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The School Board voted 4-2 to approve a contractual partnership between HES Facilities Management and Suffolk Public Schools (SPS) custodial and grounds keeping services at its Nov. 14 meeting. Board members Phyliss Byrum and Dr. Judith Brooks-Buck voted yes, along with Vice Chair Heather Howell and Chair Karen Jenkins. Board members Tyron Riddick and Dawn-Marie Brittingham Ed.D., voted no, and board member Kimberly Slingluff abstained. The contract will be for one year, and SPS can break the contract at any point.

The Board also approved a number of new course proposals and approved an amendment to ordinance 2024-25-79, stating that parents will no longer be able to appeal to the School Board regarding short-term suspensions.

HES/SPS contract

During their presentation, Chief Financial Officer Wendy Forsman and Director of Facilities and Planning Terry Napier highlighted that all current SPS employees will keep their current positions and benefits. They will also be provided the opportunity to leave SPS and become HES employees if they choose. 

Forsman detailed the need for a contract with HES because of a lack of current SPS custodians as well as recruitment difficulties. She said there are currently 118 custodians with only five reliable substitutes. 

Lori Mounie, principal of Southwestern Elementary, shared some climate survey data about building cleanliness over the past few years. Since 2021, responses about how clean people think their building is have steadily declined. She shared that in 2021, 81% of respondents at the divisional level agreed their building was kept clean. In 2024, that number dropped to 47%.

“Cleanliness of the building impacts, of course, student and staff health, which impacts attendance, which impacts student achievement,” Mounie said. “And therefore I really think that giving [the contract] a try would be very beneficial for Suffolk Public Schools.”

Riddick expressed some concerns about the contract and asked the Board to table the issue until they could speak with SPS custodians. He said he’d been approached by custodians expressing their discomfort. 

“What I heard directly from the people impacted contradicts what’s being presented today,” Riddick said. “What I’m asking the Board to do is that we exercise and do our due diligence to vet through this.” 

Superintendent Dr. John B. Gordon III responded by saying that the same presentation the Board saw was also given to SPS custodians on Nov. 6 where some of the same concerns were raised and addressed. Gordon continued to say he has not heard any complaints about people being fearful of losing their jobs.

“If you do table this, that is another month where our schools are going to suffer,” he said.

Gordon and Jenkins also pointed out that HES has been doing the grounds work at SPS since August and have seen major improvements in that area. 

The contract also stipulates that moving forward, HES will be responsible for all new hires. HES will also match, and not exceed, any bonuses or raises provided by SPS. The contract is expected to go into effect toward the end of January or the beginning of February. 

Course proposals

The School Board unanimously approved the addition of 14 courses to be added to the curriculum during the 2025-26 school year and one course to be added to the second semester of the 2024-25 school year. As long as the state also approves them.

Included in the approved courses are a number of high school performing and production arts courses. These include Technology/Electronic Music IV, Music Recording and Production III, Musical Theatre II, two Drama capstone classes, two Music capstone classes, Chamber Ensemble Vocal II, Artist Band, Artist Orchestra, and Artist Chorus.    

AP Music Theory was approved to be offered to grades 10-12 through Virtual Virginia.

Fashion Careers I and Hospitality, Tourism, and Recreation II were approved at the high school level. The hospitality class will be implemented for the second semester of the current school year.

Mandarin Chinese I was approved for grades 8-12.

Appealing suspensions

An amendment to ordinance 2024-25-79 was passed with a 5-2 vote, with Board members Slingluff and Brittingham dissenting.

The previous policy stated suspensions less than 10 days could be appealed to the School Board. The policy change now states the highest level an appeal can go is to the Student Services Review Committee. 

Slingluff and Brittingham both stated they are never in favor of limiting parents’ ability to appeal to the school board. 

“I believe that parents should always have the access to the board at any point, or at the end of the process they should be able to reach out to the board and appeal their situation,” Brittingham said.

Wendell Waller, school board attorney, responded to their qualms by saying this change has already been made to a previous policy and had been overlooked in this one. 

“There are a number of short term suspensions that take place in your buildings every day,” Waller continued. “And if you were to have all those appeals come to the school board, to be quite honest, you wouldn’t be able to handle them all. So, you don’t want to have short term suspensions of 10 days or less coming to the school board.”