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Justice Lavoy: Chesterfield Recovery Academy wins accreditation, cites transportation and staffing needs
Summary
At the Jan. 22 schoolboard budget work session, Justice Lavoy, program coordinator for the Chesterfield Recovery Academy, reported the school earned six-year accreditation, serves 14 students from seven counties, receives $500,000 annually via House Bill 601, and secured a $340,000 opioid-abatement grant to cover transportation and outreach.
Justice Lavoy, program coordinator for the Chesterfield Recovery Academy, told the Chesterfield County School Board on Jan. 22 that the recovery high school has been granted accreditation for the next six years after meeting 24 of 26 standards and all 36 academic indicators.
"We are now in our fourth school year," Lavoy said, noting the academy opened its first day of school on Sept. 8, 2022. He said the program currently enrolls 14 students representing seven counties and has grown its staff from three at opening to 10 positions.
Lavoy outlined the academy’s funding mix: "With funding House Bill 601 we receive half a million dollars per year," he said, and added that the regional department of behavioral health and the community services board fund the clinical team, which pays clinicians, peers, drug testing and outside therapy.
Board members pressed Lavoy on operations. Mr. Bronto asked for clarification on peer roles; Lavoy responded that "navigator" and "specialist" are titles used by partners but the underlying duties align with trained peer-recovery specialists. On transportation — a major cost driver — Lavoy said in-county students typically ride district buses while out-of-county students may use contracted door‑to‑door vans; he cited one student’s daily roundtrip from Charles City as roughly an hour each way.
Lavoy highlighted a recent opioid abatement authority grant of about $340,000 intended to cover transportation and outreach, and described partnerships with local mental-health providers and VCU recovery groups that provide collegiate peer mentoring. He also noted the academy’s facility dog, Valon, is used routinely to reduce intake anxiety and as a support in class and therapy.
The presentation closed with program goals for the coming year: increase enrollment to about 25 students, expand county representation to roughly 60 percent of participating localities, and continue to sustain clinical and academic services under the new accreditation.
The board thanked Lavoy for the update and invited the academy to return with further updates on transportation logistics and community partnerships.
