School Board

That’s a joke, of course. As was Chairman Scott York’s insistence that the maneuver isn’t some kind of a power grab.

At their Nov. 4 meeting in Leesburg, supervisors unanimously agreed to ask state lawmakers for permission to combine duplicated tasks like land acquisition and capital construction, matters that have divided supervisors and school board members of late. Virginia’s General Assembly next meets starting in January.

Supervisors stressed the measure is not an attempt to take power away from the school board, but a change that would cut spending.

Eileen Murdock’s daughter, now a senior at Dominion High School, was suspended last April, along with several other classmates, for supposedly possessing or consuming alcohol during a school trip to France over spring break. While administrators say that the students were suspended for 10 days, which constitutes a short-term suspension, parents argue that because their children were prohibited from participating in some activities abroad, the actual suspensions were longer.

Dr. Ed Hatrick, Superintendent of Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) presented a State of Education report to members of the Loudoun County Chamber of Commerce on Sept. 8. He profiled the continued growth of student enrollment, the reduction in funding for schools’ operating budget, the decline in starting and average teacher salaries, and the drop in per pupil costs.

The Loudoun County School Board is publicly advertising for land for three future school sites in western Loudoun County. The “request for public school sites” represents the efforts of the Joint School Board/Board of Supervisors Committee to develop a new and improved method for soliciting land from the public, including private landowners and developers. The deadline for submission of proposals is Friday, October 30, 2009.