As Spotsylvania Deputy County Administrator Mark Cole presented a list of 25 legislative priorities for the board of supervisors to request the General Assembly to consider, Salem District Supervisor Deborah Frazier interjected.
Frazier, the former longtime principal of Chancellor Middle School, who was recently promoted to serve as the school division’s chief academic officer, took issue with Nos. 7 and 15 in particular.
Cole was prepared to present to the General Assembly a goal that he said was first championed by the board of supervisors several years ago — supporting school choice legislation “that also provides opportunities for underprivileged children.”
“Right now, if you’re wealthy enough, you can send your kids to whatever private school you wish to send them to,” said Cole, a former Republican member of the House of Delegates. “There’s been school choice initiatives on and off throughout the years to provide either vouchers or some kind of grant to allow parents of poor children to put their kids in private schools as well.”
Frazier took exception to the idea that school choice is the best solution for underprivileged children. She requested the line regarding underprivileged students be removed from the document that would be sent to local representatives in the General Assembly. Her effort was successful: that part was taken out before supervisors voted unanimously to forward the list of priorities.
Frazier said if the board’s majority supports school choice, “that’s your prerogative.” However, “I just care how we message our initiatives.”
“I just don’t like the connotation of underprivileged, disadvantaged, poor kids, like we’re doing this to rescue them as a choice like public school education is not sufficient enough,” Frazier said … “Whereas in the Virginia code, it talks about a public school education being supported by public funds. So, I just want to be careful of how we send messages to our community because they’re watching.”
The 15th initiative on the county’s list of legislative priorities was a reduction in the early-voting period from 45 days to two weeks. Frazier said a decrease of 31 days is too dramatic. She requested to drop down to 30 days. In the end, the board decided not to specify the amount of decrease in the request.
Cole and some supervisors framed the 45-day early-voting period as a strain on county resources. Cole also said that, in his opinion, it gives incumbents an unfair advantage because they have the resources to campaign longer than challengers.
“I’m not saying that was part of the motivation when it was adopted,” Cole said. “But that’s one of the side effects to it.”
In priority No. 6, supervisors are seeking legislation to increase the length of time that a Concealed Carry Permit is valid from five to 10 years and allow localities the option of issuing permits at no cost to the applicant.
Other priorities for the board included seeking the inclusion of school resource officers in Virginia’s Standards of Quality so that state funds can offset local costs.
The board also officially requested the General Assembly not to impose a Fredericksburg area Regional Transportation Authority; amend the code to reduce necessary acreage of an Agricultural/Forrestal District from 200 acres to 100; increase penalties for harassment of voters at polling places; provide additional funding for special education; and support current qualified immunity for public employees, including law enforcement.
The request specified that qualified immunity protects public employees from lawsuits “as long as they are acting reasonably within the scope of their office.”
Supervisors also included ongoing priorities such as rural road funding, broadband expansion and Interstate 95 improvements.
In other business, the supervisors voted unanimously to defer a public hearing on Andora Oaks, a planned community of 151 single-family detached homes located between State Route 3 (Plank Road) and State Route 610 (Old Plank Road). No date was set to reschedule the hearing which is about a proposal to rezone the property from Rural District to Planned Development Housing District-3.
The board voted 5-2 to approve the Villas at Hilltop, a 55-and-older community that will be located at 10300 and 10316 Courthouse Road, near the intersection with Leavells Road. The project includes 80 single-family attached age-restricted villas.
Lori Hayes of the Lee Hill District and Drew Mullins of the Courtland District voted against the project.
