Manassas Park joins neighboring Prince William County, which welcomed back more than 90,000 students today.
In Manassas Park, most students return to class today, while kindergarteners will return tomorrow, Tuesday, August 23. It’s the second year for Manassas Park Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Melissa Saunders, who joined the city in April 2021 after working next door at Manassas City Public Schools.
One significant change this year: Manassas Park won’t field a high school football team.
Newly-released data from the Virginia Department of Education show Manassas Park scored higher on its Standards of Learning tests when compared to last year.
Math scores for all students are up 13 points, with just over half of the students earning a passing score. Nearly 60% of the students passed history and reading.
Of the three racial breakouts, black, white, and Hispanic, students in the latter category continue to underperform. Fifty-five percent passed reading, 56% passed writing, 54% history, and only 44% math.
By comparison, 74% of white students passed reading, 63% writing, 77% history, and 65% math. Black students passed reading at 65%, 67% for writing, 57% for history, and 59% for math.
In 2019, in the months leading up to Gov. Ralph Northam’s manded closure of school buildings due to the coronavirus, scores in Manassas Park were much higher.
Sixty-seven percent passed reading, 69% wrote, 78% sciences, and 77% math.
Northam was the first governor in the U.S. to shutter public school buildings in March 2020.
Over the weekend, Prince William School Board Chairman At-large Babur Lateef posted to his Twitter account, “never forgive, never forget” the politicians, public health officials, and media that provided “false information” to “keep schools closed.”
Lateef later deleted the Tweet. He told Potomac Local News that, at first, Northam was warranted to take the unprecedented measure to close schools in March 2020. However, schools should have reopened by July, he added.
