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Two FOIA Council subcommittees will meet today. The one on records will meet at 10:00, and the one on meetings will start at noon. You should be able to watch both from links on the page below, though I’d note that as of 8 a.m., there was only a link for the second meeting. The agendas have been posted on the FOIA Council website, but no supporting materials have been included.
https://house.vga.virginia.gov/now_playing
Franklin City Schools Superintendent Dr. Carlton Carter has resigned from the school division, School Board members said in a special meeting on Labor Day morning. The move follows several weeks of uncertainty surrounding the division’s leadership. School Board Chair Wydia Bailey asked for Carter’s resignation in a letter dated Aug. 7. She then gave Carter 21 days to review a proposed separation agreement that offered him 12 months’ pay and benefits. … At the Aug. 25 School Board meeting, some board members said they were not aware Bailey had asked Carter to resign. In Monday’s special meeting, Board Vice Chair John Thomas Allsbrook said Carter’s resignation from the division was effective Sept. 4.
Local
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Local
After a nine-day delay, students were able to walk through the doors of Barack Obama Elementary School Thursday morning to start their school year. The school was closed while crews addressed mold in the school they say was caused by issues with the HVAC and moist pipes. CBS 6 obtained documents through a Freedom of Information Act request that included a report from the contractor who dealt with the mold about conditions they found in the school and issues that could allow mold to return if not addressed.
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Local
An external accounting firm has made a number of recommendations related to the Fredericksburg school division’s travel and reimbursement procedures. The school board engaged Robinson, Farmer, Cox Associates — the certified public accounting firm that performs annual audits for both the school division and city government — to complete a review of “financial related internal controls, policies, and procedures related to the travel expenditures of the Fredericksburg City Public Schools” during fiscal year 2025 (July 1, 2024 through June 30, 2025). In a draft report provided to the board on Aug. 7, the firm noted multiple instances in which travel per diems and reimbursement requests were not used; purchase card charges were not supported by proper documentation; travel expenditures were posted to an “operating supplies” expenditure line; and purchase cards were used by school board members who did not have purchase cards issued in their names.
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Local
New Virginia Majority and the ICE Out of Loudoun Coalition said Thursday that documents they obtained through the Freedom of Information Act show the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office alerts federal immigration officials when they encounter someone in the field with immigration warrants. In a statement, the coalition, made up of New Virginia Majority, SURJ Nova, Indivisible Nova West, Centreville Immigration Forum, Loudoun4All, and Congregation Action Network, said their requests “uncovered recorded incidents between March 2025 and July 2026 that suggest contacting ICE is a routine practice within LCSO, and that any encounter the immigrant community has with LCSO could potentially trigger sharing personal information with ICE.” … According to documents obtained by the coalition through FOIA and shared with Loudoun Now, there were at least 13 instances recorded between March 29, 2025, and July 21, 2026. The documents include dispatch notes in which deputies wrote that they called ICE to report someone with a detainer and then sent photos and other information to ICE to aid them in capturing the person.
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Local
In the seven months since city officials installed red-light cameras at select Richmond intersections, those cameras have issued over 100 warnings and citations to Richmond police officers, data shows. Last year, officials announced a program that would see red-light cameras installed at 10 intersections across the city as part of Vision Zero: an ongoing effort to reduce pedestrian deaths and injuries. The devices rolled out gradually, starting with only two intersections and a brief grace period in January, and finally reaching the planned 10 intersections by Aug. 27. In that eight-month span, 109 warnings and tickets have been issued to “marked police vehicles running a red light,” according to data obtained by The Times-Dispatch through the Virginia Freedom of Information Act.
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State
Since its debut three years ago, a black-tie gala hosted by House Speaker Don Scott has become the hottest ticket on the General Assembly reception circuit. What started as a celebration to mark Scott’s sudden and unlikely rise to the pinnacle of political power in Virginia has morphed into an increasingly elaborate production attended by Republicans and Democrats alike.At the start, Scott’s campaign and political committee paid for the event. But that changed with this year’s event, a bash at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA) in Richmond that cost at least $163,000. The identity of some donors to this year’s event remains a secret, shielded by a charitable organization set up by two of Scott’s closest friends and a former law partner. The charity paid a $10,000 deposit to the VMFA in December and helped settle the balance due with a $45,000 check in May, according to copies of the checks obtained under a Freedom of Information Act request.
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Higher ed
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University is charging Campus Reform $2,603 to obtain updated records related to the university’s foreign funding. Campus Reform filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request seeking recent records connected to Virginia Tech’s foreign gifts and contracts, which institutions are required to report under Section 117 of the Higher Education Act. The university said fulfilling the request would require 49 hours of personnel work, including nearly 38 hours from a FOIA officer to collect, review, and process the records. … The request seeks updated information on funding that the university is already required to disclose under federal law.
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