The Amherst County School Board approved a block of policy updates on its August agenda and directed a subset of policies to the board’s policy committee for additional review. The board approved items it described as noncontroversial and pulled a list of policies for further vetting after questions from board members about implementation details and language.

Board members said they wanted additional time to review several student-safety and personnel-related items, and to make sure local practices align with recent changes from the Virginia School Boards Association (VSBA) and the Code of Virginia. Board discussion identified questions about training timelines, notifications to families, special education and discipline language, and vendor/employee-character provisions.

Why this matters: the policies under review include student-discipline and safety provisions, course-placement rules, vendor and personnel screening language, and standards that directly affect student services and staff procedures. Board members said they preferred the policy committee to examine items that may require local clarifications, cross-references to current Amherst practice, or implementation timelines.

Most of the motion language was procedural: the board’s motion approved a list of policy documents and referred the remainder to the policy committee with the intent that the committee meet and return recommendations before the next board meeting. Board members explicitly named multiple policies during discussion, including GCL, IGAG, IGBJ, KQ, JFCD, JFCI, JFCM (cell phone policy), JHCD, JJAG, JRCA1, GCDA and GCPD. Several members requested that language referring to roles such as “director of student services” be revised to use superintendent’s designee where the district no longer uses that exact title.

Board members also noted that some policies reflected recent VSBA updates or Code of Virginia changes. In at least one instance the board accepted an explanation that the Code of Virginia provided divisions additional implementation time and therefore kept the proposed GCL language. For the cell-phone policy, the board agreed to adopt policy code JFCM and convert the existing regulation naming convention (JFC‑R2) to JFCM‑R to align with the new policy name.

The board’s procedural motion carried; the chair directed staff to document the specific policies pulled (as discussed by two members) and to circulate the list by email. The referred policies will be addressed by the policy committee with the goal of meeting before the next regular board meeting.

Board action and next steps: the board approved the non-pulled policies on the table and voted to have the policy committee review the pulled items and return recommended language and cross-references by the next meeting. The committee was asked to meet between now and the next board meeting and present its recommendations.