Sitting six feet apart in an empty board chamber, Superintendent Scott Kizner and School Board Chair Holly Hazard broadcasted to a thousand concerned parents, students, staff, and community members viewing from a distance, behind the safety of their screens, about the impacts of the coronavirus on the Stafford County Public School System.
The large takeaway — nothing is certain.
Students across Virginia will not be going back to school this academic year.
Gov. Ralph Northam today announced schools would not reopen due to the spread of coronavirus around the state, which has killed six people and infected 254 in the state as of today. Across the U.S., a total of 33,404 people have been infected and 400 have died.
An instructor at the Northern Virginia Community College has tested positive for coronavirus.
A statement from the college reads:
George Mason University President Anne Holton today made an extraordinary decree: None of the university’s students would return for the remainder of the semester due to the Chinese coronavirus.
This late-breaking information comes to us in an email sent to students from Holton:
Public school students in Fredericksburg are on spring break this week, along with faculty and staff.
The break started yesterday, Friday, March 12, 2020, and is slated to end on Friday, March 19. Students, however, won’t be returning to school as originally planned after Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam yesterday ordered a mandatory shutdown of schools across the state.
Stafford County Public School students started their spring break on Friday, March 13, 2020.
While students were out, teachers had a scheduled workday on Friday. As the day wore on, we learned that Stafford students, much like students across Virginia, would not be returning to class when the scheduled spring break ends March 23.
Manassas City Public Schools will be closed starting Monday, March 16 through the school division’s scheduled spring break, which was slated to end April 13.
City school officials say students will return to school April 14. Gov.
Prince William County Public Schools will close following a statewide order today from Gov. Ralph Northam.
We’re told that county schools will be closed to students effective Saturday, March 14, until April 14, and that this closure, in response to the coronavirus spread, may be extended depending on the situation.
Prince William County Public Schools has announced several days of closures for students due to coronavirus fears.
The following are changes that Prince William County Schools has directed and published on their website as of March 12, 2020:
Virginia First Lady Pamela Northam recently visited Marumsco Hills Elementary School to show her support of early childhood programs. Northam visited the Virginia Preschool Initiative (VPI) classroom of Andrea Gillespie and read the book, “Are You Ready for Spring?” to the students.
“We are so thrilled to be here in Prince William County,” Northam said. “We’re so appreciative of the innovative work you all are doing combining local, state and federal funding to do this incredible work for early childhood. We really want to see the rest of the Commonwealth doing a great job as they are doing here in this school we saw today.”
