Summary:
Staunton City Public Schools is served by a single middle school, Shelburne Middle School, which enrolls 583 students in grades 6–8 in Staunton, VA, and is a high-poverty school where 84% of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. The district itself, Staunton City Public Schools, ranks in the 81st percentile of Virginia districts, and Shelburne benefits from a favorable 11.8:1 student-teacher ratio and roughly $10,775 in per-pupil spending. The biggest red flag outside of academics is attendance: 19% of students are chronically absent, well above the district rate of 12.6% and the state rate of 14.8%.
Academically, Shelburne's standout story is mathematics. The school posted a perfect 100% proficiency rate on both the Algebra I and Geometry SOL exams for 8th graders, and it improved math proficiency in every grade level from 2024-2025 to 2025-2026, moving from below the state average in all three middle school grades to above it. In fact, 8th graders beat the state in every tested subject last year, including math, reading, science, Algebra I, and Geometry. Reading is more uneven, however: 6th and 7th grade reading scores dipped slightly to just below the state average (72.99% and 72.28%, respectively), while 8th grade reading jumped nearly 7 points to 75.63%, finishing well above the state mark.
Shelburne's overall state ranking has improved steadily, rising from 233rd (44th percentile, 2 stars) in 2023-2024 to 199th out of 416 Virginia middle schools (52nd percentile, 3 stars) in 2025-2026. For parents, this is a school with a clear upward trajectory: it is getting strong results in advanced and grade-level math, sends well-prepared students out of 8th grade, and offers a low student-teacher ratio that likely supports instruction. The main concerns are chronic absenteeism and reading scores that hover near the middle of the pack in the lower grades, but the overall momentum is positive and worth watching.
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