After serving on the Manassas City School Board since July 2010, Chairman Sanford S. Williams will resign when his term ends December 31.
Williams made his announcement during board comment time at the city school board's regular meeting. Williams thanked the Manassas community for allowing him to serve and stated that his decision comes from wanting to spend more time with family.
In retirement, he'll spend more time with his daughters who live in California.
"I'd like to thank the community for allowing me to serve. It's a pleasure and an honor to serve. It's not easy, but it's a pleasure to serve, so thank you for that," said Williams.
Williams's departure from the board comes soon after Scott Albrecht, who stepped down a year earlier after serving on the school board for 20 years.
As chairman, Williams oversaw the implementation of new anti-racism and diversity, equity, and inclusion policy which calls for hiring more teachers based on race, to not just narrow, but to eliminate the achievement gap between high and low achieving students and to create a new curriculum that incorporates "the contributions of diverse cultural groups."
According to school officials, the school division would spend three years working to achieve these goals.
While white students make up less than 20 percent of the student body in Manassas City, they do outperform other historically underrepresented groups such as Hispanics, African-Americans, Native Americans, and others on state assessments.
Members of the public were also critical of the board's new policies, such as the only metric used to study performance was by race and left out other metrics like zip codes or class.
While Williams plans to stay until the end of his term, he announced he wouldn't be present for the next school board meeting, tentatively scheduled for Tuesday, October 11.
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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.
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The tennis courts at one area high school are looking better than they did six months ago.
This past spring, Potomac Local News told you about concerns parents and students at Forest Park High School near Dumfries had about the safety of the school's tennis courts.
The courts had been falling into disrepair for almost a decade. Large cracks appeared, and uneven surfaces formed, interfering with play and proving a hazard for players. At one point, the damage was so bad teams were playing at other schools.
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The Stafford County Board of Supervisors will consider creating an Economic Infrastructure Fund that will secure future funds for infrastructure improvements along Centreport Parkway, near the Stafford Regional Airport.
Conceptually, the fund would be used as a savings account that would use a portion of the county's tax revenue to support future growth and development in the area where a new 200,000 square foot Amazon fulfillment center will open.
The new center is expected to create at least 100 full and part-time associate jobs and potentially hundreds of driver opportunities.
The Centreport area has long been targeted by the county's Community and Economic Development Committee as an area with potential for both industrial and distribution businesses.
According to county documents, the fund model is based on the use of future tax revenues as opposed to other options such as Community Development Authorities, which raise funds through additional taxes.
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The Stafford County Infrastructure Committee has a choice to make regarding the Belmont-Ferry Farm Trail system's final phase.
Since 2019, the committee has been working towards completing the sixth and final phase of the project, which would add to the already two-and-a-half long trail from Route 3 at River Road and end at the Ferry Farm Shopping Center in the George Washington District.
However, the county has run into complications from topography issues, land acquisition, and the Virginia Department of Transportation approvals that may be difficult to achieve.
If the county decides to move forward with the construction of the trail segment, the expectation from VDOT would be to begin the effort by the end of 2020.
The first option would be to construct the trail and align it along Old Dairy Lane to the CSX railway tunnel along Naomi Road. The trail would cross Route 3 at Jett Drive from Naomi, running along the north side of Route 3 and ultimately ending at the Ferry Farm Shopping Center.
Should the county make this decision, it would require $775,340 in additional costs to the project, that funding is expected to come from the Federal Transportation Alternatives Program.
Known also as TAP, this program came about with the signing of the Fixing America's Surface Transportation Act by then-President Barack Obama in December 2015. The county's application for funding with the program is currently under review with the Federal Highway Administration.
The other option would be to cancel the project and repay $130,000 to the program.
The decision is expected to be taken up at the next Stafford County Board of Supervisors meeting as new business on September 21.
When complete, the Belmont-Ferry Farm trail, linking the historic Belmont Plantation with the President George Washington boyhood home, will provide residents and visitors with more than two miles of paved hiking trail through southern Stafford County.
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When a coronavirus state of emergency set by Governor Ralph Northam was lifted this summer, it allowed students to return to the classrooms.
Some Prince William County students started the new academic year in two new schools built during the pandemic.
Potomac Shores Middle School is located near Dumfries, in the Potomac Shores neighborhood.
With its mascot, the Cardinal, Gainesville High School sits just outside Gainesville Magisterial District, neighboring Brentsville Magisterial District, directly behind the Jiffy Lube Live concert venue.
Prince William County Potomac District School Board member Justin Wilk praised the success of the new middle school's openinand its staff andas mentioned some challenges the school is experiencing.
"I'm very happy that things have gotten off to such a good start. The school is staffed with quality teachers, and Principle Joe Murgo has done a phenomenal job. There have been some challenges, we do need some crosswalks to ensure that the students can get to school safely. There's also the issue of so many parents driving their kids to school and getting everyone in on time."
Wilk's involvement in the naming of Potomac Shores involved taking meetings with residents whose children were drawn into the new school's boundaries. In a press release made by Prince William County Schools about the naming of Potomac Shores in Oct. 2020, Wilk stated that the name earned overwhelming support from residents who wanted the name to represent something based in the community.
Gainesville High School, the 13th high school to be opened in Prince William County, has also received praise from Brentsville District School Board member Adele Jackson, who sent a statement to Potomac Local News.
"I had the pleasure of visiting Gainesville High School a few times since school started and I am very impressed with the building, as well as the students and staff. I extend my gratitude to our supportive staff and Gainesville families. It's exciting to have the school year up and running at Gainesville High School."
Other names that were in the competition included naming the school after county police officer Ashley Guindon, who was shot and killed on her first day of duty in February 2016 while responding to a domestic dispute. Also in the running was Lillian Orlich, a 67-year career teacher, and counselor who spent the majority of her career at Osbourn Park High School.
Prince William County, the state's second-largest school division, welcomed back about 90,000 students at the start of the school year on August 23. It's the first time since the start of the pandemic in March 2020 that the majority of students have been back in a classroom for five days a week.
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Stafford County leaders want to give residents more time before a moratorium on utility disconnections ends.
While the moratorium was lifted in August, the county has discussed waiting until January 2022 before shutting off utilities for delinquent payments. Governor Ralph Northam had placed the moratorium in March 2020 to provide relief for Virginia residents who had experienced financial hardships due to the coronavirus pandemic, as many were furloughed for fired from their jobs.
The county's Utilities Department plans to notify residents of the moratorium's end later in September, giving those with delinquent accounts a four-month head start to get things in order.
During the disconnection moratorium, the number of delinquent accounts had risen by 11 percent to a total of 9,474 while the amount of money due to those delinquencies rose by 40 percent to $1.6 million. The county provided almost $500,000 in relief funds to customers through the COVID-19 Municipal Utilities Relief Program.
Northam had declared a state of emergency due to the pandemic in March 2020 which led to the moratorium.
The Virginia General Assembly recently adopted House Bill 7001, in order to appropriate $120 million from the latest round of federal funds from President Biden's American Rescue Plan. Funds from this cut will be used to provide direct assistance to residents who are 60 days behind on their utility payments.
The Stafford County Utilities Department plans to apply for all the grant and assistance opportunities that they are eligible for. The funds will be awarded based on the total of accounts that are 60 days behind on their utility payments.
This week, the Stafford County Board of Supervisors put its public schools in the spotlight, pressing its top administrator on Critical Race Theory.
In July, Hartwood District Supervisor Gary Snellings had planned to question officials from the county school division about CRT -- a decades-old academic framework examining how race and racism influence politics, culture, and law -- wanting to know if children are being taught the concepts in schools.
After receiving multiple emails from concerned constituents, Snellings took the floor and questioned Interim County Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Stanley B. Jones on Tuesday.
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Leaders in several jurisdictions will pay remembrance to the victims that lost their lives on this, the 20th anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
The Stafford County Board of Supervisors declared September 11 as Patriot Day. The name made its first appearance in 2002 when the U.S. Congress passed legislation naming the day "Patriot Day." The day was further expanded in 2009 when President Barack Obama added a National Day of Service and Remembrance to the date.
In observance, Stafford is giving the majority of County offices and departments a half-day on Friday, Sept. 10, which will allow employees to leave at 12:30 p.m. The County Circuit Court will be open that day until 4 p.m.
The Regional Landfill in Stafford and the Belman Road Recycling Center in Fredericksburg will close at 4:30 p.m. On 10 a.m. Saturday, September 11, the county will hold a bell-ringing ceremony to remember those who lost their lives on that day.
