Stafford School Board candidate Carol Huebner Medawar wore a campaign shirt at a recent school-sponsored bingo night.
The school division prohibits campaigning on school grounds, and now the incident has sparked Board discussion about what qualifies as campaigning.
Located in North Stafford and once a Christian school, it’s the newest county school facility.
“I was blown away by the work that they’ve done to get this up and running this year,” Northam said.
After a six-hour marathon meeting, the Stafford County School Board passed employee and student non-discrimination policies one year after a transgender student was barred from using a bathroom facility.
Questions remain, however, as to how these policies will be implemented, as they do not specifically address transgender bathroom usage.
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.
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.
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.
STAFFORD — The rural roads of Stafford are failing to support the county’s continued urban development, and residents are speaking out.
Many in recent months have pressed elected members of the Stafford Board of Supervisors, demanding for action on a variety of transportation issues. All have expressed common frustrations about the time it takes the Virginia Department of Transportation to safety concerns.
STAFFORD — A group of Stafford County high school students is pushing for change after their friend and fellow classmate Helen Wang died in a car crash on the day of her 17th birthday. She was hit and killed while trying to turn onto Kellogg Mill Road, a narrow two-lane road that winds through the heart of the county.
They call themselves Changing Stafford’s Roads [CSR]. They’re credited with convincing local leaders to take action, putting forward to voters a possible $50 million road bond referendum to improve conditions on some of the county’s worst thoroughfares.
Nearly 2,500 work orders have been put into the Virginia Department of Transportation area headquarters in Stafford County since the start of the year. Of those work orders, only about 50% have been addressed and closed.
Resident complaints have funneled their way to the Board of Supervisors with groups like Changing Stafford Roads, a student-run organization formed after 17-year-old Helen Wang died attempting a blind turn on Kellogg Mill Road at Abel Lake, making noise about poor road conditions in Stafford.
STAFFORD — Fourteen years ago the Board of Supervisors set aside two percent of the Transient Occupancy Tax to help finance a Stafford County Museum and Cultural Center. While the tax was diverted to the General Fund in 2010, nearly one million dollars remain for the museum to use.
Now the Museum Foundation, which separated from the county government and became a 501C-(3) in 2010, has requested and received $250,000 of it’s reserved funds after Board approval.
