Petersburg schools show gains

Petersburg School Superintendent James M. Victory once referred to the city's schools as the poster child for school improvement.

City school officials have said for months that the division is making gains in student achievement, and the results are showing. When the Virginia Board of Education voted unanimously yesterday to give A.P. Hill Elementary School full accreditation status, it gave the city four fully accredited schools - a marked increase from last year's one school out of the district's seven.

Victory, who was hired in 2007 as superintendent to turn around the school system, was overcome with emotion after the board's vote.

"This feels almost like the birth of my first child," a choked-up Victory told the board. "It's emotional."

The state board also voted to give Richmond's Thomas C. Boushall Middle School conditional accreditation.

There also was a sense of relief when the board ruled in Petersburg's favor as the school division staff cheered the news.

A.P. Hill was investigated by the Virginia Department of Education this summer for irregularities in Standards of Learning testing. It was determined that as many as 12 students at A.P. Hill did not take one or more SOL tests during the spring testing period.

According to the report, attendance records show that those students should have had time to take the tests in a regular or makeup session.

Had those 12 students taken and failed the tests, pass rates would have dropped slightly, but the school still would have met all benchmarks to become fully accredited, said Shelley Loving-Ryder, assistant superintendent for the state Education Department's Division of Student Assessment and School Improvement.

Petersburg responded quickly to the investigation's results by overhauling the administration at A.P. Hill. On Wednesday, Sabrina Beamon was introduced as the school's new principal at a Petersburg School Board meeting.

School Board Chairman Kenneth L. Pritchett said former A.P. Hill Principal Phyllis Byrd no longer is employed by the school system.

Beamon leaves her post as assistant principal at Woolridge Elementary School in Chesterfield County to take over at A.P. Hill.

Petersburg also submitted a corrective action plan to the state Board of Education to prevent incidents of testing irregularities at A.P. Hill.

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Patricia I. Wright said Victory and the Petersburg School Board "took quick and decisive action when they discovered the irregularity" as she recommended that A.P. Hill be given full accreditation.

"It's very unfair to the students not to accept" the recommendation, said state board member David L. Johnson. "They've worked very hard for this."

Petersburg schools overcame years of low achievement to have four schools receive full accreditation.

It was a school system plagued with struggles. The division initially entered a memorandum of understanding with the Virginia Department of Education in 2004 to improve achievement.

After the 2006-07 school year, Petersburg had one school fully accredited out of nine, and three accredited with warning. Four were denied accreditation, and one was withheld.

Last year, six of the district's seven schools were denied accreditation. But the leadership by the School Board and central office took steps to fix their struggling system.

The changes in the past few years include hiring new staff at the central office, reconfiguring secondary education and seeking more highly qualified teachers.

Pritchett said the turnaround has been amazing.

But the schools that still are not accredited - Vernon Johns Junior High, Peabody Middle and J.E.B. Stuart Elementary - have a history of low achievement. J.E.B. Stuart and Peabody were denied accreditation for the fourth straight year and Vernon Johns for the third year in a row.

Victory said the success Petersburg is achieving can spread to the other schools, and the city can be a place for other struggling school divisions to look for help.

"Success breeds success. Once you get a taste of it, you want more of it," he said.

Contact Jeremy Slayton at (804) 649-6861 or .