Mathews supervisors learned a lot from new County Attorney Daniel Stuck during their annual organizational meeting on Jan. 10, including that they don’t own the county’s schools and school property.

Instead, under Virginia law, the school board is the owner, said Stuck, and supervisors have no authority to contract for repairs or upgrades to any of the facilities.

Stuck, who was appointed county attorney in October, shared this information with the board of supervisors as part of what he termed a “legal audit” that he likes to conduct when he’s new to a locality in order to see if the locality is following good practice and the law.

His comments were prompted by an interchange that occurred during the December board meeting, when Mathews County School Superintendent Nancy Welch asked supervisors to begin the process for replacing the shingled roof on Lee-Jackson Elementary School. Supervisors Pepper Love and G.C. Morrow had visited the school to inspect...