The Department of Justice has inquired about the School Division's proposed boundaries for the 12th county high school and/or their process for setting them.
Phil Kavits, Director of Communications Services for Prince William County Schools, confirmed “an issue has been raised with the Department of Justice” but he was not able to be much more specific.
Kavits said the preliminary investigation involves “the boundary process, but beyond that we don’t have any information on that and what that means.” Kavits said that he could not disclose any further information, because PWCS has not been informed about what the DOJ is specifically investigating.
“We don’t know much more at this point except that we will completely cooperate over any concerns there may be,” Kavits said.
He explained that a preliminary investigation does not necessarily the school division has broken any laws.
“ has to look into anything they receive in way of a complaint. It does not necessarily mean there is a problem. They want to follow their mandate and look” Kavits said.
Kavits said that the PWCS has not added information to their website upon hearing of the DOJ preliminary investigation. Regarding the information about the 12th high school boundaries and student enrollment, he said “information was added along the way as things changed.” For instance, new maps and enrollment projections have been updated as new boundary plans were presented.
Kavits said the School Division is also following all DOJ regulations in regards to posting their information in other languages to comply with a previous DOJ directive.
“Initially they were put up in English, then subsequently in Spanish, then in Urdu,” Kavits said.
As Urdu is the first language after Spanish requested by the community, the DOJ requires that PWCS post it on their website. However, Kavits said they do not employ an Urdu translator as they do a Spanish interpreter, so they had to find one before posting it on their website. This resulted in the Urdu translation being posted later than the Spanish one was, Kavits explained. But eventually, they did get around to find a translator (an experienced person whose job was of translating subtitles) to translate Urdu for them.
For parents of students who speak other languages, Kavits said that PWCS provides a page for “all languages.” On the top left hand corner of the PWCS website, the user is able to change the language of the text. Multiple languages are listed.
Bristow Beat wull provide more information as it becomes available.
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