City School Board Has New Policy on Member Travel to Conferences

Bailey, Kay used superintendent's and Board clerk's credit cards on trips to Hawaii, Georgia.

By Adele Uphaus
MANAGING EDITOR AND CORRESPONDENT
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In a 4-2 vote, the Fredericksburg City School Board approved a new policy on Monday night governing School Board members’ participation in professional development.

Jennifer Boyd, Ward 3, and Malvina Kay, Ward 4, voted against the new policy, BHB1, which was proposed in June. The policy states, “Attendance at all other conferences or professional development events [aside from VSBA conferences] by School Board members that require the use of School Board funds must be approved by the School Board in an open session prior to the event.”

It goes on to specify that reimbursement for School Board funds will only be permitted for “activities approved in advance by the School Board and for which a statement of travel, with supporting documentation, is submitted at the conclusion of the travel.”

Jarvis Bailey, At-Large, said the new policy was “precipitated by back-office conversation about me going to Hawaii or the way I went to COSSBA [the Consortium of State School Boards Association conference], and the fact that I rented a car for a week and drove down and back, and the selection I made in the car.”

Superintendent, Clerk Cards Used on Travel

Bailey used credit cards assigned to superintendent Marci Catlett and School Board clerk Angela Roenke to pay for travel and meals during conferences he attended in Hawaii and Georgia this year.

According to credit card statements that were provided to the Advance as the result of a request under the Freedom of Information Act, a total of $1,917 was charged to Catlett’s card related to Bailey’s travel to Hawaii for the International Conference on Education, which was held from January 3-7, 2025.

A total of $3,537 was charged to both Catlett and Roenke’s cards related to Bailey’s travel to Atlanta for the COSSBA national conference, which was held from March 21-23, 2025.

School Board members do not have credit cards issued in their names, according to division finance staff, and there are no school procurement credit card authorization forms on file for any School Board member, according to the results of the Advance’s FOIA request.

The procedure manual for the division’s Bank of America purchase card program states that cards “may be used only by the identified authorized cardholder… No other person is authorized to use an FCPS P-Card.” (Bolded text is as-written in the procedure manual.)

Catlett did not respond on the record to the Advance’s questions about Bailey’s use of her card in January.

Charges to Catlett’s card related to the Hawaii conference include $603 for a rental car and $732 for hotel reservations, as well as meals, parking, and gas.

A charge of $1,086 was also made to Catlett’s card for a rental car for Bailey to attend the COSSBA conference in Atlanta. The other charges for the Atlanta conference were made to Roenke’s card and include $675 for conference registration and a total of $1,381 for hotel reservations from March 20 to 24.

Roenke told the Advance that she generally makes travel arrangements for Board members and uses her purchase card to pay for hotel reservations and conference registrations. She said that the division’s procedure is for staff or board members traveling for work to submit for a per diem payment in advance to cover expenses incurred during the trip.

However, Roenke said there is no indication that Bailey submitted per diem paperwork on time for his trip to Atlanta in March. So Bailey had her card with him during that trip in order to pay for gas and meals.

During Monday’s School Board meeting, Bailey, referencing credit card charges, said he “worked it out” with the finance department to reimburse the division.

The Advance has submitted a follow-up FOIA request for the amount and date of the reimbursement.

The credit card statements also reflect a charge of $1,566 to Roenke’s card on April 6, 2025, for conference registration for Malvina Kay, Ward 4 representative to the School Board.

The name and location of the conference are not clear from the statement, but Kay said during Monday’s School Board meeting that she attends two conferences each year—the National School Board Association conference, which this year was held in Atlanta, and the Virginia School Board Association conference.

Debate over New Board Member Travel Policy

Chair Matt Rowe said he’s in favor of the new policy because “in this most recent budget [for the fiscal year 2025, which ended June 30], we did exceed the budget [line item] for School Board professional development in terms of travel.”

The budget for fiscal year 2025 included $16,200 for School Board member professional development. Rowe told the Advance that the School Board exceeded its conference budget by some $5,000, according to Finance.

“VSBA conferences generally aren’t that expensive, and they cover all the range of subjects that we need to talk about for our professional development,” Rowe said during the meeting.

Kay said she “didn’t know there was a budget” for School Board professional development. She said the VSBA conferences don’t provide what she needs for her personal professional development and that “the out-of-state conferences offer a whole lot more.”

“I would feel very uncomfortable if I was unable to get the type of training I thought was needed,” she said. “If you need to go somewhere, I want to say to the superintendent, deputy superintendent, or clerk, ‘Find the money so that they can go.’”

Rowe pointed out that division staff have a line-item budget for professional development.

“They can’t exceed theirs, and I don’t think we should be able to exceed ours,” he said.

Stay with the Advance, as this is a developing story.

Updated 7/9/2025 at 6:30 a.m. to correct how Board members voted on the travel packet that passed.

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