John Kerr Elementary, 427 Meadow Branch Ave.: pre-K to grade 4, 577 students in fall 2025, fully accredited, framework score 85.6. Office: 540-662-3945.

Last checked Oct. 20, 2026. Sources: John Kerr Elementary, Winchester Public Schools, the Virginia Department of Education’s School Quality Profile, the federal NCES school directory and the city’s school district map layer.

John Kerr Elementary School serves pre-K through fourth grade at 427 Meadow Branch Ave. for Winchester Public Schools (WPS), one of the division’s four elementary schools. It had 577 students in fall 2025, the state’s count shows. Its mascot is the Cardinals. The current building, the third John Kerr school, opened in August 2016 and is the newest school in Winchester, according to its about page. The school is named for John Kerr, a cabinetmaker who left money in his will for the education of the city’s children.

Who to call
Address 427 Meadow Branch Ave., Winchester, VA 22601
Phone 540-662-3945
Grades Pre-K to 4
School day 7:50 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
Website jkes.wps.k12.va.us
Division Winchester Public Schools

Principal

Principal Kevin Pittsnogle, according to the school’s website, where he writes that he is beginning “this new journey as a principal” in the division. The page says he was most recently principal of Martinsburg North Middle School.

Enrollment and teachers

  • State count: 577 students in fall 2025, compared with 583 in fall 2024 and 604 in fall 2023, according to the School Quality Profile. Fall 2025 broke down as 68 in pre-K, 92 in kindergarten, 108 in first grade, 92 in second grade, 99 in third grade and 118 in fourth grade.
  • Federal count: 604 students in the 2023-24 school year, with 37 full-time-equivalent teachers, according to the NCES directory. That works out to about 16 students per teacher.

State report card

Virginia rates schools two ways. Accreditation means a school “submitted all required evidence to the Department of Education as prescribed in the Standards of Accreditation,” in the words of the state profile. The School Performance and Support Framework gives each school a score and one of four performance levels: Distinguished, Meets Expectations, Approaching Expectations and Needs Intensive Support.

  • Accreditation: Fully Accredited, the state’s designation for the 2025-26 school year.
  • Framework score: 85.6, performance level Approaching Expectations, in the state’s division summary.

Standards of Learning pass rates (share of tested students who passed, all tests in the subject; state tests start in third grade):

Subject 2023-24 2024-25 2025-26
English reading 62% 57% 66%
Math 64% 65% 69%
History and social science 59% 60% 67%

The full profile also reports attendance, student groups, teacher data and spending.

Programs

STEAM: the about page says the curriculum blends art and creativity with STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and math), with students making visual, musical and dramatic responses to what they learn.

Attendance zone and feeder schools

Winchester has four elementary zones, and they do not follow neighborhood lines. Enter an address in WebQuery and choose the grade (K for preschool) to see the school and bus stop, or call the school. Families near the school can check the division’s walk zone maps.

By our count of the city’s address points on its School Districts map layer, the John Kerr Elementary zone takes in most of the Northwest planning area (90% of its address points), the East Central area (75%), the West Central area (74%) and the Old Town/North Central area (67%), and about half of the Northeast area (51%). See our neighborhood guides for Northwest, East Central, West Central, Old Town and Northeast. The other elementary schools are Frederick Douglass Elementary, Garland R. Quarles Elementary and Virginia Avenue Charlotte DeHart Elementary.

Feeder schools: every WPS student goes on to Daniel Morgan Intermediate for fifth and sixth grade, Daniel Morgan Middle for seventh and eighth, and John Handley High, according to the division’s list of schools. Zones stop at the city line: homes with a Winchester mailing address in ZIP codes 22602 and 22603 are in Frederick County, which runs its own schools.

Calendar and bell times

From the division’s 2026-27 calendar:

  • Tuesday, Nov. 3: teacher professional development day
  • Nov. 25-27: fall break
  • Friday, Dec. 18: end of the second quarter, holiday early release
  • Dec. 21 to Jan. 1: winter break; Monday, Jan. 4, is a teacher professional development day
  • Monday, Jan. 18: division holiday
  • March 26 and March 29 to April 2: spring break
  • Friday, May 28: last day of school, early release

The calendar sets elementary hours at 7:50 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. The school’s own page lists parent drop-off from 7:25 a.m., the tardy bell at 7:50 a.m. and pickup at 2:30 p.m. Closings and delays are posted on the division’s closings page.

More on Winchester schools

Frequently asked questions

What grades does John Kerr Elementary serve?

Pre-K through fourth grade. It had 577 students in fall 2025, the state’s count shows. Fifth graders move on to Daniel Morgan Intermediate.

How is John Kerr Elementary rated by the state?

It is fully accredited for 2025-26. On Virginia’s School Performance and Support Framework it scored 85.6 and is rated Approaching Expectations, according to the state’s School Quality Profiles.

Which high school does John Kerr Elementary feed into?

John Handley High School, by way of Daniel Morgan Intermediate for fifth and sixth grade and Daniel Morgan Middle for seventh and eighth grade. Every Winchester Public Schools student attends those three schools.

What time does John Kerr Elementary start?

Elementary school runs from 7:50 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., according to the division’s 2026-27 calendar. The school lists drop-off from 7:25 a.m.