Pittsylvania County kicks off new school year

The day dreaded by many young people arrived Monday as summer ended and the new school year began.

Pittsylvania County Schools Superintendent James McDaniel said the first of day of classes in the county’s 20 schools ran efficiently and without incident.

“We’ve had a smooth beginning to the 2008-2009 school year,” he said Monday.

McDaniel said he expects county school enrollment to meet or exceed last year’s figures, with 9,300 to 9,400 students filling seats in the county’s classrooms.

McDaniel pointed to a number of recent changes in the school system.

The school system’s staggered kindergarten program, which started about two or three years ago, is once again enabling teachers to get to know their students on a more personal level, he said.

On the first day of school, kindergartners attend classes while their parents meet with administrators to learn the schools’ policies and what’s expected of students. But on the second day, just a quarter of the students return for a more intimate class setting with their teachers, while subsequent quarters of the class stagger in the rest of the week.

When school continues the following week, full classes

resume, McDaniel said.

“It builds a relationship between teachers and students coming in,” he said.

Also, the Pittsylvania County Alternative School began its first year at a new location, the Hughes Center for Exceptional Children, after moving out of the Blairs Community Center earlier this summer.

The alternative school provides computer-based individualized education for up to 36 county and city students unsuccessful in mainstream schools due to behavioral or academic problems.

Other changes in the district include a new, second pre-school at Union Hall Elementary School, adding 16 students, McDaniel said.

In addition, six new classrooms have been built at Chatham Elementary School to replace modular structures and add space to the school, the superintendent said.

Contact John R. Crane at or (434) 791-7987.