Thanking the Newport News School Board and Superintendent Dr. Mitchell for aligning with Governor Youngkin’s new model policies.

We, the undersigned, are in support of the actions taken by Superintendent Dr. Mitchel to come into alignment with the new model policies passed down by Governor Glen Youngkin’s education department. We urge the Newport News School Board to continue to allow the Superintendent to do the job she was hired to do and refrain from voting on new policies which would encumber her ability to execute the duties of her office. We further encourage the Superintendent to refrain from changing procedures which have been put in place for the good of all students, parents, and teachers.

The revised procedures take great strides toward protecting a parents’ right to raise their child, which the previous procedure seriously lacked. Among other things these procedures:

• Remove language which encouraged educators to deceive or hide information from parents.

• Make it clear parents must be notified and given an opportunity to object before counseling children on these sensitive issues.

• Make it clear schools can’t constitutionally compel employees or students to speak words that violate their faith or conscience.

Should changes to these procedures be needed to further protect all students, parents, and teachers; it should be done so under careful guidance and with open communication between all parties involved, not at the behest of a loud few whose only aim it is to further a political agenda. The children of Newport News Public Schools deserve more than that.

We urge the School Board Members and Superintendent to be unphased and unwavering in their stand for sensible solutions to matters which affect students, parents, and teachers from all walks of life.