The Tuesday, May 7th public hearing-focused regular meeting of the Warren County Board of Supervisors began with a one-two punch surrounding community schooling issues. The first “punch” was delivered by five of seven Public Comments speakers regarding non-agenda item issues, prior to the 7:30 p.m. cutoff time to public hearings. The final of those speakers, Megan Marrazzo had a long wait to make her case, as only the first six made it prior to the public hearing starting time.

Those five speakers, Cameron Williams, Richard Baker, Matthew Purdie, Anne Miranda,  and Marrazzo urged the board not to approve any tax increases in support of county public schools. Several cited Supervisor Richard Jamieson’s April 30 Joint supervisors-school board budget work session comments on a developing lack of trust over a perceived lack of transparency or effective use of county funding to positive educational ends by public school officials. Local tax increases in support of county law enforcement and fire and rescue services was acceptable, if necessary, most of those speakers indicated, but not for county public schools as currently overseen, even though as Jamieson has acknowledged, a majority of the community’s children are still educated in public schools.

Anti-Public School funding Public Comments speakers, including Cameron Williams here, had a full house to hear their perspectives. Most of that crowd was there in support of the first public hearing permitting request for the relocation of the private Montessori School in Rockland on a portion of the former Bowling Green South Golf Course. That permitting passed unanimously and the crowd thinned out considerably.

The first speaker to this topic following initial speaker Fern Vasquez’s questions about the status of a public restroom in Eastham Park, Cameron Williams (14:30 linked County video mark) set the tone against increased funding of Warren County Public Schools. He suggested, as others would, that Fire & Rescue and the Sheriff’s Office could be adequately funded without a tax increase, pointing the finger at public schools for responsibility for any tax increase. He cited an April 9th board meeting public speaker in making his case against additional funding for public schools this year and possibly into the future: “Mr. Purdie put it quite well at the April 9th hearing that ‘Warren County Public Schools have become a money pit that the County cannot get out of.’

“It’s about time that the public schools take a much-needed cut, and potentially even a funding freeze so that more necessary public resources can be funded and equipped. I don’t believe that public schools should receive another cent until there’s proof of improvement in enrollment and quality,” Williams told the supervisors, further asserting, “They do not need to be operating with such a large budget when there’s been a drastic decrease in enrollment, and increase in funding and plummeting test scores.” In closing, Williams pointed to ongoing disciplinary issues in public schools he stated could not be fixed with additional funding, coupled with the fiscal disciplinary issue facing the board of supervisors over the public schools budget request.

Private School permitting for Rockland location

The second educational issue addressed was the topic of the first public hearing convened (28:05 County video mark) following the Public Comments adjournment for the 7:30 p.m. start of public hearings, and was the focus of the great majority of a full house of spectators filling the Warren County Government Center main meeting room. That issue was the requested conditional use permitting to allow the relocation of the private John Paul the Great Montessori Academy to approximately 53 acres of the former Bowling Green South Golf Course.

A graphic presented by applicant of the existing Bowling Green South Clubhouse that will be converted into the main John Paul the Great Montessori Academy school facility.

Planning Director Matt Wendling Opened the public hearing with a summary of the Conditional Use Permit application. As noted in the staff-prepared agenda summary: “The applicant is requesting a conditional use permit for a private school to be located on what is currently the Bowling Green South Golf Course which has been closed since its recent purchase in 2023 by Helltown River Investments LLC. The school currently serves 141 students and has 20 full-time and 18 part-time employees and has a curriculum based on the Catholic Montessori approach as stated in their mission statement … The property is located at 768 Bowling View Road and identified on tax map 13 as lot 46D. The property is zoned Agricultural (A) and is located in the Morrison Family subdivision in the Shenandoah Magisterial District.”

Wendling noted the school, which features an Agricultural curriculum, was established in 2020 and is currently located in Front Royal. “They currently have programs for pre-school children 3 days a week and elementary and middle school age children for 5 days a week. Their long-term plans are to expand to include toddlers and high school students and not to exceed enrollment of more than 200 students,” the planning director said.

Zoning Administrator Chase Lenz and Planning Director Matt Wendling on the job.

It was noted that the County Planning Commission had unanimously forwarded a recommendation of approval with conditions as amended. Following applicant Noel Sweeney’s presentation of the application and school plans, 14 speakers, many parents with children attending the school, urged approval. The supervisors listened, and on a motion by John Stanmeyer and what appeared to be Supervisor Richard Jamieson edging Vicky Cook for the second, the board unanimously approved the CUP.

County achieves “Storm-ready designation”

Early in the meeting the board got a report on the County achieving a “National Weather Service Warren County Storm Ready Designation”. Fire & Rescue staffer Brian Foley introduced National Weather Service’s Chris Strong, who summarized the process Foley had been local liaison to in qualifying the County for the designation.

Fire & Rescue Department’s Brian Foley, dark uniform, introduced National Weather Service’s Chris Strong to explain the county’s designation as a Storm Ready community.

As the staff summary noted: “In early 2023 Warren County Fire and Rescue began working with the National Weather Service in Sterling, Virginia to become a Storm Ready Community. The National Weather Service approved our application on March 11, 2024. Storm Ready uses a grassroots approach to help communities develop plans to handle all types of extreme weather-from tornadoes to winter storms. The program encourages communities to take a new, proactive approach to improving local hazardous weather operations by providing emergency managers with clear-cut guidelines on how to improve their hazardous weather operations.” The board unanimously approved the “Storm-ready designation” for the years 2024 to 2028.

There will be a subsequent story on additional business conducted at the meeting.

Click here to watch the May 7th Warren County Board of Supervisors Meeting.

In what was the focus of a work session for the county’s planning commission, beginning at 6 p.m. on May 8 and giving way to the commission’s regular meeting at 7 p.m. in the Warren County Government Center, chapters three and four of the developing comprehensive plan were considered for elements of design and content.

Warren County Planning Commission meets for a regular meeting on the evening of May 8 at the Warren County Government Center. Royal Examiner Photo Credits: Brenden McHugh.

The plan faces several months of intense development and reworking with a hopeful release date in which it will become available to the public by September, an estimate given by Planning Director Matt Wendling. Although exactly when the plan will be released is a matter of give or take, Wendling used the opportunity to explain a future land use map depicting the Route 340/522 corridor, giving the commission members something to “chew on” over the next month. The corridor is a complex entity that may soon see the development of industrial use, commercial use, residential use, and negotiation of rural areas as well. If geography is destiny, this is a very appropriate conversation for the county commission to have in the spring of 2024.

Before the regular meeting, the county commission meets for a work session in the Caucus Room.

At one point in the regular meeting, Wendling thanked Planner Kelly Wahl and Office Manager Allison Mutter for the hard work they have been doing to bring the comprehensive plan to completion. They have made significant progress in reformatting it and bringing the data together. “We hope that next month if everyone is here, we can finish chapter 4, and maybe we’ll hop into six, which is economic development,” Wendling said. In the future, the commissioners will have forwarded to them those items which have been reworked and will have the chance to give their input, via Wahl and Mutter who are assisting Wendling in this endeavor.

During the work session, Planning Director Matt Wendling explained to the members a future land use map for development in the 340/522 corridor.

Chapter three of the comprehensive plan focuses on natural resources, while chapter four focuses on growth management and land use. “Characteristics of the natural environment affect development to varying degrees,” chapter three begins. “While some natural features encourage and enhance development, others correspondingly limit certain land uses and development intensity.” The rest of the chapter is a deep dive into the county’s natural features, ranging from the Shenandoah River and the mountains that bound the county to the implication of soil types for septic systems. Chapter four discusses land use types as they appear in the county with a tight focus on trends over the past decade or so, seeking how the county government can play a role in responsible development, preserving rural character, and respecting agricultural preservation.

Chapters three and four, as they stood during the work session, can be found online at the county’s website under the May 8, 2024, agenda.

Click here to watch the May 8th Planning Commission Meeting.

The run of county government administrative departmental staff defections continues to expand with a notice on the Warren County website about “Job Opportunities” now including the County’s in-house Director of Economic Development. It is a position held by multi-faceted County staffer Joe Petty since the position’s creation in early 2022. Petty verified that he was hired to the in-house County EDA Director’s position on February 1, 2022. The position was created in the wake of the Front Royal-Warren County Economic Development Authority (FR-WC EDA, EDA) becoming unilaterally overseen by the County in the wake of the Town of Front Royal’s post-financial scandal withdrawal as it attempted to distance itself from financial liability for project costs or losses during the 2014-18 FR-WC EDA “financial scandal” time-frame under the EDA executive directorship of Jennifer McDonald.

Two perspectives of Joe Petty on the job, above reporting to the WC Board of Supervisors on work at the now unilaterally County-overseen FR-WC EDA; and below at an EDA Asset Committee meeting. Remember, Petty’s soon-to-be former position was with the County, not the EDA. By state law EDAs are an independent “quasi-governmental” entity of its creating municipality, or as in this case, municipalities. – Royal Examiner File Photo

Contacted about his departure, Petty verified that his last day will be Friday, May 17. “I’m happy to have been at the County for so long. I’m leaving on good terms. I have a new opportunity in the community, so, I’ll still be around. I’ll miss the people here,” he added of leaving the Warren County Government Center where he has been employed since January of 2018. His history with the Warren County government began the first month of 2018 when he was hired as Zoning Officer. In July 2019 he was promoted to Zoning Administrator and became Planning Director in April 2021, before being named Warren County’s first in-house Director of Economic Development in February 2022. He pointed out he initially held down double duty there, continuing his work with the Planning Department until Matt Wendling was hired as Planning Director in May of 2022.

The starting salary for the County Director of Economic Development and Tourism position is advertised at $93,308.80 “depending on qualifications and experience, with an excellent benefits package.”

Asked about his new opportunity locally, Petty declined comment, saying he would let the announcement come from the organization that was hiring him. Asked if we should call a historical or perhaps “heritage” society for that verification, Petty was non-committal. At publication we were still awaiting a return call from the Warren Heritage Society from someone in position to verify their pending hiring of a new director, or not.

Petty’s departure follows a growing list of lost administrative staffers and institutional knowledge beginning about six years ago in the wake of the pressured resignation of long-time County Administrator Doug Stanley, whom some thought was being scapegoated by a newly-elected board for a lack of preventative County EDA oversight regarding the “financial scandal”. Offered Stanley’s job, then long-time Deputy County Administrator Robert Childress declined, choosing rather to leave for employment elsewhere. Following Childress eventually to other employment opportunities, not necessarily higher-paying ones, have been County Attorney Dan Whitten, also long-tenured Planning Director Taryn Logan, Assistant County Attorney Caitlin Jordan, along with several finance directors over a relatively short period of time as the county government has dealt with the financial and litigation aftermath of the FR-WC EDA “financial scandal” circa 2014-2018.

For an interesting perspective on the financial aftermath of the EDA financial scandal, check Royal Examiner’s OPINION page for a new Letter to the Editor from recent former EDA Treasurer Jim Wolfe, who left the EDA board when his four-year term expired at the end of April.

In a 5-0 vote to expedite the transformation of the Baymont Inn into an apartment complex aimed at servicing young professionals, the Front Royal Economic Development Authority (FREDA) determined that with the appropriate conditions, this is a worthy project and set it on a course to be considered by the Front Royal Town Council before the council’s next regular meeting. That very same day, Monday, May 6, in a work session that began at 7 p.m. in the Front Royal Town Hall at 102 East Main Street, the Town Council assessed a request from the applicant and owner of the Baymont Inn for a special use permit and delayed it for further examination to a June work session.

Town Council meets for a work session on Monday evening. Royal Examiner Photo Credits: Brenden McHugh.

Not everyone on the Town Council is in favor of the delay. Councilman Glenn Wood is in alignment with FREDA. He carefully delineated the benefits of this project for his fellow council members. One of the chief reasons this project is so exceptional is the opportunity it would afford young workers starting without large families in this community to live locally, enjoy the amenities of Front Royal while being close to their workplace, and keep the blood vessels of our workforce from being drained into a bedroom community like Winchester. Mayor Lori Cockrell heartily agreed with this point. Keeping our teachers in the school system locally is something she cares about deeply, perhaps partly because when she is not wearing the mayoral hat, she is known as having been a teacher herself.

However, there seems to be a bureau of reasons why this item requires more study, presented forcefully by Councilwoman Amber Morris, who did not receive an invitation to tour the proposed conversion site at Baymont Inn and would like the opportunity to do so before voting in favor of the special use permit. Is the housing truly going to be affordable for everyone? Tied to that, will the owner succeed in reaching the demographic of young professionals? How will the cost of utilities be handled? Will the loss of the lodging tax be an irremediable harm to the town? What about the displacement of school-attending children whose parents can only afford to house them in a motel room? Until these spider webs are swept away, the council will not be voting on this proposed SUP and the corresponding request for relief from Town parking standards, and it will be postponed to a work session in early June.

Planning Director and Zoning Administrator Lauren Kopishke presents the contents of Monday evening’s work session to the council.

Capable of cleaning house, Planning Director and Zoning Administrator Lauren Kopishke explained how this looks from the staff’s perspective in an interview. “This application, as a whole, aligns with the comprehensive plan. The implementation matrix makes the case that high-quality development can be achieved with redevelopment and specifically calls out the conversion of hotels as a potential means of providing housing. In this instance, the Town needs housing for its citizens, and this project offers that.” She also said: “Council should be considering the use only; rent rates are typically not a consideration because this property is not subject to rezoning with proffers. There is no negotiation aspect here for them to wrestle with. A special use permit determines if a use that may have a higher impact on an area is appropriate at a location.”

Though not a point-by-point response to all of Morris’s concerns, Kopishke addresses perhaps the most important point: will the apartments offered at the former Baymont Inn truly be affordable? According to Kopishke, that is truly the applicant’s concern. Red for a comet approaching, it does not take the queen’s astrologer to predict that the town of Front Royal is on a collision course with serious change. One might ask in this connection what a truly laissez-faire policy is. Here, Ayn Rand’s statement on the final page of Atlas Shrugged rings ominously true: “Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of production and trade.” Neither should the town council in crafting an ordinance or transacting a vote. Hopefully, this will only be a delay, and the freedom of independent business owners to fulfill the comprehensive plan will not be abridged.

The Warren County Board of Supervisors and School Board joint budget work session of April 30th turned into a somewhat accusatory analysis of an absence of detail, a developing lack of trust, and perceived absence of accountability aimed at public schools administrators and financial staff. The most lengthy and critical comments came from North River District Supervisor Richard Jamieson, who noted that while homeschooling his own children, had himself attended public schools as a youth. He asserted that his home schooling preference for his children did not impact his current negative analysis of Warren County Public Schools.

However, following North River School Board member Melanie Salins earlier comments on being unable to have questions she has been asking about budget allocations for four vacant positions responded to in a timely manner by school system staff, Jamieson later launched a 24-minute critique of what he believes are misplaced budgetary priorities contributing to ongoing operational failures educationally and administratively at Warren County Public Schools.

County supervisors at the far side work session table and the school board on near side try to zero in on a workable FY-2025 Public Schools Budget. At this point, a $2.4 million increase in local funding is being sought.

But more on that later. First, we’ll summarize portions of what led up to Jamieson’s negative appraisal of the county’s public school system and its evolving Fiscal Year-2025 budget proposal. It might be noted there was one elected official absence from the full boards’ joint meeting. That was Shenandoah District School Board member Tom McFadden Jr.

Schools Finance Officer Rob Ballentine opened the work session with a presentation of the evolving public schools Fiscal Year-2025 budget, explaining that the State revenue portion of the equation remains in flux, leaving a certain amount of guess work on necessary local funding involved until State officials finalize their FY-2025 budget numbers and that key portion of the anticipated revenue stream to the county’s public school system.

With some updated numbers the projected State contribution was cited at $43,514,552 of what is currently projected as a $78,790,969 total WC Public Schools FY-2025 budget-supporting revenue stream. That number includes a requested County contribution of $31,119,702, an increase of $2,469,702 over the last Fiscal Year County share of the Public Schools budget. Ballentine observed that the $2,469,702 local revenue increase was less than cited at the previous joint budget work session. Other anticipated revenue streams include Federal revenue of $3.55 million, and Miscellaneous revenue of $605,708.

Ballentine noted that the changes in submitted State revenue added about $43,000 to what had been projected previously. “The problem with that is the State sill hasn’t adopted a budget,” Ballentine said, noting a scheduled budget Special Session of the State General Assembly targeted for May 13, with a subsequent final vote on the State budget hopefully by May 15.

WC Public Schools Finance Director Rob Ballentine, left, and Superintendent of Schools Dr. Chris Ballenger prepare for their presentation of the updated FY-2025 school budget proposal, with 42 pages of small-print categories and numbers at their disposal. But where’s the detail, some still asked of certain categories.

“Once they do finalize their budget we’ll get the exact numbers that will go in that column for the State. So, those numbers probably will change, hopefully not much. And if they change, hopefully they’ll get larger — but that remains to be seen,” Ballentine observed.

The question and answer that followed began innocently enough as, first School Board member Melanie Salins asked what had propelled the reduction in the local revenue request, removal of some items or the increase in the projected State contribution. “There were things that we adjusted in the budget,” Ballentine responded, citing a $100,000 reduction from elimination of a testing program that was being deferred to FY-2026, as well as the positive impact of the projected increase in State revenue.

“Jay” Butler sought information on what was driving school budgetary changes upward, including how staffing needs were being met to fill unfilled positions. During discussion of that latter item, School Superintendent Dr. Chris Ballenger observed that it was not generally advisable to wait until the next budgetary year cycle to fill unanticipated staff vacancies because qualified available applicants would be quickly grabbed up by other school systems also looking to fill vacant positions. In response to a question, Dr. Ballenger said that of 33 current staff vacancies, 16 are teaching positions.

As John Stanmeyer studies the numbers, ‘Jay’ Butler queries Schools Admin staff on driving factors leading to a requested $2.49-million increase in local funding to $31.11 million, of a total projected budget of $78.79 million with anticipated State and Federal funding factored in.

Later, Ballenger observed that what students need educationally, as well as socially and economically, were the primary consideration in establishing annual public schools budgetary priorities. The staffing priorities discussion led County Board and joint work session Chairman Cheryl Cullers to express her hope that an Agricultural Program teaching position would be included in and approved as part of the schools FY-2025 budgetary request.

Money well spent?

Prefacing comments beginning at the 2:02:15 mark of the linked County video, Supervisor Jamieson said he felt line-item schools budget questions had been adequately covered, leading him toward another perspective he described as coming “from 40,000 feet or so”. His overview from that altitude was not complimentary:

“I’ve already made a few comments about a kind of crisis of confidence in terms of transparency and what’s visible. My primary concern as a supervisor charged with the responsibility for using taxpayer money is whether accountability is sufficient for the money being spent by the school system. And asking the question is more money being spent correlated to better educational outcomes,” Jamieson began.

Happy with the line item discussion, Supervisor Richard Jamieson decided to take an ‘overview’ of the Public Schools Budget from ‘40,000 feet’. — He didn’t like what he saw from up there. And it’s not because he’s a home schooler, he assured us.

And while admitting there were differing opinions on answers to those questions, Jamieson said he believed: “That’s not the preponderance of the evidence. That it depends on how the additional money is spent.” Jamieson asserted that he agreed that an excellent public educational system is a benefit to an entire community. However, he continued to note that recent annual statistics indicated that attendance at Warren County Public Schools had peaked, and was staying level, if not decreasing in some areas.

He did cite educational options, including home schooling and private schooling, in this community to public schools. However, he acknowledged that public schools educated the “vast majority” of students in the community. And he did not address whether shifting population and countywide age variables might impact those public school population trends. He did cite constituents he was aware of he said had withdrawn their children from the county’s public schools due to discipline or violence issues within some schools.

To make his point that public school appropriations were not being well spent, Jamieson pointed to four schools in the system that were ranked below federal standards of performance. “The elephant in the room that has been brought up, is that we do have four out of 10 schools that are not meeting federal standards. That’s 40%,” Jamieson pointed out, adding that 40% of the five-person School Board had voted against the submitted public schools budget proposal. As we understand it, that 40% was Salins and the absent Tom McFadden Jr., both of whom appear to have direct or indirect ties to the home or private schooling community here.

Jamieson said that instituting across-the-board raises in a system with a 40% failing standard of its schools, as opposed to identifying and replacing staff that could be tied to those failing standards, was a failed status quo he could not support. As to federal involvement in public education, Chairman Cullers, who was a school nurse in the public school system for years, at another point in the discussion suggested the school system should drop the federal and state implemented SOLs (Standards Of Learning) as a dysfunctional educational measurement tool. However, Jamieson noted that would amount to crossing the people with their hands on the purse strings of the educational system. — Well, at least two-thirds of those purse strings, the third being the local County appropriation he was asserting should be cut.

Flanked by Vice-Chair ‘Jay’ Butler and Richard Jamieson, work session and supervisors board Chair Cheryl Cullers expressed support for some schools staffing requests, as well as taking a shot at SOLs as a dysfunctional educational measurement tool, created as we recall by bureaucrats, not educators.

How may Jamieson’s negative analysis overview impact the supervisor majority’s perspective on the submitted, if not yet finalized FY-2025 Warren County Public Schools budget currently seeking $31,119,702 in local County funding, as noted above, an increase of $2,469,702 from the current Fiscal Year-2024?

Stay tuned as this crucial municipal governmental funding decision approaches a conclusion that may reverberate throughout this community for more than just the Fiscal Year to come.

On Monday, April 29, at 7 p.m. in the Front Royal Town Hall on 102 East Main Street, the Front Royal Town Council and the Planning Commission met to discuss vape shops, Planned Neighborhood Development District (PND) zoning, and short-term rentals. Planning Director and Zoning Administrator Lauren Kopishke supported the mayor in guiding the discussion.

A special joint work session is held between the Town Council and the Planning Commission on the evening of Monday, April 29. Royal Examiner Photo Credits: Brenden McHugh.

While vape shops and short-term rentals drew similar sentiments from everyone in the room, the more contentious item and perhaps the driving force behind the gathering was PND zoning. This type of zoning allows for mixed-use development in higher densities, on parcels rezoned to PND, and it is in many ways an improvement on by-right development as it potentially offers affordable housing for those in Front Royal who are struggling to cope with inflation and the cost of living in general. The challenge to PND zoning, which Planning Commissioner Chair Connie Marshner sees clearly, is the scarcity of lots large enough within Town limits to meet the acreage requirement for a planned neighborhood development district, as it is currently regulated by the Town Ordinance. This may explain why, in an application from a developer for PND rezoning that involved a proposed amendment to the ordinance reducing the acreage threshold for PND from twenty-five acres to two, the planning commission passed the application to the council, recommending a reduction to five acres in the case that the council felt uncomfortable with two. In the words of Councilwoman Amber Morris, the two-acre prospect was “offensive.” Indeed, the council denied any amendment to the ordinance and the application.

Planning Director and Zoning Administrator Lauren Kopishke helps Mayor Lori Cockrell guide the Town Council and the Planning Commission through a discussion of vape shops, PND zoning, and short-term rentals.

To do justice to Morris’s position, it is offensive because it would open a “floodgate” to untrammeled development that may neither respect the Town’s rustic charm nor be sensitive to the needs of its infrastructure and the way of life that its natives have built here. At the same time, Kopishke has emphasized that there are so many other stipulations in the rezoning to PND that the floodgate would never be opened. Having provided the council and the commission with extensive reading in their agenda packet that highlighted how other localities are handling this type of development, localities from which she is actively gathering information in staff’s ongoing PND enterprise, Kopishke urged those present to discuss what they like about the current ordinance and what they do not like. After a somewhat tangential conversation, most of the council members said they would like to leave the ordinance the way it is, with a threshold of twenty-five acres for PND mixed residential and fifty for PND commercial.

Morris said it is not the government’s job to provide affordable housing. Also, there is nothing wrong, in her opinion, with preservation. Just because a parcel is undeveloped does not mean it needs to be developed. The evening ended with the sense that things were as much as before. There is only one PND zone in Front Royal, and it is undeveloped. The Comprehensive Plan does indeed call for higher density development, but what that looks like seems to be a matter of degrees in which some are prepared to be more extreme than others. Consensus between these two bodies would be a very rare diamond.