Virginia PTA honors Henrico's Alicia Atkins as child advocate of the year

Henrico School Board member Alicia Atkins, who represents the Varina district, was honored Saturday by the Virginia Parent Teacher Association as child advocate of the year.

For several years before she was elected to office, Atkins had been active in creating, rebuilding and leading PTA groups at local schools. By 2017, she was on so many PTA boards that she’s unsure of the exact number.

“It became instrumental in my life and my journey,” Atkins said Saturday at the Virginia PTA annual meeting at Atlee High School in Hanover. “What I discovered was a family.”

In addition to PTA groups at schools in her community, Atkins also helped schools outside of her community “in silence,” she said, “because the titles did not matter to me. What mattered were our communities and navigating these invisible systems that were producing these outcomes that were fostering and pushing decision making.”

Atkins became the first Black woman to serve on the Henrico County School Board when she was elected in 2019.

She serves on the school board’s School Health Advisory Board and Special Education Advisory Committee. She also serves on three superintendent’s advisory committees: the HCPS Health Committee, Henrico Federal Programs Advisory Committee, and the Instructional Materials Review Committee, which reviews challenged books.

As for her next steps, Atkins said Saturday that she wants to focus on college affordability, involving children in civic engagement, and the importance of teaching history, an apparent reference to Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s order to end the use of “inherently divisive concepts” in schools – a push many have regarded as an attempt to dismantle efforts to promote cultural and racial diversity.

“This is not the time to block learning history,” Atkins said. “It is always going to be emotional learning your history – the good, the bad and the ugly. But in order to understand human behavior, you have to understand that piece of history.”

Along with Atkins, the Virginia PTA also honored Sen. Jennifer McClellan (D- Richmond) and Del. Carrie Coyner (R-Chesterfield), both of whom led efforts to pass the Virginia Literacy Act in their respective chambers.

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Anna Bryson is the Henrico Citizen’s education reporter and a Report for America corps member. Make a tax-deductible donation to support her work, and RFA will match it dollar for dollar. Sign up here for her free weekly education newsletter.