HARRISONBURG, Va -All of Governor Glenn Youngkin’s Virginia Department of Education 2023 Model Policies will now be used in Rockingham County Public Schools.

At Monday night’s first meeting with the new board, the board voted 4-1 to implement policies which would direct school staff to refer to students by their given name, rather than chosen names, unless a parent says otherwise.

New Board Chair Matt Cross addressed the board by saying that this has been an important discussion for a long time.

Staff will also address students with pronouns that match their biological sex.

Former Chair Jackie Lohr was the lone no vote.

The school board also voted Monday night to temporarily ban a significant list of books. Nearly 60 books will be removed from all county schools while the board comes up with a review process to individually review each book. 

 Cross said the reason for the temporary ban was “due to concerns of sexual content, violence, and profanity.” 

Cross said the review process of all library books will be similar to teacher curriculum review that is already in place. He noted he wasn’t surprised to be implementing this. 

The final vote was 4-1, with Lohr being the lone no.