Henrico School Board upholds hearing officer recommendation, approves five principal appointments

The Henrico County School Board on June 12 certified its closed session and voted to adopt a hearing officer's May 28, 2025 report and recommendation in employee case 24-25-E4, dismissing the related agreement effective immediately. The board also approved the appointment of five school principals.

The action matters because it resolves a personnel grievance that had been handled in executive session and places five new school leaders in posts before the 2025-26 school year.

At the start of the meeting, the board voted to move into closed session under "item a1 of section 2.2-3711 of the Code of Virginia (1950) as amended," for matters pertaining to personnel and evaluation of the superintendent. Miss Kinsella moved the closed-session motion; Mr. Irving seconded it. After the closed session, the board certified by recorded vote that only matters lawful exempt from the Virginia Freedom of Information Act had been discussed.

Following certification, Mr. Irving moved "that the school board adopt and incorporate the hearing officer's 05/28/2025 report and recommendation in employee case number 24-25-E4 and dismiss the agreement effective immediately," and directed the clerk to send a copy of the related resolution to the grievance counsel for the superintendent and the chief of human resources. Mr. Young seconded the motion; the motion passed on an aye vote and the board chair announced the recommendation had been upheld.

The board then voted to approve administrative appointments. Miss Atkins moved the motion to approve the appointments; Mr. Irving seconded it and the motion passed. The board approved the following appointments as presented by staff: Adria Mayo, principal, The Academy at Virginia Randolph; Aaron Phelps, principal, Virginia Randolph Education Center; Sunday Ray, principal, Highland Springs Elementary School; Angela White, principal, LaBurnum Elementary School; and Joel Slater, principal, Pemberton Elementary School.

Discussion and next steps: the superintendent and human resources staff were directed to process the appointments and the clerk was directed to distribute the hearing officer resolution as described. No additional public action on the employee case was recorded in the meeting minutes.

For transparency, the board cited Code of Virginia section 2.2-3711 when moving to closed session and followed the statutory certification procedure on return to open session; the hearing officer report date the board adopted was May 28, 2025.

Looking ahead, the board did not discuss further personnel items related to the dismissed agreement at the open meeting beyond directing the clerk to distribute the resolution.