After it was first heard in December 2018, it wasn’t until May 28 that the Non-Discrimination Policy appeared on the Board Agenda as an information item. Then again at the next meeting, the policy appeared under information.
“I see delays after delays, and I’m not really sure why it’s been on for information twice,” Superintendent Dr. Scott Kizner said to Falmouth District Supervisor Sarah Chase on June 8 in documents obtained by the Potomac Local in a Freedom of Information Act Order.
That free-roaming bear was spotted during the late morning hours on Friday, forcing the Forest Park High School administration to keep students inside the building and to hold after-school activities indoors.
The school, located near Montclair, kept students were kept inside, but those who needed to come and go were could do as necessary.
After Stafford County Schools Superintendent Dr. Scott Kizner’s initial transgender student proposal in December 2018, the policy drew highly polarized and split opinions.
A total of 51% of emails sent to Board members regarding this issue advocated against the Gender Identity and Expression Policy while 41% of resident emails argued for the passage of such policy according to documents gathered by the Potomac Local in a Freedom of Information Act Order.
It was during her annual “back-to-school” tour she visited Cougar Elementary School in Manassas Park on Wednesday, September 4.
She also stopped at Triangle Elementary School and Washington-Reid Preschool Center in Prince William County prior to stopping at Manassas Park.
Those promises came after the school division garnered national attention when a transgender student wasn’t allowed to use either the boys or girls locker room during an active shooter safety drill.
At the School Board meeting on Oct. 9, 2018, a week after the transgender lockerroom incident occurred, Board members promised their constituents that they would address what happened.
Since 2012, it’s been the intention that after a new Anne E. Moncure Elementary School was built and opened (it did last month) the old school and the property on which it sits would be conveyed from the school division to the county government.
Now it has, but that deal was inked in an era when retail and commercial development around the now-abandoned school on Route 610 was booming. Today, when questions swirl over whether or not a new movie theater will ever be built at The Garrison, that boom time seems so long ago.
Those evacuations took place once on the mornings of Thursday, August 22 and Friday, August 23, when county officials stopped a kindergarten orientation with students in the building, and during a teacher orientation session, respectively, show emails obtained by Potomac Local.
“I am concerned that school staff continued to place teachers and students in harm’s way. People’s lives were being endangered by ignoring the life safety issues identified by the county building officials and county fire officials,” penned Prince William County Executive Christopher Martino in a letter to school officials. He went on to call the actions of the school division “egregious.”
County officials are fuming after children, teachers, and staff of the new John D. Jenkins Elementary School entered the building before Prince William County inspectors issued a full occupancy permit, and despite concerns about a fire suppression system that may not work properly.
Kindergarten students were allowed inside the building for orientation at 10 a.m. Thursday, August 22. A the same time, County Building Official Eric Mays was concerned that the hangers used to secure pipes for the fire suppression system were not strong enough to “support the weight of the pipe, the water, plus an additional 250-pound load,” according to emails obtained by Potomac Local.
Lillie Jessie, the Occoquan District School representative on the Prince William County School Board, is fighting to keep an aviation mechanics program solely at Woodbridge Senior High School, in her district.
Last year, the county school division announced plans to add the after-school, extracurricular classes to Stonewall Jackson High School on the other end of the county, outside Manassas.
The newest elementary school in Prince William County is named for its longest-serving supervisor.
The new school at 4060 Prince William Parkway in Woodbridge bears the name John D. Jenkins Elementary. He represented Dale City as the Neabsco District Supervisor between 1982 and his death in February of this year.
