At its July 11 meeting, the Gloucester County School Board honored its Virginia School Boards Association Business Honor Roll recipients and listened to several presentations.
The meeting, which was held in the T.C. Walker Education Center auditorium, was halted nearly halfway through the board’s agenda items after four armed individuals were observed in the auditorium. The meeting resumed more than an hour into a nearly two-hour lockdown.
Helping the Homeless Ministry and Riverside Health System were both honored with the VSBA Business Honor Roll recognition. York River Oyster Company also received this recognition, but no representative from that organization was in attendance.
Vice chair Kellie Lockerby explained why she nominated Helping the Homeless for this recognition.
“The reason that I nominated this specific business in our community is due to their work that they do with students with disabilities,” said Lockerby. “And they’re really generous with their time, letting the students with disabilities come and work and learn and be part of our community.”
School board chair Troy Andersen said that Riverside was also chosen because it is a great partner of the Gloucester County Public Schools’ career and technical education program.
As part of student/staff presentations, the Peasley Middle School Future Problem Solvers spoke on their recent successes, which included placing in multiple categories this past spring in the statewide competition and participating in international competition.
“It gives you so many skills to use in your future,” said rising Gloucester High School freshman Madelyn Micket about the program. “We have learned so much. This has given us so many opportunities.”
Following public comment, the school board unanimously approved a memorandum of agreement that allows students from Mathews High School to enroll in the GHS NJROTC program. Two MHS students are set to be enrolled for the program beginning this fall. Captain Norris Merkle and Senior Chief Al Grant presented the MOA.
Charles Records provided a capital improvement plan update for the board, including HVAC work at Peasley, an update on the fuel facility at the transportation center, the completion of the security vestibule at Achilles Elementary School and additional information about the GHS renovation project.
Other matters
The school board also:
—Approved, by a 6-1 margin, policy adoptions, revisions and deletions as presented with the exception of policies BDDL (Electronic Participation in Committee Meetings from Remote Locations) and IF (Curriculum Development and Adoption) as a first and second reading, with board member Darren Post dissenting, and
—Discussed the potential of nonverbal students with IEPs having a listen-in (non-recording) device that can be used in an emergency situation, as determined on a case-by-case basis.