Stafford County students now have two additional days off school this year, a change from the previously published calendar.
On Tuesday night, the Stafford County School Board unanimously approved the addition of Dec. 20 and April 1, 2025, for professional development days due to the additional teacher training time required by the Virginia Literacy Act.
The board also unanimously approved a slate of legislative priorities for the 2025 General Assembly with an amendment requesting state funding assistance to purchase and maintain Chromebooks for student use.
Falmouth representative Sarah Chase said the finance and budget committee was told it needed to come up with an extra $2.3 million each year for the next three years to keep providing laptops to students.
“We have quite a number of testings that we do, K through 12, and these tests require laptops,” said Susan Randall, George Washington District representative. “I really feel it is not solely our burden when we are required federally and by the state to use laptops for these required tests.”
Hartwood District representative Alyssa Halstead compared the issue to Stafford not receiving full cost-of-competing adjustments (COCA) from the state.
“I think we are facing the same conversation I struggle with all the time… because the rest of the state doesn’t want to fund Stafford County and our problems, so why should Newport News taxpayers have to put up the dollars for Stafford County schools and our need to rely solely on Chromebooks and their replacements. That being said, of course, I support us getting the money.”
A state grant currently covers $1.2 million for laptops or computers for testing. “But,” added Chase, “there’s this thing called inflation that we’ve been dealing with. And $1.2 million doesn’t go as far as it used to go.”
Other board members brought up the point that the school district continues to grow, and other school divisions are facing a similar challenge. During the pandemic, schools could provide children with a laptop with federal dollars and “one-time money.” Now those laptops are coming due for replacement after heavy use.
Jay Cooke, chief technology officer for Stafford County Public Schools, said current funding only allows the laptops to be replaced in ninth grade.
“We’d like to get elementary and middle on a six-year replacement cycle,” he said. “Google keeps the updates going up to eight years, but we are not really seeing batteries last that long.”
Cooke added that, if nothing is done, by 2028 the only students using Chromebooks would be high schoolers. The board voted 7-0 to adopt the legislative priorities with the amendment.
In other actions, the board approved its list of large capital projects and 3R priorities for FY2026 through 2035. Notable changes were the removal of rebuilds of the Alvin York Bandy school division complex and North Stafford High School, the removal of high school-only bus access roads and an indoor activities and aquatic center.
The day school project has been combined with the Rising Star complex replacement, and the Stafford Plaza bus parking has been added to the construction of Elementary School No. 18. Paving projects were moved back onto the 3R list.
The replacement of Hartwood Elementary School tops the capital project priorities list now that elementary schools Nos. 18 and 19, high school No. 6, and a Drew Middle School replacement have all moved forward.
The 2026 3R list proposal totals over $17 million for mechanical system repairs, roof work, interior finish repairs, paving and various upgrades.
“This is just a small list of what we need to fund over the next few years,” Halstead said. “If you go into the large capital projects and all the rotational things that need to be done in the school system, this is where it starts and this is how you begin to understand why the budget requests get more each year… pay careful attention; there should be no sticker shock or shock value when we start to ask for money for these things. These are not going to be new to anybody.”
