PRINCE EDWARD – In a perhaps unprecedented move Tuesday night, County supervisors went into closed session to talk about the performance of the school board.

Specifically, on a motion read by Farmville District (801) Supervisor Pattie Cooper-Jones and approved by the eight-member board, supervisors went into closed session “for the purpose of discussing the performance of specific public appointees, namely the Prince Edward County School Board, pursuant to the exemptions provided for in…the Code of Virginia.”

While Chairman William “Buckie” Fore noted before the session that there would be an action vote taken, it was announced after the session that there would be no action and no motion was offered.

Fore declined further comment after the meeting when asked for a comment in the general sense of what they were looking at performance-wise with the school board.

School Board Chairman Russell Dove, who was reappointed by Supervisors last month, had not spoken with anyone from the County as of Thursday morning. When asked about the school board's performance as a whole, he noted, “As a whole, I guess I would say that we're…carefully weighing all the issues and addressing what we think are the concerns and we're trying to do it in a timely fashion. So I think the board is doing…mostly what it can do with the funds and other…resources available. So I'm really surprised to hear that the…performance was on the agenda.”

He added that he has not been made aware that there is any specific issue, noting that “I guess I'm optimistic” that the discussion maybe was positive versus negative. He added that he wouldn't speculate otherwise.

Dove said he guesses he is logically assuming that if there is a specific concern then at some point it would be shared with the school board. Good communication, he would note, is often the first step to solving any issue, if there is an issue.