Radford board approves renewed memorandum with Virginia Tech center to expand student field trips and outreach

The Radford City School Board on Aug. 19 approved a memorandum of agreement with the Center for Educational Networks and Impacts at Virginia Tech to continue student field trips, in-school outreach and teacher–faculty collaborations. The agreement, which the board voted to approve during the meeting, maintains a partnership the superintendent said has run for more than eight years. Associate Director Phyllis Newbill of Virginia Tech told the board the partnership ran 10 field trips last year serving 879 Radford students and 15 outreach events that reached about 1,705 students; “if we just do the numbers, like that, it we served about two-thirds of the Radford City students,” she said. The memorandum will remain in effect after Dr. Joyce said she would sign and return it to Virginia Tech. The agreement frames coordinated activities including Hokie for a Day visits for fifth graders, graduate-student visits from Virginia Tech’s center for communicating science and classroom collaborations tied to teacher-preparation programs. Board members and school staff described the partnership as a way to introduce students to regional higher-education and workforce pathways; Jamie Little, the district liaison mentioned in the presentation, was credited with connecting a faculty member and a high-school teacher to create an ongoing data-science workshop that later helped the faculty member secure a research grant. The board approved the MOA in the meeting’s action items after a motion and second; the superintendent indicated she will sign the agreement on the board’s behalf. Why it matters: The MOA institutionalizes a pipeline of visits and outreach that the district and board said increases student exposure to postsecondary options and career-connected learning. The agreement also creates recurring contact points for grant-writing and teacher support that the presenters said have already produced funded opportunities. Background: Newbill described experiential offerings such as Hokie for a Day for fifth graders, STEM nights and a multigenerational project linking graduate communication training with kindergarten science lessons. The MOA is the district’s routine mechanism for coordinating those activities with Virginia Tech and was presented as an annual renewal.