Maria Pitre-Martin is the new superintendent of Petersburg City Public Schools. (Photo by Ash Daniel)
When Walnut Hill Elementary School in Petersburg twice missed the mark for accreditation in standardized testing in science by one student’s test results in recent years, it gave literal meaning to the mantra that every student counts.
For the school’s principal, Belinda Urquhart, close margins of 67% of her students passing the 2015 and 2017 science Standards of Learning tests were disheartening. “One or two students, it makes a big difference,” Urquhart says. “It was a damper at that time. But on the other hand, you say, ‘Look, we have to make sure we don’t fall into that situation again.’ ”
Fast-forward to the 2018-19 school year, and Walnut Hill and Cool Springs elementary schools were fully accredited. The city’s four other comprehensive schools — Lakemont Elementary, Pleasants Lane Elementary, Vernon Johns Middle and Petersburg High — were accredited with conditions.
The improvement is significant for one of the lowest-performing school districts in the state, bound to an agreement that dictates monitoring by the Virginia Department of Education until all its schools are fully accredited. Petersburg was among many school divisions across Virginia that saw improvement under changes to accreditation standards that consider improvement in test scores from year to year and other performance factors.
Urquhart credits much of the progress in science to small group instruction periods and experiments allowing students to “see science in action.” A similar approach has been taken throughout the division in all subjects.
New teaching methods were among a series of strategies that moved academic performance forward under former Superintendent Marcus Newsome. Three years ago, state education leaders urged the 40-year veteran of public education to put off retirement to lead the division after what was widely regarded as a successful tenure in Chesterfield County.
Newsome’s innovations included the introduction of coding to all students, issuing laptops to students in grades two through 12, and implementing a five-year strategic plan to improve learning processes. Urquhart also credits Newsome with instituting regular review of lesson plans across the division to ensure alignment with state curriculum frameworks. The percentage of elementary students reading on grade level has jumped from 36% during the 2015-16 academic year to 55% in 2017-18, according to division officials.
Petersburg schools are now gearing up for an academic year under the leadership of new Superintendent Maria Pitre-Martin, who brings 29 years of experience in education to the role. Pitre-Martin has served as North Carolina’s deputy state superintendent of public instruction, and its chief academic and digital learning officer; chief academic officer of Philadelphia’s public schools; and superintendent of Thomasville Schools in North Carolina. She has also worked in school divisions in Texas and her home state of Louisiana.
With a salary of $230,000 a year, which includes $60,000 from the state, she is one of the highest-paid school division leaders, despite leading one of Virginia’s smallest school systems.
One of Pitre-Martin’s greatest obstacles is the city’s crippling poverty rate of nearly 30%. All schools qualify for free meals because of a federal poverty designation, and the division is undertaking an ambitious capital improvement plan to replace Walnut Hill Elementary School and Westview Early Childhood Education Center with an estimated $26.6 million new school. Local contributions of $10 million to the division’s $53.9 million budget are just above a legal minimum determined by student body size and real estate tax revenue.
Pitre-Martin says in an interview that her time as superintendent of Thomasville schools in North Carolina, also a small district facing funding challenges, was solid preparation for her new role. “[In] smaller school districts … you can actually build relationships with teachers … students and their families,” she says.
To prepare students to end the cycle of poverty after graduation, Pitre-Martin says, she will prioritize career and technical education and opportunities to earn college credit at Petersburg High School. She also wants to develop community partnerships that can lead to relevant career certifications.
“I always say that we need a diploma-plus,” she says. “A diploma is not enough anymore for many of our high school graduates. They need to leave us with more.”
Pitre-Martin says that a focus on literacy will inform divisionwide approaches to elementary education. Students who struggle with phonics and other foundational skills will receive targeted intervention. In a later statement responding to the release of 2018-19 SOL scores on Aug. 13, Pitre-Martin acknowledged a decline for Petersburg schools in multiple subject areas, saying, “While there are bright spots within the data — notably in math — it is clear that we must improve student performance on Standards of Learning tests.”
The superintendent is also tasked with ensuring that Petersburg’s most academically challenged students, who struggle to regularly attend class, can meet minimal benchmarks. Rates of chronic absenteeism (students who are out of class 10% or more of the academic year) increased by 7.7% in the school district’s student body from 2016 to 2018. The absenteeism rate for students with special needs rose 21.9% in that time frame. Pitre-Martin says that integrating special needs students into regular instruction when possible is key.
Petersburg also has struggled with paying its teachers salaries that are comparable to surrounding districts and retaining highly qualified teachers. As of May 2019, the division of over 4,000 students had 34 teacher vacancies (down from 70 in June 2017), and many teachers are provisionally licensed. Partnerships with universities can assist the district with providing ongoing professional development for teachers who have varying levels of experience and improve retention by preparing them for the classroom, Pitre-Martin says. Virginia Commonwealth University’s teacher residency program, which places educators working toward master’s degrees in high-needs classrooms under the supervision of veteran teachers, is a prime example, she says.
Pitre-Martin says that Petersburg schools have more than a fighting chance to excel when teachers are supported and division leaders tackle a short list of the most pressing academic priorities annually.
“If we narrow down … the big three or five things that we can focus on,” she says, “it really helps teachers to not feel very overwhelmed, and [administration] can provide support that is very strategic and direct.”