Coraggio Consulting Chesterfield County School Board Special Meeting, Tuesday, September 23, 2025 Date: Tuesday, September 23, 2025 Place: Chesterfield County School Board, Virginia Length: 11m (video) Official meeting video (Swagit): https://chesterfieldschoolsva.new.swagit.com/videos/356375 Official minutes (BoardDocs, on the Oct 14, 2025 agenda for approval): https://go.boarddocs.com/vsba/chesterfield/Board.nsf/pfiles/DMAKVX53C1AB/$file/DRAFT%20MINUTES%20-%202025.09.23%20Special%20Meeting.pdf Machine transcript (speech-to-text) produced by Coraggio Consulting. Not an official county record. Names and numbers may be misspelled; check the video at the timestamp before quoting. Speech-to-text: whisper.cpp, model large-v3-turbo. Produced 2026-10-24. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [00:00:07] Good afternoon, and thank you all for waiting for our time clock to get to 2 o'clock. Good afternoon. I'd like to call the September 23rd, 2025 Special School Board meeting to order. [00:00:22] We will now have invocation by Mrs. Hudgens, followed by a flag salute led by Mr. Paranto. Heavenly Father, we come before you today with sober hearts and humble spirits. [00:00:38] We acknowledge the transition our board faces as we receive the resignation of one of our members. While this resignation comes under difficult circumstances, we ask for grace for her, for this board, and for our community as we move forward. [00:00:57] Lord, we acknowledge the weightiness of the matters before us. We ask for wisdom beyond our own, for discernment to make decisions that are just, fair, and in the best interest of every student we serve. Grant us courage to lead with integrity, patience to listen with understanding, and unity of spirit as we seek what's best for our students and our schools. [00:01:23] Bless our work today, and may it reflect both the seriousness of our responsibility and the hope we hold for the future. In your holy name we pray. Amen. Please join us at this time for the Pledge of Allegiance. [00:01:38] Our consent agenda includes agenda adoption, memo number 132-25, resignation of the Clover Hill District Representative, memo number 133-25, reappointment of school board representatives to committees and regional programs. [00:02:20] Are there any additions or corrections to the consent agenda? Madam Chair, there are no additions or corrections to the consent agenda. Are there any requests from a school board member to separate an item from the consent agenda for discussion and individual action? Hearing none, may I have a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented. [00:02:42] I make a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented. Is there a second? Second. Madam Clerk, would you please call roll on the motion? Dominique Chatters? Aye. Stephen Pronto? Aye. Lisa Hudgens? Aye. Ann Cooker? Aye. [00:02:58] The motion carries. Next, we have action items Mr. Roberts. Madam Chair, members of the board, on September 14th, Ms. Heffron, the representative from the Clover Hill District, announced publicly her resignation from the school board effective December 31st, 2025. On September 19th, Ms. Heffron provided a resignation letter confirming her resignation, and the board accepted her resignation on a consent agenda just a few moments ago. Virginia Code Section 24.2-226 authorizes the school board to petition the [00:03:37] circuit court to issue a writ of election when a board member resigns as of a stated date and the court is authorized to immediately issue a writ to call for a special election so long as the date requested precedes the date of the next general election the school board desires a special election to be held prior to the vacancy created by the resignation so the citizens of the clover hill district will be represented will be represented by their chosen elective representative beginning January 1st, 2026. [00:04:09] The resolution attached to this memo authorizes the school board attorney to petition the circuit court on the board's behalf for a special election on December 9th, 2025. Thank you, Mr. Roberts. Board members, may I have a motion to approve Memo 134-25 as presented? [00:04:32] I make a motion. Is there a second? Second. Board members, is there any discussion? Mrs. Chatters? Madam Chair, excuse me, Madam Chair, in light of the new information we received regarding the number of days required prior to an election to have early voting, I want to thank the registrar for the email to make sure that we were doing it correctly. So thank you to the registrar's office for letting us know that we need 45 days prior to do early voting, which would coincide with the current election. [00:05:08] So I would suggest that we move the date until 2026, unfortunately. I know that the goal was to have somebody in place by 1 January, but not through a special election. So I think we should change that date to be determined and go with an interim option. [00:05:32] Mr. Perranto. Thank you, Madam Chair. I do greatly appreciate the Registrar's Office and the burden that they would bear should we move forward with the memo that was presented by Mr. Roberts. And I do believe it is in the best interest, not only of this board, but of our community in light of a general election, a gubernatorial election, to not interfere and confuse voters potentially in regards to having two separate ballots. [00:06:04] I think the path forward would be to name an interim and place a date for a special election later, as Mrs. Chatters had mentioned, in 2026. So, I greatly appreciate the board's attention to that and not voting for this. [00:06:24] Thank you. Mrs. Sargent. Thank you, Madam Chair. So, I, too, agree with what my colleagues have said. When we suggested the December 9th date, it was with the thought that we would have as smooth a transition as possible. [00:06:49] At that point, we did not realize that we would also need early voting in a special election. We now know that we do need early voting in a special election. So as they have stated, we appreciate the registrar and all the information that that office has shared with us. [00:07:09] And so making an appointment is, I believe, the way to go for now with a 2026 to be determined date special election. Yes, I just would like to, I guess, reiterate the appreciation to our registrar's office for getting in touch with us and letting us know what this would do to their staffing requirements to have a special election at this time in December. [00:07:45] so I appreciate that information and feedback from them. Any other discussion, Ms. Hudgens? Well, we've said that the timing, we don't know the timing, and so I guess that I was going to speak to that, but I think that we will speak on that later, so let's go. [00:08:07] Never mind. All right. There has been a motion and a second. Madam Clerk, please call roll on the motion. Dominique Chatters? Nay. Stephen Pronto? Nay. Lisa Hudgens? Nay. [00:08:24] Ann Coker? Nay. The motion is not approved. Next, we have announcements, communications, and school board comments. School board members, are there any announcements or comments? Mrs. Chatters? So I just wanted to speak to the interim, what we can share about the interim process with the community. [00:08:46] So the goal, my understanding is our goal is still to have someone in place for one January. We're just going to do it by appointment and not by special election so that everyone is understanding. We're not changing the timeline that we have a representative to be here to represent Clover Hill. [00:09:04] So that is first and foremost that I wanted to make sure we clarified that. And just like we have for our advisory committees, there'll be an application process, an interview process. And Sean, correct me if I'm wrong, but there'll be a seven days prior to an appointment. [00:09:20] The community will be able to provide feedback of what they're looking for in a representative. And then we will proceed, hopefully, to have them installed. The first earliest opportunity would be 1 January. Is that fair to say? [00:09:36] And y'all can chime in or correct me if I was mistaken. That is correct. The next board action will be an appointment for the Clover Hill District. Application process will be communicated out through our normal channels of when applications will be received. [00:09:57] and we'll proceed from there. Mr. Perronto? Thank you, Madam Chair. Just a clarification. We will be able to, through this process, appoint someone, but they will not be sworn in until January 1. [00:10:15] So we will have somebody named, but they will not be officially sworn in until January 1. That is correct. Thank you. I'll just look to staff. Anything we need to clarify there? Mr. Roberts or Mr. Smith? [00:10:31] Okay, great. Thank you. The school board will hold a work session Tuesday, October 14th, 2025 at 4 p.m. here in the public meeting room. It will be followed by a business meeting at 6.30 p.m. [00:10:46] If there's no further business, we need a motion to adjourn. I make a motion to adjourn. Madam Clerk, would you please call roll on the motion? Dominique Chatters. Aye. Stephen Pronto. Aye. Lisa Hudgens. Aye. Ann Coker. Aye. [00:11:01] The motion carries. The September 23rd, 2025 school board special meeting is adjourned. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Coraggio Consulting ยท aguyonx.com