It was on Monday that the Virginia Department of Education revealed that Park Avenue Elementary and Westwood Middle were added to the fully accredited list, joining Schoolfield Elementary, Forest Hills Elementary and Galileo Magnet High. The latter three have been accredited for at least two years now.
A celebratory mood consumed the Danville School Board meeting room Thursday night just days after accreditation results were announced, marking the first time in about a decade five city schools received the top ranking.
Even though only five out of the 11 schools in the city are fully accredited, the achievement is a turnaround from the 2017-18 year when seven Danville schools were denied accreditation.
By comparison, all schools in Pittsylvania County are fully accredited.
State accreditation rates student performance on a variety of measures. The six other Danville schools are accredited with conditions, a loose term that means the schools aren’t ranked in the top tier.
“Danville Public School is definitely thriving,” Danville Mayor Alonzo Jones said to the school board before heaping praise on the members and Superintendent Angela Hairston. Jones presented the school board and administration with city pins in honor of the achievement.
“We’ve seen just remarkable work,” Hairston said before going school-by-school, listing the accolades.
In addition to the accredited schools, Hairston praised students at Activ8 STEM Academy for receiving a 90% pass rate on the Virginia Standards of Learning assessments.
Although resembling a school in every other sense, Activ8 is considered a program, so there are no accreditation standards to meet. It’s comprised of students from the system’s other elementary facilities in grades three through six.
“It’s just an incredible program,” Hairston said of the initiative in its second year led by Chuck Simmons, the instructional supervisor. “He’s been able to take students from different schools and push them and grow them in a different way.”
Acknowledging Activ8 isn’t a school itself, she still said the students “are owned by Mr. Simmons and his team.”
Even amid the progress, Hairston noted more work needs to be done, including parents supporting good behavior and attendance.
“We need our families to support literacy,” she said. “Reading, reading, reading”
The Danville system has been under a corrective action plan from the state education department since 2020, when the school board signed an agreement with the state after a majority of city schools lost accreditation.
There are only five divisions in the state — out of 131 — under this kind of agreement, which is now called a division support plan.
For school board member Keisha Walker, Thursday evening was a “tear-jerker” as she listened to the achievements.
“It is absolutely amazing,” she said. “Sometimes just seeing the progress, it is such a blessing.”
Said school board member Keisha Averett: “Great work is being done here at Danville Public Schools.”
School Board Chair Ty’Quan Graves also praised Hairston and the staff of the school system for the upward trend.
“I want to congratulate all of our schools for a job well done,” he said. “This is truly the best environment.”
Click here to read the original article (Charles Wilborn, Register & Bee)