Following months of heated discussion about Grace E. Metz Middle School's declining Standard of Learning (SOL) scores and school culture, new Principal Juliet Finnegan vows to lead the school toward improvement. Finnegan, who took over in July 2024, replaces Gary Morris, who left earlier this year after just two years. Her appointment comes amid ongoing debates about tackling the school's challenges.

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Manassas City Public Schools's Standards of Learning (SOL) average pass rates are a mixed bag coming out of the 2023-2024 school year.

In a report released last month by the Virginia Department of Education, the average pass rates have declined in history, math and reading; improved in science and stayed the same in writing. The most significant decrease was in history, which decreased from 62% in the 2022-2023 school year to 58% in 2023-24. The most significant increase was in science, which increased to 48% in 2023-24.

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At the Aug. 27 regular meeting, the Manassas City School Board unanimously adopted a draft budget schedule for fiscal year 2026, which would start on July 1, 2025.

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A Manassas City School Board Candidate Forum will occur on August 19, 2024, at Bristoe Station Park. The event will begin with a Meet & Greet session at 6:30 p.m., followed by the forum at 7 p.m. The forum is open to parents, teachers, students, and community members.

The event will be held at 9118 Wharton Court and live-streamed. All Manassas School Board candidates, including Zella Jones, Suzanne Seaberg, Allie Forkell, Dayna Miles, Maidy Whitesell, Diana Brown, Javanese Hailey, and Christina Brooks, have been invited.

Democrats endorse Seaberg (incumbent), Jones, and Brown. Republicans endorse Forkell, Miles, Whitsell, and Hailey. Brooks (incumbent) is running as an independent.

For more information, contact the organizers via email at [email protected].

Last week, the school board chose not to feature regular attendance reports during regular school board meetings. Republican-endorsed members argued for transparency, while board members endorsed by Democrats voted no.

They expressed hesitation with monthly attendance reports for many reasons, and Board Member Jill Spall said releasing this information to the public may be harmful because it could bring negative labels to schools.

See more of our Manassas schools coverage.

Manassas City Public School Board members did not approve a resolution to require monthly attendance reports be made public in a 4-2 vote Tuesday.

The issue of attendance at MCPS was born from a meeting on Oct. 10, 2023, where Chevese Thomas, executive director of student services, gave a 36-slide presentation on attendance. Board Member Sara Brescia expressed concerns and presented this resolution to the Board in February, but the discussion was postponed to this meeting, the first of the 2024-2025 school year.

Board members throughout the meeting expressed hesitation with monthly attendance reports for many reasons, and Board Member Jill Spall said releasing this information to the public may be harmful because it could bring negative labels to schools.

“We live in pockets of low-income areas where many students miss school due to family responsibilities or health issues, and a public attendance report might highlight the high absenteeism rate without explaining these or other underlying causes,” Spall said. “As a result, one of our schools could be unfairly labeled as underperforming, leading to decreased community support and funding, which in turn makes it even harder for the school to address the root causes of the absenteeism.”

Spall said she believes transparency and accountability are important, but it needs to be balanced with the potential negative impacts on teachers and students.

Vice Chair Lisa Stevens questioned Brescia as to how these public, monthly reports would improve student attendance in practice. Brescia responded with an analogy to The Challenger disaster in January 1986, where the space shuttle broke apart 73 seconds into its flight and killed all seven crew members aboard.

“We all know now that the launch should never have happened, but how did it come to pass? How did a team of experts make such a catastrophic decision?” Brescia said. “As it turns out, there were people in the organization who knew it was dangerous to launch that day. Canceling the launch, that would have been very public, and it would have been very embarrassing, and so that crucial information stopped with [the engineers].”

Brescia continued, stating the importance of having these conversations about attendance in public because that’s part of the job of an elected official.

“Even though this is tough, it is necessary to have this public conversation and to not be afraid of that,” she said. “So I think we should take this opportunity to have the fierce conversation about attendance. Attendance is mission-critical data. It informs everything else we do.”

Newman was quick to step in and state his office does not withhold attendance data from the Board.

“I share with the Board every month during the department meeting where attendance is,” Newman said. “I don’t want anyone to think that the analogy is speaking to anyone in my office or myself holding any information back to save face. That attendance data is presented to this board every month with a comparison to where each school was [in] the previous year based on that month’s data.”

Stevens also took issue with Brescia’s analogy, emphasizing the efforts of the attendance team and central office staff to decrease absenteeism rates. She mentioned she was interested in quarterly reports and would discuss them.

“We do get updates periodically on the efforts our attendance teams are making to ensure that our kids are going to school and some of the challenges and burdens they experience,” Stevens said. “But I don’t want anybody to believe that they’re not doing the best they can every day.”

Board Member Christina Brooks said she was concerned with the burden the monthly reports would place on central office staff; she said their focus should be on reducing absenteeism rates rather than the reports.

Chair Suzanne Seaberg repeated comments she made about the topic back in February and reiterated her position that day-to-day operations are the responsibility of the superintendent, not the Board.

“We ultimately hold Dr. Newman responsible for day-to-day operations. This request goes beyond that, and it makes it public for others to comment and reflect on perhaps negatively,” Seaberg said. “Making this information public could cause ill will among students and staff in our schools and the community at-large.”

Before the Board took a vote, Brescia brought up Stevens’ willingness to discuss quarterly reports. Brescia said she was happy with quarterly reports because she wants to move away from the annual report model.

The motion ultimately failed, with Brescia and Board Member Robyn Williams voting in favor of the resolution and the rest of the Board — not including Board Member Carl Hollingsworth, who was not present — voting against it.

Diana Brown, a candidate for the School Board, said proposing a vote “solely for publishing absenteeism numbers” appeared to be a “superficial, politically motivated move.”

“This vote, though framed as a measure for transparency, is at best an ineffective proposal. If the board genuinely wishes to address absenteeism, it must adopt a more nuanced and supportive approach that goes beyond merely reporting numbers,” she said. “I urge the Board to consider proposals that focus on comprehensive and contextually informed interventions to truly make a difference.”

Maidy Whitesell, another School Board candidate, said she would’ve supported the resolution if she was on the current Board.

“For me, transparency is an essential aspect of good leadership. I believe that the public should know how our attendance is trending,” she said. “Information should not be hidden from us as parents and members of the community. The current annual report is not adequate to keep all stakeholders updated throughout the year on whether the strategies that the schools are implementing are effective.”

Javanese Hailey, a candidate for the Board, said she too would’ve voted in favor of the resolution.

“Our only two secondary schools, Metz and Osbourn, are not fully accredited by the state. For both of those schools, chronic absenteeism is a school quality indicator that contributes to this Accredited with Conditions status,” Hailey said. “Transparency and accountability are important, and monthly attendance reports would provide measures of progress.”

Manassas City Public Schools has launched a website and a mobile app for the start of the 2024-2025 school year.

The first day of the new year was Monday, and the launch was presented to the Manassas School Board on Tuesday at their first regular meeting of the school year. Almeta Radford, director of public communications for MCPS, showcased the new website and app to the board.

MCPS is using the same website address (mcpsva.org), but migrated to using a different website provider in July.

“We just wanted to let people know that as the new school year has kicked off, these are some of the things that they will see as we do our back-to-school nights and things like that,” Radford said. “We’ll be having people on site, helping people jump on to some of the new platforms that have been made available to them.”

Radford also cautioned parents, students and faculty that the website is not perfect yet and it may take some time to adjust.

“As we continue navigating through the things that we are building out, meaning broken links and things like that, you have to understand,” she said. “As we’ve moved from one host to another, some people may look for things that they were familiar with in other places. We want to encourage [you] to contact our offices with something specific.”

The app is the newest facet of MCPS this year. It’s available on both the Apple Store and Google Play for downloads, and Radford highlighted how this app helps MCPS build a cohesive brand.

“In the past few years, people will remember having to use things like Remind, Schoology and Power School. Those things are vendor-branded,” Radford said. “Now, the fact that we are able to have something that is branded as us, is exciting to us.”

On the app, parents are able to “subscribe” or follow the school their child attends for alerts. There’s the option to subscribe to multiple schools as well. There is an event calendar function, which enables users to see events going on within MCPS at each level.

Another component to the app is the ability for parents and teachers to communicate through it. The communication tool — known as Rooms — is connected to PowerSchool, the student information system.

“Parents are able to go in and not only chat with their student’s teachers, but also to have all of their students in one location,” Radford said. “[Parents are] able to talk one-on-one with teachers, just as they did with Remind as like a texting fashion, so you don’t really have to wait for an email.”

Radford said emails aren’t being done away with at MCPS, but it’s a system to help teachers communicate directly with students and give parents the opportunity to see their students’ information all at once.

She also said teachers provided some feedback after their training and said it would be beneficial to have all of their information in there that is easily accessible to students.

“They felt that it was very good to have everything for them in one platform, in one place, because typically you have to close apps, open other ones up and so [on] the back end it is beneficial because they don’t even have to have teacher web pages anymore,” Radford said. “That was one of the things that the communications office [was] always concerned about, with people having to feel like they had multiple pages to keep up with and maybe it had outdated information on it.”

With the new Rooms function, teachers can easily update their biographical information, tutoring hours, field trip forms and the like. Radford encouraged parents to ask questions if they have any as they get set up with the new system.

At the Meet-the-Principals Night on Monday, August 5, 2024, Osbourn High School in Manassas introduced a new initiative to enhance the learning environment: the "Phone Home."

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In this episode, I talk with Manassas City School Board member Sara Brescia about the evolving grading policies in the school district. Listeners will learn about the significant post-pandemic changes, including the controversial 50-100 grading scale and removing the 55 minimum grade provision. Sara Brescia provides a deep dive into the rationale behind these changes, the challenges faced, and the pushback from the community.

The conversation also touches on the broader implications of grading policies on student behavior and engagement, the importance of setting deadlines, and the balance between flexibility and accountability in education. Sara shares her vision for the future, emphasizing the need for productive dialogue and the importance of preparing students for the real world.

Additionally, the podcast explores the ongoing cell phone ban discussion, with Sara advocating for minimizing cell phone use in classrooms due to its negative impact on behavior and academics. The conversation highlights the complexities of implementing such policies and the support needed for teachers.

Finally, the episode covers the dynamics of school governance, teacher retention, and establishing a School of Excellence in Manassas. Sara’s candid reflections and future aspirations for the school district provide listeners with a comprehensive understanding of the current educational landscape in Manassas City.

Tune in to gain valuable insights into the challenges and opportunities within the Manassas City Public Schools and to hear firsthand from a school board member committed to enhancing student achievement.

The Manassas School Board will vote tonight on amending the 2024-2025 school year grading scale.

The meeting will occur at Jennie Dean Elementary at 6 p.m. Board members will choose between three proposed options, each featuring significant changes from the current policy. Board members will choose between three proposed options, each featuring significant changes from the current policy.

Key changes across all three options include new language on retakes, adjustments to the weighting formula for various assessments, and the removal of guaranteed minimum grades for effort. All options require students to complete remediation activities before retaking assignments or examinations. The options differ mainly in their deadlines for submitting late work:

• Option A: Full credit for assignments completed no later than one week before the end of the quarter.
• Option B: Full credit for assignments completed within two weeks after the initial due date and before the end of the quarter.
• Option C: Full credit for assignments completed before the end of the instruction unit in which they were assigned.

The ten-point grading scale (50 to 100) will remain unchanged.

“For my part, I am grateful to my colleagues for a serious and civil discussion on this issue, and I urge any feedback on this issue to also be cordial and productive,” said School Board member Sara Brescia, who has been pushing for changes to the grading scale.

Brescia has been advocating for a review of the current grading policy, responding to concerns that it does not adequately challenge students and allows those not academically proficient to progress toward graduation without meeting the necessary standards.

Opponents of the current scale argue that it is too lenient on students and does not prepare them for future workplace expectations, where deadlines are critical. “I think the issue with the current grading policy is it allows for students to really do absolutely nothing until the end of the quarter, which in my view, I don’t know how does a student truly learn that way. If they’re not learning throughout the quarter, then they’re not going to pass their assessments, and they’re not going to learn. I think intuitively, we all know that,” said School Board member Robyn Williams.

The discussion for the revised grading scale comes after the school division introduced a 10-point grading policy at the start of the 2021 school year, when some students were returning to the classroom after the forced government shutdowns related to the coronavirus.

The current system allows students to redo assignments to improve their grades, with provisions ensuring that students who attempt to retry assignments do not receive less than a 55% grade, while those who do not will not score less than 50%. This policy aims to give students multiple opportunities to succeed while maintaining a minimum standard.

You can attend the meeting in person or watch it live online. The meeting will also be on Comcast Channel 18 and Verizon FIOS 39.

The School Board of the City of Manassas will have a Regular Business Meeting on Tuesday, July 23, 2024, at 6 p.m. Please note the location: Jennie Dean Elementary School, 9601 Prince William Street, Manassas, VA.
To view the meeting live, visit https://t.co/63WvYqSCps. pic.twitter.com/tRlTJHybd7

— ManassasCitySchools (@mymcpsva) July 23, 2024