 and Ivy McCall won $250 from the UVa Black Law Students Association for writing essays on Hill's contributions to Civil Rights and how his ideas can be applied to our everyday lives within a diverse school setting.
  • Robin Burns, on her honorable mention in the state short story competition, as well as her coach Ms. Carly Nicholson. Special congratulations to Emily Hays, who has won a Gold Medal on the National Latin Exam for four consecutive years. Emily is one of only 568 students (over 138,000 tested) who received a perfect score on the National Latin Exam. Thanks also go to her Latin teacher Ms. Tricia Stanton for guiding her to four years of exemplary success.
  • CHS junior Sarah Hooper earned 4th place in the Microbiology category at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in San Jose, California in May. Sarah’s project was entitled “The Effect of Different Inocula in Media on the PowerOutput of Microbial Biobatteries” Sarah received a ribbon and $500.
  • Nine Buford Middle School students answered their way to 1st place out of 170 schools in their national enrollment category, sixth place out of 22 Virginia schools, and 25th place out of all competing schools during the 54th Knowledge Master Open academic competition.
  • Twenty-one Buford Middle School students won awards in the in the 29th Annual Virginia Piedmont Regional Science Fair. There were 3 special awards, 3 first places, 5 second places, 5 third places, and four honorable mentions.
  • The following CHS students were selected to attend the 2010 Governor's Foreign Language Academies: Arabic: Cameron Bills; Chinese: Ivy McCall; French: Sonya Hayden; Russian: Isabel Fendley.
  • Kudos to the following students for their outstanding performances on the National Latin Exam: Cum Laude certificates: Marion Haskins, Guthrie Brown, and Claire Hart. Magna Cum Laude certificates: Marie Gayman, Logan Hall, Jasper Farish, Mariah Martin, Kiri Van Lengen-Welty, and Catherine Kromkowski. Silver medal, Maxima Cum Laude certificates: Timothy Votaw, Zunaira Arbab. Gold medal, Summa Cum Laude certificate: Emily Hays (Emily had a perfect score!)
  • CHS students placed well on the French National Contest in May. In French 2A, Sam Campbell placed at the 6th level statewide, and the 10th level nationally. Emily Keeley placed at the 8th level; Charlotte Keeley placed 9th; Isabelle Schoppa placed 10th on the statewide level. In French 2B, Ryan Bouabid placed on the 1st level statewide and on the 4th level nationally. In French 4A, Charlotte Boatner-Doane placed on the 1st level statewide and the 7th level nationally; Sonya Hayden placed 2nd statewide and 8th nationally; Cameron Bills placed 3rd statewide and 9th nationally; Sarah Cohn placed 7th, Ephuah Yarney placed 8th, and Isabel Fendley, Brodde Lamb, and Jessie Press-Williams placed on the 9th level statewide, and Omar Winstead placed on the 10th level statewide. In French 5A, Mollie Michie placed on the 1st level statewide and the 3rd nationally; Robin Burns placed 3rd statewide and 5th nationally; Charlotte Erb placed 4th statewide and 6th nationally; Nathalie Barton and Anna Russell placed 5th statewide and 7th nationally; and Emmy Danforth placed on the 6th level statewide and 8th nationally.
  • The World Language Honor Society held inductions in April for the following chapters: Delta Epsilon Phi--Virginia Kapitel Omega: Grace Bailey, Robert Bosserman, Eric Fetcho, Sophie Holmes, Carmen Rucker, and Michael Staudinger. la Société honoraire de Français: Zunaira Arbab, Cameron Bills, Charlotte Boatner-Doane, Isabel Fendley, Sony Hayden, Dania Jazouli, Jessie Press-Williams, Omar Winstead, and Ephuah Yarney. Societas Honoris Latina: Zunaira Arbab, Jasper Farish, Emily Hays, Bo Hunt, and Sean Kirkpatrick.Sociedad honoraria hispanica--Simon Bolivar: Prescott Angle, Charlotte Cherry, Julia Emery, Margie Folley, Ellen Frierson, Emily Hornsby, Hannah Morgan, and Michael Willson.
  • 20 CHS Marketing Education students passed the National Retail Federation Foundation’s National Professional Certification in Customer Service.  The certification is an industry-driven and endorsed credential that helps employers distinguish and recognize qualified customer service professionals, and help define career advancement opportunities for candidates.
  • Jenna Zschaebitz, Jessie Press-Williams, Champrea Frye, and Kelli Wisbauer were selected in a nationwide competition to send an experimental payload into space, carried by a NASA balloon. The CHS team earned an all-expense-paid trip to the Glenn Research Center in Cleveland to test the effects of near-space conditions on the growth of E. coli bacteria. The team and their physics teacher Matt Shields visited the NASA testing facilities, including an enormous vacuum chamber for testing shuttle rockets and a ballistics lab. Teams attached their payloads to a NASA balloon and watched as they left the ground at about 1000 feet per minute. After receiving data from the launch, the team will submitted findings to NASA. .

Sports Highlights

  • CHS Boys Basketball team were runners-up in the regional and district championships. . 
  • The CHS Scholastic Bowl team finished third in the State AA championship tournament. The team also won the Region II (AA) championship and the Jefferson District Championship, ending the season with a 22-3 record.

 

Arts Highlights

  • Eighteen Charlottesville High School musicians were selected by competitive audition for the 2009 South Central Senior Regional Orchestra September 26. Nearly 300 high school musicians auditioned for 103 chairs in the orchestra.  Nearly 20% of the chairs in the orchestra were earned by CHS musicians.
  • Charlottesville High School was once again a Virginia Music Educators Association Blue Ribbon School, because all three of our top musical ensembles earned a "superior" rating at their respective District Concert Festivals.
  • At the District Choral Festival, the CHS Knightengales received a rating of Superior and Charlottesville Singers received a rating of Excellent.
  • At the Virginia Band Directors' Association Concert Festival, the CHS Wind Ensemble played the most difficult level of music (grade 6) and earned Superior Ratings for both performance and sight reading.  The CHS Symphonic Band earned an Excellent rating after performing music that was a full difficulty level higher than what they performed last year.
  • The CHS Concert Orchestra earned straight Superior ratings in grade 5, the second most difficult level of music, and the CHSO String Ensemble earned straight Superior ratings in grade 6, the most difficult level, as well as "A's" in each of 26 categories.  The top CHS Orchestra has earned a Superior Rating in the most difficult music category in each District Festival appearance since 1984. 
  • The entire Charlottesville High School music program—Band, Orchestra, and Chorus—traveled to compete together against 18 schools from 11 states in the Heritage Festival of Music in Boston, MA in April.  The team effort resulted in the CHS Music Program winning the Festival Sweepstakes/Grand Championship, the competition’s highest honor for outstanding achievement and highest overall score throughout the three groups.
    • CHS brought home 15 different recognitions from the competition. The Wind Ensemble received Gold (Superior) ratings and placed 2nd in their class. The String Ensemble and the String Orchestra both earned Gold ratings, placing first in their classes. The String Ensemble earned the coveted best strings performance and top honors award. The String Ensemble and String Orchestra also earned the highest distinction, the “Adjudicators’ Award” for top rated performances. Three groups (the Wind Ensemble, String Ensemble, and String Orchestra) were honored with an invitation to compete at the Heritage Festival’s Festival of the Gold competition. Individual honors were earned by Zoë Ackerman (Violin) and Charlotte Erb (Viola) for exceptional performances. Additionally, the Concert Band took a Silver rating. Charlottesville Singers earned a Silver rating and placed 3rd in their class. The Knightengales earned Silver ratings and placed 2nd in their class. Congratulations to the CHS musicians and their directors, Will Cooke (chorus), Iesha Leonard (band), and Laura Thomas (orchestra) for an outstanding and highly successful festival.
  • Eighteen students from the Buford Middle School Orchestra program were selected to participate in the 2010 Junior Regional Orchestra, an event for orchestra students in grades 7-9.
  •   The Buford Middle School Band Program reached a major milestone at the Virginia Band Directors' Association Concert Festival. The 70 members of the Buford Symphonic Band received straight Superior Ratings from the panel of four judges. This marks the 27th consecutive year that the Buford Band program has achieved a Superior rating at the District Level since 1984.
  • CHS inducted 21 new theatre students into the International Thespian Society.

Community Service Partnership and Award Highlights

  • Clark staff trained almost 75 volunteers from State Farm and more than 26 volunteers from SAMS Club worked with students in 2009 - 2010. SAMS Club also donated $2500 to Clark.
  • CHS students worked with the Charlottesville Redevelopment Housing Authority to assist in redesigning the public housing of the City of Charlottesville. Students learned about urban design from government officials, architects, consultants, and gained skills by participating in a real life experience to dramatically change the landscape of public housing in our community.
  • Our students were much attuned to global news. Many have donated to relief efforts in Haiti. For example, Jackson-Via Elementary School combined a fundraiser with Dr. Seuss's birthday (March 2) and Read across America Week.  For each book that a student or staff member read, teachers donated a dime. Additionally, ten teachers agreed to donate a penny per book. Children deposited a dime into the "Dimes for Haiti" bucket when they finish reading a book. At Johnson Elementary School, students raised $686.21 in pennies. Venable Elementary students collected over 100 signatures on a petition requesting that the PTO donate proceeds from its Bingo Night to Haitian relief. The students’ petition was honored and the money was donated to the Red Cross.
  • The United Way Student Service Awards recognize exceptional high school students for their outstanding commitment to our community through volunteerism or service-learning. Charlottesville High School student Catherine Kromkowski was the 2010 recipient.
  • A list of top colleges and universities accepting CHS graduates is on the CHS graduate info page.

Green Awards

  • Seven Charlottesville City elementary school buildings earned the ENERGY STAR® for Superior Energy Efficiency. All elementary schools and CHS complied with the requirements.