The Prince William Board of County Supervisors will meet with the school board Tuesday, at 6:30 p.m. at the Powell's Creek Conference Room at the McCoart Administration Building.
Last time the two boards met, they mainly discussed the necessity for, and who should fund, an aquatic center tentatively planned for the 12th high school.
However, according to Supervisor- at-Large Corey Stewart, this meeting should be used to discuss a number of pressing issues including rising class sizes which are the largest in the state.
“I don’t want this to be just another talking session where we all talk and moan about class sizes in Prince William County,” said Stewart at the Oct. 1 supervisor's meeting, “but I would like to look at actual solutions about what we can do-not just political sound bites- what it’s going to cost.”
According to County Executive Melissa Peacor, school board members had told her they would also like to discuss class sizes along with teacher pay.
During the past few weeks, the Board of County Supervisors has been looking at various means to be able to fund class sizes without directly raising taxes. Gainesville Supervisor Pete Candland recommended raising proffers to pay for schools, an idea originally proposed by Brentsville School Board member Gil Trenum.
However, at the last school board meeting, Chairman Milt Johns emphasized that it would take some real sacrificing to produce smaller class sizes and suggested that perhaps specialty programs would need to be eliminated.
Perhaps that was not an idle threat. As of last week, it was announced that at least one specialty program, creative writing, would not follow other Fine and Performing Arts Programs at Woodbridge to the 12th high school. Additionally, it has not yet been determined whether another specialty program, music technology, would continue to exist in the county.
However, with all the talk of reducing class sizes and weighing that against specialty program, the discussion to fund a new aquatic center is still on the table.
The meeting is a closed session in a smaller room, but citizens are still able to attend.
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