YORK COUNTY — The York County School Division (YCSD) School Board named its new Board Chair and Vice Chair during its Jan. 10 organizational meeting.
During the meeting, which took place on Monday night, Jan. 10 at York Hall, 301 Main St., the Board named Laurel M. Garrelts its 2022 Chair and Sean P. Myatt its Vice Chair.
Both Garrelts (of District 2) and Myatt (of District 5) were elected unanimously by the Board.
As well as picking new chairs during the its first meeting of the calendar year, the Board voted to approve the Virginia School Boards Association Code of Conduct for School Board Members as well as its regulations on Governance Norms and Protocols.
Both documents list standards and regulations that the Board’s members are to adhere to throughout the year. The Board unanimously passed its 2022 Code of Conduct and Norms and Protocols.
The meeting also featured a presentation from YCSD leadership on the Division’s latest operational status.
Chief Operations Officer Dr. James Carroll told the Board that the latest COVID-19 variant, Omicron, which has caused reported cases within the school system to spike to its highest numbers to date. The high numbers translating to large amounts of staff and students having to quarantine and isolate.
Carroll said that so far, YCSD has been able weather the latest surge without going back to a division-wide remote learning model.
As of Jan. 11, the COVID-19 dashboard on the YCSD website was showing 239 active positive cases.
He also detailed the changes made to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) guidance on how long people infected with COVID-19 need to quarantine.
For more information the meeting agenda, as well as agendas from past meetings, can be found on the YCSD School Board website.
To watch Monday night’s meeting go to the YCSD YouTube channel.
The next regular meeting for the school board is set for 7 p.m. on Jan. 24 in York Hall board room.