CHARLOTTESVILLE (WINA) – WINA education analyst and Clayborne Education CEO Lee Elberson weighed in on Charlottesville Right Now about the situation at Charlottesville High School, and he thinks Dr. Royal Gurley’s superintendent’s job could be in question. He says a CHS student he serves still does not feel completely safe, and the school board is going to need to enact new policies and fund them. Elberson says Dr. Gurley, with a new school board majority being seated at the beginning of the new year, needs to demonstrate he’s doing enough to enable CHS to be successful.

Elberson notes he has not really seen a program he thinks will appreciably help at CHS, and the pandemic has rendered programs that worked 10 to 20 years ago now ineffective. He also says teachers feel they have not been supported in disciplinary actions, and grading practices have not penalized students for failure to turn in work. While discipline has to be instilled, Elberson says programs will need to be implemented that take into account the fact many students’ emotional development has been stunted during the pandemic closures.