PORTSMOUTH, Va. — Portsmouth Public Schools hosted its State of the Schools breakfast Wednesday morning, the first since the pandemic.
Superintendent Dr. Elie Bracy addressed student achievement, recovering from learning loss and the school division’s plan to create a new Career and Technical Education Center. More than 100 people gathered to hear how the school division is doing and their plans for the future.
Bracy said he grades himself and the division an A-.
"We still have some things to do to get to the A+," Bracy said.
Bracy announced the class of 2023 received $15.4 million in scholarships and 131 graduates earned college credit through the Tidewater Community College First College Program. 26 of them graduated high school with an associate’s degree.
"This has been a banner program, folks, as we lead the region in the percentage of students earning their associates while still in high school," Bracy said.
In a major announcement from the superintendent, Portsmouth City Council just approved $9 million for a new dedicated Career and Technical Education Center.
"This is a game changer for our division," Bracy said.
The center will host auto tech, carpentry, patient tech and welding courses. They hope the $13 million facility will be finished by September of next year, in the old DAC Center that closed in 2012.
As for improvements in the division, Bracy said like most schools, they’re facing teacher shortages, chronic absenteeism, and learning loss.
"We lost basically two years with COVID," Bracy said.
With additional funding from the state, Bracy said they’re working out a plan now to specifically tackle learning loss.
"We’re going to be doing some in-school tutoring during the day, we’re looking at some possibilities for after school and possibly Saturdays if the students are willing to do that," Bracy said.
As for chronic absenteeism, he said that's something else they're working to improve.
"That's the main thing: when they're out, find out why. But then make sure they get the work that they missed."
As of Aug. 16, Portsmouth reported roughly 50 teacher openings. Statewide, the 2023 teacher vacancy rate hit slightly below the national average of 4%.
"We want to try to increase the number of certified teachers we have in our classroom and get rid of a lot of the subs. In order to have improved instruction, you have to have a qualified teacher in those classrooms," Bracy said. "We can't just snap our fingers and make it happen, but a lot of that has to do with raising our teacher pay to the region, as well as working with third-party organizations to help us bring teachers into our classrooms."