Spotsylvania Superintendent Placed on Administrative Leave
Also, school division's proposed budget for next fiscal year includes $46.2 million gap between estimated revenue and proposed expenditures.
By Adele Uphaus
MANAGING EDITOR AND CORRESPONDENT
The Spotsylvania School Board voted Monday night to place superintendent Mark Taylor on administrative leave.
School Board Chair Lorita Daniels communicated the news to division staff on Tuesday afternoon.
“As the SCPS Board, we will continue our commitment to our students, staff, and families to ensure the best and safest educational experience we can,” Daniels wrote.
Deputy superintendent Kelly Guempel will act in Taylor’s place “until further notice,” Daniels wrote.
The Board held a special meeting on Monday that included a closed session called “to discuss with legal counsel specific legal matters involving specific staff pursuant” and “to discuss assignment, appointment, promotion, performance, demotion, salaries, disciplining, or resignation of specific employees,” according to the agenda.
Following the closed session, the Board approved two motions—the first to “engage legal counsel to consult board on specific legal matters involving specific staff” and the second to “accept the School Board’s recommendation for action related to the superintendent.”
Both motions were approved by 5-to-1 votes. Cole; Dr. Lorita Daniels, chair; and board members Megan Jackson, Belen Rodas and Carol Medawar supported the motions.
Lisa Phelps apparently did not participate in the closed session but voted against both motions. She said she would not support going into the closed session because she didn’t think she had enough information about its purpose.
After the closed session, she said she could not support the motions because she “was not privy to any of the purpose and subject to go into closed session.”
The seventh board member, April Gillespie, apparently left the meeting either before or during the closed session and was not present to vote on the motions.
Budget presentation
The closed session was preceded by a presentation of the superintendent’s recommended budget for fiscal year 2025, which begins July 1.
The $479.7 million total proposed budget—which includes capital maintenance, food service and transportation along with the day-to-day operating fund—assumes $170.7 million in revenue from the state, $28 million from the federal government, $150.3 million from the county, and $46.2 million in “gap funds” that do not have an identified source.
Within the operating fund, Taylor is proposing spending $291.5 million on instruction, “an 8% needs-based increase over this year’s instructional budget.”
The school division’s needs include a growing population of economically disadvantaged students that now accounts for 52% of the total student population, Taylor said.
The Virginia Department of Education defines as economically disadvantaged students who are eligible for free or reduced meals, receive Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), are eligible for Medicaid or are receive services under the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act.
This population has grown from making up 38% of the enrolled student population ten years ago to more than half this year and is “the largest growing demographic,” Taylor said.
To support this population, Taylor’s proposed budget would “operationalize” 37 social worker positions that are currently supported by one-time federal pandemic relief funds which expire this year—plus request five additional new social worker positions.
Taylor said current school social workers tell him that “that the first thing (economically disadvantaged students need) is positive role models with functional adults.”
Rodas, who is employed as a social worker with Fredericksburg City Public Schools, pushed back on this characterization in her comments on the proposed budget, saying “Mr. Taylor, you talked about the needs of economically disadvantaged students and said what they need is a functional adult. Plenty of them have functional adults at home. Most of them, or many of them, have loving, capable parents who are doing their best.”
Taylor’s proposed budget would add five new school psychologists to reduce caseloads from 2,400 students per one psychologist to 600 students per one psychologist.
The budget calls for a 5% pay increase plus a step increase for teachers, and a 6% cost-of-living raise for all other contracted employees; an additional step for “qualifying teachers”; “differential pay” for special education employees; and “recruitment incentives” for critical shortage positions.
Taylor presented information showing that the year-on-year increase in funding from the county for the school division has not kept pace with the state’s calculation of “minimum local effort.”
In both fiscal year 2021 and 2022, Spotsylvania County provided “no effective increase” in funding for the school division, Taylor said.
In the past 10 years, the gap between what the state has estimated as the locality’s ability to pay for education and what the locality has actually paid has accumulated to $16.7 million, he said.
The budget presentation was not made available to the public on Monday, but will be posted, along with the budget book and charts showing proposed revenues and expenditures, by Friday.
There will be a public hearing on the budget and a School Board budget work session on January 29.
The community is invited to fill out a budget survey, which will be accessible through January 28.
Local Obituaries
To view local obituaries or to send a note to family and loved ones, please visit our website at the link that follows.
Support Award-winning, Locally Focused Journalism
In less than a year, FXBG Advance has become the news leader in Fredericksburg, Spotsylvania, and Stafford through its innovative mix of:
Twice-daily newsletter - At 6 AM and 5 PM every Monday through Friday, the Advance brings the most important news directly to your inbox.
Education Reporting - Adele Uphaus has won multiple awards for her coverage of education issues locally and across the state. Now, she brings her experience, insights, and expertise to the Advance, providing our citizens some of the finest education writing and reporting in the commonwealth.
Political Reporting - From council meetings to campaigns, and fundraising to finance, the Advance is returning the Fourth Estate to its rightful place as a government watch dog.
Breaking News - From court cases to high-profile government moves, the Advance is the first to inform residents.
Investigative Journalism - Last year, the Advance broke major stories around improperly filed election documents, misleading sample ballots, disenfranchising Spotsylvania Count School parents, and book bans.
Election Coverage - The Advance offered the most complete coverage of the 2023 election, with in-depth candidate profiles, daily tracking of events, leading debates, and pre-dawn to post-midnight Election Day coverage. And 2024 brings even greater coverage.
Spotlights - From local businesses to nonprofit organizations and regional leaders, the Advance brings the people who make things happen to your attention.
Multi-partisan Commentary - Martin Davis is a 20-plus-year journalist recognized for superior commentary and political writing; Shaun Kenney has his hands on the pulse of political leaders across the Commonwealth. Together, they bring an unparalleled level of analysis and insight into the issues that drive debate in our region.
Political Cartoons - Clay Jones is a nationally recognized talent who draws weekly for CNN. He has returned to Fredericksburg to level his critical eye and razor-sharp drawing at the topics which make us both laugh, and look closer at ourselves.
New Dominion Podcast - Each week, Martin Davis and Shaun Kenney interview guests from across the region and the state. Growing to over 1,000 listeners in just six months, NDP has become a leading force in political, cultural, and social discussion.
We thank each and every one of you who have made the Advance a part of your day, and we’re excited to say that more-exciting announcements are just around the corner as we continue to innovate and expand our coverage of the region.
The donations of individual readers have made this year possible. Please join the hundreds who are supporting excellence in journalism by subscribing for just $8 a month.
Where does your money go?
It goes to support the great journalists we have - like Adele Uphaus - and the ones we look to hire in the year ahead.
If you can spare $8 a month, we’ll be both grateful, and reward your trust in us with more journalism, more stories, and more connections to organizations and people who make our region a great place to live.
If you can’t, thank you for reading the FXBG Advance!, and consider sharing us with your friends.
In 2024, let’s build an even better Advance - together!
Thank you for reading and supporting FXBG Advance.
-Martin Davis, Editor-in-Chief
Shocking.
Who could've seen this coming?
Luckily, not Ms Phelps nor Ms Gillespie. True studies in willful ignorance.
What's the difference between refusing to participate and leaving rather than participate?
Probably the same as between ignorance and apathy.
One does not know, nor do they care.....looks like we've gotten the answer regarding the same happening at an earlier meeting was a short term blip or a deliberate strategy.
Wonder if the same will occur during the rest of their term, or only when certain "personnel matters" are discussed?
Oh. Almost forgot.
Where's the books?