The School Board’s Select Committee on the Memorandum of Understanding between LCPS, the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office and the Leesburg Police Department will meet for the first time since its creation on April 14. Six months later, it has not met once. This agreement decides whether School Resource Officers can serve in our elementary schools, and for six months it has been the reason nothing moved.
Here is what is on the table. The revised agreement the committee is being asked to approve commits one SRO to each middle school and each high school. Elementary schools are not in it. If it is approved as written, our elementary schools stay exactly where they are today.
What happened in Bend, Oregon, last week should stop every one of us cold. The attacker shot through the glass of a locked door to get into Silver Rail Elementary School, and three children and a teacher were tragically killed. Police say he was stopped by a community member who followed him inside. Locked doors and fast response times matter, but they are not enough on their own. When every second counts, a trained officer already inside the building can be the difference between a tragedy and a catastrophe. Our elementary schools do not have that protection today.
In February, Sheriff Chapman presented a phased plan to bring SROs into all 62 of our elementary schools, adding about 15 officers a year over four years. Today, when something happens at an elementary school, we still depend on deputies pulled from our middle and high schools to respond. That is not a safety plan. That is hoping nothing goes wrong.
On March 5, the School Board voted 5-3, with one abstention, to block any elementary expansion until the board held public discussions and rewrote its agreement with the Sheriff’s Office. I abstained, and I said why at the time. The public was told that the meeting would be a discussion. Instead, a prepared resolution that was not on the posted agenda was brought forward, and four members of this board saw it for the first time when it was moved. I would not vote on a decision this important that the public and nearly half the board never had a chance to read. That resolution promised families a public process. Seven months later, that process begins today, and the agreement it will consider still leaves our elementary schools out.
Here is what I am asking for. Do not approve an agreement that leaves elementary schools out. Bring back what it would take to extend SRO coverage to every elementary school, with a firm timeline. And make the rules on how information is shared between our schools and law enforcement clear and public. The Sheriff has said SROs do not do immigration enforcement. Every family, including the families I represent in Sterling, deserves to see that commitment plainly in the agreement, so they can trust that an officer in the building is there for one reason: to keep their children safe.
I said it in February, when I first backed the Sheriff’s plan, and I will say it again: I will not be the elected official who has to stand in front of a grieving parent and explain why we waited. Our job is to act before tragedy, not to schedule meetings after it.
I am not a voting member of this committee, but I will be in the room. I will push for an agreement that puts SROs in our elementary schools and a firm timeline to make it happen.
Your Voice Matters. It is Time to Show Up and Speak Up.
The committee needs to hear directly from parents, teachers and neighbors before it acts. If you believe our elementary students deserve the same protection as every other student in this division, please come and say so.
Thursday, October 22, 2026, at 4:00 p.m.
LCPS Administration Building
21000 Education Court, Ashburn, VA 20148
Public comment sign-up happens in person before the meeting begins, so please arrive early. The Chair will set the time limit based on how many people sign up, so prepare a short, focused statement of about one or two minutes. Bring a neighbor if you can, because a full room sends a message all on its own.
If you cannot attend, the meeting will be audio-recorded and posted in BoardDocs the following day, and you can always share your thoughts with me directly through my contact page: https://www.lcps.org/o/lcps/page/amy-riccardi-contact-page
This issue will also be sent to the full School Board for approval. Watch my social media and the School Board’s agenda page for more information.
Our kids cannot wait for the next headline, and neither should we.