School Board begins update to comprehensive plan, honors fallen former school resource officer
The Rappahannock County School Board on Tuesday began early discus-sions surrounding an update to the comprehensive plan that will outline a vision for the school system over the next ÿ ve years.
The schools are formulating the plan around the Virginia Department of Health’s profile of an ideal high school graduate, which includes their knowl-edge of classroom content, workplace skills and community and civic respon-sibilities, as well as the ability to plan a career.
All of those guidelines will be in-terpreted through a lens of equity and so-cial and emotional learning, according to Superintendent Dr. Shannon Grimsley.
The schools’ planning process will be done in teams, each with a focus on a particular subject area, including school recruitment and retention — which is of great concern as enrollment continues to decline — and ÿ nances.
The teams are comprised of School Board members, members of the community and students.
A dra° for the comprehensive plan is expected to be posted for review by the School Board’s April meeting, with a public hearing planned for May fol-lowed by an adoption vote expected to take place at the body’s June meeting before the plan goes fully into e˛ ect next school year.
The body also recognized former Rappahannock County Sheri˛ ’s dep-uty James Anthony “Tony” Sisk , who died in October from complications after contracting COVID-19 in the line of duty as a Culpeper County deputy.
Sisk, 50, previously served as the schools’ resource o˝ cer.
His wife and daughter were present at the meeting and accept-ed the resolution passed in his honor. “Sisk has made a lifelong impact on all the individuals he has encountered and dedicated countless hours to ensure their safety and well-being,” said School Board member Chris Ubben, who is also a Sheri˛ ’s deputy.