All Waynesboro Schools earned accreditation for 2021-2022

Waynesboro School Board received a school academic performance report from Executive Director of Instruction Tim Teachey at its regular meeting Tuesday night.

All six schools earned accreditation status for 2021-2022, but Wenonah Elementary School and Kate Collins Middle School were accredited with conditions.

“But, we’re in a really good place, coming out of a pandemic,” Teachey said.

Teachey drew the board’s attention to the comparison of students who took the high school’s advanced placement test and students enrolled last academic year to the pre-pandemic 2018-2019 academic year.

In 2018-2019, 112 Waynesboro High School students completed a CTE program, while 101 students completed a CTE in 2021-2022.

“I’m proud of the work that our principals and schools are doing,” Teachey said.

He pointed out that the struggle in science for students at Wenonah and Westwood Hills elementary schools and Kate Collins Middle is not unique for Waynesboro students. The struggle is happening across the Commonwealth.

School board member Erika Smith asked about the school system’s chronic absenteeism. Teachey said chronic absenteeism applies to students who miss 10 percent of school days. Not more than 15 percent of a student body can be chronically absent. Waynesboro Schools’ absenteeism is credited to students coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic when they learned remotely and getting them to think of it as their job to attend school every day.

Assistant Superintendent Dr. Ryan Barber said the school system “should be able to have a much better chronic absenteeism” as a focus is placed on fixing the problem.

“When you focus on something, it tends to improve,” Barber said.

Waynesboro Schools Superintendent Dr. Jeff Cassell said the country is still in a pandemic, but the mandatory 14-day quarantine period following a positive COVID-19 test is gone. Now students must observe a five-day quarantine period.

“I’m certainly optimistic that this will improve,” Cassell said of the school system’s chronic absenteeism. He said the school system cannot expect attendance to improve by the end of this academic year.

School board member Debra Freeman-Belle asked if students who attend school from home are considered absent.

According to Cassell, students previously were not considered absent if they attended school virtually, but that changed this academic year.

“There’s no allowance from the state for that,” Cassell said. Students are considered either present in the school or absent.

Barber said he hears more about incidents of RSV, gastrointestinal issues and the flu than COVID-19 among students.