NEW YEAR, NEW BUILDING • Rockingham Academy Opens
August 27, 2018
New Facility Replaces Former Dayton Learning Center
By NOLAN STOUT
Daily News-Record 8/25/18
HARRISONBURG — Rockingham County’s newest school is open for business.
About 50 people attended a ribbon-cutting ceremony and got a tour of the Rockingham Academy on Friday, though it officially opened with the start of the fall semester on Tuesday.
The facility on Pleasant Valley Road in Harrisonburg replaces the Dayton Learning Center.
The academy serves as Rockingham County Public Schools’ alternative school for eighth- graders and high school students, who can be referred for disciplinary reasons or opt to take classes in a smaller setting. It has 56 students and 12 faculty and staff members.
“We want to make sure if students don’t learn the way we teach, we need to teach the way they learn,” said Oskar Scheikl, the division’s superintendent.
Rockingham Academy’s principal is Scott Bojanich, who took over when Dayton Learning Center Principal Emily Holloway took a job at Elkton Middle School.
In 2015, the Rockingham County School Board decided to replace the 104-year-old building on Mill Street in Dayton rather than renovate it to fix several deficiencies related to its age.
“Something needed to be done,” School Board Chairman Dan Breeden said. “We didn’t quite know what, but we knew that something had to be done.”
School officials estimated renovations to the 26,800-square-foot facility would cost between $ 4.7 million and $4.8 million.
The School Board voted instead to build the 18,900-square-foot Rockingham Academy at a cost of about $5 million.
The Board of Supervisors sold the learning center building to Blue Ridge Christian School in June for $400,000.
The one- floor Rockingham Academy has 10 classrooms for up to 100 students and between 15 and 20 employees. The school also has a gym and an agriculture and technical education shop. “This is a living monument to the priority alternative education has to Rockingham County,” Breeden said.
It is also more centrally located than Dayton, cutting down on some travel times.
Jamie Eberly, who has taught in the alternative education program for 15 years, said the building presents new opportunities.
Eberly is able to work with children who are referred to in- school suspension, which wasn’t possible with the staffing and space at the Dayton building.
Eberly also said students who need only three or four credits for graduation can complete courses at the academy rather than enroll in other schools.
“If you put them in a classroom, they have to go until June,” he said. “There’s no reason for them to be in school for 180 days.”
“We want to make sure if students don’t learn the way we teach, we need to teach the way they learn.”
-Oskar Scheikl, Rockingham County Schools superintendent
Rockingham Academy teacher Jamie Eberly (center) talks with guests during a tour of the new school following a ribbon- cutting
Guests leave Rockingham Academy after a tour Friday afternoon.
By NOLAN STOUT
Daily News-Record 8/25/18
HARRISONBURG — Rockingham County’s newest school is open for business.
About 50 people attended a ribbon-cutting ceremony and got a tour of the Rockingham Academy on Friday, though it officially opened with the start of the fall semester on Tuesday.
The facility on Pleasant Valley Road in Harrisonburg replaces the Dayton Learning Center.
The academy serves as Rockingham County Public Schools’ alternative school for eighth- graders and high school students, who can be referred for disciplinary reasons or opt to take classes in a smaller setting. It has 56 students and 12 faculty and staff members.
“We want to make sure if students don’t learn the way we teach, we need to teach the way they learn,” said Oskar Scheikl, the division’s superintendent.
Rockingham Academy’s principal is Scott Bojanich, who took over when Dayton Learning Center Principal Emily Holloway took a job at Elkton Middle School.
In 2015, the Rockingham County School Board decided to replace the 104-year-old building on Mill Street in Dayton rather than renovate it to fix several deficiencies related to its age.
“Something needed to be done,” School Board Chairman Dan Breeden said. “We didn’t quite know what, but we knew that something had to be done.”
School officials estimated renovations to the 26,800-square-foot facility would cost between $ 4.7 million and $4.8 million.
The School Board voted instead to build the 18,900-square-foot Rockingham Academy at a cost of about $5 million.
The Board of Supervisors sold the learning center building to Blue Ridge Christian School in June for $400,000.
The one- floor Rockingham Academy has 10 classrooms for up to 100 students and between 15 and 20 employees. The school also has a gym and an agriculture and technical education shop. “This is a living monument to the priority alternative education has to Rockingham County,” Breeden said.
It is also more centrally located than Dayton, cutting down on some travel times.
Jamie Eberly, who has taught in the alternative education program for 15 years, said the building presents new opportunities.
Eberly is able to work with children who are referred to in- school suspension, which wasn’t possible with the staffing and space at the Dayton building.
Eberly also said students who need only three or four credits for graduation can complete courses at the academy rather than enroll in other schools.
“If you put them in a classroom, they have to go until June,” he said. “There’s no reason for them to be in school for 180 days.”
“We want to make sure if students don’t learn the way we teach, we need to teach the way they learn.”
-Oskar Scheikl, Rockingham County Schools superintendent
Rockingham Academy teacher Jamie Eberly (center) talks with guests during a tour of the new school following a ribbon- cutting
Guests leave Rockingham Academy after a tour Friday afternoon.
