This is an exciting time for our local schools, filled with promise for the future.
In Gloucester and Mathews, the school divisions are in the process of welcoming in new leadership. Dr. David S. Daniel, the new Mathews superintendent, had his first meeting with that county’s school board on July 19. Two days earlier, Gloucester County Public Schools named Dr. Anthony Vladu as its new superintendent, scheduled to take over the role beginning Tuesday.
The superintendents they replace—Nancy B. Welch in Mathews and Dr. Walter R. Clemons in Gloucester—saw their divisions through one of the most challenging times in modern educational history: the response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
What began as (what was hoped would be) a brief shutdown to allow the virus to run its course soon evolved into a massive retooling of how school was taught. Neither division was prepared for the changes, as students at all levels participated in virtual learning. Kindergarten through 12th graders gathered in the...