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Storm damages Roanoke River Greenway

A section of Roanoke River Greenway in the Wasena neighborhood was heavily damaged last week by the remnants of Hurricane Helene. 

Roanoke was spared the brunt of the storm, which devastated parts of Southwest Virginia and western North Carolina. The city mostly faced flooding, downed trees and widespread power outages. 

The storm did uproot a concrete barrier and part of the asphalt road on the Greenway at Wiley Drive. That section remains closed, and the city’s parks and recreation department told residents not to go around the closed gates.

Roanoke has received $2.5 million in federal funding under a bipartisan infrastructure bill to replace the low-water bridge at Wiley Drive near U.S. 220 because of frequent flooding. But that upgrade does not include the section nearest to Wasena. 

The city on Tuesday reported other Greenway sections remained closed because of damage or debris, including Bridge Street to Aerial Way and beneath the 10th Street bridge.

A city spokeswoman said Monday that parks staff were evaluating the Greenway damage and did not yet have a cost estimate for repairs.

Roanoke schools miss full accreditation

Five Roanoke schools have missed out on full state accreditation due to low test scores or chronic absenteeism.

The 2024 accreditation scores from the Virginia Department of Education, announced by the governor Monday, are the first post-pandemic grades following a three-year grace period that did not penalize schools for a single bad year.

Patrick Henry High School, James Madison Middle School and Fallon Park, Hurt Park and Lincoln Terrace elementary schools were “accredited with conditions,” the state agency said.

Chronic absenteeism, in which students miss at least 10 percent of school, was a factor in the rating for Patrick Henry, in which 35 percent of students were chronically absent, James Madison (32 percent) and Hurt Park (27 percent). 

Math and science scores on state tests, as well as achievement gaps in certain subjects between different groups of students, also played a role in some schools’ accreditation.

District officials said at a school board meeting last week that the schools are undergoing a comprehensive support plan focused on academics and staffing. They noted that schools’ absentee rates have improved and noted that the state’s numbers “appear to be higher” than the actual rates at multiple schools.

The district says it is monitoring attendance and academic performance through monthly progress reports and visits, introduced targeted tutoring and is investing in additional instructional staff and support.

All schools in the Roanoke County and Salem school divisions were fully accredited for 2024.

In 2018, the state education department implemented a policy that a school can only be denied accreditation if it refuses to implement a corrective plan. Previously, the state could deny accreditation based on consistently low student achievement.

Gov. Glenn Younkin has blasted the agency’s current accreditation framework, which is undergoing review.

“The issue couldn’t be clearer: no schools are denied accreditation, and 85% of Virginia’s schools continue to receive the state’s highest ranking while 60.7% and 64.8% of Virginia’s students 3-8 grades failed or are barely proficient in reading and math,” Youngkin said in a statement. 

Melrose Plaza to honor Black leaders

Melrose Plaza is seeking community input on which local historical figures to honor. 

The Northwest Roanoke hub, which Goodwill Industries of the Valleys is turning into a grocery store, bank, clinic and adult high school, will include a memorial wall featuring civic leaders such as attorney Oliver Hill, mayor Noel C. Taylor and filmmaker Oscar Micheaux.

Goodwill has proposed a list of 44 names that could grace the center part of the plaza, alongside a “Living Legends exhibit” and a Hidden in Plain Site virtual reality exhibit, which highlights important Black history sites throughout Roanoke.

An installation is planned to open in the spring, following next month’s anticipated opening of the Market on Melrose grocery store.

Melrose Plaza says the proposed honorees, from the fields of medicine, civil rights, arts, education and others “made a lasting impact on Black history in Roanoke.”

Residents can endorse specific names and suggest other individuals at https://melroseplazaroanoke.com/about/history-wall/ before Nov. 1.