Superintendent of Schools Nancy B. Welch and her staff at Mathews County Public Schools got the chance to tout their recent successes—as well as address some of the challenges on the division’s horizon—as local, state and federal legislators took part in last Thursday’s annual tour of schools.

One of the biggest accomplishments that Welch was happy to share with the assembled group is that Mathews is one of only 37 divisions in Virginia (out of 132) to be fully accredited for 2015-2016, based on achievement results from the previous school year.

Combined with that were double-digit gains in elementary reading Standards of Learning test scores, something that has made Lee-Jackson Elementary somewhat of a model for the rest of the state.

Moving forward, Welch said that one of her biggest concerns is over the rising population of students categorized as “economically disadvantaged.” That is a problem that is not unique to Mathews; since 2008, the per...