Board Member's Son Has Salary Raised Following Text Messages Between Member, Superintendent
Jarvis Bailey says he followed established protocol for sharing concerns received by Board members.
By Adele Uphaus
MANAGING EDITOR AND CORRESPONDENT
Email Adele
A Fredericksburg City elementary assistant principal’s salary was increased following text messages between his father, a member of the School Board, and division superintendent Marci Catlett.
In the text messages, School Board member Jarvis Bailey shared communication from his son, Matthew Bailey, laying out his rationale for requesting that he be placed at a higher step on the elementary assistant principal salary scale.
The text messages were provided to the Advance by the school division, along with other documents responsive to several requests under the Freedom of Information Act.
A New Job
Matthew Bailey was first employed by Fredericksburg City Public Schools in 2023 as dean of students at Walker-Grant Middle School.
On April 30, 2025, Bailey signed a letter accepting a position as an elementary assistant principal at a yet-to-be-designated location. He was offered the position verbally on April 10 by Jacinta Calzada-Mayronne, principal of Lafayette Elementary School, according to a text message Calzada-Mayronne sent to a group of administrators, including Catlett.
Bailey was one of three candidates interviewed this year for the elementary assistant principal position, according to division Chief Human Resources Officer Sue Keffer. Calzada-Mayronne and the two other elementary school principals made up the interview panel.
The acceptance letter signed by Bailey on April 30 and returned to Keffer also indicated that his compensation would be somewhere on the Elementary School Assistant Principal (ESAP) salary scale, with the specific amount “to be approved with the 2025-2026 approved school budget.”
The ESAP scale ranges from $90,153 to $133,213, according to an email Keffer sent to Bailey on April 30.
Contract Negotiations
The division prepared a contract for Bailey giving his salary as $94,661. The initial offer was the recommendation of Keffer, along with Catlett and deputy superintendent Matt Eberhardt, with whom she collaborates on administrative salaries.
The contract was signed on May 12 by School Board Chair Matt Rowe and Clerk Angela Roenke. Matthew Bailey did not sign it.
On the morning of May 13, School Board member Jarvis Bailey reached out to Catlett by text message. “If you’re out and about today in this rain, please give me a call, I want to read something to you,” Bailey wrote.
Later that morning, Bailey texted to Catlett several paragraphs that he described as “Communication to me in prep for a follow-up phone call, that was never received, yet.”
The communication includes a numbered list detailing Matthew Bailey’s experience in administrative roles in Orange and Stafford counties, investment in the Fredericksburg City school division, and work in Title I schools with students experiencing trauma, supporting his request to be placed “6 or 7 steps” above entry level on the salary scale.
On May 15, the human resources department prepared a revised contract for Bailey, which he signed. The revised contract increased his salary to $103,701.
Keffer told the Advance that she did not have any communication with Matthew Bailey in between the two contracts.
The human resources department also revised the contract for another elementary assistant principal, Tony Lewis, on May 15, increasing his salary from $97,335 to $106,375.
Procedures and Policies
School Board members follow an established process of forwarding concerns they receive from staff and community members to Catlett for her to then forward to the appropriate department director for resolution. Jarvis Bailey said he followed this same process when he forwarded his son’s concerns.
“I treated this text in the same manner I would treat any other. In this case, Matthew had not heard back from HR. The text was forwarded to Dr. Catlett to alert her to that, for appropriate actions,” Bailey wrote in an email to the Advance. He said that “any discussions about salary would have been handled by HR or Dr. Catlett.”
Catlett also referred to the School Board’s procedures, which are “that board members contact me first to share concerns we receive from anyone,” and that she then forwards the concern.
“If I need to assist with the resolution, then I help as well,” Catlett said.
The school division has a policy that prohibits the employment of any family member of the superintendent or a School Board member, with “family member” defined as “father, mother, brother, sister, spouse, son, daughter, son-in-law, daughter-in-law, sister-in-law, or brother-in-law.”
Family members may be employed if the School Board member or superintendent certifies that they had no involvement with the hiring decision, the policy states.
When Matthew Bailey was first hired in 2023, Catlett signed a certification of non-involvement, indicating that his hiring was based on his merit and qualifications and that “as superintendent of FCPS, I had no involvement in the hiring decision related to this position.”
There is not a certification on file from Jarvis Bailey from 2023. Bailey abstains from votes involving his son.
“Do we need to talk about this?”
On June 30, Keffer sent an email to Catlett and Deputy Superintendent Matthew Eberhardt, in which she included the policy regarding employment of family members and asked, “Would this apply to Matt Bailey? Do we need to talk about this?”
Keffer told Catlett and Eberhardt that she had emailed Nicole Cheuk and Whitney Nelson-Crawford, attorneys with the law firm Sands-Anderson, about the matter.
Cheuk responded to Keffer’s question on June 30. The school division provided the email exchange along with other documents responsive to requests under FOIA, but redacted the question and the response citing “attorney-client privileged communications.”
Keffer forwarded Cheuk’s response to Catlett and Eberhardt on July 1. Catlett responded on July 2 with the message, “Thank you...do we do this certification process Monday?”
No certificate of non-involvement related to Mathew Bailey’s change in position from dean of students to assistant principal was included with the documents responsive to the Advance’s FOIA request.
‘Conflicts of Interest’ Among Topics to be Discussed at Upcoming Work Session
School Board “norms, protocols, procedures, and rules, including matters related to board conduct and conflicts of interest” will be the subject of an upcoming, yet-to-be-scheduled work session.
Chair Matt Rowe brought up the idea of scheduling such a work session at the August 4 School Board meeting.
“I think it’s important to take the time to revisit these expectations together in a public and dedicated setting,” Rowe said. “It gives us the opportunity to ensure we’re operating with the same understanding that we continue to uphold the level of professionalism and accountability that the community expects from us.”
Rowe said he would like to schedule this work session to take place at the end of August or beginning of September.
Jarvis Bailey suggested bringing in a third-party facilitator to assist with the work session.
“If this is, and it is, as serious as we want to make it, that’s an activity that we need professional input to help us with,” he said.
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If LAW was broken, what do you think our Commonwealth Attorney will do?
No, no, no!! If that's what was written and that's all that was written, the LAW was broken! Not only is it in policy, it is in the Code of Virginia! Article 6. School Boards and Employees of School Boards. § 2.2-3119
The Law and the policy use the word AND, not OR.
Section E The member certifies that he had no involvement with the hiring decision AND (ii) the superintendent certifies to the remaining members of the governing body in writing that the employment is based upon merit and fitness and the competitive rating of the qualifications of the individual and that no member of the board had any involvement with the hiring decision.
Please note: Nowhere does it say that the superintendent has to certify that she didn't have involvement in his hiring. She didn't hire HER relative. That's what she would say if she hired her own relative. Speaking of..... Does her sister, Malvin Kay, ever disclose when she votes on Marcie's contract????? I don't know, maybe she does.