Stafford's longer school year, Tuesday night's fallout, your extra-hour weekend

Good morning, FXBG.

It's Friday, it's going to hit the upper 70s, and tomorrow is Halloween. Sunday we all get an extra hour of sleep, so this weekend is about as good as they come. Before you start thinking about candy, here's what happened at this week's public meetings. Stafford's school year is about to get longer, and three local boards spent Tuesday night on topics bigger than the agendas suggested.

In today's Rundown:

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Stafford families, the 2027-28 school calendar is set. It's longer than this year's, and it still includes days off for Diwali, Good Friday and Eid al-Adha.

At a special meeting Tuesday, the Stafford School Board voted 6-1 for a 180-day calendar that keeps the religious and cultural holidays the division observes now. This year has 172 days. Falmouth representative Sarah Chase voted no. Before the final vote, she proposed "version 3," which would have kept only federal holidays. That motion failed 4-3, with Rock Hill's Patricia Healy and George Washington's Susan Randall voting with her.

Why the calendar is getting longer: Virginia's standard is 180 instructional days or 990 instructional hours. Stafford meets the hours rule, but it hasn't had a 180-day school year since 2021-22. Its high schools also fall short of the state's 140 hours of instruction per credit, at about 121.8 hours per course. The board calls the new calendar its first step toward fixing that.

The debate: Chase said version 3 was what most of the parents and teachers in her district wanted. She also said the current calendar leaves out Baha'i, Sikh, Buddhist and Orthodox Christian holy days. Of the 24 written comments the board received, 13 supported federal holidays only. Many of those people liked that version 3 would have ended the year before Memorial Day. The approved calendar keeps students in school until May 31. Aquia's Josh Regan said, "The fairest thing to do is to allow every religion to celebrate their holy days without having to worry about being in school." Chair Elizabeth Warner said that taking the holidays away would affect "hundreds if not thousands" of students, and that the board should review its calendar policy before making a change that big.

What this means for you: If you plan summer camps, vacations or graduation trips more than a year out, expect a later last day of school in 2028 and a slightly shorter summer. Check the posted calendar for exact dates before you book anything.

The Free Press story → https://www.fredericksburgfreepress.com/2026/10/28/stafford-school-board-approves-2027-28-calendar-that-keeps-religious-cultural-holidays/

SCPS calendar page → https://www.staffordschools.net/about-us/calendar

On Wednesday we promised to follow up on Tuesday's meetings. Here's what's been reported so far, and what hasn't.

Fredericksburg: a 113-page report, and now a plan to act on it. City Council and the School Board met at the Walker-Grant Center to talk publicly for the first time about the city's Youth Violence Prevention Plan. The city formed a steering committee after two fatal shootings involving teens in 2023, and the plan came out of that work. The consultants, WestEd, reported five major findings. Two stood out: schools and health care are "drivers of vulnerability," and some violence, especially between partners or within families, never appears in police data. "Every finding points to the same gap: the community reaches young people after conditions have already compounded," the report says. Vice Mayor Chuck Frye put it this way: "I could go to any page, find something and work on it, because now we have the information." Mayor Kerry Devine said council will hold a work session in November on the report's five-year strategic plan. Free Press

Spotsylvania: a new long-range plan. Supervisors adopted the county's 2026 Comprehensive Plan, a major update it does every five years that guides growth, roads, schools and public facilities. The county's website confirms it was adopted Oct. 27. ZoneWire, which builds its meeting summaries from the official recordings, says the vote was 7-0. It also says the board first removed a paragraph about the data center equipment tax rate. In August, supervisors asked to add a policy setting aside 45% of the county's industrially zoned land for data centers. We haven't confirmed how that policy reads in the adopted plan. The adopted plan · ZoneWire summary

Spotsy car owners, watch for this one: According to ZoneWire, supervisors voted 6-1 to have staff prepare an increase to the county's local vehicle license fee for a public hearing. Right now the fee is $25 a year for cars and $15 for motorcycles. No new amount or hearing date has been announced, and the county hasn't posted its official record of the meeting yet. Nothing changes until after a public hearing. Current fees

And the $50 dump pass? We still don't know. The trash ordinance, including the proposed $50 yearly hangtag for convenience centers, was back up for a vote. Supervisor Jacob Lane had said he'd move to pass it without the permit. As of Wednesday evening, the Spotsylvania Gazette said the county hadn't posted the official actions, and we couldn't find a published report of the outcome. We'll tell you once it's confirmed. Spotsylvania Gazette

Also at that meeting: Four residents asked the board to hold Courtland Supervisor Drew Mullins accountable for his posts on X, and some called for him to resign. He had apologized on Sept. 22 and said he would "do better from now on," but he kept posting afterward. Mullins didn't respond at the meeting. He later told the Free Press he'd made "poor choices," that most of the posts were quotes or questions, and that he doesn't plan to resign. The board's next regular meeting is Nov. 17 at 4 p.m., earlier than usual. Free Press

The forecast: As of Thursday morning, the National Weather Service expects a sunny Friday with a high near 78. Saturday is much cooler, partly sunny with a high near 64, and Halloween night drops to around 44 under mostly cloudy skies. Trick-or-treaters will want a jacket over the costume. Sunday is partly sunny with a high near 68. NWS forecast

The extra hour: Daylight saving time ends at 2 a.m. Sunday, Nov. 1. Clocks go back to 1 a.m., so you get an extra hour of sleep. Your phone will change on its own. The clocks on your microwave, oven and car dashboard probably won't. Starting Sunday, sunset comes about an hour earlier, so the evening drive home will be darker.

Friday: a new shop on Winchester Street. Winston James Menswear, a new men's clothing store, opens Friday at 1096 Winchester St., according to the Free Press Biz Beat. If you're still putting together a dapper-vampire costume, this is your excuse to stop by. Biz Beat

Saturday afternoon: a family festival in Falmouth. Iglesia Cristo la Roca is hosting a Family Fun Day with games, music and kids' activities. The food is a big draw: baleadas at 2 for $10, pupusas at 4 for $10, and elotes locos for $5. All concession money goes to the church's building fund. Actress Desiree Marie Velez, who was in the Super Mario Bros. movie, is scheduled to sign autographs and do face painting for two hours.

Event listing → Free Press community calendar

Sunday morning: free compost bins at the market. Use your extra hour at the Long Family Market in Stafford. The R-Board's Mini Compost-a-Thon is giving away free countertop food-scrap bins, answering composting questions and signing people up for a free backyard compost bin. Sunday is also the last stop of the season for the weekend food-scrap drop-off. Bring your pumpkin guts. (Take the candles out first. The R-Board doesn't say so, but trust us.)

Details → https://r-board.org/compost/

Sunday afternoon: two quieter options. At UMW, the music department's Strings of Past and Present chamber concert is free and starts at 2 p.m. in Seacobeck Hall, Room 145 (Weatherly Wing). At the same time in Stafford, the hospice nonprofit Ars Moriendi hosts a Día de los Muertos gathering at Stafford Junction, from 2 to 5 p.m. There'll be food, crafts and a community ofrenda. If you'd like to honor someone you've lost, bring a photo of them for the altar. Ars Moriendi asks you to RSVP.

UMW concert → https://at.umw.edu/event/umw-strings-of-past-and-present-chamber-music

Día de los Muertos RSVP → https://www.amshome.org/events

Sunday, for the North Stafford stretchers: Stafford Hot Yoga & Wellness opens Sunday at 971 Garrisonville Rd., per Biz Beat. Check the studio's own channels for class times.

🗳️ Last call: Early voting ends Saturday at 5 p.m. After that, you vote at your assigned polling place on Tue., Nov. 3, from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. Not sure where that is? Look it up before Tuesday morning at elections.virginia.gov.

🐦 Wren & Sparrow is leaving Caroline Street. The shop for bird lovers plans to close its downtown store at the end of December. Owner Amy Gardner says a lot of what she sells is big and bulky, and customers have trouble getting it to their cars. She plans to reopen somewhere with its own parking in a few months and will keep the online store going. Biz Beat

🍩 Beignets are coming to Eagle Village. Beignets & Brew is opening at 1289 Emancipation Hwy., in the part of the center rebuilt after the fire, near the laundromat and the post office that's on the way. Any Lab Test Now is moving into the same stretch. Also in Biz Beat: the KFCs at 302 Hanson Ave. and on Patriot Highway in Spotsy are closed, and it's not clear whether either will reopen. Biz Beat

🏛️ Got a big idea for an old courthouse? The city is asking for proposals to reuse the historic former Renwick courthouse on Princess Anne Street. Developers can also include the Old Stone Warehouse on Sophia Street. Concept proposals are due Dec. 13. Biz Beat

🏡 A new leader at Ferry Farm and Kenmore. Bill Garner is retiring at the end of 2026 after 23 years as president and CEO of the George Washington Foundation. His successor, Adam Kane, comes from the Fairbanks Museum & Planetarium in Vermont and starts Nov. 16. Biz Beat

Stafford's school year has gotten shorter for several years running: 178 days in 2022-23, 175 in 2023-24, 172 in 2024-25 and 171 last year, according to the division's own presentation. It's back to 172 this year. Next year's 180 days will be Stafford's first full 180-day year since 2021-22. That works out to about eight more mornings of packing lunches, so stock up on lunch bags now.

Sunday we all get a free hour. Hit reply and tell me how you're spending yours. Sleeping in? Running the trail before the sun comes up? Finally resetting the clock on the microwave? I'll share the best answers (no names) in a future issue.

Have a friend with kids in Stafford schools? Send them this so they can plan for a 2028 summer that starts a little later.

Happy Halloween, FXBG. Be safe out there tomorrow night.

The FXBG Rundown

A little more local. A lot more interesting.