In his plan to combat racism released on June 5, Prince William County Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Steven L. Walts said it is time to rename Stonewall Jackson Senior High and Middle schools.
The schools, both located near Manassas — the site of the first battle of the Civil War in 1861 — are named for Jackson, a native Virginian who fought for the Confederacy, and is widely regarded by historians as one of the greatest military generals serve any nation.
Stafford County has enabled all of its students to have an electronic device for the next school year.
On June 16, the Stafford County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved the purchase of 9,000 Chromebooks for students, a motion that has been in the works for months. Funding for the $1.1 million purchase will likely come from the CARES Act.
The Stafford County School Board is looking to pass a new policy on employee conduct, including regulations for electronic communications with students.
Under this policy, employees are allowed to engage in electronic communication with students on school-approved platforms for “legitimate purposes connected to school programs or services,” the policy outlines.
Students in Stafford County middle and high schools may no longer be allowed to use cell phones in class for instructional purposes.
At the county’s June 9 school board meeting, the board discussed exhibits one and two of Regulation 2401, which would “eliminate the use of cell phones in the classroom for instructional purposes,” according to school board documentation.
After hundreds of suggestions and multiple school board meetings, a name has finally been chosen for Prince William County’s 13th high school.
The school, which will be located at 13150 University Boulevard in Gainesville, has been named Gainesville High School. The naming was approved at the Prince William County School Board’s June 10 meeting, where the board also named the school’s library media center in honor of Officer Ashley Marie Guindon and its Student Services Center in honor of Lillian Orlich.
Schools will be opening in the fall, at least in some capacity.
Gov. Ralph Northam announced at his June 9 briefing that the schools will be opening in phases that correlate to the phases of general reopening.
Northern Virginia Community College classes are going to start on time, but for the most part, they will not in-person.
In a statement on June 8 made by the college’s president, Anne M. Kress, it was announced that the college’s classes would begin as scheduled on August 24 and be “offered in [NOVA’s] approved distance-learning formats, with the majority being offered either through NOVA Online or through synchronous delivery via Zoom.”
Prince William County Schools (PWCS) students should expect to go back to the classroom bright and early in August, as in a recent press release it was signaled that schools will be reopening on time for in-person learning.
School buildings across the state have been shuttered since mid-March when Gov. Ralph Northam ordered schools closed due to the coronavirus pandemic. The move forced school divisions to shift their educational efforts solely online.
Prince William County Schools won’t show the Tweets that have now become the center of a legal investigation into the school division’s superintendent.
A law firm is now reviewing Tweets from Dr. Steven L. Walts, the 15-year chief of the county’s school division, after county resident Guy Morgan, of Gainesville, alleged the superintendent was using his social media account to exchange private, inappropriate comminution with students via Twitter’s direct message feature. Direct messages do not appear in the public timeline of a Twitter user.
Joel Shapiro, Woodbridge Senior High School Choir Director says:
My HS choir students from Woodbridge [Senior High School] recorded “You Will Be Found” while we’ve been out due to COVID. We would be honored if you wanted to share it! Thanks for listening!
