by Adele Uphaus
MANAGING EDITOR AND CORRESPONDENT
The Spotsylvania School Board on Monday evening voted to indefinitely table proposed revisions to its policy and regulations concerning the selection and review of instructional materials.
Berkeley district representative April Gillespie made the motion to table the revisions and was supported by board members Dawn Shelley, Nicole Cole and Lorita Daniels.
Chair Lisa Phelps and out-going board members Kirk Twigg and Rabih Abuismail voted against tabling.
The revisions would have extended the definition of instructional materials to include all library books, thereby obligating school divisions to notify parents of “sexually explicit” content as required by a new section of Virginia Code that was approved by the General Assembly last year.
The revisions would also have extended the amount of time school principals have to respond to book challenges and limited the number of book challenges that schools will consider at any one time, stating that, “Requests for reconsideration of challenged instructional materials will be handled one at a time in the order received but will alternate between individual challengers, in the event more than one individual requests reconsideration of materials.”
Dante Braden, a 2023 graduate of Massaponax High School who is now employed by the school division and assisted Chief of Staff Jon Russell on the book policy committee, told the board that this proposed revision was meant to “allow multiple parents to have their points heard instead of one person clogging the system, for lack of a better word.”
During public comments earlier in the meeting, Jennifer Peterson, the parent who has initiated challenges of more than 60 books since last year, said the proposed revision violates “my ability to address my government with my grievances.”
Gillespie, during discussion of the proposed revisions, said she agreed with this assessment.
Shelley said she did not think library books should be considered instructional materials and that the revised policy and regulations would be in violation of Virginia Code.
She quoted from Senate Bill 656, which enacted the section of code that requires parental notification of instructional material with sexually explicit content and which states that, “the provisions of this act shall not be construed as requiring or providing for the censoring of books in public elementary and secondary schools.”
Cole and Daniels said there was not sufficient representation from staff members with instructional experience or parents with diverse perspectives on the book policy committee, which was made up of two parents, Russell and the division’s library liaison.
“To say this came from the committee’s input when I know that experts’ input was not taken into account is deceptive,” Cole said. “I feel there is no rush to come up with a partial policy that is not inclusive. The process should be that the experts come up with a draft and have a diverse committee weigh in.”
The new School Board that will take office in January will be made up of members who have taken a measured and less reactive stance on the issue of library books.
But Bobby Eberth, founder of the Chesterfield-based Virginians for Children First – an organization that has made the removal of books it considers sexually explicit a priority – said during public comments on Monday that he is “almost done” establishing a Spotsylvania branch of his organization and that he is going to keep working to remove books.
“It’s going to keep happening,” he said.
Capital improvement and learning loss recovery plan approved
Also on Monday, the board approved a $158 million five-year capital improvement plan and a spending plan for additional state funding that is coming to the school division as a result of the General Assembly’s delayed budget approval.
The division expects to receive $12.6 million in additional resources, chief financial officer Philip Trayer said.
About $8.2 million of this is one-time money for implementing the three components of Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s ALL IN VA learning loss recovery plan – high dosage tutoring, strategies for reducing chronic absenteeism and the expanded Virginia Literacy Act.
The division will also use $1.2 million in new state funding to provide a 2% wage increase to all staff, effective Jan. 1.
Trayer said while the state is expected to provide on-going funding to support the 2% wage increase going forward, it does mean the division’s baseline budget will be $4.2 million higher next fiscal year.
“There is a local portion and that’s something the locality will have to shoulder,” he said. “For fiscal year 2024, we will utilize the one-time funding we receive and will be asking (the board of supervisors) for the baseline budget to be adjusted going into fiscal year 2025.”
“No” to the lab school
Finally on Monday, the board decided not to participate in the new regional lab school under the University of Mary Washington that organizers hope to open in the fall of 2024, voting 5-to-1 not to enter into an operating agreement with UMW and four other local school divisions.
Rebecca Towery, director of the Academy of Innovation and Technology at UMW, was at Monday’s meeting to provide an update and answer questions about the lab school, which will be housed at the university’s Stafford campus.
The school boards of Stafford, Fredericksburg, King George and Caroline have signed the operating agreement, but Spotsylvania School Board members said they have concerns about the cost of participating in the lab school.
Each of the participating divisions will be allotted a proportional number of seats in the new school and will contribute a certain amount of per-pupil funding.
There would also be a cost for transporting students from their home divisions to the lab school. The cost to Spotsylvania would be $30,960 per bus per instructional year, according to the agenda for Monday’s meeting.
Towery estimated that the lab school would have 36 seats for Spotsylvania students and that there would be a per-pupil cost of $8,500, which she said is less than what the division spent per pupil in 2021.
But Gillespie said she doesn’t like the idea of “creating another public school division when we can’t pay for our own.”
“This is taking away from our own division,” she said.
Cole agreed, saying she would “much rather have these funds go towards the things we’re trying to build to be more accessible to many more kids than would be at the lab school,” such as an in-house innovation center or performing arts program.
“This is a very small number of students for the amount of dollars we are committing,” Cole said.
Abuismail was the only board member to support entering into the lab school agreement. Phelps was absent for the vote.
