LEESBURG, Va. — A Loudoun County School Board committee is scheduled to meet Thursday with negotiators from the Sheriff’s Office and the Leesburg Police Department on the agreement that governs school resource officers, days after Sheriff Mike Chapman signed and delivered his own version of the deal and called the board’s process “ridiculous.”
Chapman’s draft, which he gave to Superintendent Aaron Spence on Friday, Nov. 6, would replace the current three-party memorandum of understanding among Loudoun County Public Schools, the Sheriff’s Office and the Leesburg Police Department with an agreement that leaves the town police out, Loudoun Now reported. School Board Chair April Chandler (Algonkian) objected in a letter Sunday night, and Chapman answered on Monday.
The sheriff says his version is a time-saver, not a policy change. In his reply, quoted by Loudoun Now, he wrote that “taking over a year and a half to complete a routine MOU is ridiculous,” described his draft as a “streamlined version of the last working draft” that “incorporates every substantive recommendation” from the school division, and said it does not change how the officer program operates. “My concern is not with Dr. Spence or LCPS staff. It is with a School Board process that has become overly politicized,” he wrote.
Chandler said the issue is how the document was produced. “Circulating a new version of the MOU that you drafted and signed through Dr. Spence to have me execute does not constitute mutual agreement,” she wrote, adding that the approach “denigrates the collaborative process.” She told Loudoun Now, “It’s the process,” and said she was grateful for the division’s relationship with law enforcement. Chandler invited Chapman to attend Thursday’s committee meeting.
What the sheriff’s draft changes
Deputies or Leesburg officers are now assigned to every Loudoun public middle and high school. According to Loudoun Now’s comparison of the documents, the clearest difference in Chapman’s version is the removal of a clause promising an officer for each middle and high school and a substitute whenever an officer is out for more than a day. His version says instead that “the SRO supervisor will ensure that day-to-day school coverage is provided as agreed upon between the LCSO and the LCPS. Should a shortage of SROs occur, high schools will be prioritized for coverage.”
The draft also rewrites the section on restraint and seclusion of students. It says School Board Policy 5345 “applies to LCPS school personnel and does not govern law enforcement officers, including SROs, when they are executing official duties,” and that officers’ use of force is governed by law and Sheriff’s Office policy, according to Loudoun Now.
Loudoun Now posted both the proposed three-party agreement and the sheriff’s version.
Leesburg Police Chief Thea Pirnat told Loudoun Now her department learned of the separate-agreement proposal when school administrators did and has no preference between one three-party agreement and separate ones, “provided the agreements clearly establish each agency’s responsibilities and support effective coordination.” Chapman said separate agreements make sense because the two agencies have different structures and attorneys.
A long negotiation
The two sides disagree even about how old the current agreement is. Chandler’s letter said the MOU “executed in 2025 remains in place” while talks continue. Chapman wrote that “the last MOU was signed in 2023, not 2025.” Loudoun Now has reported that the agreement was first adopted in 2021 and updated in 2023.
The select committee was formed after the School Board said the Sheriff’s Office had not consulted it on Chapman’s push to put officers in every elementary school, a request the Board of Supervisors declined to fund. When the committee met on Oct. 22, members spent much of the session on proposed rules for police access to live school security-camera feeds, Loudoun Now reported. Under the staff draft, the Sheriff’s Office and Leesburg police could view live video when there are concerns for an officer’s safety while responding to a school incident, would have to log each viewing at least quarterly and would have to notify the division’s counsel of any disclosure to third parties. The draft also adds language on body-worn cameras, students with disabilities, overdose notifications and training.
Chapman has argued that the committee itself is “part of the problem,” noting that it did not meet for eight months after it was created and that Sheriff’s Office commanders cannot question board members there. “Virginia law gives the School Board the responsibility to publish the MOU and invite public input. Nothing in my signature prevents that, and I encourage you to do so,” he wrote to Chandler.
Committee agendas and materials are posted on the Loudoun County School Board’s BoardDocs site. Loudoun Now reported last month that the Nov. 12 session would continue the review of the draft and take up what officers in elementary schools would look like.
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