By Taylor Boyd
Pamela Northam, the Commonwealth of Virginia’s First Lady, visited the Meadows of Dan Elementary School as part of the 2021 Back to School Tour on Friday, August 27.
Since 2018, Northam has visited nearly 200 schools and early childhood programs to engage with teachers and shed light on classrooms and learning dynamics to help create education-based legislation to present to the state’s General Assembly.
Northam said more important than ever she thinks to thank the amazing school personnel for keeping students safe and learning during this difficult time.
“You know, they pivoted so many times when we were learning about this terrible disease through last year, and now they have these kids in the classroom again. You can see the joy on their faces to be with their friends and with their teachers, and really the teachers are ecstatic to have them back too,” she said.
To help address the learning loss caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Northam said a lot of emphasis has been put into summer acceleration programs to ensure that students would be ready when they returned to the classrooms this fall.
“We know we still have some room to make up this year, but you can see already how great they are. Kids are resilient, they’re strong, and if you give them the tools that they need with our amazing educators they’re going to be okay,” she said.
Northam said state officials are determined to get children in the classrooms and ensure that they can stay there to learn. To accomplish this, state officials will continue to urge adults to get vaccinated to prevent another surge of the COVID-19 virus.
“I’m hoping that more of our great Virginians will continue to do the right thing to protect our kids outside of class so that when they’re in class they’ll be able to safe here,” she said.
