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On Wednesday, Nov. 4, I attended a town hall meeting at Mary Carr Greer Elementary School hosted by Kate Acuff, the longest-serving Board member on the Albemarle County School Board.
Acuff was accompanied by School Board Chair Rebecca Berlin, and they were there to take questions from parents and community members as the division is still reeling from the recent arrests of two current administrators at ACPS, and a former principal for failure to report child abuse; a newly filed lawsuit against the school division; and the Virginia Department of Education demanding that the school division hire a new firm to conduct an independent investigation into its processes and policies.
What set the tone for the evening, however, was a question about Erin Stone and her dual role as the school division’s Title IX coordinator and assistant school division counsel, and potential conflict of interests between the two.
Federal law requires that a Title IX Coordinator, who is responsible for, among other things, investigating cases of alleged sexual harassment or abuse, be free from any conflicts of interest. Parents were concerned that Stone’s role as counsel representing the school was a conflict.
“I don’t have a good answer for you. I mean, we knew that she was qualified to be a Title IX coordinator,” Acuff said during the meeting. “It was recommended by our attorney that we relied on for complying with all of the federal requirements, and clearly we need to review that.”
Stone is currently on leave after being arrested and charged for failure to report child abuse. She is also named in a recently filed lawsuit that alleges Stone, the School Board and ACPS’ Chief Legal Counsel Josiah Black failed to report the sexual assault of a student, among other allegations, according to reporting from CBS 19. (Black has also been placed on leave according to reporting from Cville Right Now).
At Wednesday’s meeting, Board Chair Berlin chimed in about Stone, adding, “What I can say on that is we have asked our outside counsel to look at that, to both look at the law behind it as well as to look at what jurisdictions around the state do, and to make a recommendation.”
Staff members and parents alike also raised concerns about communication challenges with the school division, a topic that has come up in several forums since the summer.
Charlie Scott, an ACPS teacher, said that staff members are afraid of doing their jobs because they don’t know what could lead them to being placed on leave. “People are on eggshells, we’re scared to death to say something or we’re going to go on administrative leave,” he told Acuff and Berlin.
Bo Odom, a Greer parent, also wondered why there wasn’t more diversity in the room.
“I don’t think there’s many parents here of kids from our schools, this room does not represent what it normally looks like at our bingo nights and our culture, our heritage night,” Odom said. “This place is rocking with an incredibly wonderful, diverse, rich community, and it is not tonight.”
According to Greer’s Virginia Department of Education school profile page, 42.2% of students are Hispanic; 22.2% are white; 22.2% are Black; and 6.8% are Asian. Most of those who showed up at Greer were white. I noticed that the scheduled Spanish interpreter was sitting in a corner without anything to do.
Odom followed up his question with another: “Why do you think the voices of the parents who send their kids here are not here, and what are some contributions you might make as our representatives to encourage their voices?”
Acuff said she didn’t know why Greer parents weren’t present, and welcomed input on how to make that happen.
Holly Odom, Bo Odom’s wife and volunteer with Family Council, the organization that moderated the event, stepped away from her role as volunteer to say that other methods of promoting the town hall were rejected.
“We had an opportunity, a few Greer moms were able to sit with both of you [Acuff and Berlin] at Kindness Cafe a few weeks ago and talk about some of these things,” Odom said. “And I know that you would agree, our marketing — your marketing — for this event was not up to par for our community.”
Holly Odom added that an important part of promoting an event like the town hall is building relationships with stakeholders and reaching out to parents where they are, which is not strictly online. She mentioned putting flyers in folders for parents, sending notes home with the students and taking advantage of word of mouth to promote the upcoming event could have been useful.
Acuff said she would like to have another sit-down with Odom and others, to go over some ideas for future engagements.
The School Board and Albemarle County Public Schools continue to face challenges as they try to rebuild trust with staff, caregivers and community members. I’ll continue to follow the story, and there are two additional ACPS town halls next week. Scroll down for more details.
(A limited number of School Board members attend town halls because under Virginia law, a gathering of a majority of members constitutes a quorum. That means, among other things, that the Board could conduct official business, the meeting would have to be advertised, and the Board would be required to maintain meeting minutes.)
See you at the next School Board meeting. Until then, let’s take care of each other and let’s take care of our children.
La Shawn Pagán, Education Reporter
Speak with Albemarle County Public School Board members at upcoming town halls
Albemarle County School Board Chair Rebecca Berlin, who represents the White Hall District, accompanied by Board Member Bob Beard, who represents the Samuel Miller District, will host two town hall meetings in early November:
- Nov. 9 from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m at Crozet Elementary, 1407 Crozet Ave., Crozet. Questions for this event can be submitted by using this form.
- Nov. 11 from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m at Monticello High School, 1400 Independence Way, Charlottesville. Questions for this event can be submitted by using this form.
