Hello Providence Middle School Families,

I am honored to continue to serve the Providence Middle School Community as Principal. I have always credited my success in life to my access to a quality education. I make it my goal everyday to provide every Providence student with the same valuable learning experiences that empowered me to succeed.

Although I grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and attended a University called Slippery Rock, I’ve now called Chesterfield, Virginia home for the past 15 years. After teaching history and social studies for nine years at Matoaca High School, I’ve proudly served as the dean, assistant principal, and associate principal of Providence Middle school over the past six years. Regardless of where I’ve lived or worked, I’ve always believed that providing a safe environment and supporting exceptional instruction can create opportunities for every child.

We have three goals for every Providence Middle School student:

• First and foremost, we need to make sure that every student is safe and able to (re)build positive relationships with other students and our staff. Upon returning to school, Providence middle school will:
  • Expand our mentoring program – Flock Time – where every student is paired with a small group of peers and a teacher. We’ll increase the frequency of face-to-face mentoring from bi-monthly to daily and gradually scale back, when and if possible. This approach will allow students to quickly (re)build a strong connection with students and teachers.
  • Provide targeted professional development to our staff in order to prepare them to best respond to the Pandemic-Induced-Trauma that many of our students suffered over the course of the past year.
• In order to address academic gaps that have grown during our school closures, Providence Middle School will continue to implement an instructional model that emphasizes personalized and individualized instruction for every Providence Middle School student. By focusing on guided reading in our English/Language Arts classes and small group instruction in all other classes, we will increase literacy and build real-world skills. In order to best prepare our students for the real world and a future that is unpredictable, our teachers are committed to embedding the 6 C’s: Collaboration, Communication, Creativity, Citizenship, Connectivity, and Critical Thinking into lessons, experiences, and programming.
• Lastly, as our community continues to grow and diversify, the Providence Middle School team is committed to making sure that we respond to and embrace our ever-changing world. Systemic racism in our society has existed for too long. As a principal, and a longtime member of the Providence community, I want you to know that I stand firmly in solidarity with all of those working to dismantle the systems that have brought us to where we are today. But more than that, I am dedicated to leading our staff in developing a culture of inclusion that embraces students of all backgrounds. All of us who serve here at Providence Middle School are prepared to tackle the difficult conversations that will lead to an examination of our policies and practices.

I invite you to join our Parent Teacher Association (PTA) and attend our monthly meetings to help chart the path forward for Providence Middle School. Our PTA provides support to our students and staff throughout the year. I personally attend every PTA meeting in order to support this great resource, but also to be accessible to you!

Additionally, please look for the weekly community message, “Positively Providence” posted on our website, communicated via Parent Link, and on social media. Please follow our school on Twitter and Facebook @PVMSrams using the hashtag #positivelyProvidence and follow me @MJRodney21 for all things Positively Providence.

I am so excited to get to work for you and your child as Providence Middle School’s principal.

Sincerely, Michael-Jon Rodney