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ACE Academy partnership credited with helping 69 students finish two-year degrees in high school
Summary
City officials and staff highlighted the ACE Academy with Virginia Peninsula Community College as the pathway that allowed 69 Hampton students to earn associate degrees before high school, noting program growth since 2018 and lower family costs for college.
City staff described the ACE Academy — a dual-enrollment partnership between Hampton City Schools and Virginia Peninsula Community College — as the mechanism that allowed 69 students to complete two-year associate degrees before receiving their high-school diplomas.
"In 2018, 2 students proved that this could be done," Brian Marchese said, noting the program's expansion. He outlined the practical benefits for families: "2 years of college tuition, fees, and textbooks, they're all handled." City leaders emphasized the program's demands on students who balanced coursework with extracurriculars and called the achievement remarkable.
City officials framed the program as both an academic accomplishment and a cost-saving measure for families, citing an aggregate savings in the transcript of about $730,000 (two similar figures appear in the record). The city manager also praised the scale of the achievement and suggested the division's performance is exceptional within Virginia; that comparative claim was not substantiated within the session.
