Warren County School Board Recaps Staffing, Safety, and Facility Policy; Personnel Actions Approved

The Warren County School Board held a work session and regular meeting on October 15, 2025, moving through a packed agenda that covered substitute staffing trends, school safety reports, updates to facility-use policies, and personnel actions.

The Board opened by approving the agenda and modifying the consent agenda. Item G—Overnight Athletic Trips for Skyline High School Wrestling—was removed from the consent agenda to be “tabled to talk about later,” and the remainder of the consent agenda was approved “as modified.”

In the reports, the Board received an update on ESS by Jon Smith (substitute staffing). Smith outlined the recruiting efforts of ESS representative Amy Chanley, noting multiple outreach events held at local schools and community venues. Staffing data showed the district “back into the full swing of school,” with 1,252 staff absences in the reporting period—about 300 more than the previous month—with 951 filled and 301 unfilled. Smith said district fill stood at “76%,” and, after factoring building coverage, an adjusted fill rate of “93%.” Warren County High School was reported as the most challenging site to fill, with Blue Ridge Tech at “100%.”

Board members flagged a possible data error on the Skyline Middle School line in the “absences by school” slide. One member asked, “Is that a typo? It says that only three absences were filled out of 119.” The ESS team acknowledged, “That is a typo,” and committed to providing an update. Later, they explained a professional development event at Skyline Middle that affected how some coverage was posted in the system.

The Board also revisited “quarter day” leave entries. Smith clarified that such entries still appear, but administrators are encouraged to shift them to half-day increments, and the central office actively screens for quarter-day postings. On cadence, the Board signaled comfort with shifting the ESS presentation from monthly to quarterly. “A quarterly presentation would be plenty,” Board member Melanie Salins said, with the ESS team agreeing it would “offer us a better snapshot.”

The Board then moved to the third reading of KG-E, Regulations for Use of Facilities. Dr. Charles Cosner noted an additional priority category—“non-public” educational agencies within the county—based on previous Board direction, but requested clarity in punctuation to avoid misinterpretation. After discussion, the Board agreed to a simple grammatical fix—“comma after non-public and before educational on D”—to clarify the intent without changing the priority order. The Board voted to approve the updated regulations “as modified.”

The School Resource Officer (SRO) report covered activities in August and September, with a reminder that some entries reflect incidents reported to SROs that occurred off school grounds. Highlights included:

• Threat assessments: two in August; three in September
• K9 demonstrations: two in September
• Assault and battery: four in August; two in September
• Possession of marijuana on school grounds: one in August; four in September
• Possession of alcohol during school hours: none in August; one in September
• Possession of a weapon on school property: none in either month
• Threats of death or bodily harm: one in August; one in September
• Destruction of property: none in August; one in September
• Damaging a public building: one in August; none in September
• Contributing to the delinquency of a minor: none in August; one in September
• Forcible sodomy: none in August; one in September
• Petty larceny: none in August; one in September

No reports were recorded in either month for brandishing a weapon, trespassing, maliciously activating a fire alarm, computer solicitation, indecent exposure, abduction, hazing, sexual battery, sexual battery not on school property, possession of child pornography, possession with intent to distribute child pornography, sexual extortion, or giving false reports to law enforcement. The report was received without requested changes; members asked that any needed clarifications be relayed back to the SRO sergeant.

Before the closed session, the chair noted the division is “continuing to move forward with our superintendent search” and is “hoping to have an announcement at our November 5th meeting.”

The Board then voted to enter closed meeting under § 2.2-3711(A)(1) for personnel matters, including the personnel report, an addendum, an identified employee issue, and the superintendent search. After returning to open session and certifying compliance with FOIA, the Board approved the “personnel report and personnel report addendum for October 15th … as presented.”

The meeting adjourned after action was taken on the closed session items.