CAROLINE COUNTY, Va. — It's still the first couple of weeks for many students around central Virginia.
And with Caroline County being one of the fastest-growing counties in the state, the school district is launching new programs to keep up with the booming population.
This year, the district is focused on literacy and attendance.
Caroline Middle School Principal Joshua Just says they’ve even added in a new incentive to get kids excited about coming to school everyday on time.
"If students make the entire week without missing any class time for anything, no discipline, no tardies, no early dismissals, then at the end of the week, we'll take the last 10 minutes of their lunch, and they get to go outside and have recess like they did in elementary school," he shared. "Last week was the first week of it. It was a huge success."
CBS 6 also caught up with Superintendent Dr. Sarah Calveric, who says when it comes to buildings and facilities in Caroline, they have two elementary schools that are over capacity.
She says they just received a $10 million grant to hopefully build a fourth elementary school.
She shared more about the literacy campaign–a big initiative in the district this year.
At the elementary school level, students will be authoring their own books. At the middle school, every student will read the same book, and the high school will turn into a cafe bookstore.
"We do not have a formal bookstore, and so we're really excited to open up our cafe bookstore at Caroline High School in this coming year to ensure that all of our families have books in hands and can move the needle on literacy in our neighborhoods and throughout Caroline," explained Calveric.
The cafe bookstore will have a soft launch next month, and the culinary students will be preparing snacks for the shop. They may even host brunch on Sundays in the future.
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