The summary provides an overview of the key details from the document in 3 sentences: The document profiles Kayla Allen, a cheerleader on the Dinwiddie High School junior varsity squad who uses a scooter. It describes her pre-game routine of getting ready with her mother's help before joining her teammates on the field. Allen faces mobility challenges but is a dedicated member of the cheerleading team, bringing a "deeper purpose" to the squad.

1. PI_PROGINDEX/PAGES [A01] | 09/20/13 22:49 | LUDLOWMARG
BY VANESSA REMMERS
STAFF WRITER
DINWIDDIE — The Dinwiddie
junior varsity cheerleading team has
only minutes before they are due on
the football field for one of their first
games.
Parents and fans have already begun
filing into the Dinwiddie High School
stadium. Cheerleaders straighten the
sparkling red bows clipped to their
ponytails as they bounce toward the
field to warm up.
In a car in the nearby parking lot,
Celestine Jackson loops her arms
under the shoulders of her daughter,
Kayla Allen, and lifts her from the pas-
senger seat. Allen supports herself on
the backside of the car as her mother
pops open the trunk and uses her body
weight to get a scooter from the trunk
onto the ground.
“We have a routine,” Jackson said,
denying help.
The mother motions for her daugh-
ter to get into the scooter. With both
hands out to balance herself, Allen tip-
toes three careful steps to the scooter
and sits down. She then tightens the
sparkling red bow poised at the top of
her ponytail.
Finally, Jackson pops open a tube of
fire-engine red lipstick and applies it to
her daughter’s lips.
Now Allen is ready to join the rest of
her cheerleading team.
She lets her mother push her scooter
into the stadium and across the walk-
way to the wheelchair ramp, but not
any further. Allen mans the scooter the
rest of the way to her waiting team-
mates.
The roughly 20 cheerleaders on the
junior varsity squad have not gone
through the gate that Allen could not
pass through. Instead, they have
walked across the stadium and waited
for their fellow cheerleader at the more
75 centsprogress-index.com
T H E A R E A ’ S L E A D I N G N E W S P A P E R S I N C E 1 8 6 5
JAMES MONROEWINS BIG
OVER PETERSBURG. B1
FRIDAY NIGHT
LIGHTS AT PHS
GOPTRYTOWIPE OUT
OBAMACAREWITH BILL. A2
SHUTDOWN
OPPOSED
© 2013
Times-Shamrock
Newspapers
INDEX
Two sections, 20 pages
Vol. 148, No. 80
Classifieds B5
Comics B3
Dear Abby B4
Deaths A5
Opinion A4
Sports B1
TV listings B4
Weather A12
INSIDEWEATHER
Tonight’s low:78
Tomorrow’s high: 82
Investigators find
multiple remains in
Oklahoma river as
well as two cars. A11
SEE BREAKING NEWS, VIDEOS AND
INTERACTIVE FEATURES ON THE NEW
PROGRESS-
INDEX.COM
2 schools
denied
by state
BY F.M. WIGGINS
STAFF WRITER
Two of the area’s school divisions are among
only 36 in the state to have all schools fully accred-
ited, while another division has at least two
schools that could be taken over by the state in the
near future.
Colonial Heights and Prince George County
schools had all schools within their divisions fully
accredited through the state’s Standards Of
Learning testing results.
Six schools in three divisions were denied state
accreditation for
2013-2014 because
of chronically low
student achieve-
ment. Among those
denied accredita-
tion locally were
A.P. Hill Elementa-
ry School and Peabody Middle School, both in
Petersburg. Petersburg had no schools that were
fully accredited.
The percentage of schools meeting state accred-
itation standards dropped sharply as a conse-
quence of the introduction of rigorous new read-
ing, writing and science Standards of Learning
(SOL) tests during 2012-2013, as well as a second
year of results from more challenging mathemat-
ics assessments, according to the Virginia Depart-
ment of Education.
“Over the last five years, the accreditation bar
has been raised through the introduction of more
rigorous curriculum standards and challenging
new assessments that test students’ problem-solv-
ing and critical-thinking skills as well as their
content knowledge,” Superintendent of Public
Instruction Patricia I. Wright said. “In addition,
the benchmark pass rates required for full accred-
itation have increased, and high schools must
meet goals for improving graduation rates,” she
said.
In Petersburg, aside from the two schools in the
city that were denied accreditation, all schools
were listed as accredited with warning: J.E.B. Stu-
art, Robert E. Lee and Walnut Hill elementary
schools, Vernon Johns Junior High School and
Petersburg High School.
Under legislation approved by the 2013 General
A.P. Hill Elementary and
Peabody Middle schools
lose accreditation
Fire displaces eight people
FROM STAFF REPORTS
CHESTERFIELD — A fire that destroyed
one house and displaced two families Thurs-
day in Southern Chesterfield started from
discarded cigarette butts, Chesterfield
authorities said.
Fire and EMS officials were called to the
2700 block of Amherst Ridge Loop at 4:16
p.m. on Thursday.
“When the first cruiser got there, the first
house was completely destroyed and the
house to the left was beginning to ignite
from the heat coming from the other house,”
said Robbie Dawson, assistant chief of Ches-
terfield Fire and EMS.
Firefighters concentrated their initial
efforts on the neighboring house whose attic
had begun to catch fire, Dawson said. The
vinyl siding from that neighboring house
had already melted, and some wood in the
attic of the neighboring house had caught
fire.
The vinyl siding of the house behind the
original house were also melting, Dawson
added.
It took a total of 45 minutes to completely
PATRICK KANE/PROGRESS-INDEX PHOTO
Kayla Allen keeps an eye on the gate while selling programs and T-shirts
with her fellow junior varsity cheerleaders during a football game at
Dinwiddie High School on Friday, Sept. 6.
PATRICK KANE/PROGRESS-INDEX PHOTO
Kayla Allen and other junior varsity cheerleaders share a laugh while selling programs and T-shirts at the
Jamestown at Dinwiddie High School football game Friday, Sept. 6.
CHEERDETERMINATION!Dinwiddie cheerleader brings ‘deeper purpose’ to team
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
A fire destroyed 2720 Amherst Ridge Loop in Chesterfield on Thursday.Please see FIRE, Page A10
Please see CHEER, Page A10
 INSIDE: Read
Gov. Bob McDonnell’s
letter to editor. A4
Please see SCHOOLS, Page A10
■ PETERSBURG
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2013