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During its meeting on Thursday, the Suffolk School Board was divided on supporting a proposed bill that would allow African American history to count as a social studies and history graduation requirement instead of Virginia and U.S. history. The Board also voted to create a special committee to improve citizen advisory committee policies, and voted to direct the finance committee to research financial audit firms.

Legislative committee report

During the meeting, Board Member Tyrone Riddick presented a report on the legislative committee’s most recent meeting, where legislative committee and school board members Tyrone Riddick, Valerie Fields, and Kimberly Slingluff discussed if the Board should support education-related house and senate bills.

In his report, Riddick said the committee recommends the Board support 31 house bills and nine senate bills. The committee recommended opposing one house bill, which would direct the Board to establish licensing requirements for mold inspection and remediation. It also recommended opposing four senate bills, one of which would prevent a suspension or expulsion for cell phone policy violations.

One of the bills recommended to support was HB1824, which would allow students to substitute an African American history class for the Virginia and U.S. history class in order to satisfy the history and social studies graduation requirement.

The motion to support HB1824 ended in a tie vote. Board Members Karen Jenkins, Fields, and Riddick voted yes. Vice Chair Sean McGee, Slingluff, and Board Member Dawn Marie Brittingham, Ed.D. voted no. Chair Heather Howell abstained.

In a comment after the meeting, Howell wrote she “felt that topic required input from my community so I could adequately represent their views. Since I am not a member of the legislative committee, I was not part of the original discussion regarding the proposed bill, nor did I have the full report far enough in advance of our Thursday meeting to engage the Sleepy Hole Borough.”

When expressing disapproval of the bill, Slingluff said she “loves the idea” of having African American history classes offered but does not think it should take the place of Virginia and U.S. history.

“We live in Virginia, we live in the United States of America,” she said. “To take out just African American history and solely make that the requirement of the students and let that satisfy their history, we’re forwarding students on to college and into the world without having had Virginia history and U.S. history as a high school student, and I have an issue with that.”

McGee said he supports African American history as an elective course — which it currently is — or any other country’s history, but “never over replacing American history,” and this bill would be “divisive.”

Riddick strongly supported the bill, saying he has no “quarrel” with it. He emphasized it would not require an African American history course and added, students would still take Virginia and U.S. history classes throughout middle and high school. 

The Board agreed with the committee’s bill approvals, excluding HB1824, in a 4-3 vote. Board Members Slingluff, Brittingham, and McGee dissented.  

McGee said he does not feel comfortable supporting or opposing legislation his constituents have not had a chance to weigh in on.

“What I plan on doing is taking a list of these, putting them on social media, just to get feedback,” McGee said. “What I can do from there is, as an individual, lobby for what my constituents want. But I will not support sending this up to Richmond, being that we did not do our due diligence by allowing the public to review them and have input on these prior to making this vote tonight.”

Riddick said he understands McGee’s perspective, but said, “a divided house doesn’t have any power,” emphasizing that showing support and opposition to proposed legislation as the Suffolk School Board is more impactful than lobbying as an individual. 

Slingluff said she wants the legislative committee to meet earlier to allow for the solicitation of public opinion. She also expressed discomfort with having the whole Board sign off on something that requires only two board member’s approval in the legislative committee.

A motion to oppose all the bills recommended by the legislative committee was passed in a 6-1 vote, with McGee dissenting.

Special committee of the School Board

An ordinance to create a temporary special committee to “review the overall effectiveness of citizen advisory committees and to identify any barriers that impede and or limit the functionality of citizen advisory committees” was approved unanimously.

The ordinance states the committee will address the appointment of members, member retention, member participation, member training, grievance procedures, and committee reporting. In order to do this, the committee will survey citizen advisory committee members, interview committee chairs, attend committee meetings, review committee policies and procedures, and evaluate the impact of school employees serving on these committees. 

This temporary committee must provide a written report to the full School Board by April 27 when the committee will be disbanded. 

This need for this temporary committee came about after discussion during the Jan. 16 School Board meeting about the efficacy of citizen advisory committees.  

Howell appointed Jenkins as chair of the new committee and Riddick and Brittingham as members.

Financial audit

Brittingham moved to direct the finance committee to research auditing firms that conduct thorough, deep, and exhaustive financial audits. She said every organization goes through a “deep dive” every five years and she would like to see SPS do that as well.  

The motion carried 5-2 with Jenkins and Fields voting in opposition.

McGee said while he has no issues with previous audits, he wants to go deeper in an effort to gain the public’s trust. 

“I was told by multiple citizens, over and over, that there is a lot of mistrust on the way we are stewarding our money,” he said.  

Superintendent Dr. John B. Gordon III noted it’s been more than five years since SPS has received no comments on their audits.