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Board member urges joint retreat with supervisors after dispute over pre‑K and overcrowding plans
Summary
Following a May joint meeting with the Board of Supervisors, School Board member Phil Fortune urged a retreat between the two boards to rebuild trust after supervisors proposed changes that school board members said contradicted the board's earlier vote to keep pre‑K in home schools and to use on‑site modulars.
School Board member Phil Fortune on June 11 publicly urged a joint retreat between the Caroline County School Board and the Board of Supervisors after a May 27 supervisors meeting presented a plan to relocate pre‑K students that school board members said conflicted with the board’s previous vote.
Fortune recounted the division’s May 12 vote and the May 15 letter notifying supervisors that the school board would keep pre‑K students in their home schools for 2025–26, implement on‑site learning cottages (modulars) and pursue a long‑term new elementary school. He said the supervisors’ May 27 plan appeared to disregard that decision and the school board’s constitutional role to supervise public education under Article VIII, §7 of the Virginia Constitution and related Code of Virginia provisions.
"I respectfully request that you and Board of Supervisors chair Pull your respective members on the possibility of a joint retreat in the very near future," Fortune said, asking for open discussion to resolve lingering concerns and philosophical differences.
Other board members echoed the call for collaboration, emphasized the need to separate facts from feelings, and said they were prepared to continue joint meetings and memorandum‑of‑understanding work to clarify roles and responsibilities before any expansion plan moves forward.
Supervisors were not quoted at the school board meeting; Fortune thanked Supervisor Black for acknowledging he had not helped draft the supervisors' undeclared plan. The board did not take formal action at the June 11 meeting beyond the public request for a retreat and an emphasis on continued collaborative work.
