HEALTH & WELLNESS: Overcoming scars and rebuilding confidence, Page 9
May 30, 2018 | Serving Haymarket, Gainesville and Western Prince William County | Vol. 17, No. 22 | www.PrinceWilliamTimes.com | 50¢
LIFESTYLE: Occoquan is worth the trip, Page 13
Slow days are good days for school resource officers Walking the halls, they check doors, monitor mischief, exchange fist bumps By Jonathan Hunley Times Staff Writer
A good work day for school resource officers Jeff Tindle or Art Culbertson is when nothing happens. “If I can spend the whole day walking around, checking doors and saying ‘hi’ to people in the hallway, and that’s all I have to do all day, that’s a good day,” Tindle said. Tindle and Culbertson are Fauquier County Sheriff’s deputies assigned to patrol individual schools. They’re essentially officers who walk the education beat, making sure students and faculty are safe just like another officer might be assigned to a neighborhood in a big city. And they walk. A lot. Tindle routinely logs 12,000 steps per day at Kettle Run High School, and Culbertson records even more than that at Auburn Middle School. They check interior and exterior doors to make sure they’re locked and monitor inside and outside the school to ensure no one is on the grounds who isn’t supposed to be there. They also oversee student lunch
PHOTO BY RANDY LITZINGER Fauquier County Sheriff’s Deputy Art Culbertson, a school resource officer at Auburn Middle, is in constant contact with teachers and administrators via walkie-talkie. Culbertson walks the halls at Auburn last Thursday trailed by two students. periods to make sure there’s no mischief then. Like schools divisions around the country, both Fauquier and Prince William counties will add more se-
curity guards next year, partly in response to a rash of school shootings around the country. In Prince William County, police officers work as school resource of-
ficers in each of the county’s 12 high schools and 16 middle schools. As part of a pilot program, Prince Wil
See SROs, Page 4
School board still considering superintendent’s contract By Jill Palermo
Times Staff Writer
The Prince William County School Board met May 23 to begin their annual evaluation of Superintendent Steven Walts but took no action on his contract or salary because they are planning another meeting to finish their work. That’s according to school board Vice Chair Lillie Jessie (Occoquan) and board members Loree Williams (Woodbrige) and Justin Wilk (Potomac), all of whom said they could not disclose details about the May 23 meeting except to say that board members did not finish the process and plan to hold another closed meeting before the July 1 deadline to amend Walts’s contract.
“We all agreed to have another meeting,” Wilk said in an interview Friday. “But it hasn’t been scheduled yet.” School Board member Willie Deutsch announced on Facebook Thursday, May 24 that the board took no action during the May 23 meeting, which he said is a departure from the routine. “Every year before there has been an addition of time and/or money to his contract,” Deutsch wrote. “… This year was the first year that no addition was made to the contract on the day of the evaluation.” In an interview, Deutsch emphasized that the “regular practice” of voting on the superintendent’s new contract and pay raise on the same night as the evaluation meeting “has been departed from.” INSIDE Calendar....................................ONLINE Classifieds...........................................15 Health and Wellness..............................9 Lifestyles............................................13
Still, Deutsch declined to say whether he would support a raise for Walts. Deutsch said he considered it unnecessary to raise the superintendent’s salary and extend his contract every year and added: “I think the fact there wasn’t a vote is a very strong signal that it’s not going to happen easily.” Deutsch joined former School Board Chairman Ryan Sawyers (At Large) in voting against an extension and pay raise for Walts in 2017.
‘No real implications on his salary ’
But both Williams and Jessie stressed that the decision to delay the vote does not mean the board won’t extend Walts’s contract or award him a raise this year, as they have for the last several years. Jessie also declined to divulge News..................................................15 Opinion.................................................7 Puzzle Page........................................10 Real Estate..........................................14 Sports.................................................11
many details, citing privacy concerns, but said the superintendent’s evaluation “is not yet complete.” “But there’s no real implications on his Superintendent salary or anything Steven Walts else,” she added. Interim School Board Chairman Babur Lateef declined comment Thurday, May 24, saying he could not talk about the superintendent’s evaluation until the board takes a public vote. Lateef also said the
See WALTS, Page 5
86 WARRENTON, VA