The Fredericksburg City School Board has approved new start times for all city schools except for preschool programs.
The new start times will go into effect when the 2026-27 school year starts on Aug. 12. The start times for James Monroe High School and Walker-Grant Middle School have been shifted earlier — to 7:30 a.m. and 8:05 a.m. respectively — and the start time for the three elementary schools has been shifted later, to 8:55 a.m.
Operations director David Ferguson presented the new start times as one of several ways to improve transportation in the division, which last year was plagued with a lack of bus drivers, prolonged bus rides, and delayed arrivals and departures from school.
“We met with several leadership folks plus principals,” Ferguson told board members during Monday’s meeting. “This was brought up because we’ve seen there was difficulty in making things work with the schedule we did have.”
The board approved the new start times by a vote of 4-to-2, but even those board members who voted to support the change did so reluctantly.
“This evening, we are being asked to approve a last-minute schedule change with only five weeks’ notice,” Ward 1 representative Andy Wolfenbarger said. “This is not how we serve our families.”
Wolfenbarger said that, had the schedule change been brought to the board earlier this spring, members could have had “a collaborative conversation about it,” with time to solicit feedback from the community.
The way it happened “is a planning failure,” he said.
“It is the responsibility of the administration to provide this board with the time and information needed to do our jobs,” Wolfenbarger continued. “We must prioritize community voice and proper planning over administrative convenience. I expect better planning moving forward.”
Board Chair and Ward 2 representative Katie Pomeroy voted to approve the new start times, but said it was “hard for me to vote for something that I don’t feel is backed up with data and science about what’s best for kids.”
“The studies are out there to show that teenagers especially do better when they get more sleep, and I think that we have talked in the past as a board about shifting the other direction and getting our high schoolers more sleep,” she said. “I feel like this is a movement away from what I feel like is best for kids.”
Ward 3 representative Annie Langdon and Vice Chair Molly McFadden (at-large) both expressed concern about the potential for buses to bottleneck on Learning Lane, which is the access lane for both Gladys West and Lafayette elementary schools. The start time for these two schools was staggered this past school year to prevent this from happening.
“I am concerned about Learning Lane,” McFadden said. “I feel like we are eventually going to have to go back and change [the start times for Lafayette and Gladys West].”
McFadden and Ward 4 representative Malvina Rollins-Kay voted against the new start times.
Another 4-to-2 vote came with the next action item, ratifying a special engagement audit into School Board travel expenditures made during fiscal year 2025 (July 1, 2024 to June 30, 2025).
Former School Board Chair Matt Rowe signed a contract on Oct 7, 2025, with accounting firm Robinson, Farmer, Cox Associates to carry out the special travel audit, but it was never voted on by the full Board, Pomeroy told the Free Press on Tuesday.
“The law of Virginia is that an individual school board member does not have any authority on their own,” Pomeroy said. “Boards gather their authority from the will of the board. The ratified vote last night clarified that action and allowed us to move forward” with the audit.
Though the contract wasn’t ratified by the full board until Monday, Superintendent Marci Catlett and all individual board members had been informed of the special travel audit by December, according to emails obtained by the Free Press as the result of a request under the Freedom of Information Act.
Former Chief Finance Officer Jen Brody sent an email to Catlett and Deputy Superintendent Matt Eberhardt on Dec. 9, 2025, informing them that, “There will be detailed School Board travel comments released with the special engagement by the end of the month.”
School Board Clerk Angela Wilson then forwarded this email to all School Board members in groups of two, with a note reading, “Dr. Catlett wanted you to be aware of this prior to the City Council meeting tonight where this will be discussed.”
Pomeroy, McFadden, Langdon, and Wolfenbarger voted on Tuesday to ratify the contract and proceed with the special travel audit.
Kay and Jarvis Bailey, the second At Large member, voted against ratification, saying they have concerns about ratifying an action that was taken initially without consent of the full board.
“My concern is the authority of the school board as a governing body,” Bailey said. “An individual board member cannot obligate the board without prior authorization. We should understand the legal implementations before we vote to ratify. That’s been my concern.”
Prior to the regular meeting on Monday, the board held a two-hour closed session to discuss personnel matters, the evaluation of the superintendent, and to [“consult] with legal counsel employed or retained by a public body regarding specific legal matters requiring the provision of legal advice by such counsel.”
No other board members expressed concern Monday with the legal implications of ratifying the contract for the special engagement audit.
