Thanks to COVID-19 relief funds, Thomas Hunter Middle School is finally on track to get centralized heating and air conditioning for the entire building.

At present, individual HVAC units operate in the classrooms and offices, with no heating or air conditioning in the building’s hallways and gymnasium.

During a meeting Tuesday night in the Mathews High School media center, the Mathews County School Board approved moving ahead with seeking proposals from engineering firms to design, bid and provide oversight for the project, a necessary first step in a process that Superintendent of Schools Nancy Welch said she hopes will culminate in construction as soon as the summer of 2023.

CRT and masking

However, much of Tuesday’s meeting was taken up by residents speaking out on a pair of current hot-button issues—Critical Race Theory and the current mask mandate in Virginia’s K-12 schools.

Addressing the first issue, school board member John Priest told the crowd that “Critical ...