Every August, before the start of the academic school year, students log into the StudentVue portal to sign a series of electronic documents. These documents appear as required prompts before students can access their schedules. For many people, the natural response when receiving these prompts is automatically providing a signature or a simple check in the agreement box. However, the information in these often unread documents is crucial to understanding how Loudon County Public Schools (LCPS) operate. The communication of new or updated LCPS system policies is a process desperate for improvement. While externally, LCPS prides itself on transparent communication and involvement of citizens across the county, opportunities to do so are rare at a school level. Although multiple public websites list the policies and regulations put in place, little information is stated directly on the Woodgrove High School website. County information is not easily accessible to the public.
Director of Counseling, Ms. Geri Fiore, speaks on this issue by highlighting the importance of the policies. “Well, without policies, there would be no operating procedures. They are kind of like in-school laws. You know, the school-board policies and rules and regulations are just things that we have to follow,” says Fiore.The importance and effectiveness of LCPS policies is a topic highly agreed upon. The increased communication of policies would inhibit the spread of misinformation in school and enhance the insight into student rights and responsibilities. If the consensus regarding these policies is that they can only lead to general school improvement, it is unclear why they have been buried in the digital world.
Student involvement in county matters is severely lacking, but senior Elizabeth Brubaker is an exception. Brubaker regularly attends LCPS school board meetings, where she gains insight into the inner workings of the county. Brubaker says,“My view of Loudoun County and their policies is limited to a student’s perspective. From what I have seen, it seems as though if policies are not doing anything they are modified, or if not taken away. I think that there have been very helpful policies put in place.” Brubaker later touches on the lack of attention that is given by students when discussing policies put in place by the county. She feels that an increase in student participation would improve the county and student life. Brubaker also comments on the accessibility of the meetings.“Everyone is not going to be able to attend a meeting in Ashburn on a Tuesday night, but I think it probably could be communicated better. I know that the school board meetings are live-streamed, but they could release minutes of it or something like that. I’m not sure if they do,” said Brubaker. She ends her discussion with suggesting sending out emails detailing what is happening inside the LCPS school system.
Ms. Diana Shea, who has taught with LCPS for 25 years, also comments on her lack of knowledge on communication of policies to students. “In regards to the policies that impact the students, I know that there’s information on websites. I don’t know exactly how all of that is communicated to students. {…} I don’t know if it’s always verbally communicated, but I know it is in written form,” Shea expresses. In LCPS, policy 2540 it is written that “a current copy of the policy manual including the Student Conduct Policy shall be posted on LCPS’ website and shall be available to employees and the public. Printed copies of such policies are available as needed to citizens who do not have online access. An annual announcement shall be made at the beginning of the school year and for parents of students enrolling later in the academic year, at the time of enrollment, advising the public that the policy manual is available online.” Publicly stating that something is available has proven an ineffective means of providing information.
On a student level, there is little awareness of the public policy manual, let alone how to access it. Even the most involved students find the process of finding information unnecessarily cumbersome. When asked about possible ways to improve communication of policies on a school level, Shea voices, “I think advisory [homeroom] would be the easiest way and place, at the beginning of the year, to review some of those more important policies if the students are unsure or unclear of the policies. I know teachers don’t want to take classroom time to go over that kind of stuff. If there’s further clarification needed I think that should be where it occurs.” Homeroom allows 25 minutes a day for general welfare lessons, which is more than enough time to update students about changes to policies that impact the LCPS community. This is one way, out of many, that policies should be communicated to all members of Loudoun County. Equitable and repetitive delivery of LCPS policies is necessary for a greater widespread awareness and community involvement. Shea affirms, “I think that it [policies] need to be communicated to the students. If the students feel that there’s something that they aren’t made aware of, then yes, the students need to be told in written form and verbal form.”
