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Now that Isle of Wight County Schools has withdrawn from the Virginia School Boards Association, it’s up to the School Board to decide which of its more than 420 policies need updates, and how often.

A two-member committee consisting of School Board Vice Chairman Mark Wooster and member John Collick, on Aug. 8, unveiled a first draft of written procedures detailing what that review process could entail.

The School Board voted 4-1 on June 13 to cut ties with the VSBA over objections to the state association’s annual lobbying of the Virginia General Assembly. In addition to advocating for and against education-related legislation, the VSBA had also provided its member boards with model policies and would advise members if and when a particular policy needed updates to comply with a change in state or federal law.

In past years, when the VSBA would recommend policy changes, those policies would go before the School Board for a first reading and be voted on a month later following a second reading.

“There will be a learning call but I think overall this is a very good start for us,” Collick said.

The committee’s draft proposal, Collick said, calls for the review formerly provided by the VSBA to begin 60 days ahead of the first reading.

“The policy committee would get a copy of those policies and then we would look at them, we would make the determination which ones probably need changes, and then we would send those to the stakeholders via the superintendent of schools and his staff,” Collick said.

Comments from Superintendent Theo Cramer and his staff would be provided back to the policy committee, which would then have 14 days to compile a final draft of the policy revisions based on staff input. From there, it would head to School Board Attorney Pakapon “Pak” Phinyowattanachip, and if no further edits are recommended, would go to the full board for a first reading.

The School Board voted unanimously to postpone taking action on the policy review protocol.

Maresh, at the Aug. 8 meeting, proposed adding language specifying each policy is to be reviewed at minimum every five years in accordance with state law, and to assign someone the responsibility of monitoring the General Assembly and Virginia Department of Education for any changes that would require an update sooner than five years.

Cramer, who had opposed the board’s withdrawal from the VSBA, requested additional time for himself and his staff to review the proposal.

“We are having to change our processes as a result of no longer being in the VSBA and having access to the policy services so we’re making some changes and perhaps that will have some impact on this as well,” Cramer said.