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After the first week of school in Henrico brought long lines due to new weapons scanners, transportation delays, and air conditioning issues, Henrico Schools officials said during an Aug. 24 Henrico School Board meeting that they will work to make improvements.

The school system has worked to “dramatically decrease” the long lines outside the weapons scanners placed at high schools and address AC outages “across the division,” Henrico Schools Superintendent Amy Cashwell said. She added that HCPS is actively recruiting teachers to fill remaining vacancies and bus drivers to eliminate late buses scheduled to arrive after the first bell.

The return to school was a “smooth transition” despite these issues, other HCPS officials said.

“We’re thrilled to report that the year has started off smoothly as we navigate some of the typical transitions and adjustments related to all things HVAC and transportation, but also as we manage new challenges related to our weapons scanners,” HCPS Chief of Staff Holly Coy told the board.

The Henrico School Board also approved a new paid parental leave policy that would allow any eligible school employee to take up to eight weeks of paid leave during a rolling 12-month period after the birth, adoption, or foster care placement of a child.

School board members praised the new paid leave, which full-time or permanent part-time employees can take – in conjunction with the Family and Medical Leave Act – all at once, in blocks of time, or by reducing hours.

“I’m kind of wishing I had some balloons or party favors or something because I think this is such a huge win for our staff members,” Three Chopt District School Board member Micky Ogburn said. “I feel like we can hear a collective cheer out in the schools because our teachers, they need this. And this is going to be a game changer for families.”

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All HCPS high schools implemented new weapons detections scanners starting the first day of school Aug. 21 in response to increased safety concerns, but several schools experienced long wait times due to the scanners early last week. Highland Springs’ parents reported that students arrived 30 to 40 minutes late on the first day.

Parents also reported long lines at Mills E. Godwin and Deep Run high schools, but Cashwell assured the board that the lines have substantially decreased after the HCPS safety team “refined a few elements of the procedure.”

“There were delays on Monday and Tuesday in some schools, but by Wednesday, it was really marked improvements across the system,” Cashwell said. “And I got to witness that firsthand.”

HCPS safety staffers visited high schools every day the first week to assist administrators on site and help improve and speed up the process, according to HCPS Chief of Operations Lenny Pritchard.

School board members were hopeful that the procedure would get much easier as students and staff adjusted.

“I know many of our students, families, and staff have expressed some frustrations along lines, wait times, and delays, but with any new protocol it takes time to iron out any kinks, and we just request some grace and patience with the process,” Fairfield District School Board member Roscoe Cooper said.

However, Ogburn said that several parents had raised concerns about lines forming again once the school year is in swing and students are bringing fuller backpacks to school. School Board Chair Kristi Kinsella of the Brookland District also raised concerns about how students waiting for the scanners would be affected by inclement weather.

Cashwell said that HCPS does not expect the lines to start again or to be impacted by weather, as field testing in the middle of the year last spring resulted in delays only when the scanners first were implemented.

Kinsella also raised concerns about student mental health being negatively impacted by the scanners, but Cashwell said that school counselors were available to any students experiencing anxieties and were especially helping special education students.

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Henrico Schools’ facilities team also responded to a number of AC outages at different schools, completing a total of 34 repairs as of Aug. 25.

While HCPS official spokesperson Eileen Cox said that most reports were made to HCPS the week before school began, and that most issues were not schoolwide, several HCPS employees and parents told the Citizen that some schools reported AC issues weeks or even months before school started.

Cashwell and School Board members, however, expressed appreciation to the facilities team for addressing most of the concerns and for providing spot coolers or fans to schools where the AC was still not fixed.

“I was at Lakeside Elementary School on Monday and our facilities teams were on site, specifically in the library which was extremely hot, and they moved all of the library activities out of that room to make sure the services were not interrupted and they were working feverishly,” Cooper said. “So I was very happy to see the way that they tried to mitigate that unforeseeable and unfortunate incident.”

Cashwell also said that Henrico Schools is now 98% staffed, with 70 full-time teacher openings out of 4,110 positions, and emphasized that the remaining classrooms are covered by substitutes. Vacancies have decreased since the last school board meeting Aug. 10, when HCPS reported 110 teacher vacancies.

However, Cooper emphasized that a large concentration of those vacancies are within schools in Eastern Henrico.

“I want to point out that all three of the high schools with the highest number of remaining vacancies after accounting for board subs are all in East End,” he said. “Henrico has six vacancies, Highland Springs four, Varina seven.”

HCPS officials told Cooper they are working to reduce those numbers with “a lot of different and varied strategies.”

Cashwell said that the school system is also actively recruiting more bus drivers to fill the 22 additional positions needed to eliminate double runs (when bus drivers have to pick up a second round of students and take them to school after the first bell).

“It’s a critical need, and while we’re faring much better than in prior years, we still have a gap with getting the drivers we need in place to eliminate those double runs that are causing those later pickups,” she said.

Administrators are ensuring that the students impacted are not marked tardy and that these students are able to make up missed instruction, according to Cashwell, and HCPS is communicating bus delays to parents via the Edulog bus app and the ParentSquare messaging app.

The school board next will convene for a 1 p.m. work session Sept. 14 at the New Bridge Learning Center Auditorium.

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Liana Hardy is the Citizen’s Report for America Corps member and education reporter. Her position is dependent upon reader support; make a tax-deductible contribution to the Citizen through RFA here.