Stafford County Public Schools has completed its plan for implementing Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s ALL IN VA learning loss recovery initiative and the School Board will discuss it at a work session on Tuesday. According to the agenda for the work session, the division expects to receive $10.4 million in one-time funding to provide “high-dosage” tutoring […]
The Spotsylvania School Board on Monday will consider approving additional revisions to its policy and regulations concerning the selection and review of instructional materials. On the whole, the proposed changes represent compromises arrived at by an ad hoc book policy review committee that met four times over the summer, according to committee member Bernadette Chimner. […]
Perhaps the biggest local story from Tuesday’s election is the flip of the Spotsylvania School Board from Tea Party-aligned control. Incumbent Livingston representative Kirk Twigg, who described himself to voters as the “anti-woke” candidate and is facing a felony charge of forgery and tampering of public records, lost his bid for reelection to a third […]
There’s a well-known paradox in the world of education research. Ask people about their feelings toward public schools in general, and you’re likely to hear that schools are failing. Ask people about their local schools, however, and most have good things to say. So well-entrenched is this pattern that the results of a recent poll […]
There’s nothing easy about teaching. And there’s nothing easy about selecting one above all others as the best of the best. Northern Virginia Magazine has done that work, however, and named Jennifer McCall of North Stafford High School as the 2023 Teacher of the Year. “Parents and students told us about so many outstanding educators, […]
Schools are under intense scrutiny these days, with people from the governor on down talking about the failure of traditional public education for all. But in Stafford County, the past week has brought a lot of news to celebrate. Last Friday the district released the following news: According to the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) […]
The drumbeat about declining mental health has been a steady one since the onset of the pandemic. This fact was driven home by the 2022 Rappahannock Area Community Health Assessment that listed “mental health” as the No. 1 most-important health need in our region. Our region is hardly alone. Mental health issues across Virginia are […]
A familiar cycle is about to kick-off again in Virginia. The final SOL scores are going to be released to the public soon (they were actually due in August). You know what’s going to happen. Public school critics will cherry-pick whatever numbers that favor them and use the information to further their argument that public […]
Imperial Takeover
Augustus was pulling off coups long before Lisa Phelps came on the scene. Educated citizens will understand the reference. The chairman of Spotsylvania County’s school board, however, surely won’t. That would require reading – and given her desire to ban and burn books with “pornography,” we assume anything from, or about, the Roman Empire is […]