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Manassas is searching for a new chairman for its city school board.

First elected to the School Board in 2014, Sanford Williams announced he'll be stepping down to spend more time with family in California.

The city government school division seeks to fill the empty seat by November 14. The appointed chairman will serve through the end of the year.

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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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Removing all water fountains from school buildings is just one of Manassas City Public Schools' measures to fight the coronavirus.

Over the past year, the school division has installed everything from plexiglass, portable UV lights, to "blasters" in large spaces to stop the spread of everything from the common cold to the coronavirus," said Andy Hawkins, the city school division chief of financial services.

"I want to you and our community to know; the safest place for your children will be our schools," Hawkins told the city School Board at its August 10 meeting. "There will not be another building they come in contact with that are cleaner than ours. We have spared no expense."

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As students return to the classroom in numbers not seen since the pandemic began, public school divisions across the region are experiencing a shortage of teachers.

In Manassas, the public school system is short nearly 30 teachers in schools across the city. At Metz Middle School, they're hiring teachers for math, science, English, social studies, and special education.

In elementary schools, they're looking for teachers to fill 2nd, 3rd, and 4th-grade classrooms. There are open positions in the business department at the city's high school, alongside all of the other familiar positions the school division is short, including math and science.

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Students headed back to class in Manassas on the first day of school today will be greeted by a new 10-point grading scale and have more chances to retake tests.

On Tuesday, the city's School Board voted unanimously, with two members absent, to institute the new scale. It also ushered in a new policy that allows students the opportunity to redo assignments in hopes of higher grades.

Under the new policy:

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A new round of policy updates is expected at Tuesday's Manassas School Board meeting.

Among them is the addition of a new political protest day, where which students may have one excused absence a year if they attend a "civic event." A school principal must determine what types of activities or civic events qualify for an excused absence, states school division spokeswoman Almeta Radford.

The policy comes as a new state law that took effect July 1, allowing students one excused absence to attend a protest. The practice began in Fairfax County Public Schools, and bills championed by Senator Jennifer McLellan (D-Richmond) and Delegate Sam Rasoul (D-Roanoke) led to Virginia becoming the first state in the union to pass such a law.

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Manassas teachers were told to confront race and racism head-on during the city school division's annual convocation.

On Tuesday, August 3, the virtual event welcomed teachers back to the classroom before students are scheduled to return Thursday, August 12. Tyrone Howard, a professor of education and associate dean for equity and inclusion at UCLA, was the keynote speaker.

PLN obtained screenshots of Howard's presentation, which states, "teachers can't just be non-racist. They must be anti-racist." The slides also encouraged city educators to specifically teach about the activist group Black Lives Matter, whose members led violent and deadly protests in cities across the U.S. following the death of George Floyd, a man who died at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer in May 2020.

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Manassas students, teachers, and parents must mask up when they walk into a school building.

The city School Board tonight voted unanimously to require masks when students return to schools Thursday, August 12, regardless of whether or not someone has had a vaccination for the coronavirus.

Tim Demeria made the motion, and Vice Chairwoman Suzanne Seaberg seconded.

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Students in Manassas would be allowed to attend protests or other civic events and receive an excused absence from class under a newly updated policy under review by the city School Board.

Students in middle and high schools will be allowed to attend one protest per year. A school principal must determine what types of activities or civic events qualify for an excused absence, states school division spokeswoman Almeta Radford.

Parents and students don’t have to provide advanced notice before the student misses class. However, students must tell the school where they’ve been upon their return to qualify for an excused absence.

The civic event joins a list of eight other reasons for an excused absence, including doctor’s appointments, religious holidays, and death in the family.

The policy comes as a new state law that took effect July 1, allowing students one excused absence to attend a protest. The practice began in Fairfax County Public Schools, and bills championed by Senator Jennifer McLellan (D-Richmond) and Delegate Sam Rasoul (D-Roanoke) led to Virginia becoming the first state in the union to pass such a law.

This past spring, McLellan, and Rasoul both failed to become the Democratic Party’s nominees for governor and lieutenant governor during the statewide Primary Election, respectively. Terry McAuliffe and Hala Ayala of Woodbridge won those bids.

The excused absence policy is one of several Manassas public schools policies that received updates.

The words “he” and “she” in the policy manual were struck from the policy manual and replaced with “individual,” or “they” or “them.’

And, when it comes to lunch, students who can’t afford to pay for school lunches will not be shamed by wearing a wristband or handstamp. “Under no circumstances should a Manassas City Public Schools student be denied any meal due to the inability to pay,” the updated policy states.

The School Board is set to approve the policy changes at one of its two upcoming meetings in August. The School Board meets at 6 p.m. on the second and fourth Tuesdays, at City Hall, 9027 Center Street in Manassas.

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