The Prince William County School Board adopted the 2021-22 school calendar at its meeting on November 4.
The approved calendar will include two full weeks for winter break and incorporates additional holidays that reflect the diversity of the PWCS community. The first day of school will be Monday, August 23, 2021, and the last day of school will be Wednesday, June 15, 2022.
Nearly 80 special education students will return to in-person learning in Manassas.
The city School Board approved a plan to send back 76 “school-dependent learners,” and about 43 teachers on November 4. It will make the first time that anyone students or teachers have been back to class since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic in March.
Manassas City schools are considering what to do about scholastic sports. The Virginia High School League will begin its amended winter season on December 7.
Winter sports run December 7 to February 20
After 15 years, Dr. Steven L. Walts’ time as Prince William County Public Schools Superintendent is drawing to a close. That’s more evident now more than ever as the county School Board tonight will hold its first meeting to discuss replacing Walts, who plans to leave July 1, 2021.
At the moment, Walts is working out the details of sending students back to in-person learning in school buildings in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. After pressure from the School Board, kindergarten students will return to in-person learning in a hybrid model on November 10, with half of the school division’s kindergartners coming on alternating days. Second and third-grade students will return to school buildings in January, and the remainder of the students phased back in early February.
Stafford school officials are reviewing how much time they have before notifying a parent their child was restrained at school.
The county board will entertain changes to its student restraint and seclusion policy. Under the proposal, a school must report a restraint of a child to a parent “as soon as practical…shall make a reasonable effort that direct contact is made with the parent…”
All Prince William County students who choose the school division’s proposed “hybrid plan” could return to schools for in-person learning by the start of the third quarter, which begins Feb. 2, under a plan the school board approved early Thursday despite criticisms from some members who said it lacks a sense of urgency about getting students back in school.
Dr. Babur Lateef says Prince William County Public Schools are ready to send teachers back to work and students back to class.
As Chairman of the School Board, he says the school division can easily send students at all grade levels back to class in a hybrid 50/50 model, with half of the students learning from home and the other half attending classes in person.
Two students from Stafford County Public Schools are moving onto the finalist round of the 2021 National Merit Scholarship Program.
Fifteen students earned the title of Commended Scholar in the program.
Teachers paraded around the parking lot of the Prince William County Public Schools headquarters on Wednesday, October 7 with child-sized coffins mounted to their vehicles.
Two small coffins, one black and the other white, were on top of SUVs that were part of the “Mobilize to Survive” caravan, organized by the Prince William Education Association. The protesters drove around and honked their car horns while children and parents looked on, and county School Board members sat inside the building during a closed meeting.
In order to maintain social distancing, Prince William County will be celebrating national Walk to School Day differently this year.
While the Walk to School Day was observed on Wednesday, October 7, with the majority of students learning virtually from home, Prince William County Schools will be celebrating during the full month of October.
