Only 13 miles separate Greer and Red Hill, but they seem worlds apart. Both schools serve over 50% economically disadvantaged students, but while Red Hill serves fewer than 200 students, Greer has over 600. Greer has over 75% minority students. Red Hill is 78% white. Red Hill is thoroughly rural, Greer is situated snugly in the urban ring. For many families at either school, the elementary school just a baker’s dozen miles away might as well be a different world.
Greer sits on a large school acreage with Jouett Middle and Albemarle High Schools. From the parking lot, Greer doesn’t look huge, but navigating the interior can be like deciphering a maze. Greer’s wings and halls are described with continent labels, so students and parents can remember if they should go to Europe or Africa to get to the appropriate classroom. Even though traipsing through the halls as a visitor is confusing, when you are standing in one wing with one grade level, it can feel cozy and manageable. The fourth grade classrooms, for instance, all open into a shared space with a sink and small work area. It would be easy for the entire grade level to feel like one cohesive unit with that floor plan.
Despite an addition less than 3 years old, Greer is over capacity. Multiple redistricting plans have been suggested, but other schools in the urban ring are similarly crowded, and transferring students further out into the county to Murray or Broadus Wood would likely cause those schools to become over-capacity in just a year or two, and result in redistricting in another few short years. There do not seem to be any easy solutions to the county’s capacity issue.
Greer’s 2013 addition includes a beautiful art room, with high ceilings, and plenty of natural light. Similar to other schools, Greer’s new addition incorporates inner courtyards which allow students to have ready access to outdoor classrooms. The new art room opens out onto a concrete slab, adjoined with grass and mulch. Contained by exterior walls of the various wings and viewable through windows, teachers can allow students flexible use of this interior/exterior space.
As I wrote in my Jouett post, Greer serves many students who were relocated with their families to the Charlottesville area by the International Rescue Committee. 33% of Greer’s students are English Language Learners. Because of the large number of ELL student, there is no way that Greer could have separate ELL classrooms. English Language Learners are in mainstream classrooms and ELL teachers push into classes and occasionally pull students out for one on one and small group instruction.
Of the schools I have visited Greer seems the most full (granted I visited a goodly number before school was in session). In every hallway there were tiny to mid-sized, adorable humans on their way to some class or activity. The cafeteria was full of humans of every hue eating in harmony. Hallways were filled with books and workstations. It felt like every inch of the building was a hive of activity.

My first year of school was also the first year of occupancy of the current Red Hill Elementary School. I remember taking my placement tests in the now long gone two-story brick school house. The staircase of that former building still stands as the focal point of an outdoor courtyard, repurposed as a backdrop of a stage. Throughout the county I see this type of repurposing of spaces and reinvestment in interacting with nature. To see that in effect in my former school has particular resonance.
Red Hill serves about 170 students from the 29 South corridor from Interstate 64 to the Nelson County border. The district also includes the southern portion of Old Lynchburg Road, and the rural communities of Covesville and North Garden. This area of the county is established such that my family members are still considered relative newcomers despite living here for more than 50 years. Families with school age children live on the winding roads that intersect with routes 29 and 708.
The southern schools of Red Hill, Yancey and Scottsville each have significantly fewer students than the current county average. While I hear much talk of parity, with the implication that these smaller schools are missing out on advantages given to larger schools, in my mind (and likely nostalgia), Red Hill is the size that an elementary school should be, a size that creates a tight-knit, familiar community. That’s not to say that all aspects of a small school are positive. In a small school you are stuck with the same students and same teachers for many years, but there is a great deal to be said for learning how to create and sustain positive community over years of close living.
Red Hill sits on a rise that overlooks farmland still in use. Classrooms extend off a central hallway anchored on either end by the cafeteria and the gym. The “pod”, an octagonal space which predates the main hallway, houses 3 classrooms serving K-1 and one resource class. Because of Red Hill’s size, they’ve chosen to group the 6 grades into 3 grade bands– K-1, 2-3 and 4-5. Most students have the same teacher for two consecutive years, with occasional reassignment for a variety of reasons.
Red Hill will be undergoing renovations and reconfigurations to make its 30+ year blueprint more responsive to modern instructional methods. Working within the current budget strictures, and the concrete block construction is restrictive, there are plans to take out interior walls to allow flexible floor plans that allow for more collaborative work.
Similar to our need to consider personnel other than simply classroom teachers, we also need to expand our vision from simply classrooms to consider storage and workspace. Currently staff mailboxes, PTO supplies, and various workspace and storage is housed on the stage off the cafeteria. When the stage is used for school assemblies or performances all of the materials must be removed, to then be returned to their storage spots. While I was glad to inherit an abandoned pinata from a retiring teacher, most material is not so extraneous. Schools need spaces to store shared manipulatives, books and tools.