All Newport News Public Schools fully accredited, graduation rates rise to 97%
All Newport News Public Schools are fully accredited under the Virginia Department of Education’s new assessment and accountability model used for the 2025-2026 school year. Additionally, in 2025 NNPS saw its on-time graduation rate rise to 97.3%, up from 93.6% in 2024.
Deer Park, General Stanford and Hilton elementary schools all received the Distinguished Rating in the performance category for the 2025-2026 school year. Nearly half of Newport News’ schools earned either a Distinguished or an On Track designation, including all high schools.
The 2024-2025 school year also brought a decrease in chronic absenteeism rates across the school division by 15.9% compared with 2023-2024.
NNPS hosts Take Your Legislator to School Day at Denbigh High School
State legislators, aides and local leaders heard about urgent funding needs, discussed solutions and toured classrooms and the Aviation Academy magnet program as Newport News Public Schools hosted Take Your Legislator to School Day on December 2 at Denbigh High School.
Aging infrastructure at numerous city schools has made funding of improvements a priority for upcoming General Assembly session budget planning, said Rusty Fairheart, NNPS chief operations officer. Delegate Shelly Simonds; Delegate Dr. Mark Downey; aides to Downey, Simonds and Congressman Bobby Scott; Dr. Terri Best, school board chairman; Lisa Surles-Law, school board member; and Dr. Michele Mitchell, NNPS superintendent, were in attendance.
Students use coding skills to solve Engineering Design Challenge
Fifth graders representing each elementary school in Newport News participated in the school division’s first Engineering Design Challenge of this school year in December.
Coding Our Freedom was the theme of the problem they were presented to solve for the competition. For the challenge, students did not know what the timed assignment was until it was given to them. Competing in groups, students strategized to advance through a series of four building and coding challenges.
Kiln Creek Elementary School won first place, with Sanford coming in second place and General Stanford taking third place. The U.S. Navy served as NNPS community partner for the event.
