The Prince William Board of County Supervisors on Tuesday formally withdrew from appeals of the PW Digital Gateway lawsuit after spending $1.72 million in taxpayer funds to defend legal challenges to the controversial data center project. In a unanimous vote after a closed session, the board opted to remove the county from the appeals. The board narrowly approved the Digital Gateway rezoning on Dec. 13, 2023, under then-Chair Ann Wheeler, a Democrat and data center proponent, following a marathon 27-hour public hearing. … Issues of improper public notice were front and center at a Feb. 24 Court of Appeals hearing on the Digital Gateway matter. Developer-defendants Compass and QTS can still appeal the ruling to the Virginia Supreme Court, but the county itself will not appeal.

Fredericksburg City School Board Chair Katie Pomeroy has used her gavel exactly twice since taking over the role in January. The second instance came during the board’s February meeting, when city resident Bryan Stelmok accused Ward 3 board member Annie Langdon of — among other things — sharing his child’s educational placement and other confidential information while campaigning last year. “I did look at our policy after that,” Pomeroy said in a phone interview. “I wanted to know if I had done the right thing.” On Monday, the city school board voted unanimously to adopt an updated policy that includes the following provision: “Comments that amount to a personal attack against any school board member and cause unnecessary delay or disruption to a meeting are not allowed.”

Loudoun County Public Schools is considering upgrades to its public-facing data dashboard. At a meeting of the School Board Performance Monitoring Committee (PMC) last Tuesday, Chief Technology Officer Aaron Smith said the school division retains a lot of data that isn’t publicly released or otherwise utilized. Smith said the current dashboard is not “doing a good job telling a story.” He said his team has been going through what questions should be answered, if that data exists, and how that data should be synthesized and displayed.

Some concerned Frederick County residents have organized a meeting on data centers that will be held Wednesday, April 15, from 6:30 to 9 p.m. at Trumpet Vine Farm near Stephens City. “There’s a huge disconnect [between] the county government and… the people of Frederick County,” said Samantha Armel, one of the organizers. The group’s meeting was put together after a county-organized informational meeting on the pros and cons of data centers on Feb. 24 at Sherando High School was widely criticized, leading the Frederick County Board of Supervisors to postpone a second meeting that had been scheduled for the same week at James Wood High School. Some supervisors referred to the audience at the first forum as an “angry mob” and “agitators.” And many attendees were frustrated by a lack of clear answers from panelists and a lack of microphones for audience members to ask questions or make comments in real time, leading some to shout from their seats. Others left out of frustration. A new date for the county’s second data center forum has not been announced.

Two Shenandoah County school librarians pushed back Thursday against a proposed policy that would require book fair materials to meet the same review standards as permanent library acquisitions, stating the new policy may prevent book fairs from coming to the division at all. The draft policy, which schools Superintendent Melody Sheppard said was introduced by a school board member, would require book fair vendors to submit a complete inventory at least 30 days before the event. … No board member took ownership of the policy. No discussion was held by the board regarding the policy Thursday night. The policy was presented as an information item at Thursday’s meeting. Discussion is scheduled for April 27, with a vote expected May 13.