Thumbs up, along with a big welcome, to Crystal Edwards, the new superintendent of Lynchburg City Schools.
The division held a festive meet-and-greet Thursday at Heritage High School for the community and Edwards to introduce themselves to each other. The E.C. Glass High School Band provided music for the event.
Edwards comes to Lynchburg from the Lawrence Township Public Schools division in Lawrence Township, N.J. A 31-year veteran of New Jersey public schools, she began her time in Lawrence in March 2006 as assistant superintendent for instructional services. The division’s board named her superintendent in 2011.
Over the course of her New Jersey career, she held down a variety of positions, including teacher, coach, supervisor, assistant superintendent and, finally, superintendent. She received her master’s degree in chemistry from Rutgers University and holds a doctorate in education leadership, management and policy from Seton Hall University.
We join with the LCS community and the greater community of Lynchburg in welcoming Edwards to Central Virginia and wish her much success as she guides our public schools in the years to come.
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Thumbs up to the friends of the late Jim Whorley and the supporters of Brookville High School who came together to make a lasting memorial to the school’s longtime principal a reality.
Whorley served as principal of Brookville High School from 1994 to 2008. Over the Christmas holidays that year, he and Terry Reid, his longtime friend, embarked on their annual duck hunting trip to Buggs Island Lake in Clarksville. Somehow or other, the boat capsized, and both men drowned. (Reid was the retired utilities administrator for the Lynchburg Public Works Department.)
The Brookville High School community proposed a new athletic fieldhouse as a fitting memorial for their late principal, who as football coach at Brookville led the Bees to a 58-24-2 record from 1972 to 1980.
Fundraising for the project was a labor of love for the Brookville community and included many former students and players of Whorley’s.
Despite slight damage from the April 15 tornado, the fieldhouse opened earlier this week, and we can’t help but think Jim Whorley would be proud.