NORFOLK A skeptical City Council has asked to meet with School Superintendent Stephen C. Jones to discuss a new policy that sets the lowest grade for submitted schoolwork to 61 on a 100-point scale. On Tuesday, a majority of the City Council criticized the policy, saying school officials failed to properly explain the changes to the public, teachers and parents.

VIRGINIA BEACH The people who watch over school finances in South Hampton Roads don't yet know how this year's money troubles will affect education down the road. But they're worried.

By Shirley Mozingo
Correspondent

More than 100,000 Hampton Roads students left their homes Tuesday for school, but hundreds more will stay behind for their education.
Joy and Joe Suits' daughter, Kimberly, will be one of them. During her 16 years, she has never stepped inside a public school.

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Getting out of your neighborhood now takes 30 minutes rather than the usual five. (And do they really need a bus stop every 10 feet down the block?)

The people working at fast-food restaurants before 2 p.m. are all more than 50 years old.
Someone is ringing your doorbell every hour on the hour trying to sell you candy bars.

SUFFOLK It could have been Suffolk's dumbest criminal who stole this Jeep and then abandoned it with a host of evidence: soda can, cigarette butt, handwritten note, some fabric threads. A sprinkling of black power and a twirl of a brush revealed lots of latent fingerprints above the door handle.

Now Suffolk's homeschooled students can take arts electives. Beginning mid-September, homeschoolers will be able to enroll in classes in martial arts, ballet, theater arts, drawing, painting and pre-school arts, all taught by arts professionals.

GRASSFIELD The closet in the back of the Technology Academy's pre-engineering classroom is empty now, but during the school year it was filled with bridges and other student constructions. In a small room at the back sit the saws and drills, still covered with just a hint of sawdust, that students used to put together their projects.

An opportunity for the superintendent of schools has become a path to the Middle East for a group of Tallwood High School students. Superintendent Jim Merrill traveled to Israel in April with a group of American school leaders on a nine-day educational exchange paid for by the America-Israel Friendship League. The educators visited religious sites, historical sites and schools.

CHESAPEAKE Jeffrey and Lisa Keenan made sure to arrive at Oscar Smith High School early Thursday, blue gowns in their hands, butterflies in their stomachs. They had waited more than 20 years for their diplomas. It was 4:30 p.m. - 2-1/2 more hours to go.   Her story

By Jan Gaillard Correspondent Lynnhaven Cheryl JoAnn Leighton is busy packing her xylophone mallets. The First Colonial High School rising senior will represent America in Europe this summer as a percussionist with The Sound of America 2009 honor band, a national performing organization celebrating 33 years in existence this year.