For the first time since the inception of the Standards of Learning tests three years ago, six Halifax County schools have reached or surpassed the benchmark for state accreditation.
Ironically, two of the schools will be closed during or at the end of the school year.
A third school is one that has been targeted for closure as part of proposed capital improvements project.
Volens Elementary School, which is expected to be closed at mid-year, and Clover Elementary School, which will be closed when the school year ends next June, were among the six schools that reached the standard for accreditation.
Wilson Memorial Elementary School, a school previously targeted for closure as part of a proposed capital improvements plan, also reached the state benchmark.
The paired schools of Washington-Coleman and C.H. Friend and Clays Mill Elementary School, which is in the midst of renovation, also achieved accreditation.
Halifax County School Superintendent Dennis Witt said the schools achieved the required 70 percent passing rate in the state-mandated areas of reading and math and met the 70 percent standard in social science and science.
Witt said that while the official notification of the full accreditation of the six schools has not yet come from state officials, calculations by school system officials and administrators show the schools have reached or surpassed the state benchmarks.
The six schools were recognized for the achievement Monday during the annual county-wide meeting of teachers, principals and school system officials.
A plaque was presented to each of the six schools in recognition of the achievement.
Witt said other schools were recognized for reaching a provisional accreditation status.
Halifax County High School and Halifax County Middle both achieved a status of provisionally accredited.
Those schools were slightly below the 70 percent passing figure needed to achieve full accreditation.
"According to our calculations, the high school missed full accreditation by just one point," Witt said.
"That is our best calculation at this point."
Several schools missed achieving a provisional accreditation as a result of a shortfall in one area.
Five schools missed the mark as a result of the science scores.
That, Witt said, resulted from a failure to properly match up the curriculum with the contents of the test.
One school missed the mark as a result of the math scores posted by fifth-grade students and two schools failed to achieve the benchmark as a result of the English/reading scores for the third-grade.
"We're proud of our SOL test scores," Witt said.
"This is, by far, the best year we've had on the SOL tests. We feel like our schools are making progress and that our teachers and students are moving forward and are experiencing learning. The results have shown that."
The scores achieved by county students on this year's Standards of Learning tests are the best recorded by the school system. The SOL tests were first administered three years ago.
To illustrate the progress made by local students, Witt pointed out that when the SOL test was first administered three years ago, only 25 percent of the students taking the Algebra I test passed, only 5.48 percent of the students taking the Algebra II test passed and 59 percent of the students taking the geometry test passed.
This year, 82.7 percent of the students taking the Algebra I test passed, 93.4 percent of the students taking the Algebra II test passed and 88.1 percent of the students taking the geometry test passed.
The positive aspect of the big numbers, Witt noted, is that more students are being tested in these areas and larger percentages of them are passing them.
"We're testing more students and are being successful on the tests," Witt pointed out.
"In the beginning, everybody's fear was that everybody was not going to take and pass the Algebra I and geometry tests. Most of the students can take Algebra I and geometry and pass a test in those areas."
The block scheduling format at the high school has helped, the school superintendent said.
"In the block scheduling we have Algebra and some other courses divided into part one and part two," Witt said,
"That gives the students extra time to absorb the knowledge and, as a consequence, they are better prepared and are passing the test."
While math has been one of the high points of the local students, U.S. History and social science are the bugaboos for middle school and high school students.
"Part of the reason for that is that the State Department of Education has not given us an appropriate scope and sequence that will allow us to zone in on what is going to be tested," Witt explained.
"It is such a broad-based area that it is difficult to cover everything and think that you have covered and caught all of what will be covered on the SOL test."
That problem, Witt said, is not a problem peculiar to Halifax County.
"This is a statewide issue," he said.
"This is not just a Halifax County issue."
Witt said just because Halifax County's students fared well on the SOL tests this year doesn't mean the hard work is over.
"You have to keep your focus, maintain the course, improve in the areas that you know you missed something and then try to weave those bands into the curriculum in a way that students can learn the content that they didn't perform well on," he concluded.

Nathalie tobacco farmer Allen Boyd had a close call last week when the heat exchanger ignited a small fire in his bulk curing barn.
"We went to check on a barn at Liberty and returned in 15 minutes to find this barn smoking," Boyd recalled.
Boyd, who grows about 50 acres of tobacco, had about 2,500 pounds of tobacco in the barn at the time.
Fortunately, the fire was discovered in time to save the barn. Two "boxes" of tobacco were lost.
The type of potential disaster that Boyd faced is something Virginia Cooperative Extension office coordinator Larry McPeters is hoping to avoid this growing season.
Many curing barns have been converted from direct to indirect fired curing systems in order to reduce carcinogens called nitrosamines.
According to McPeters, although the indirect method results in less chemically harmful tobacco, the intense heat generated by the heat exchangers can ignite the wood in curing barns.
In Boyd's case, the fire burned the plywood and studs adjacent to the heat exchanger.
McPeters said the probable culprit in Boyd's fire was the flame tip in the propane burner, which heated the wood opposite the burner to the point of combustion, a temperature of at least 523 degrees.
The flame tip was too long and overheated the walls of the exchanger, explained McPeters.
McPeters suggested a three-ply barrier between exposed wood and the heat exchanger, and made up of layers of reflective metal, fire-resistant insulation and another layer of reflective metal while leaving a pocket of air between the three-ply "sandwich" and exposed wood.
He also pointed out that the flue pipes are another flash point, particularly if they come up through the middle of the barn and are adjacent to wood.
"Temperatures in some flues reach between 500 and 600 degrees," said McPeters.
Wood ignites from radiated heat at a temperature as low as 523 degrees, and from direct flame as a temperature of as low as 437 degrees, according to McPeters, who suggested growers use an infra-red thermometer to check wood temperatures while the barn is operating.
"Make sure you get a good service man who can properly set the burner and fine-tune it properly," emphasized McPeters, who added that each individual burner should also be adjusted to get the right BTUs.
"Then follow up and insulate the barn the best you can."
McPeters suggests tobacco farmers stay with their curing barns at least for one curing cycle after they "crank" them up, even to the point of staying with them overnight.
"I'd run them through a complete curing cycle at about 165 degrees or at the drying out temperature," said McPeters.
"Then I would take temperature readings of the wood in the barns - the readings should ideally be about 100 degrees below the flashpoint of the exposed wood.
"I would keep a fire extinguisher nearby just in case."
Not only did McPeters suggest steps to take to avoid fires during the current growing season, he strongly advised that growers pay attention to cleaning carbon build-up from the heat exchangers toward the end of curing.
"Heat exchangers will need to be cleaned out at some time," said McPeters.
He explained that carbon is an insulator that would inhibit the heat produced in the exchangers and thus reduce the temperature of the barn at a time in which it needed to be constant to cure tobacco properly.
"To increase the temperature in the barn, particularly as outside temperatures turn cooler in the fall, the tendency is to turn the thermostat up on the exchanger," said McPeters.
"Naturally, that would cause the exchanger to burn hotter, increasing the risk of fire."
McPeters urged area growers to use good judgement and common sense in shielding exposed wood from heat, and to contact their gas companies or heat-exchange installers to make sure their set-up is safe and efficient.

Twenty-two Mountain Road area residents joined Shirley Chandler Monday night to ask supervisors not to create a recycling center near the Project Hope building.
Chandler, who presented a petition with 69 signatures opposing the site, had complained about the green boxes at the site at the previous supervisors' meeting.
Chandler's petition cited health, property depreciation and an objection to the site being located in a residential area.
She lives next to the Mountain Road site and told supervisors at the previous meeting that traffic is "in and out 24 hours a day."
"My personal opinion is that I don't like locating (recycling) centers in residential areas," said Supervisor David Martin, in whose district the site is located.
Chandler also brought photographs of the overflowing green boxes located at the site now.
She told supervisors that the green boxes had been emptied twice a day but now are emptied once a day.
"I don't think that we should have to live in that," she said. "It is disgusting."
When Chandler protested conditions at the site before she was not aware that supervisors are studying the creation of fenced recycling centers to help keep the sites cleaner and to govern the hours they are used.
However, she returned Monday night armed with supporters and a petition objecting to location of a recycling center at the site.

Halifax Registrar Judy Meeler was still checking petitions to qualify Ericke Cage, a South Boston resident and Virginia Tech senior, in his bid for the 60th House seat at presstime yesterday.
A race for the county ED-2 Board of Supervisors seat was also an unknown, with reports businessman Cecil Lloyd was collecting signatures for a race against Supervisor Tom West.
Candidates had until 7 p.m. to return petitions.
But the race in ED-6 was definitely on, with Ronnie Vaughan, an Independent, qualifying yesterday in his bid to unseat Supervisor Page Wilkerson, who is running under the GOP banner.
If Cage qualifies, it will be at least a three-way race for the 60th House seat, a race featuring Cage, Republican Clarke Hogan of South Boston and Democrat Brad Wike of Keysville.
Unknown was whether late filing candidates in Charlotte, Prince Edward or Nottoway counties might tip the political scales in the House race.
Del. W.W. "Ted" Bennett, a Democrat, is not seeking re-election to the House seat.
Stanley Brandon also qualified yesterday in his race for the School Board seat in ED-6. Brandon will face Mac McDowell, who is seeking re-election.
In ED-3 there are three contenders for retiring Supervisor Joe Satterfield's seat on the Board. Two independents, Virginia Hightower and William Fitzgerald, and one Republican, Bob Gluhareff, are vying for the ED-3 seat.
Arthur Reynolds is the only candidate for the School Board in ED-3 since incumbent Wanda McDowell announced Sunday that she would not seek re-election.
School Board member Steve Anderson, who is seeking re-election, faced no competition in ED-2 at presstime yesterday.

Grace Hazelwood Conner

Grace Hazelwood Conner, 81, of 6020 Hunting Creek Road, Nathalie, died August 20 at Halifax Regional Hospital.
Mrs. Conner was born in Halifax County on April 30, 1920, the daughter of Thomas Lee Hazelwood and Bettie Seamster Hazelwood and was married to Louis Bradford Conner. She was a member of Providence Presbyterian Church.
A graveside service will be held August 23 at 11 a.m. at Providence Presbyterian Church Cemetery. The Rev. Lee Roy Davis will conduct the service.
Survivors of Mrs. Conner include one daughter, Bettie B. Conner of Nathalie; one sister, Lena Conner of Red House; and two brothers, Raymond Hazelwood of Chase City and Gregory Hazelwood of Nathalie. She was preceded in death by one daughter, Justine Conner; and three brothers, Sydnor, Thomas and Charlie Hazelwood.
The family will receive friends at the home.

Ruth Elizabeth Clements

Ruth Elizabeth Clements, 65, of 531 First Street, Danville, died August 18 at her home.
Mrs. Clements was born February 20, 1936, in Halifax County, the daughter of James Sydnor and Lily Logan Sydnor and married to Gerald L. Clements.
In addition to her husband, she is survived by two daughters, Renee' McClary and Jocelyn Berger, both of Danville; one sister, Josephine Williams of Philadelphia, Pa.; and two grandchildren.
Funeral services for Mrs. Clements will be held August 25 at 2 p.m. at Greater Deliverance Temple in Danville with Elder John M. Burton Jr. officiating. Burial will follow in Highland Burial Park.
The family will receive friends Friday evening from 7-8 at Fisher & Watkins Funeral Home, and other times at the home.

Helen Lewis Fisher

Helen Lewis Fisher, 84, of 1093 Clinton Road, Nathalie, died August 21 at her home.
Mrs. Fisher was born in Halifax County on September 7, 1916, the daughter of Arthur Lee Lewis and Mary Jennings Lewis and was married to Lennie Coleman 'Pete' Fisher. She was a member of First Baptist Church of Republican Grove.
Survivors include her husband; two sons, L.C. Fisher Jr. and Sherman Fisher, both of Nathalie; one daughter, Patricia F. Thomas of Halifax; one brother, Bill Lewis of Richmond; one sister, Irene Garrett of Nelson; six grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. She was preceded in death by Eva Younger and three brothers, Johnnie Lewis, Cabell Lewis and James M. 'Shorty' Lewis.
Funeral services for Mrs. Fisher will be held August 23 at 3 p.m. at First Baptist Church of Republican Grove with the Revs. Shelton Miles and Dr. Melvin Bradshaw conducting the service. Burial will take place in the church cemetery.
The family will receive friends this evening from 7:00 until 8:30 at Powell Funeral Home, and other times at the home.
Those wishing to give memorials are asked to consider First Baptist Church of Republican Grove Building Fund and the North Halifax VFD.