Stafford County leaders intend to send a message to its public school division: CRT won't be tolerated.
The Board of Supervisors will meet at 3 p.m. Tuesday to vote on a resolution that would allow it to withhold funding from the school division if it learns instructors are teaching Critical Race Theory -- a decades-old academic framework examining how race and racism influence politics, culture, and law.
CRT has become a hot-button issue at School Board meetings both locally and across the nation, where liberals and conservatives demand teachers across all subjects stop developing lesson plans focused on race. The practice divides children into ethnic groups, they say.
Leaders also threatened to withhold funding if it learns teachers are asking students to identify by their preferred pronouns. Earlier this year, the Virginia Supreme Court ordered Loudoun County Public Schools to reinstate P.E. teacher Tanner Cross after he was suspended for refusing to identify students by their preferred pronouns.
"...the Board has received numerous communications from parents, students, and concerned constituents regarding students of Stafford County Public Schools being requested to identify their chosen pronouns," the resolution states.
Two weeks ago, Stafford County Schools Interim Superintendent Dr. Stanley Jones was questioned by Supervisors over CRT, and Jones assured Supervisors CRT was not being taught in county schools. Moreover, the CRT discussion is taking away from the bigger issue at hand: help students catch up on their studies after a lackluster 18-months of virtual learning during the pandemic.
In light of the pressing resolution, Falmouth District School Board Member Dr. Sarah Chase expressed her dismay.
"In my opinion, it indicated a lack of trust in our interim superintendent and this board. It reminds me of a resolution that was passed less than three years ago threatening the school board with a loss of funding if we didn't put a trailer at Hartwood Elementary School," said Chase.
Chase invoked a past decision by the Board of Supervisors to categorically fund the school division when it tied funding to the placement of a trailer classroom at Hartwood Elementary School. Each year, Supervisors set the county tax rate and provide the majority of the school division's funding.
Additionally, policing teachers for CRT would create a toxic work environment that could hamper the county's efforts to retain teachers, added Chase.
"The proposed resolution has the potential to make our work environment toxic, especially for teachers of color. Many of our teachers are anxious about COVID and they're having to juggle students in the classroom and students that are quarantined. Now we are having to add the stressor of having to monitor what they say in case it is misconstrued as Critical Race Theory," said Chase.
Recently, both the Board of Supervisors and and School Board worked collaboratilvey to fund the schools needs. In 2019, the two elected bodies worked purchase the buidlng now home to North Star Early Childhood Education Center in North Stafford (formerly the Fredericksburg Christian Academy), the replacing Anne E. Moncure Elementary School the same year.
The renovation of Ferry Farm Elementary School, the establishment of the fire and rescue program, helping with the purchase of tech at the start of the pandemic, more recently helping to fund more competitive salaries for bus drivers to help with the transportation issues, Chase also cite as other instance of collaboration between both elected bodies.
Griffis-Widewater District School Board member Dr. Elizabeth Warner and echoed the words of Jones, who had stated at the Board of Supervisors meeting that CRT was a law school course that isn't taught in Stafford County Schools.
"Equity is not Critical Race Theory. Equity is about making sure all students have what they need so that they can reach their full potential. That is what I see as our job," said Dr. Warner. "I'm concerned when the [Board of Supervisors] threatens our funding over a ghost, something we don't teach, that they don't know how to explain or identify but they're certain is there."
