HARRISONBURG, VA (Rocktown Now) — The Harrisonburg City School Board will continue its alliance with the Virginia School Boards Association.

The school board unanimously approved the VSBA Policy Services Agreement for the 2025-26 school year at its final business meeting of the current school year.

The Rockingham County School Board left the VSBA last year in favor of the School Board Member Alliance.

Harrisonburg School Superintendent Dr. Michael Richards explained to the board that the thought of the VSBA being political is a false narrative.

“I believe that VSBA is an amazing resource for us. I do not seem them as leaning politically in either direction. Sometimes, depending on who is governor, they might lean in a direction to kind of please the governor, we’ve seen that a little bit. But with their policies, they don’t. Their policies are clean of any politics,” Dr. Richards said.

The school board also approved a supplemental appropriation request of nearly 748-thousand dollars from city council that will go to teacher retention bonuses with most of the money coming from the state.