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‘This is dragging on:’ Caroline School Board perplexed by supervisors’ refusal to meet

by | Aug 20, 2025 | ALLFFP, Caroline, Education, Government

During a May meeting of the Caroline County Board of Supervisors, Calvin Taylor, the county’s school board chair, made a nonbinding pledge to encourage his board to allow the supervisors to expand Bowling Green Elementary School. 

Supervisors Floyd Thomas of the Mattaponi District and Reginald Underwood of the Reedy Church District expressed a desire to add four to six classrooms and a gymnasium to the school, even though school board members weren’t seeking the additions. 

In June, the school board voted to approve the supervisors’ renovation request. But after the two boards each crafted a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to advance the plan, the supervisors declined a joint meeting requested by the school board on July 29 to review the proposals. 

“[Board of Supervisors Chair Nancy Long] discussed this request with the board of supervisors and determined that there are not enough board members willing to attend either meeting to constitute a quorum,” County Administrator Charles Culley wrote to the school board on Aug. 5. 

Instead, the supervisors insisted that each board’s attorney meet to formulate an agreeable MOU before any more conversations take place. 

The letter from Culley perplexed school board members, considering that it was the supervisors who had pushed for the renovations to BGE. They said during the board’s regular meeting Monday night that they’re growing weary of waiting while also attempting to address school capacity issues in the county. Delaying “good faith” joint conversations will negatively impact students in the division, school board members said. 

“This is dragging on,” said Shawn Kelley, who represents the Madison District on the school board. “This is taking entirely too long to get done, in my opinion.” 

The school board voted 5-1 to approve the second recommendation in moving forward with the existing MOU. The first option was to allow the attorneys to agree to an MOU that “achieves collaborative board consensus” and have each board adopt the agreement at a separate meeting.  

The second option also included a meeting with the attorneys, but a joint meeting would follow to provide updates on the addition of trailers to BGE, next steps to add trailers at Lewis & Clark Elementary and the BGE renovation that the supervisors suggested. 

School board member Michael Hubbard of the Bowling Green District cast the lone dissenting vote against the second plan, citing the supervisors’ initial refusal to hold a joint meeting. 

“If the board of supervisors has stated on numerous occasions that they’re not going to meet in joint session, are we going to continue to drag this through as opposed to just addressing the legal issues by the lawyers and let them get it back to us?” Hubbard said … “I agree with Mr. Kelley that this is taking incredibly too much time, and now we’re saying after this goes through the lawyers, we’re going to try to get a joint meeting with the board of supervisors who have told us numerous times that they’re not going to sit down with us.” 

JoWanda Rollins-Fells of the Reedy Church District also expressed frustration at the apparent unwillingness of the supervisors to hold a joint meeting, saying “we have a need in this community” that is being prolonged because of past disagreements between the boards. 

“We’ve been asking for the same thing for years,” Rollins-Fells said. “At some point, we have to turn the page. We are not moving forward unless we have an agreed-upon joint MOU. If you want to play ball, then come to the table now.” 

The board made edits to its initial draft of the MOU, including a stipulation that renovations to BGE should not preclude the construction of a fourth elementary school in the county.  

In other school business, Director of Human Resources Paige Tucker provided a presentation noting that the division is 96% staffed.  

There are three vacancies at the high school, two at the middle school, three at BGE, two at Lewis & Clark and one at Madison Elementary. Tucker said that 66 new teacher hires have 389 combined years of experience; 27 are fully licensed; 18 have master’s degrees; and 41% are minorities.  

“I just want to echo the kudos to Ms. Tucker and your team,” Mattaponi District representative Lydell Fortune said. “It shows that a multi-pronged and intentional approach to recruiting will in fact yield not only the best and the brightest, but also a diverse workforce that will, in the long run, benefit our entire school division.” 

The board formally welcomed student representative Jordin “Jay” Kelleher to the dais. Taylor said Kelleher will provide a link between students in the county and the school board. 

“This is a really unique honor for this young lady,” Taylor said. “She is truly talented. We’ve been very fortunate. We’ve had very good student representatives in the past and I’m sure she’s going to do equally as well.” 

The board also recognized spring sports standouts, including the Caroline High School softball team that won the Region 4B championship and advanced to the state tournament for the first time in school history.  

Superintendent Sarah Calveric thanked various churches for their outreach efforts benefiting the division, including a community-wide prayer for students and staff around the flagpole at CHS on Sunday evening. 

“Our faith community was loud and proud these last few weeks,” Calveric said. 

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