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!
The school year is nearly over, and Prince William County Schools (PWCS) Superintendent Dr. Steven L. Walts is calling for some major changes.
In a June 5 email to all PWCS staff, parents, students, Dr. Walts laid out his ‘action plan to combat racism,’ calling on the email recipients to actively pursue diversity and equity for the school division’s more than 91,500 students and to be vigilant in promoting antiracism.
Lisamarie Kane will take over as principal of Osbourn Park High School, just outside Manassas, on July 1, 2020.
Kane replaces Neil Beech, who was previously named the principal of the “13th” High School, planned for an opening in Gainesville next year.
The ultimate measure of a person is not where they stand in moments of comfort and convenience, but where they stand at times of challenge and controversy, paraphrasing Dr. King. In this moment of challenge and controversy, we stand with you. We are angry and grieved over the killings of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor and we are committed to stand with you as we all fight the racism, inequality, and systemic oppression that continues to plague our society.
And as African-American men who care deeply about our country and our city, we are especially affected by these events.
