During this session, Princess Anne High School administrators will share how their school team implemented a multi-faceted program to help students recover missing credits due to attendance and decrease their chronic absentee rate. PAHS will share their iterative approach to improving student accountability and performance and provide attendees with tools and strategies for implementing an effective recovery program within their own schools.
Moving past the standard scheduling practices to support EL students, this session will provide a roadmap for leaders by using the master schedule as a strategic tool rather than a logistical hurdle. By leveraging staff talent, you can Lift Up EL student growth and Build Up teacher efficacy by creating actual time for co-teaching teams to plan.
Tired of the "revolving door" of office referrals? Traditional punishment stops behavior temporarily, but it rarely changes it. Based on current research on restorative practices, this session will support school administrators with moving beyond student compliance to achieve student accountability. Attendees will gain an understanding of the principals of restorative practices and leave with tools to help move your school from a system of consequences to a culture of growth.
Every student, staff member, and family deserves to feel seen, valued, and connected. In this interactive session, participants will explore the CARE Continuum, the VBCPS belonging framework built on Connection, Achievement, Responsiveness, and Engagement, to intentionally foster belonging across your school community. Participants will identify key practices within each CARE pillar that strengthen relationships and reduce barriers to learning, and design at least one actionable strategy to implement within their classroom or building. Attendees will also examine how responsive systems support equitable outcomes for all learners. Walk away with tools you can use right away.
In today’s classrooms, educators frequently encounter students exhibiting signs of high anxiety, frustration, or interfering behavior. When a student’s emotions escalate, traditional disciplinary responses can sometimes worsen the situation. This interactive, evidence-based professional learning session equips administrators and support staff with the practical tools and psychological insights needed to defuse tense situations before they escalate into crises. Participants will learn how to read early warning signs, regulate their own stress responses, and apply verbal and non-verbal techniques that restore safety and connection to the learning environment.
How do you move the Future-Ready Profile from a poster on the wall to daily student experiences? In this interactive session, you will explore the systems, leadership moves, and structures that support embedding Future-Ready Profile attributes into Tier 1 classroom practices and school culture. An administrator and teacher leader will share implementation strategies and examples from their school that bring the Future-Ready Profile to life, followed by collaborative planning time for you to identify next steps for your own building. You will leave with ready-to-use examples and actionable ideas for implementation.
Discover how one school’s leadership team built a strategic, schoolwide system to strengthen Tier 1 behavioral and social-emotional learning practices. Using real examples, planning tools, and the VBCPS Tier 1 Universal Behavior Checklist, you'll explore practical ways to enhance support for students and staff. Together we will engage in collaborative inquiry and you will leave with actionable, customizable ideas to implement in your school this year.
This session opens with a direct challenge to the language we use when we talk about students and builds the case that culture is not the soft stuff, it's the precondition for all of the instructional work we're asking teachers to do. Leaders will examine how adult culture in PLCs shapes classroom culture for students, explore what collective efficacy actually requires of a faculty, and consider their own role in modeling the learning environment they want teachers to create.
Discover how Bayside High School launched an innovative AVID/ESL mentorship program that pairs AVID student leaders with multilingual learners to build organization, confidence, language development, and school connectedness. Participants will explore how cross-peer mentoring creates belonging while strengthening leadership and academic readiness for both groups. This interactive session will include program structures, student success stories, implementation tools, and hands-on planning strategies to replicate or adapt the model in any school setting. Attendees will leave with practical resources to build partnerships that lift students, strengthen culture, and prepare learners to be future-ready.
This session puts our AI learning into practice. As we determine our next steps with using AI to guide high school students, instructional decisions require consideration. With the widespread availability of AI in mind, how will this affect instructional design? Will educators stay the course with no changes, will they seek to make certain learning opportunities more AI resistant, or will they intentionally guide students in using AI responsibly and effectively? This session empowers school leaders to recognize and actively support the evolving changes in instructional design.
Explore ideas to build a strategic, schoolwide system to strengthen Tier 1 behavioral and social-emotional learning practices. Using real examples, planning tools, and the VBCPS Tier 1 Universal Behavior Checklist, you'll explore practical ways to enhance support for students and staff. Together we will engage in collaborative inquiry, and you will leave with actionable, customizable ideas to implement in your school this year.
Join Care Solace for a session tailored specifically for VBCPS administrators. Moving past technical workflows, this session focuses on your strategic leadership role. Leaders will leave equipped to champion Care Solace and seamlessly guide families to counselors for a warm handoff. During this session you will:
Learn how to identify families struggling with mental health, substance use, and social service challenges.
Discover the critical care gaps Care Solace fills
Gain key talking points to confidently describe these services to families
Be provided with a quick, behind-the-scenes demo of how school counselors utilize the system
Strong community partnerships are intentional and align with the VBCPS strategic framework. This session provides school leaders with a practical, tiered framework for partner engagement supporting student achievement, wellbeing, real-world learning, and career exploration. Co-presented by the Partnerships and VBEF Coordinators, participants will explore the Partnership Continuum. Leaders will identify immediate, simple, strategic, and transformational commitments, leaving with clarity on available opportunities and a personalized action plan for fostering reciprocal partnerships.
This session is designed to support members of school-based threat assessment teams with developing case management plans following a school threat. Participants will learn how to apply the STEP framework from the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice to implement an integrated and holistic approach to case management. Participants will have the opportunity to engage in scenario-based activities.
This session focuses on writing high-quality, measurable behavior goals and effectively monitoring progress within an MTSS framework. Participants will learn how to develop goals that are specific, observable, and aligned with student needs. The session will also cover practical methods for collecting behavior data to track growth and guide instructional decisions. Emphasis will be placed on ensuring goals are actionable and progress monitoring is systematic, helping educators make informed adjustments to interventions. Attendees will leave with tools and strategies to strengthen both goal development and ongoing monitoring of behavior supports.
While we have championed the selective and intentional use of AI in our high schools, we are now encountering a critical missing piece: the plan for hesitance. How do we support those who harbor deep-seated concerns? This session moves beyond the mechanics of implementation to explore the nuance of selective participation. School leaders will examine the diverse reasons why some students and teachers resist AI, from environmental ethics and data privacy to the preservation of creative integrity. Join us to discover how educators can facilitate respectful discourse that validates these concerns while providing high-quality, non-AI alternatives
This professional learning session is intentionally designed for deep thinking, reflection, and leadership dialogue grounded directly in What Great AVID Principals Do Differently by Brett Bowers. This session is suitable for principals, assistant principals and leadership teams and is built to move beyond compliance into ownership-oriented leadership practice. Participants will engage in structured reflection and peer-to-peer collaborative dialogue around key leadership practices from the text, examine how those practices connect to school culture and student success, and leave with actionable next steps for strengthening AVID implementation within their own school.
This session focuses on writing high-quality, measurable behavior goals and effectively monitoring progress within an MTSS framework. Participants will learn how to develop goals that are specific, observable, and aligned with student needs. The session will also cover practical methods for collecting behavior data to track growth and guide instructional decisions. Emphasis will be placed on ensuring goals are actionable and progress monitoring is systematic, helping educators make informed adjustments to interventions. Attendees will leave with tools and strategies to strengthen both goal development and ongoing monitoring of behavior supports.
Mental health plays a vital role in student success. VBCPS offers a range of resources and supports to promote student well-being, early intervention, and crisis support. This session will help build staff awareness and confidence in identifying needs, making appropriate referrals, and connecting students and families to the right supports. Participants will engage in small group discussion and analyze scenarios that reflect common situations faced in schools.
As school administrators, we are often caught in the gap between maintaining a safe, orderly building and ensuring that students feel supported. The Behavior Intervention Support Team (BIST) model offers a powerful framework, but how do we scale its most impactful elements across schools? This collaborative, hands-on professional learning session is designed specifically for school leaders to integrate components of BIST into their daily practice, coaching, and school-wide systems. The BIST elements of skills-based coaching, common language, predictability, early intervention, and caring confrontations will be explored.
This session explores how educators can intentionally build students’ courage to learn by creating classroom conditions that support academic risk-taking. Participants will examine strategies such as building relational trust, designing appropriately challenging tasks, and providing incremental success criteria so students experience frequent success. Using the TIRES framework (Tasks, Input, Responses, Evidence, Success), educators will learn how to structure lessons that increase student participation, confidence, and resilience. Examples from elementary literacy and content classrooms will demonstrate how these practices help develop engaged, future-ready learners who feel empowered to take risks and persist in learning.
Middle schools face increasing demands to meet diverse academic needs while also supporting students’ social-emotional growth. This session, designed for administrators and instructional specialists, will highlight how our middle school designed and implemented Thrive Time, a daily, embedded block within the master schedule that provides structured academic intervention, enrichment opportunities, and relationship-building experiences for all students. Participants will learn how Thrive Time was developed as a schoolwide system rather than a standalone intervention. The session will walk through the foundational structures that ensure consistency and effectiveness across classrooms, including things like student-focused interventions, daily materials, choice boards, and school-wide AVID strategies.
This professional learning session is intentionally designed for deep thinking, reflection, and leadership dialogue grounded directly in What Great AVID Principals Do Differently by Brett Bowers. This session is suitable for principals, assistant principals and leadership teams and is built to move beyond compliance into ownership-oriented leadership practice. Participants will engage in structured reflection and peer-to-peer collaborative dialogue around key leadership practices from the text, examine how those practices connect to school culture and student success, and leave with actionable next steps for strengthening AVID implementation within their own school.
Discover powerful strategies to help students successfully transition from alternative education settings back to comprehensive schools with confidence and support. This engaging session will explore best practices for creating smooth, student-centered transitions that promote academic success, positive behavior, and long-term growth. Participants will gain practical tools, collaborative strategies, and actionable insights to strengthen relationships, remove barriers, and ensure every student is positioned to thrive. Join us as we focus on building pathways that prepare all students to be future-ready.
