{"id":27110,"date":"2025-07-17T08:58:40","date_gmt":"2025-07-17T12:58:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fluvannareview.com\/?p=27110"},"modified":"2025-07-17T08:58:42","modified_gmt":"2025-07-17T12:58:42","slug":"school-board-debates-phone-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fluvannareview.com\/2025\/07\/school-board-debates-phone-policy\/","title":{"rendered":"School Board debates phone policy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Heather Michon
Correspondent<\/strong>

Fluvanna County School Board members spent some time at its recent meeting focusing on the district\u2019s cell phone policy in light of a Virginia Department of Education directive to restrict student cell phone use as much as possible during the school day. The board met on July 9.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were skeptical that the VDOE\u2019s preferred \u201cbell-to-bell\u201d policy, which would prohibit use not only in the classroom but in the hallways and during lunch and recess, was even feasible, particularly among high school students. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think it is a fool’s errand and unnecessary to bar students in the high school from having their phones in between classes,\u201d said James Kelley (Palmyra), who was participating in the meeting remotely. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEvery time I\u2019m at the high school, my phone doesn\u2019t work,\u201d said Andrew Pullen (Columbia). \u201cSo I don\u2019t understand who\u2019s using their phones at school, unless they\u2019re on the internet, and then that\u2019s restricted.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Danny Reed (Fork Union) argued that the policy was not robust enough, as it did not deal with other distractions, like Chromebooks and smartwatches. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf this bill included that, I’d be fantastically supportive of doing that because kids email all day long on their Chromebooks in the classroom,\u201d he said. \u201cSo great, cell phones are gone. When are we going to address kids at the middle school emailing kids at Carysbrook?\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

No final decisions were made, and work on refining the policy will continue in future meetings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soares replaces Grasser<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gemma Soares has been appointed as the executive director for instruction and finance, replacing outgoing administrator Brenda Grasser. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A 20-year veteran of Fluvanna County Public Schools and currently the director of elementary and federal programs, Soares stood out among a statewide slate of candidates. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Three new assistant principals will also be joining the district: Pam Wishert at Central Elementary, and Ron Silverman and Keith Ellen at Fluvanna Middle School.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The announcements came midway through the July meeting of the Fluvanna County School Board,  its first since early May. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The June 11 meeting was cancelled at the last minute for lack of a quorum, as three members were unable to attend. During public comments, some community members criticized the failure of those members to fulfill their duties as elected officials. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

VSBA<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another lengthy discussion focused on the district\u2019s membership in the Virginia School Board Association (VSBA). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

VSBA is a membership organization for school districts around the Commonwealth. Membership includes professional and leadership development for school board members, advocating for public education policy on the state level, model school policy, policy reviews, and other legal services. These services can relieve smaller school districts of considerable work and legal costs, particularly when it comes to policy compliance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pullen has been a vocal critic of the VSBA and seeks alternatives each year as membership comes up for renewal. This year, he asked Gretz to research districts that do not belong to the VSBA or any other membership organization.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the board later voted 4-1 to approve the 2025-2026 membership, with the understanding that they could cancel mid-year if a better option came to light.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Heather MichonCorrespondent Fluvanna County School Board members spent some time at its recent meeting focusing on the district\u2019s cell phone policy in light of a Virginia Department of Education directive to restrict student cell phone use as much as possible during the school day. The board met on July 9. They were skeptical that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":25996,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest_news","category-schools"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fluvannareview.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27110"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fluvannareview.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fluvannareview.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fluvannareview.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fluvannareview.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27110"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/fluvannareview.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27110\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27111,"href":"https:\/\/fluvannareview.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27110\/revisions\/27111"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fluvannareview.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fluvannareview.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fluvannareview.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fluvannareview.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}