HAMPTON -- Tuesday is the first day back at school for Hampton Roads public school students.
Several school districts, such as Hampton, are going through some big changes this year, hoping to improve student performance.
In Hampton, two brand new schools, Hunter B. Andrews and George P. Phenix schools, will open their doors to pre-school through eighth grade students.
These schools will offer the latest technology to aid in the learning process, as well as plenty of new ways to interact.
"The most exciting part is having this wide range of children, all the great things you can do with that..role models to mentors to book buddies, to math buddies, to tutors right in the building," said Donna Warthan, principal of Hunter B. Andrews school.
Portsmouth will join Chesapeake, Norfolk, and Virginia Beach with a ten point grading scale, in which a 90 is now an A instead of a B.
Though this grading scale has been confronted with some controversy, many parents tend to think it will be better in the long run.
"There's some discrepancy between, for instance, here and in Norfolk, but overall I think that if all the school systems were on the same grading scale, it'd be better, each child would be measured the same way," said one parent, John Harrison.
Norfolk Public Schools is also seeing some changes this school year.
The new superintendent is starting his first year on the job, and they're shifting some start times to try and save money with school buses.
