Local Voices & Continued Lessons

A quiet walk can carry a lot of history. We bring together Dr. Ella Ward—longtime educator, school board alum, and current Chesapeake City Council member—and Principal Wade Sloan of Portlock Primary to explore how a one-room schoolhouse on Benefit Road still shapes how our students learn, hope, and lead today. Dr. Ward traces a lifetime of service that began with a simple neighborhood need and grew into decades of educational leadership. Her memories of segregated classrooms, long walks to s...