HARRISONBURG, VA (Rocktown Now) – Negotiations between Harrisonburg City Public Schools and Rockingham County Public Schools are continuing for Massanutten Technical Center.

HCPS has released their proposed operating agreement to maintain the current relationship between the two boards, including equal votes and no change in leadership.

HCPS Superintendent Dr. Michael Richards said on WSVA’s Early Mornings that the board was alarmed when RCPS wanted to change a 56-year agreement.

HCPS presented this chart at their latest School Board meeting.

Dr. Richards said “The law actually doesn’t state specifically that it has to be 50/50, but it’s insinuated or implied within the law. Because you have equal liability in the school and also the state constitution gives the board full jurisdiction over its own students and their safety and their education. And so, it doesn’t make sense that you’d have a regional school where one school division can outvote the other one. And so, there’s regional schools across the Commonwealth that have 50/50 voting, or in some cases, you know, they have six different school divisions, large ones, they all vote the same. They all get the same vote.”

“If the relationship’s not going to last, if it’s going to be a broken relationship, it’s not really fair to our students and families to keep a broken relationship, even if the operating agreement stays the same,” Dr. Richards added. “Because no one has agreed on what it should look like, and it just lingers on and on. It’s still damaging, I think, to have a bad relationship between the boards.”

Click here to hear Dr. Richards full conversation on Early Mornings.

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