Phillips elected HCPS School Board Chair

Howley is Vice-Chair in a delayed reorganization meeting

The Harrisonburg City School board met this evening at Skyline Middle School for its yearly reorganization meeting, postponed a week due to inclement weather.

Emma Phillips, Vice Chair from 2024, was unanimously elected Chair. New Board member Tim Howley was unanimously elected Vice Chair. Phillips is a Biology Faculty member at Blue Ridge Community College, and was elected to the School Board in 2022. Howley teaches in the College of Health and Behavioral Studies at JMU and is in his first term in office, elected this past November. Both have children in HCPS.

Much of the meeting was taken up by the usual reorganization matters, including the appointment of the Clerk, Deputy Clerk, and division fiscal agents. The VSBA Code of Conduct was endorsed and signed by all members. Nurse Angela Knupp was recognized for her recent accomplishment of becoming a Nationally Board Certified Nurse. Angela has served at HHS for most of her years with the division, and now works at RHS. The 2025-26 calendar was reviewed, as were individual member committee assignments for 2025 (see link in first comment). A new ad hoc Communications Committee has been created this year to work on special projects, to include board representation by Kristen Loflin.

Looking ahead to the very cold weather forecast to arrive next week, Superintendent Michael Richards mentioned that HCPS will likely delay school as morning temperatures fall in the single digits with even lower wind chills. Given the delays and cancellations experienced thus far, if the division needs to extend the days to make up required student content hours, the superintendent will bring any proposed changes to the board.

Dr. Joy Blosser, chief academic officer for the division, presented the proposed academic calendar for 2025/26, as well as the program of studies for the division. Staff worked to make sure that the Program of Studies reflects reality- what HCPS can offer, what reflects student interest, and what can be staffed. Programs of Study -as well as the yearly schedule itself- are first built based on what students must take to fill core requirements, and then based on what students want to take.

New Courses proposed: (DE here means dual enrollment, earning both college and high school credit. CTE means career and technical education.)

High school:
General Education:
DE British Literature and DE Music in Society These courses will strengthen the Blue Ridge scholars pathway program

CTE:
Principles of Business and Marketing and Sports Marketing

Courses Removed: These changes are due either to lack of student interest, evidenced by low student enrollment, or due to lack of the ability to staff the class.

Middle School:

Intro to French, French

High School:
General Education
Functional Art
Improvisation for the Theater
Musical Theater
Music Theory
AP Music Theory
Advanced Mathematics (other higher level AP math classes are still available)
Probability and Statistics (HCPS has 3 version of a stat class, and will keep the 2 others)
Applied Biology
Scientific Research Lab Honors (Students have many capstone options as an alternatives)
DE Biology 102
AP Macroeconomics
AVID Seminar
Italian 1, 2, and 3
DE Introduction to Speech and Communication

CTE Some of these are offered at MTC, and some don’t offer a “completer” sequence for students.
Mentorship
Advanced Accounting
Small Business and Entrepreneurship
Technology of Robotic Science
Exploring Computer Science
Cybersecurity Fundamentals
Advanced CyberSecurity
Sports Medicine 1 and 2