VSBA head to city school board: ‘Some work sessions would benefit you all greatly’
In order to govern more effectively as a team, the Fredericksburg City School Board needs more opportunities to ask questions, sift through data, and “sit in a room together and just talk,” in the words of Gina Patterson, executive director of the Virginia School Boards Association.
“I believe some work sessions would benefit you all greatly,” Patterson said at one point during Monday’s daylong work session. “People don’t know what they don’t know.”
The school board gathered at the VSBA office in Charlottesville on Aug. 31 to continue updating its governance norms and protocols, work that began in December but remained unfinished throughout 2026 as board members struggled to find a follow-up date that worked for all six of them plus division superintendent Marci Catlett.
The board’s governance norms and list of 20 protocols — which cover such topics as how to develop meeting agendas, how to respond to staff or community comments, and expectations for participation in professional development, meetings, and conferences — were most recently updated in the fall of 2024 and approved in January 2025.
They’ll remain in effect until the board finalizes and votes on a new set.
In December, the board tweaked some of the existing norms and proposed adding three new ones:
We will ensure all actions align with the division’s mission to educate and inspire every child every day.
We reaffirm that board members serve the community, not themselves, and that decisions should reflect humility, responsibility and the public trust.
We emphasize prudent spending, responsible budgeting and making sure public funds support essential student needs before anything else.
New protocols discussed
On Monday, all six board members, Catlett, Patterson, and VSBA deputy executive director Samantha Bosserman worked through the list of protocols.
They discussed adding more detail to the process by which items can be added to the agenda and clarifying how board members can find out about agenda items before the meeting.
They also discussed having the norms specify that if an individual board member is contacted by the media for comment, that member should make it clear that they are not speaking on behalf of the board; that board members should use their school division email address for school business; and that board members should participate in annual governance training.
But Patterson’s remark about the need for more communication came during the initial “warm-up” exercise, which ended up taking three out of the five hours set aside for the work session.
Each participant had a chance to speak about why they ran for office — or, in the superintendent’s case, applied for the job — as well as what they expected from the position, what they have learned about the work, and what support they need in order to perform the job well.
Some of the newer board members said they need more data, open communication, and a willingness to move past a “we’ve always done it this way” mentality.
“I want more time to have a full conversation about the topics of the day,” said Ward 1 representative Andy Wolfenbarger, who was elected in November to his first term on the board. “I want us in every meeting to talk about improving instruction or minimizing technology, not just hearing a presentation from staff.”
He said he feels meetings could be “more substantive” with less time for “photo opportunities and accolades.”
“Parents are pulling their hair out because buses are late and test scores are low,” Wolfenbarger said. “They want us to dig in and make progress.”
Ward 3 representative Annie Langdon, who is also in the first year of her first term, said she’d like the board to explore the possibility of adding a conversational work session to every meeting, or tinkering with the meetings in other ways to give more time to discussion.
“I am a doer. I’m used to hearing and doing something to rectify [a situation],” she said. “[Right now], I feel like an empty void to receive complaints but not do anything about it, which is not how I roll.”
Langdon said she’d like there to be an established procedure for how to respond to issues that come up during public comments. “When somebody comes to a board meeting and takes time to write something and stands there in front of us, I would love to have more of a straightforward procedure on how to triage those issues and craft a response,” she said.
Patterson said that process could be included in the board’s updated norms and protocols.
Catlett, who has worked in the Fredericksburg school division for the majority of her career, and her sister, 30-year Ward 4 representative Malvina Kay, said it’s only been in recent years that members of the community have come to meetings to publicly express concerns.
“If there were [a procedure for responding], we would follow it,” Catlett said.
Stan Jones, a former public school superintendent and deputy superintendent who was recently appointed to fill a vacant at-large seat through the end of this year, said he was “shocked” to learn that the school board does not hold regular work sessions.
Catlett said this is also something the school board has historically not done.
“I’m about best practices,” Jones said. “When you have effective governance teams, you see results.”
Patterson said the best way for the board to become an effective governance team is to put everything down in policy, by-laws, and norms and protocols.
Travel issues rehashed
There was a lengthy discussion at Monday’s meeting about the increased scrutiny and criticism some current and former board members have experienced following reports last summer of expensive out-of-state travel and the July 2025 update of the division’s professional development policy.
That policy now states that “requests for reimbursement from school board funds will be honored only for activities approved in advance by the board and for which a statement of travel, with supporting documentation, is submitted at the conclusion of the travel.”
Kay said that in the past, board members were expected to travel to certain out-of-state conferences, and Catlett said there has historically been a “fluid travel culture” within the division.
Patterson said this explanation does not protect a board from criticism.
“You write it down, you put it in bylaws, norms and protocols,” she said. “If there’s nothing except, ‘This is how we’ve always done it,’ there’s no protection there.”
Molly McFadden, the other at-large representative, who was elected to her first term in November of 2023, said the support she needs as a board member is a willingness to not rely on how things have always been done.
“We are facing new challenges,” she said.
Kay said the board used to be “like family for me,” even if there wasn’t always agreement. She said she has not yet defined what she needs in order to get back to that feeling.
“Either we get there or we don’t, and I make the change,” she said.
Chair and Ward 2 representative Katie Pomeroy emphasized the need for “proactive, transparent, open, honest conversation.”
“If we had had that before, we would not be in some of the situations we are now,” she said. “I think that when we do have that ability to look each other in the eye and know that we all are moving the direction of our school division towards our goals, we will be successful. If we can’t be in the room and be open and honest, we won’t get there.”
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