Governor Tom Ridge Visits Middleburg Community Charter School

Governor Ridge is greeted by students in a Middleburg Community Charter School classroom.

The first Secretary for the Dept. of Homeland Security and Former Governor of Pennsylvania showed his support for school choice.

Middleburg Community Charter School (MCCS) welcomed a surprise guest on April 20. The Honorable Tom Ridge, who served as the first Secretary for the U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security, as Governor of Pennsylvania from 1995 to 2001, and served six terms in Congress, paid a visit to MCCS to show support for school choice and STEAM education at the elementary school age.

The Honorable Mr. Ridge toured the historic school, learned about the Leonard da Vinci curriculum, viewed some of the projects that students were working on, met with teachers, visited the new STEAM lab, and interacted with students to learn more about Northern Virginia’s first public charter school.

“MCCS is a model for how public charter schools can really make a difference”, said Ridge, “When I was Governor of Pennsylvania, I sponsored charter school initiatives for the city of Philadelphia with the goal of achieving what MCCS has done in a few short years.”

“This country needs a new model for education to address the challenges our children will face in the 21st Century, and MCCS is clearly demonstrating what can be achieved in community-based public charter schools”, he added.

To learn more about MCCS, please visit www.lcps.org/domain/8136
or call (540) 687-5048.

Founded in 2014, Middleburg Community Charter School (MCCS) is an open and diverse Loudoun County public school open to Kindergarten through 5th grade students residing in Loudoun County. MCCS uses the Leonardo daVinci curriculum, which focuses on interdisciplinary education modeled after the thinking habits of daVinci: curiosity, persistence and critical thinking. For more information on the school, please visit http://www.loudoun.k12.va.us/middleburg.