Dr. Erik Healey, a UVA alumni and previous Director of Student Services at Annandale High School first came to Centreville in November of 2024. This was a huge change not only for students but for faculty as well. But was it a welcome one? The consensus seems to be scattered.
One of Dr. Healey’s biggest changes to the Centreville community was the implementation of the CATS period in replacement of PLUS. The CATS period comes after every advisory class, on the same bell schedule as a typical PLUS period. Unlike the PLUS periods, though, the CATS period stays consistent for most students throughout each quarter. Quarterly, each student’s CATS teacher rotates; however, if a student is failing a class, they are assigned a remediation class which can be with a different teacher than the actual class they are failing. Here is where some problems arise.
One of the teachers I spoke with who asked to be anonymous explained to me that the remediation classes were essentially another 45 minute class teachers were expected to prep for while being paid the same amount, he said the CATS periods “add a little stress” to an already heavy workload.
When I spoke to Dr. Healey about this issue he clarified that teachers were expected to work together within their subject team to create a remediation lesson as the remediation students were mixed from all different classes within the subject. Dr. Healey also told me that he had received complaints about this specific problem and was working to balance out the workload and make CATS more equitable for teachers.
A concern raised by another teacher, who also asked to be anonymous, that I spoke to was, with the removal of PLUS and implementation of CATS it makes tests much more difficult to retake or make up. Especially with the county policy regarding metal detectors, students may not enter the school building before 7:45, which is not necessarily adequate time to take a test before the 8:10 bell. Additionally, due to home circumstances, taking tests after school is not always easy for students and/or teachers.
In addition to a teacher in charge of a remediation class, I spoke with an anonymous, non-core teacher, hoping she could give some unbiased insight into his other policies. One of the biggest things she emphasized to me was his focus on equaling out work and grading policies between teachers.
An example she gave me was in the form of triplets who all attended Centreville High School, if triplet A took all the same classes as triplets B and C but received all the “easiest” teachers their quality of education may not be the same as triplet B who received the “hardest” teachers and triplet C who received a mix of both. Dr. Healey’s new policies are trying to put an end to this, making all teachers who teach the same subject have the same assignments and grading.
According to the teachers I spoke to, he is incredibly receptive to feedback and very data-driven. Dr. Healey was of course “a tougher pill to swallow” one anonymous teacher said, but, according to her, that was because he came at a time where faculty and students were not used to being held accountable. So, while of course Dr. Healey’s new policies may be inconvenient, it seems the general agreement by teachers is that Dr. Healey has the students’ best interests in mind.
But what about them?
I spoke to a handful of senior students, ones who can compare Healey’s policies to previous principles at the school- the thoughts about him were varied.
“Dr. Healey’s policies benefit the kids who try” 12th grader, Paige Laufer said, she argued that CATS periods had no effect on her, as she had no reason to retake tests or go to remediation sessions.
However, another student who asked to stay anonymous that I spoke to said Dr. Healey was a “totalitarian” and that the “power had gone to his head,” although she admitted her reasoning was because ROAR was easier to skip than CATS.
Overall, it seems that while Dr. Healey may be a difficult change to adjust to; he truly does seem to have the students and their education at the forefront of all he has done and is doing at our school.
