<body><div><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=2hrrJY_1GzQ94uk00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=2hrrJY_1GzQ94uk00" width="907" height="589" ><figcaption>Screenshot of slide from Nov. 9 presentation to Spotsylvania School Board showing fall 2027 enrollment over previous years.</figcaption></figure>In her last meeting as student representative to the Spotsylvania School Board, Cora Shields asked division staff for support.“I would like to ask SCPS staff to consider asking art students to create their school flyers and posters,” Shields said during her comments at Monday’s school board meeting.Shields said she and fellow students have noticed the division using “more and more” AI-generated flyers and announcements.“Obviously, we are all trying to navigate the transition required in an AI world, but I’m drawing a line in the sand when it comes to AI art,” she said. “You don’t have to be an expert to sense that something deeply soulful is lost when human made art gets replaced by machines. Maybe a STEM kind like me can shrug it off, but we have a large population of student artists who are watching the AI graphics creep with increasing dismay and even despair.”Shields was elected last fall to serve a one-year term as the first-ever student school board member. A senior at Riverbend High School this year, she is passionate about getting more young people involved in community service, especially advocacy and nonprofit leadership. She established the Medical Careers Club at Riverbend and also founded Helping Hands in Healthcare, a nonprofit that connects high schoolers to healthcare service projects.On Monday, Shields said that when she took on the role of student school board representative, one of her main goals was to increase student engagement both in the division and the wider community.“I’m happy to say that I think this is happening more,” she said. “I want to thank SCPS for making changes that are helping students look away from their phones and social media addictions and reengage in communities and build towards the future.”And she had a message for students, especially student artists who are distressed about the use of AI.“Don’t sit passively,” she said. “Organize clubs to generate art that teachers can use to advertise. Form alliances with administration to prioritize your creations instead of AI.”<h2>Updates to student representative policy</h2>Shields and alternate student representative Laylah Sargeant will hand over their seats to new students next month. Per a policy update approved by the board on first reading on Monday, they will be replaced by two student co-representatives, rather than one representative and one alternate.Superintendent Clint Mitchell said this was a staff recommendation, designed to ensure that schools from different parts of the division receive equitable student representation and to reflect what “most most other area school divisions” have in place.Megan Jackson, chair and Livingston district representative, said she agrees the board should have two student co-representatives and that she is “not interested” in limiting the time they can speak during meetings.“I want to hear what they have to say,” she said.The policy will be edited to specify that the student co-representatives can alternate appearing at monthly meetings.“They should have the option to alternate, because we are exhausting,” Jackson said. “But they are more than welcome to come to all meetings and there will be a seat for them [on the dais].”The board will vote on a second and final read of the student representative policy in December.<h2>Capital improvement plan and enrollment updates</h2>Also on Monday, the division’s finance director, Phillip Trayer, presented the proposed capital improvement plan for fiscal years 2028 to 2032.Voters last week approved a bond referendum authorizing the county to borrow up to $237.2 million for school division capital improvement and maintenance projects, among them a new elementary school at an estimated cost of $84.6 million and the renovation of Spotsylvania Elementary School at an estimated cost of $21.5 million.“To those who voted ‘yes,’ we send a heartfelt thank you, and for those who voted ‘no,’ we promise to use these funds wisely,” Trayer said. “The average age of our school buildings is 36 years. These funds are badly needed.”Trayer stressed that these are the only major construction projects that the 2026 bond referendum will support. The other three major construction needs identified by staff and the board – a new high school, a new CTE center, and the refurbishment of the existing CTE center – will require “future funding sources,” he said, and could be reevaluated by the board.Other maintenance projects in the five-year capital improvement plan include a $1.5 million roof replacement at Battlefield Elementary (constructed in 1975); a $2 million water tank upgrade at Berkeley Elementary (constructed 1962); a $1.3 million upgrade of the fire alarm system at Cedar Forest Elementary (2008); a $1.7 million asphalt overlay of the parking lot at Riverbend High (2004); and $15 million to renovate the special education preschool facility.Trayer also presented the fall 2027 membership report, which finds that enrollment in the division is down by 562 students over last fall. Three hundred and nineteen of these are at the elementary level, 91 at the middle school level, and 152 at the high school level.There was also a decline in preschool enrollment compared to the previous year, Trayer said.“This is an oddity as live births do not account for this decline,” he said.Superintendent Clint Mitchell said the division has records of students who have left for homeschool and that this number has grown, but this doesn’t account for all of the decline.“When students leave our school district and register at a new school, we get a records request from that school,” he said. “The issue we’ve seen this year is that students on paper have left us and are not in our schools, [but] we have not received a request from another school.”Mitchell said this is happening not just in Spotsylvania, but across the country.Trayer said in his presentation that an enrollment decline could impact the capital improvement plan. Still, Carol Medawar, Courtland district member, said she’d like to understand better where the unenrolled students are before making any decisions.“My concern is that those students are still here, and what if they come back?” she asked. “Understanding that piece is going to be important.”</div></body>

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In her last meeting as student representative to the Spotsylvania School Board, Cora Shields asked division staff for support. “I would like to ask SCPS staff to consider asking art students to create their school flyers and posters,” Shields said during her comments at Monday’s school board meeting.

Spotsylvania student rep: “Prioritize student art over AI”

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In her last meeting as student representative to the Spotsylvania School Board, Cora Shields asked division staff for support. “I would like to ask SCPS st

Spotsylvania student rep: “Prioritize student art over AI”

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