In 2004, the Petersburg City School Board requested a division-level academic review. Petersburg City Public Schools and the Virginia Board of Education (VBOE) signed an initial Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) detailing the review process on April 21, 2004. Based on the 2005-2006 assessment results, Petersburg City Public Schools entered into a second MOU on November 20, 2006. On November 17, 2009, the Virginia Board of Education revised the MOU for Petersburg City Public Schools. This MOU was to remain in effect until all schools were Fully Accredited. As required by the MOU, Petersburg City Public Schools developed a corrective action plan beginning in the 2009-2010 school year. An updated corrective action plan was approved by the VBOE on October 24, 2013.

In December 2015, teams from the Offices of School Improvement, Special Education Program Improvement, and Student Services conducted an on-site review in Petersburg City Public Schools. Based on the December on-site review, the VBOE approved a revised division-level MOU (Attachment A1) for Petersburg City School on April 28, 2016. A revised division-level corrective action plan (Attachment A2) was approved by the VBOE on November 17, 2016.