School

School

starts

New year,

new faces

By Naomi Smoot-Kimble

Rappahannock News Staff Writer

Everything looked brand new, from shiny new shoes to boxes of well-sharpened pencils in backpacks on Monday when some 1,025 students from Rappahannock County public schools officially started the first day of the 2003-2004 school year.

There were new teachers to greet them too.

The high school has three additions to its faculty and the elementary school has five. A new volunteer coordinator was also hired this year to service both schools.

Of these new faces, two graduated from Rappahannock County High School, two are beginning new careers, two recently moved to the county from out of state, one is from England and two are University of Virginia alumnae.

Patti Hartsog will be teaching Spanish I this year at the high school. Hartsog has 30 years teaching experience and recently retired from a high school in her native state of West Virginia. She said the school was similar to Rappahannock’s in both size and atmosphere.

Hartsog said one of her reasons for relocating to this area was her daughter and friends who live in the Northern Virginia area. But this is not her only reason.

“I always wanted to live closer to Washington D.C. and be able to visit the monuments,” she said.

Her goal for this year is to provide her students with knowledge of the Spanish language and an introduction to the Hispanic world. Tb do this, she intends to draw on the experiences she had while traveling through Spain and Mexico. *

Also new at the high school this year is Lindsey Burger, a 1999 RCHS alumnae and recent Virginia Tech graduate.

Burger said she has worked with children at the Child Care and Learning Center in Washington, as well as through volunteer work with the local 4-H program and assisting with an after school reading program

See SCHOOL, Page A5