It took nearly a century, but the St. Gertrude High School “Gertie Girls” will finally have fields of their own – and a presence in Henrico County.

At a fundraising campaign kick-off held April 28, parents, students, alumnae and friends of the school gathered at the site of a future athletic complex off Park Central Drive to envision the soccer fields, softball diamond and tennis courts soon to take shape. In addition to a turf field for soccer, field hockey and lacrosse, the Outdoor Athletic Center will boast a grass field, concession stand, restrooms, storage space, athletic training room, meeting room and a walking path that can be used by the cross country team.

The complex will be a godsend for families and staff at SGHS, who have relied on a cobbled-together network of rented and borrowed playing fields, a handful of buses and “the patience of our parents” to keep track of the teams’ whereabouts and schedules, said Margaret Shibley, director of alumnae & public relations.

Byrd Middle School recently was recognized nationally as the winner of two 21st century contests.

A video created by the school’s librarians and HCPS-TV, which documented the school’s participation in the first-ever national Digital Learning Day Feb. 1, was selected as the best middle school impact video submission in the nation by the Alliance for Excellent Education, which organized the day. More than 10,000 teachers and 1.5 million students in 37 states participated in Digital Learning Day, designed to highlight innovative teaching and learning techniques.

Students from Hermitage High School Technical Center recently got a rare meet-and-greet opportunity with NASCAR Sprint Cup driver and former Daytona 500 champion Ryan Newman at the U.S. Army’s Strength for the Future education program.

The purpose of the event was to underscore the importance of students staying in school and furthering their education. Students were also introduced to an array of high-tech career options within the motorsports industry. Newman himself is the only full-time Sprint Cup driver with a college degree, earning his bachelor’s in vehicle structural engineering from Purdue University.

A team of 10 fifth graders from Maybeury Elementary took home a 3rd place finish on Saturday at the Washington Convention Center, competing in the regional You Can Do the Rubik’s Cube Final Competition. In its final round, the team bettered its time by almost a minute from an earlier qualifying round and the cubers solved 25 cubes in 4:56. This win also earned their math and science departments $150.00.

Radio Disney's Ranger Spruce Sassafras quizzed third-graders at Sandston Elementary about their knowledge of tree trivia during a recent visit to the school. The students learned about trees and the environment with Project Plant It!, a program developed by Dominion to educate students, plant trees and improve the environment.

Project Plant It!, which received a national award from the Arbor Day Foundation, distributed free tree seedlings to each participating student on Arbor Day (April 27). The program provided teachers with a comprehensive kit of lesson plans and other instructional materials.

Henrico County Public Schools received high marks on recently conducted stakeholder surveys. When grading HCPS, 87 percent of parents gave Henrico County Public Schools a grade of A or B.

All middle and high school students, parents, staff, and a sampling of local businesses provided feedback on a range of topics including school quality and climate, effectiveness of communication, engagement in learning, and development of positive relationships.

Hermitage High School senior Adam Skyes was one of 500 Virginia teens who recently participated in the YMCA Virginia Model General Assembly (VGMA), a program designed to introduce high school students to the legislative process of Virginia. Sykes served as “governor” this year – his third year in the VGMA program.

“I wanted to have a more active role in the process so I decided to run for governor,” he said. “I wanted to have a say in how we would move forward. My mom always said that I needed to be involved in extracurricular activities, so she was ecstatic when I was elected governor.”

As governor for the 2011-2012 year, he helped his team deal with such controversial issues as same-sex marriage, immigration, legalizing marijuana and gun control. At this year’s sessions, hundreds of bills were introduced and debated by participants who took on the roles of senators, delegates, Cabinet officers, lobbyists and news reporters. Legislation was debated in committees and on the floors of the Senate and House of Delegates.

Henrico County Public Schools has once again been named one of the "Best Communities for Music Education" by the NAMM (National Association of Music Merchants) Foundation. Henrico is the only school system in the country to hold this distinction for all 13 years of the association's rankings.

Each school receiving the “Best Communities” designation scored in the 80th percentile or higher in the survey's grading process. Participants in the survey answered detailed questions about funding, graduation requirements, music class participation, instruction time, facilities, support for the music program and other relevant factors in their communities' music education programs. The responses were verified with district officials and advisory organizations reviewed the data.