Henrico schools expand team-based scheduling pilots; officials point to student engagement and teacher retention gains

Henrico County Public Schools officials told the school board that pilot scheduling models that put teams of teachers and shared student cohorts at the center of instruction have increased student engagement and strengthened teacher retention.

Thomas Ferrell, director of high school education, said the division's "Next Education Workforce" and related staffing models are designed to expand deeper, personalized learning aligned to the Henrico Learner Profile and the system's strategic goals. "Our emphasis on innovative programming and structures ensures that all students develop the skills needed to navigate complex challenges," Ferrell said during the presentation.

At the elementary level, Scott Thorpe, director of elementary education, said six schools have adopted elements of the Next Education Workforce model after summer training: Harvey, Colonial Trail, Carver, Maud Trevet, Mayberry and Shady Grove. Tonya Holmes, principal of Harvey Elementary, described a daily block where students "walk to what they need" to join small-group instruction for remediation, practice or enrichment. "This empowers student ownership and voice," Holmes said.

Teachers at Harvey and other pilot sites described teaming structures that reduced unnecessary transitions and created opportunities for deeper, cross-curricular projects. One teacher said the model has "injected this joy of teaching," and staff reported more frequent grade-level data analysis and the ability to regroup students regularly to meet changing needs.

At the high school level, Taylor Snow, director of secondary teaching and learning, said Godwin, Tucker and Highland Springs started ninth-grade cohort models in which teams of core-content teachers share cohorts of roughly 85 to 100 freshmen, using anchor courses such as World History I and Algebra I to coordinate interdisciplinary learning. Snow said those schools were selected because of preexisting work on student choice, flexible scheduling and project-based learning.

Snow also announced that Godwin and Tucker have been named learning partners in the Carnegie Foundation's Future of High School network. Lee Donovan, principal of Godwin High School, described collaboration with central office staff and named instructional partners embedded with teachers, and said the selection aims to broaden competency-based practices and durable-skill development.

Officials outlined an evaluation plan centered on student work, projects and reflections mapped to the Henrico Learner Profile, along with academic indicators (grades and assessments), engagement measures (attendance and participation) and teacher-satisfaction surveys.

Board members praised the presentation and asked detailed questions about transition supports, check-in frequency, scheduling impacts on electives, and why middle schools were not included in the initial cohort. Ferrell and Donovan said division staff work with middle schools and counselors to cohort students, that common planning and weekly check-ins are built into many sites, and that middle schools are on the expansion list but were not included initially because the selected high schools and elementary pilots were ready to implement first.

Donovan acknowledged scheduling trade-offs at the high school level and said master schedulers moved some singleton electives so students could still access band and technology classes; she said class sizes in the cohorts at Godwin are between about 24 and 28 students. Panelists said early feedback shows improved teacher retention at pilot schools and stronger student-adult relationships.

Board members urged clearer external communication to families and the broader community; presenters said they have used group parent communications and will work with Carnegie and division communications staff to expand outreach. The presentation closed with board members expressing support for phased expansion and continued monitoring of outcomes.

The board did not take formal action on the item during this session; presenters requested continued support for training and expansion and said next steps include continuing to monitor implementation and provide additional professional learning.