Students in Prince William County Public Schools have been back to learning for about a month.
Special education students are learning in classrooms, while the remainder of the school division’s 92,000 students has been attending classes online since the first day of school on September 8.
The University of Mary Washington and Germanna Community College pressed Senator Mark Warner on Thursday for more federal funding to help students who don’t have access to the internet and computers to continue online learning.
The colleges are asking for more federal funding as Germanna, in particular, had a 12% increase in enrollment this semester and expressed a need for additional funds to provide students with computers. Both intuitions pivoted to online learning in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic and expressed concern about students who want to attend their schools but cannot due to a lack of computer equipment.
A group of Prince William County School parents, teachers, and students have joined forces to push Prince William County School Board members to hear their request for in-person learning at the start of the second quarter of the academic year, which begins on November 4.
Organizers are asking parents and students who want the option to send their children back to school with at least the 50/50 hybrid model, to rally at the following events:
Potomac Shores, Shoreline, Cherry Hill, and Hilda Barg were among a shortlist of suggestions residents offered Prince William County School Board members Thursday during a community input session held to hear naming ideas for the county’s 17th middle school.
A Prince William Circuit Court judge today dismissed a lawsuit filed by former School Prince William County School Board Chairman At-large Ryan Sawyers, against the Prince William School Board that sought the disclosure of more than 20,000 direct messages sent to and from schools superintendent Dr. Steven L. Walts, on his official school division Twitter account.
Following a hearing and her review of the direct messages, Prince William Circuit Judge Kimberly A. Irving held that the messages were “clearly exempted” from mandatory disclosure under Virginia’s Freedom of Information Act because they were communications of the chief executive officer of the School Board, said school division spokeswoman Diana Gulotta.
Prince William County Public Schools are working toward launching a hybrid learning schedule for many students next month, even though many questions remain about the details.
Prince William leaders are considering using $2 million in federal coronavirus aid awarded to the county to help residents pay for daycare.
The money comes from the CARES Act and had been earmarked by the local government to be granted to small businesses in an effort to help them recover from the coronavirus pandemic. However, county employees and some residents have said they need help paying for childcare now that public schools are back in session.
The GO Virginia Region 6 Council and GO Virginia State Board awarded Germanna Community College $634,938.
This grant comes as part of a $1 million Tech Talent Pipeline Project to train over 200 students entering engineering, information technology, computer science, and cyber-related professions in the Fredericksburg region.
School divisions in Prince William and Stafford counties say they’re taking precautions after a visit from Virginia’s First Lady Pamela Norham, who, along with Gov. Ralph Northam tested positive for the coronavirus on Friday, September 25.
Prince William County plans to reopen Washington Reid School near Dumfries, where Northam visited on Tuesday, September 22, at its regular time on Tuesday, September 29.
The students in Rebecca Clement’s English class are finishing up reading the Greek play Medea.
Her students and Saint John Paul the Great Catholic High School in Potomac Shores, both in class and learning virtually at home, took turns reading the book out loud. “I’m covering more than what I expected to cover so far,” said Clement, whose in her 14th year of teaching.
