COURTLAND
In her final school board meeting as district superintendent, Dr. Alvera J. Parrish announced that all six of Southampton’s schools would be accredited for the 2016-17 school year. When she arrived in Courtland four years ago, only three schools were accredited with warning.

“I’m very proud, and I truly want to thank everyone [involved]. This is the team that did the work,” Parrish said to the school board members, teachers and administration in attendance.

“We need to acknowledge Dr. Parrish’s leadership in this terrific accomplishment,” school board chairman Dr. Deborah Goodwyn added.

These preliminary results were calculated by the district and are pending official scores and graduation rates from the Virginia Department of Education, which will be released later this fall.

Unofficially, Capron scored an 83 in reading, 85 in math, 82 science and 97 in social studies; Mehrrin scored an 80 in reading, 85 in math, 92 in science and 93 in social studies; Nottoway scored an 89 in reading, 93 in math, 86 in science and 98 in social studies; Southampton Middle scored a 77 in reading, 86 in math, 89 in science and 92 in civics; and Southampton High scored an 80 in reading, a 96 in math, 78 in science and 91 in social studies. All five were fully accredited last year.

Riverdale, meanwhile, did not reach all accreditation benchmarks last year, but was considered an “improving school” as it showed acceptable SOL progress. It will be considered fully accredited next year with scores of 80 in reading, 83 in math, 93 in science and 99 in social studies.

“If you go back to that article last year (New Riverdale principal outlines keys to success, Oct. 3, 2015), we talked about building relationships that allowed for student achievement,” Riverdale Principal Will Melbye said. “Our staff allowed for us to hit that mark.”

As a whole, the district determined that 85 students earned a perfect score (600 points) and 667 earned pass-advanced scores (500-599) on the SOLs.