Prince William County Police are addressing how they’re combating fentanyl dangers county-wide days after a teenage boy in Manassas died from a suspected fentanyl overdose.
If confirmed, this would be the third fentanyl-related death in Prince William County in recent weeks.
Photo: Stafford County Public Schools[/caption]
Stafford County Public Schools has requested that Virginia give its teachers a raise to make the jurisdiction more competitive with neighboring counties.
COCA, otherwise known as Cost of Competing Adjustment, is given to counties by the state to adjust salary differences for support and teaching staff between localities. The funding for counties is based on average salary and population, which are currently expected to rise higher over the next decade in Stafford County.
According to the school division, Stafford is the third-fastest growing county in Virginia and has increased by 10 percent over the last decade. Despite that growth, the school division only receives the adjustment funding that matches 25 percent of its annual budget.
Nine school divisions in Northern Virginia are granted 100 percent of COCA funding, making it hard for Stafford County to remain competitive in retaining teaching staff and support personnel.
Nearby localities such as Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania County receive only 25 percent of the funding.
On average, Stafford teachers make $10,000 less than teachers in nearby Prince William County, which is among the nine counties that receive 100 percent funding.
Many teachers who begin their teaching careers in Stafford schools often stay long enough to gain experience and then leave for higher salaries in other school divisions.
According to the Superintendent's Annual Report for Virginia for Fiscal Year 2021, Stafford County spends $11,982 in per pupil expenditures from an annual budget of $350,149,101 for FY 2021.
Prince William County, for example, spends $13,425 in per-pupil expenditures. This puts SCPS' per pupil expenditures lower than any of the Northern Virginia counties that receive a 100 percent match of COCA funding.
"The intent of COCA was to recognize the higher costs that division incur due to more competitive markets. The Northern Virginia labor market drives the salary costs higher for these divisions," says Sandra Osborn, Stafford schools spokeswoman. " The Division is pushing for the change in the COCA allocation now effective for the Fiscal Year 2024, based on their legislative priorities."
Virginia’s 7th District congressional candidates will debate on October 21, a matchup of Democratic Rep. Abigail Spanberger and Republican challenger Yesli Vega.
The debate will occur at Gar-Field Senior High School, 1400 Smoketown Road in Woodbridge, at 7 p.m. The exchange is sponsored by the Prince William Committee of 100. The organizer has yet to announce a moderator.
Stafford County Public Schools held the inaugural Chart Your Future Expo on Wednesday, October 12, 2022, at the Fredericksburg Expo & Conference Center.
The event hosted more than 1,500 seniors and post-graduate students from all five high schools in Stafford County, the Phoenix Center, Project SEARCH, as well as the school system’s separate public and private day schools.
According to an email from the Prince William County Office of Elections, obtained by Potomac Local News, the county had used a cloud-based Web interface called PollChief developed by tech firm Konnech that manages election officer data. Under our contract, the company’s data servers were stated to be in the U.S., in Michigan and California.
Konnech Corporation CEO Eugene Yu was taken into custody Tuesday, October 4, following an investigation by the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office on suspicion of theft of personal identifying information. Instead of housing data in the U.S., investigators believe it was sent to China.
On Monday, October 10 at 1:31 a.m., officers responded to the Shell service station located at 17250 Dumfries Road to investigate a suspicious vehicle.
When officers arrived, they approached the vehicle and saw the driver sleeping while exposing himself. Officers made contact with the driver and detained him.
A Woodbridge man was struck and killed on Interstate 95.
The crash occurred October 11, 2022, at 3:06 p.m. on Interstate 95 at the 169-mile marker in Fairfax County, near Springfield.
Manassas government employees and the residents who visit to interact with them will get a newly remodeled city hall despite skyrocketing costs and the city’s need to dip into rainy-day funds to pay for the construction.
On Monday, October 10, 2022, the City Council voted 4-2, with Democrats in favor, to move ahead with a $12.2 million project to gut and overhaul the city’s municipal office building at 9027 Center Street, installing new systems from top to bottom — electrical wiring, HVAC, elevators, and new windows, to name a few.
