Five NNPS recognized as exemplar
Deer Park Elementary School earned a Highest Achievement Award and Hidenwood Elementary School, Katherine Johnson Elementary School, Huntington Middle School and Woodside High School earned Continuous Improvement Awards through the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) Exemplar School Recognition Program.
Deer Park was recognized for demonstrating high levels of success across all school quality indicators, including narrowing achievement gaps and achieving high pass rates in reading, mathematics and science based on the student pass rate for the “all students” group in the school and for each student subgroup in the school and maintaining a low chronic absenteeism rate.
Hidenwood, Katherine Johnson, Huntington and Woodside earned their awards in recognition of continuous improvement based on student performance during school years 2021-2022, 2022-2023 and 2023-2024.
General Stanford Elementary earns Purple Star 2nd Award recognition
General Stanford Elementary School was recognized with the 2024-2025 Purple Star 2nd Award from the Virginia Department of Education.
The Virginia Purple Star Designation is awarded to military-friendly schools that have demonstrated a major commitment to students and families connected to the U.S. military, according to the VDOE. General Stanford, located on the Army post Fort Eustis in northern Newport News, was a 2021-2022 Purple Star School.
“Receiving the Purple Star 2nd Award is an honor, and reflects our school’s commitment to serving our students and families with unwavering dedication and care,” said General Stanford Principal Jennifer Harnish, who is the daughter of an Army soldier and spent her entire childhood living on or around military bases, including Fort Eustis.
Warwick health students’ video explores dangers of vaping
Students sharing vapes, discouraging use of vapes and living with the consequences of vaping gone wrong are all part of an impactful public service announcement (PSA) recently created by Warwick High School students.
Members of Warwick’s chapter of Future Health Professionals, formerly known as Health Occupations Students of America (HOSA), made the video just before a very similar scenario happened when students in a neighboring school division became ill after vaping at school in early October. As part of local news coverage, several Warwick students who worked on the video were interviewed by a local TV station about their PSA and the importance of vaping awareness.
The student-led HOSA club is co-curricular with Warwick’s Governor’s Health Sciences Academy and its members are very interested in health and healthcare.
