Fluvanna school board weighs safety, curriculum and trust
By Heather Michon
Correspondent
“Carryover” was the word of the night at the Fluvanna County School Board’s monthly meeting on Wednesday (Oct. 8)
Carryover funds are the dollars left unspent at the end of a fiscal year. The School Board can decide to return the money to the county’s general fund or request to keep it for use towards the division’s unmet needs.
This year’s expected carryover is around $443,000.
With the county’s Nov. 1 carryover deadline approaching, Superintendent Peter Gretz laid out some possible scenarios and a wish list that spanned security, curriculum mandates, and some long-deferred technology upgrades.
Safety first
School security was at the top of the list.
The division currently has only two School Resource Officers (SROs), which is well below the five needed to adequately cover all the county schools.
This has led to some out-of-the-box thinking, including a new idea of partnering with the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources to help with school staffing.
“We’ve been in communication with individuals from the Department of Wildlife Resources to discuss the possibility of those officers offering security services to the schools,” Gretz said.
Members also discussed Fauquier County’s model, which employs retired law-enforcement personnel as armed School Security Officers, or SSOs.
“My position continues to be, as we have an SRO program, I want one in every single building,” said James Kelley (Palmyra). “There is a huge difference in community building and in relationships between us going out and hiring run-of-the-mill cops, versus us having an SRO program in which our sheriff’s deputies are embedded in our schools.”
Curriculum, attendance, hardware
Beyond safety, Gretz raised another looming cost: the adoption of new curriculum under the Virginia Literacy Act.
“It’s going to have to be done, and we’ll have to pay for it somehow,” he said, estimating a possible $800,000 price tag to update K-12 math, science, and social studies materials.
Other possible allocations included adding attendance staff to address chronic absenteeism and funding long-overdue technology upgrades.
The high school’s network switches, installed in 2011, are nearing the end of their lifespan. Replacement costs hover around $80,000–$100,000 each, with seven to refresh. A single $20,000 Cisco 9500 fiber switch was proposed as a backup to prevent system outages.
For classrooms, Gretz suggested a thriftier fix for the county’s aging Promethean interactive panels: swap out only the internal computing units. “They actually just came out with a new computer module,” he explained. “They’re going to be very inexpensive… I think we could get a lot more bang for our buck.”
The proposed pilot—20 to 25 panels—would cost about $60,000–$70,000 and potentially modernize the district’s instructional tech without buying all-new equipment.
The decision on what to do with the carryover requests and where these upgrades and changes would fit in the upcoming FY27 budget package will continue at the board’s annual budget seminar on Oct. 14.
Safety & ethics
Wednesday marked the final School Board meeting before the November elections, where four of the five seats are up for election.
During public comments, Tracy Smith urged the board to expand its idea of “safety” beyond metal detectors and security officers.
“As a community, we’ve been focusing a lot on how to protect our students and improve security, especially when it comes to SROs, but safety is only physical,” she said. “It’s about the integrity of those making decisions for our schools.”
Smith pressed for higher ethical expectations for elected officials and asked the board to coordinate with the Virginia School Boards Association on a statewide standard for disclosure.
“Ethics expectations are a public statement of standards,” she said. “I encourage the board to partner with the VSBA’s legislative committee… and consider asking the General Assembly to review and establish statewide background disclosure standards for school board candidates.”
Student representatives
Dr. Gretz introduced the board’s newest student representatives: seniors Natalia Merchant and Amina Seiden.
Merchant opened with good news from the high school stage.
“Our theater department is getting ready to perform The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime on Oct. 29 at 6 p.m. The cast has been working really hard, and I know the student body is really proud of them.” She also celebrated the Speech and Debate Team’s induction into the National Speech and Debate Association 100 Club and recognized Christopher Byrne and Brennan Pazala for national academic honors.
Seiden picked up with a long list of achievements, “Our Speeches of Strength Club visited the middle school in September for National Suicide Prevention Month to spread awareness and promote positivity among younger students,” she said.
She added that Culinary Arts students “brought some major awards from the State Fair of Virginia, including first place and best in show for Haley Hall’s carrot cake loaf bread,” and that the school will host Virginia College Application Week events later this month.
The students invited the board to an upcoming FBLA Breast Cancer Walk fundraiser. “It would be really nice if you guys would like to come out and just attend the breast cancer walk. It’s going to a great cause.”
Gretz closed the segment by welcoming them to the dais. “You have no obligation at any point,” he said with a smile. “We’re just thrilled to have you with us.”
