Live Blogging From the 2/23 RCPS School Board Meeting

What follows are notes that I am taking as the 2/23 School Board meeting progresses. I'll try to be succinct. I will start my blogging after the normal celebratory honorific issues. Prayer. Pledge. Student Council report.



6. Hearing of the Citizens: (Mostly Clearbrook Elementary parents spoke)

• Chuck Lionberger-PTA: Short announcement.

• Chris Rhea- Clearbrook parent speaking on budget cuts. Encouraged all of us to contact legislators regarding budget cuts. Thanked the school board. Wants to partner with the board on cuts. Does not believe that school closings are the answer. Thinks closing of Fort Lewis and Clearbrook will cause a tsunami. Should not close a quality school.

• Randy Kingery: From Clearbrook Civic League. Spoke in favor of keeping Clearbrook open. People who go to Clearbrook...stay in Clearbrook and serve the community. "It would break my heart if were closed or went by the wayside at all."

• Mike Wray: "These are budget times that try people's souls...." He told the board that his group wants to help the school board to find a way to keep the school open. Mike said that the growth in the area will keep the school at capacity. This school should not be closed.

School Board Members reply...

• Fuzzy Minnix thanked the people from Clearbrook who came out to speak tonight. He's hopeful that there are ways to keep all our schools open. "Not just in my school district...anywhere in the county."

• Drew Barrineau: said that with the $7 million cut last year, people didn't feel it. If you want to help...write your delegates. Elections matter. This is important to us...the power of thousands. Exercise your God-given right to vote and share your thoughts.

• David Wymer: The Board is trying to make education workable. He appreciates citizen support. We are getting 66% support based on the composite index at the local level. The state people think it's easier to extract cuts at the local level than the state. "Now is the opportune time to contact legislators."

• Jerry Canada: "Went to Richmond last year and found that legislators are completely polarized. There are no moderates. If you go against the flow, the flow will get rid of you." He said that he had never been political from the pulpit, but he is willing to roll that dice now. No one knows how it will shake out next year. He doesn't want to close schools. He doesn't want to lay people off, yet people will probably be laid off.

• Mike Stovall: Talked about how polarized the climate is. The State Secretary of Education spoke to school board people last week and he talked about new initiatives and new programs that would take money away from public schools. He left after a cold reception.
  

7. Consent Agenda approved: (No major items)

8. Action Items:

• Change orders for current construction projects: WBHS, MPES, CSES, GVES. Approved. (Fort Lewis should be back w/cafe by early March.)

• Budget Reductions for 20010-2011: Penny Hodge$2.4 Million (contingency-$641K, Central Middle-495K, Reduce/eliminate Central office positions-317K, Bent Mtn-507K, Driver's ed/Health combine-178K, Close RE Cook-107K, Eliminate 50% subsidy of Nutrition fund-66K, Eliminate 4 bus routes-40K, Eliminate board funded field trips-24K, Eliminate Stanford 4th grade testing-17K, Eliminate 6th grade intramurals-9K)...no doubt more cuts will be forthcoming as the budget process continues.
  

No discussion

9. Information Agenda

• Approval of Evaluation Forms: Submitted-no comment

• Update of Charter School Regulations- Cecil Snead. Due to movement in Governor's office and the Federal executive office. Lawyer Pat Lacey, clean up language in advance of any future regulations.

1. Fuzzy Minnix: No problem with Governor wanting to experiment with Charter Schools...but he has a HUGE problem with this experimentation in these times! When this money takes away from public schools! "It does not make any sense to me."

1. David Wymer: Regarding Governor's proposal...will the new bill presented to the assembly require a change in local policy. Lawyer Lacey says that it will require some changes. Wymer said that if Charters come into being, it's the beginning of leading us down a slippery slope.

1. Mike Stovall: That's why the Secretary of Education didn't have a warm welcome. Charters will lead to resegregation of schools. (Comment: That's the second time I've heard similar language about charter schools. My other source for this said the Secretary of education's people used the term,"racially identifiable" schools.)
   

10. Superintendent's Report: None

11. Board Member's Reports: None


Meeting over around 8pm

...And It Begins

Governor Tim Kaine of Virginia officially released his proposed budget amendments today. The details on how his budget amendment proposal would impact our beloved county is still to be understood, but it's impossible to cut money out of a budget without there being an impact. Brace ourselves, we must. (I don't know why I just wrote in Yoda-talk.)

According to Rob Jones of VEA, there are supportable details found within the Governor's amendments. Tackling an announced $2.9 Billion deficit will not be easy. Rob passed along the following notes this afternoon.

He cut education less than any other area.

He looked at both sides of the ledger, and raised the cigarette tax, tweaked the land-preservation tax credit and eliminated the “dealer discount” (paid to merchants for collecting the sales tax) to reduce the harm to essential state programs.

We have grave concerns regarding the fact that:

He made $400 million of the cuts to education permanent cuts that will be with us even when the recession is over ($400 million in SOQ funding reductions partially offset by $60 million in loss mitigation for the 2009-2010 school year). The impact on next year is $340 million. The impact into the future is $400 million per year. This eliminates the state share of funding for 13,000 positions including custodians, finance officers, HR directors, assistant superintendents and central office personnel).

What we know about the cuts for the next school year?

$340 million SOQ cuts to support and administrative components of the formula
$78 million in teacher salary
$82.5 in school construction

Total = $500.5 million, or slightly over ½ billion

No doubt many of you will want to know what can be done faced with the reality of the budget shortfall (could end up being larger than $2.9 Billion). I can almost say with complete certainty that the budget will be amended. What we must do is help direct the amendments in a positive direction for public school education.

On January 9, I plan to join our education coalition partners in Lynchburg at a state budget hearing. At that hearing, I will no doubt push for examination of different revenue generating plans that would soften the blow. Re-instituting the estate tax, along with the cigarette tax increase, is one idea that is being considered (tax on estates valued over $2 million).

Most importantly, we must fight hard and strong to keep any cuts that happen from becoming permanent. This is paramount! Any cuts made in the remainder of the biennial budget must remain temporary. Virginia is already ranked 37th in support for public schools in America. That dubious ranking would slide further if these cuts were to become permanent.

President Boitnott will present a petition at the budget hearing in Richmond on January 19 that all members, friends of members, relatives, parents, and citizens are invited to sign. The petition clearly speaks to the issues we care deeply about. Please sign this on-line petition and urge your colleagues, family and friends to sign on as well. Our battle is to prevent permanent cuts to education funding.

The petition can be found at:

http://www.fundqualityschools.org/

Penny Hodge, Assistant Superintendent of RCPS, is working on getting a clear picture of how the proposed amendments may affect Roanoke County. Right now, this early in the budget process, it's really too early to tell. However, brace ourselves, we must.

On a side note, I'm experimenting with a new service on this blog. I realized that from time to time, I want all of you to be able to see documents that relate directly to a specific topic. Meg Swecker, master of all things technology, pointed me to a site called, Drop.io. With Drop.io, I can upload all kinds of documents, sound, and pictures and have you access them at your leisure. You can view and download the files as you wish. So far, I've added all of the back-issues of the RCEA News from this year, Governor Kaine's press release from today, and a few other documents that will be related to future blog entries. You can test out the service by clicking on the link in this article for proposed budget amendments or you can visit the whole RCEADistrict4 site.


Thom Ryder
RCEA President

Calendar Perks

The School calendar for 2009-2010 is currently in a draft state. Over the course of the past month or so, we've received three potential calendar plans for next year. One plan would have schools starting much the same as our current calendar. Another would have us beginning school after Labor Day while the third choice would have us beginning school much earlier with semester exams hitting before the Winter Break in December. Each option would have school ending in early June, and each option would offer the most basic winter break with school dismissing on December 23.

While there was support for each option, the traditional calendar far and away received the most support from teachers in our organization with the caveat that the winter break be extended for a full two weeks as it is this year.

Teachers felt strongly that such a break could be attained in the calendar with minimal adjustments and its effect would be morale boosting. The RCEA modified the traditional draft and forwarded our thoughts to Central and the issue was discussed at the recent EAC meeting.

Our modified traditional draft proposal was accepted by Allen Journell, and he will present it to the school board for approval at the December 11 meeting. Approval is not guaranteed since at least one board member was promoting the early exam calendar.

Report from the May 8 School Board Meeting

Report from the School Board Meeting

The May 8 school board meeting was rather quick and calm as far as these things go. However, there were several things of which may wish to learn.

The board formally approved the salary scale for the 2008-2009 school year. All teachers will receive at least a 5% raise with classified receiving the 5% and a market adjustment on top.

Funding for revamped degree program (folding bachelor’s +12 and 24 into a bachelor’s category/same for master’s) is gradually accumulating funding and may be ready for implementation for the 2009-2010 school year.

Finally, tax revenue projections for this year have tumbled. A potential deficit of $560,000 is being discussed. However, the March ADM (average daily membership) is above projection by about 200 students (budgeted 14,600 students/actual 14,802). That means more money from the state. So these funds may have some negating effects on each other.

Hearing From the People

School Board Report

January 31, 2008

The Roanoke County School Board met this evening for their regular monthly meeting. This was their third regular meeting this month. The big ticket item on the agenda tonight was a public budget hearing. Eight speakers addressed the Board about three different issues. Thom Ryder led off by stating the case for the RCEA salary proposal.

Next up were several speakers who petitioned for the addition of gifted resource teachers. They effectively pointed out that the current gifted resource team is stretched very thin, serving children at five or six elementary schools a piece. Between the testing requirements and the student case-load, the teachers are not able to be as effective as they desire.

The other issue brought before the Board was from parents in the Back Creek community. They were concerned at the alarming trend of higher class sizes in their school. They argued that lower pupil/teacher ratios allow for greater educational success in the classroom. They reported that many classrooms at Back Creek have 23 to 25 children in them which is unacceptable to them.

The meeting also featured a report by Central Middle School’s principal, Becky Rowe. Becky shared data with the Board about the progress students at the school are making. They Board seemed impressed.

Odds and Ends

1. $29,444.72 was the cost of peace of mind at William Byrd. That’s how much it cost for environmental testing to help identify the cause of the mysterious twitching cases back in the Fall.

2. Horace Mann has donated$2000 in order to test all of the toys in the pre-school classrooms for lead paint. More piece of mind.

3. Northside’s geothermal heating and cooling system, an environmentally friendly and highly efficient system, has netted the county a credit of $267,000 from Martin Brothers construction firm.

4. Personnel Policy 7.2 regarding Resident and Non-Resident school attendance was revised to allow grandchildren in legal custody of non-resident former Roanoke County School employees to attend RCPS schools. (Expanded the benefit previously just given to current employees.)

5. The Board approved the spending of $1,282,000 from the personnel department account for various items that were brought up at the January 2 pre-budget hearing. Included in the list is money for HVAC technician, roofing various schools (Penn Forest?) and paving projects. We’ll have a more detailed list of the exact projects when we receive the minutes from the School Board retreat from January 26. According to Penny Hodge, this money has been building in the personnel department’s account over the last few years. The money has carried over and built up to $3.4 million. Mr. Hall felt comfortable allowing the fund to be drawn down to $1.5, with $1.9 million freed up to reapportion. We will also look to the minutes to see how the other $600,000+ are being spent. (They were discussing using some for assistant principals or future elementary school renovations…not sure the final decision.)

5. Allen Journell informed the School Board that due to the reinterpretation of the bank day policy for making up school days missed due to inclement weather, beginning THIS SCHOOL YEAR, RCPS will use bank time to make up the first three missed school days. That means that as of this moment, no matter what happens on Friday, we will have NO days to make-up.

Text of the RCEA Comments to the School Board January 31,2008

RCEA Salary Proposal

These are difficult economic times. Prices of food and energy are rising. Employees are picking up more of the health insurance co-pay. It’s getting more and more difficult to live within today’s economy.

In the last few years, raises for teachers have varied from slightly more than, about the same as, or slightly less than the cost of living. Over the most recent seven year period, disposable income for teachers has generally decreased at most levels when inflation is factored.

Our jobs have become immeasurably more difficult and pressure packed. NCLB, SOL, AYP, ELL, and VGLA are all terms with associated requirements and stresses that the 1998 Roanoke County teacher could just barely conceive. Those terms have changed the face of education in our school system and our state. The teachers have met the challenge of revamping and reworking their instructional models and practices.

Over the same period, compensation for Roanoke County teachers has slipped gradually away from the top tier in the region.

Career earnings (based on the current scale) for Roanoke County teachers now fall behind teachers from Salem, Botetourt, Franklin County, and Roanoke City.

We respectfully request that the school board make a commitment to teacher salary improvement in this year’s budget and the two following budget cycles.

Specifically, we request that you…

· Adjust the mid-range of the scale (approx 1%)

Right now, it takes a teacher around twenty years to reach the halfway point on the scale. We want teachers to reach this milestone earlier. We believe that reaching the midpoint of the scale at the midpoint of a career (30 years) would be a reasonable goal. Neighboring localities reach that level by step 15 (Salem, Franklin Co.)

· Include an across the board 4 % raise for teachers this year

· Agree to a 5% Compensation Commitment over the following two budget years.

These steps, taken in unison and with committed purpose, will work to improve the compensation of our teachers, the most important educational resource.

Thank You

Thom Ryder

RCEA President

A Day in Oz

A Day in Oz

The Roanoke County School Board met today at their annual school board retreat. In past years, the Roanoke County Board of Supervisors would join them and open, frank discussions would take place over the issues facing the county and the school system. This year, the supervisors chose not to attend, much to our loss.

The retreat took place at the spacious and comfortable confines of the Roanoke County Schools central office boardroom on Cove Road from 8 am until 4pm with a 20-minute break for lunch. Water and Chik-fil-a nuggets and wraps were provided for the staff and board members. Certainly, no one can possibly accuse them of misusing taxpayer’s money on this retreat!

I also attended the session along with our Uniserv Director, Pat Wood. Together, we also played the role of “The Public” at the meeting. Few formal decisions were made at this meeting; instead, the purpose of the meeting was to take stock of where our school system is now and what we hope to pursue in the near and long-term future. To that end, the discussions were detailed, rich, and lively. Many of the discussions will bear fruit in policies adopted at future school board meetings, so I won’t report on them here and now.

As many of you know, the Roanoke County School Board was shuffled in the last election with Fuzzy Minnix and David Wymer being elected to the body. Today was their first opportunity for an intense and prolonged policy discussion. At the risk of heaping overwhelming praise on them, I would like to let readers here know that I was impressed with them today. Jerry Canada, chairman, has a breadth of historical knowledge which is key for keeping a group on course. Drew Barrineau, vice-chair, is an astute observer of county politics especially regarding the Board of Supervisors. He also has a keen eye for organizing a budget. Mike Stovall, besides having a depth of historical knowledge, has the unique ability to gather all of the ideas on the table and synthesize them. David Wymer possesses a strong understanding of the inner-workings of educational programs and internal budgets. Fuzzy Minnix brings a fresh perspective from the general public and a wealth of experience as a former supervisor. This board knows what they are doing, and that’s an important thing for the continued strength of our school system.

Those who know me, know that I don’t suck up to people. So my praise of the board is genuine. I’m sure that as time passes, there will be issues where our organization will disagree with decisions made and policies created by the board; however, I feel strongly that this board has the interests of the whole system in mind.

From the meeting today, several things are clear. I’m going to address them in list form with my perceptions, understandings, and opinions attached.

1. The state legislative season is jumbled even more than it has been in recent years. The General Assembly is split ideologically and politically. There is a real possibility of continued acrimony and gridlock. That does not serve our public school children or public school employees well. Despite that, there is a real opportunity for a significant increase of state monies this year, despite the turmoil and despite the soured economy. It seems that Roanoke is poorer so our composite index score is lower. This should bring us more dollars from the state via their funding formal for local schools. On top of that, the state has re-benchmarked their Standards of Quality. These two factors, even if the legislature doesn’t add any additional money for teacher salaries, means that the county will receive a nice increase in state funding for the next budget year.

2. It looks like the board is committed to providing a substantial increase in salary for classified employees (secretaries, building supervisors, nutrition specialists, and instructional assistants). While it may take two or more years to accomplish the goal of making these categories the regional leaders, this board seemed resolute in making that happen. While the RCEA has not taken a position on that, I personally applaud that move. We represent about 35 teaching assistants and all of the teachers in our organization work closely with these people daily. Their dedication and loyalty should be rewarded. They deserve our support and the board’s support in raising their wage to a more respectable level.

3. Teacher pay was like the big gorilla hiding out in the open in the room. It wasn’t discussed, but it was always in the background. The RCPS Salary Committee will meet on February 14 to hash out the official committee position. Hopefully, the committee will come into agreement with the RCEA’s salary position: Multi-year approach to improve salaries to the best in the region (more on that later).

4. A decision was made on the laptop initiative. I’ll hold off commenting on that until the central office staff has the opportunity to discuss release that information. I will say that the board has provided a clear direction on how technology will be integrated into the entire system.

Many more topics were discussed at the meeting. Ideas were thick and fast. All told, it was a great meeting.

Virginia Tech beat Boston College 81-73 today!!!!!!!

On another note, our members are very concerned about teacher salaries. I’ve heard from many of you. Many of you are upset that the Governor did not include money for the state’s share of salary raises for teachers in the first year of the biennial budget. I’m upset about that, too. Governor Kaine professed to be “The Education Candidate,” and he is coming dangerously close to joining recent governors Gilmore, Allen, and Wilder in the book of non-supporters. Here are some points to consider. Again another list.

1 VEA may still be able to persuade the General Assembly to amend the budget. Then it will be up to us to persuade the Governor to accept the amendment.

2 No matter what the state does for salaries, the salary war will be fought at the Board of Supervisor level. Will they pass along the increased state funds to the schools? We will have to persuade them.

3 I’ve heard those neutral on salary increases for teachers state that you really shouldn’t have to improve salaries to the National Average because that’s a “moving target” that can never be hit (Wouldn’t it be nice to hit the target for a change instead of continually missing?). Instead, they say that our state should compare itself to salaries in our region. They also proclaim that we shouldn’t necessarily be paid at or above the state average, because Northern Virginia skews that average, and the cost of living is much less here. Finally, they matter-of-factly state that teacher salaries in Roanoke County should only be compared to other systems in the region. So I’ve been thinking about all of that…

…and now a list in response to number 3

A. National Average-Moving Target: Okay, let’s play their game. Twenty years ago, Virginia was a leader in salaries for our region (VA, NC, SC, GA, FL, TN, KY, WV, MD, DL). By 2004-05, the state had slipped to 5^th in that group. In recent figures just released by NEA for last school year, Virginia had fallen to 6^th on that list. Looks like the target IS moving…away.

B. The State of Northern Virginia: In the latest national salary rankings, Virginia is ranked 31^st in the country. If we were to allow the state of NOVA to succeed from us, the average salaries for the remaining school districts would drop to 46^th in the country. I suppose that Virginia would no longer be the 7^th wealthiest state either, but we certainly wouldn’t be the fourth poorest either.

C. Systems in the Region: As we’ve pointed out in recent blog entries, the unquestioned leader in teacher salaries in the area is Salem, a school system born from Roanoke County Schools about 30 years ago. Roanoke County surely would be second on that list, right? Wrong. We come in, generally, fourth or fifth in the region behind Roanoke City, Botetourt, Franklin County, and sometimes Craig County at various points on the teacher pay scale.

Why don’t teachers in Roanoke County have top pay in the region? I’m not one to tie test performance to pay, because we all know that there are many factors that affect whether or not a school makes AYP. But if I was that kind of person , a strong argument could be made in favor of rewarding pay for RCPS teachers.

So I guess the point of this little exercise is that a group can excuse, deflect, and deny the fact that teachers are underpaid, but no matter how the facts are twisted, teacher pay scales in Virginia and Roanoke County are, to adopt a word made famous by Tom Hanks in the movie- “The Terminal,” unacceptable.

Late Fall Special

Late Fall Special

A lot has been going on behind the scenes in RCEA land lately. Coming on the heels of our successful lobbying effort for a full two week winter break in next year’s school calendar, we jumped right into a very thorny issue and a cause.

As teachers and support staff began reviewing recent paychecks, many reported that they had been docked significant sums of money for missing the day before, day after, or day of a national holiday. Policies 5.50 and 5.51 in the RCPS policy manual clearly spell out that an employee will be subject to financial penalty if they take a personal leave day on one of the restricted days. What caught all of these people off guard this time was that the holiday, Columbus Day, was NOT a school holiday. It simply never occurred to these people that the county would penalize them for taking the day before, day after, or day of a holiday that wasn’t a holiday.

After much e-discussion with the personnel office, the RCEA and Mr. Hall, RCPS Assistant Superintendent of Personnel, have worked out language that will clarify the language in policies 5.50 and 5.51. At the School Board meeting on Thursday Dec 13, Mr. Hall will suggest that the words “National Holiday” be stricken from the policies. The revised policy will simply state that if a teacher or support staff member were to use a personal day on the day before, day after, or day of a school holiday, they will forfeit their pay for that day. So the new policy will greatly simplify the issue.

In addition to the policy revision, Mr. Hall is proposing that those teachers and staff members who suffered from this confusing policy interpretation will be fully credited their lost pay.

The other issue that the RCEA is in the process of tackling is our salary proposal for the upcoming school year. Our salary committee is made up of Thom Ryder, Sarah Hollett, Jennifer Burke, Sara Cann, and Judd Fredstrom with valuable advice coming from our Uniserv Director, Pat Wood.

This year the county is opening up the budget process to schools, groups, and organizations within the county system. An invitation for budget proposals was sent out by Assistant Superintendent of Finance/Budget, Penny Hodge. Proposals are due to her office by Dec 14, and all groups and individuals will be given an opportunity to present a case for their proposal before the full School Board on Jan 3.

After much debate and discussion, our salary committee is putting the final touches on our salary plan. We have noted, through meticulous research by Judd Fredstrom, that pay for Roanoke County teachers has been slipping in relation to the actual cost of living in our area by a significant amount over the last seven years. In addition, the relative standing of teacher salaries, in comparison with pay in neighboring school systems, remains in the middle of the pack (generally 3^{rd out of 8 divisions}).

One issue that doesn’t get recognized by most people is that it takes a teacher in Roanoke County a very long time to realize real, positive salary growth. For example, it takes a teacher about 20 years to make it to the halfway point on the scale. Logic would dictate that the halfway point should be reached after about 15 years of service. That’s also about the time when teachers in Roanoke County make it to the state average teacher pay. Most other area localities reach that point well earlier in a teacher’s career.

We will propose a long-term approach to improving salaries in RCPS. For the coming school year, we feel justified in asking that the scale be adjusted one time in such a way that a teacher will reach the mid point of the pay scale at the mid point of their career. One way to look at that is to make sure that step 15 is halfway between step 10 and 20. Judd has crunched the numbers and has figured that the scale can be effectively realigned for well less than a million dollars ($1 million=approx 1% pay raise). Some teachers will receive more of a bump than others in this realignment. In addition to that realignment, we propose that all teachers and staff receive a 4% increase in their pay after the realignment. In each of the following two school budget years, we also propose a 5% pay raise across the board to teachers and staff.

We will lobby hard for these proposals and will work closely with the school board and the central office budget staff to make our plan a reality. We would appreciate your support.

Finally, I bring you the State of the County Address by Supervisor Chairman Joe McNamara. In that address, Mr. McNamara said, “While the Commonwealth is experiencing a 1.2% revenue shortfall (less than the 25 year average shortfall of 1.4%), the County reported a 3.5% surplus of revenues over projection.” Mr. McNamara finished his address with this quote from Harry S. Truman, “Men make history and not the other way around. In periods where there is no leadership, society stands still. Progress occurs when courageous, skillful leaders seize the opportunity to change things for the better.”

The RCEA is working to change things for the better.

RCPS Draft Calendar

RCPS Draft 2008-2009 Calendar Released

The school office has released a draft version of the 2008-2009 calendar this week, and in it the major request of the RCEA was dealt with positively. The calendar still must be formally be adopted by the School Board.

The RCEA Calendar Committee had asked that the school board consider building in a full two week winter break instead of having the last day before break be December 23. The Committee realized that with the calendar already compressed that it would be difficult to find the two days to trade-off. The RCEA suggested that the two days be placed at the beginning of the school year allowing for a partial week start of the school year for teachers and students.

Mr. Journell has chosen a different route to manufacture the two days. The school board was very clear in their public meetings that they wanted school to open August 25 and end by June 8. One highlight of the compromise is that the school board will allow for teachers to take a work day at home on Martin Luther King Jr Day. Schools will be open for teachers who need to get into buildings to work on grades if needed.

Overall, the RCEA Calendar Committee is well pleased with the compromise offered by Mr. Journell and the School Board.

You can view the draft calendar by visiting this link

http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pSXYU-zAWPenUvcowT4VxUw

Now let’s move on to our salary concerns…

News Hounds Primp for Nothing

Dateline: October 11, 2007

Event: A regular meeting of the Roanoke County School Board

Location: Central Office Board Room on Cove Road

Thursday night’s meeting was a bit unusual. The news hounds were all there, and I frankly didn’t know why until later. Apparently, the School Board, in their closed afternoon session, discussed the unfortunate building collapse at Hidden Valley High School. I wasn’t there to hear the statement after the meeting, but it’s covered well in the newspaper account.

The regular session kicked off at 7 pm with cameras blaring, Justin McCloud strutting around and grabbing a front row seat for News Channel 7. The News Channel 10 hounds were not to be outdone. The Channel 10 cameraman kept setting up his camera in places where cameras were not allowed. So new public relations staff member Chuck Lionberger kept shooing him away.

While the big-time media giants were disappointed that the building collapse story wasn’t addressed at the regular meeting, they did receive one “Sink Your Teeth Into” story. A representative from Honeywell demonstrated a new Instant Alert security system. Parents can sign up for a service that will allow the school system to send instant communication to their cell phones in the case of some important announcement or event. As a geek guy, I was impressed by this system which the board approved later in the meeting at a first year cost of $26,200. The money will come from the Superintendents Discretionary Fund this year. The system will be able to handle 150,000 calls within 15 minutes which will more than be adequate for our system needs. So now situations like the MRSA scare or the asbestos scare earlier in the year at Northside can be better managed with information instantly available to all who need to know. If I had access to this system, I’d probably use it to try to find Virginia Tech/ Duke basketball tickets. :)

In other news, Steve Dalton was named as the new school system security officer. He is responsible for how the entire school system plans for and responds to security situations. Mr. Canada, long time board member, charged Mr. Dalton with studying the security situation at Northside. He’s concerned that with such an open campus (outside trailers and fence gates that cannot be closed due to fire regulations) we need some sort of security plan in place that addresses those realities.

Funding was approved to perform environmental testing on an unnamed future school site. Also, approval was granted for the HVHS school band to travel to London later in the year. The anticipated cost per student will be about $2,000 which the band and students will need to raise.

LaVern Davis was brought before the board to update administrative policy regulation 9.18 specifically to address terminology issues with the section on communicable infections. The changes simply add some more appropriately defined terminology and direction for various situations. While she was standing there, the board members entered in to a spirited discussion regarding the whole MRSA issue. One of the key points in the new regulations was that students should take showers after participating in athletic practice or events. The board members wanted to know from the school board attorney if they could mandate showers in such situations. His answer seemed unclear. Perhaps yes, perhaps no. Mr. Stovall mentioned that simply having the athletes sanitize their hands before and after practice would go a long way to reducing the impact of skin infections. He provided a testimony to the effectiveness of such practice with the WBHS baseball team. One intriguing point that was discussed was whether bus drivers should spray down the vinyl seats of buses that are used to transport sweaty players after games. Again, this was just an item for discussion and no action was taken on those two points.

In her Superintendent's Report, Dr. Lange mentioned several items. Most notably was that Governor Kaine has initiated a Career and Technical Academic School as a joint partnership between the state and local community colleges. These new schools will be similar in concept to the current Governor’s School model but will be geared toward career and technical education. Students will be able to take dual enrollment classes and pursue career and technical certifications at VWCC. I can’t wait to see how this program is developed, marketed, and implemented.

The subject of foreign language in elementary schools was brought up by Mr. Barrineau. He asked Dr. Lange to report on that. She reported that each elementary school is required to provide some type of foreign language instruction, and they’ve been given the freedom to develop their own programs and curriculum. Some schools are providing instruction in several different languages while others are providing instruction in one. Most of the programs involve children learning basic words and phrases.

After a stimulating evening of policy discussion and school issues, I went home.

Visits the Past and Sees the Future

Dateline: October 9, 2007

Event: A regular meeting of the Roanoke County Board of Supervisors

Location: The old Southview Elementary School Gymnasium.

Reporter Time Travels: Visits the Past and Sees the Future

The Roanoke County Board of Supervisors (BOS) went through a regular meeting with normal reports and witty banter for about an hour Tuesday afternoon. For me, it was an exhilarating meeting. For the first time in 35 years, I was back in my old elementary school. The board was seated just in front of the stage that I stood on to sing “Zip-a-die Doo-dah” during a PTA show in 1968. Of course, signs of the old gym have long since been covered by an extensive make-over the building received when it was converted into the county public safety building. Now retired from that service, the building is mostly abandoned and awaiting its fate (MSRCCC@SV?). The supervisors are meeting there while their regular space at the county administration building is renovated.

You can read the details of the meeting in Cody Lowe’s Roanoke Times article from Wednesday October 10. He captured most of the important details of the meeting. I will share my thoughts and impressions of that meeting in this space.

After the main meeting was over and before the supervisors took a break before beginning the “work sessions,” board chairman Joe McNamara walked past me and asked me what brought me to the meeting. I’ve known Joe for many years now having taught two of his children in elementary school, and I’ve always respected him as a parent and as a level-headed public servant. I might disagree with him on political affiliations, but I believe Joe has his heart in the right place concerning schools. So I told him that in my capacity as RCEA President, I thought it was my duty to be at as many public meetings as possible (or words to that effect). He accepted that and moved on.

Joining me yesterday at the meeting was RCEA member Sherry Foti. She is one of a band of RCEA members who have answered the call to attend BOS meetings this year. Our goal is to attend every Board of Supervisor meeting so that we can have first-hand knowledge of issues that will dramatically impact education in our schools. We also want the supervisors to know that we are there and will be there every time. The RCEA is the largest employee group in Roanoke County. Education employees are the county’s largest employee group. Additionally, RCPS employees are one of the largest employee groups in the entire Roanoke Valley, only third behind Carilion and Anthem. Children are the greatest resource and investment responsibility the county has. We want the supervisors to understand all of those things, and our presence at the meetings is a positive step in that direction.

Before the work session, each supervisor had the opportunity to give a report to the board. Generally, each person took time to talk about the various events they have attended over the past two weeks. Butch Church did that, too. Then he launched into a political attack on Jerry Custer, one of two people challenging him for BOS in November. He accused Custer of contacting police to search for his missing campaign signs and threatening the police with no pay raise if they didn’t find the wayward signs. Frankly, I only knew what he was talking about after I read the newspaper article the next morning. At the time, I had no idea what Mr. Church was talking about. He seemed to be enraged about something, but what he was saying made no sense to me. I did find it interesting that the news hounds from NewsChannel 10 “On Your Side” just happened to show up a few minutes before Mr. Church’s tirade and left shortly thereafter. Perhaps, Mr. Custer’s strong election bid is beginning to worry Mr. Church.

The supervisors covered four issues in the work session. The first was a report by Diane Hyatt on the upcoming sale of bonds to cover the cost of all of the county capital projects. In case you don’t know, the county plans, in addition to the $28 million renovation of Northside High, to build a $28 million multigenerational recreation center, build a $17 million library, build a $10 million fire/rescue station, install a $8 police/emergency radio system, and extend a water line to the Franklin County line along Rt 220 for $2 million. Funding for these projects hasn’t really been explained to me in terms I can understand, but it seems the supervisors plan to cover these expenses through a $58 million bond issue in either December or spring. One point that Joe McNamara kept making that seemingly fell on deaf ears with staff was that the original funding plan that I didn’t understand was based on a 6% interest rate. However, interest rates are currently set at 4.7%. He seemed to suggest that the whole project would therefore cost less than originally planned. Keep in mind that the more money that projects like these cost, the harder it will be for schools to get the monies they need for vital programs and initiatives.

Lawyer Mahoney (county attorney) then brought up the latest efforts of the state to pass a “Homestead Exemption.” The exemption will allow any citizen to go to Oklahoma and stake a claim to up to 100 acres of prime real estate. Wait a minute…that was the Homestead Act. Right. The Homestead Exemption, if passed and approved, will allow local governments to exempt up to 20% of a homeowner’s real estate tax on their permanent residence. In order to become law and legal, this measure must be voted for affirmatively in the upcoming General Assembly and then be placed on the ballot next November for consideration as a state constitutional amendment. If it passes, localities may choose to invoke the rule.

The problems with this constitutional amendment are many and varied. First, Roanoke County already does not assess property at 100% of value. It’s more like 83%. Dropping taxes another 20% would be like a double break. Institution of this break would cause the county to lose about $13 million annually. Of that, about $1.76 million would come straight out of the school budget based on current projections. Board member Altizer said that this would force the BOS to completely “rewrite the [budget] agreement in place now between the school board and the board of supervisors.” Suffice to say, our county education budget would be forced to radically change if that were to happen after next year. That would seriously jeopardize our hopes of completing a “living wage” campaign for our support staff and our efforts to raise pay for county teachers to the state then national average.

The third issue was the status of the Governor’s budget cuts. The Governor has proclaimed that Virginia is about $613 million short on revenue collection this budget year and cuts need to be made. He has proposed cutting about $300 million from various non-public school education services and making up the rest from the state’s “Rainy Day Fund.” (I heard this morning that he may be overstating the shortfall by about $500 million!). While K-12 public education has not been touched yet, $8.8 million in surplus literary loan money (money pool to be borrowed from for new school construction) will be used to help pay state shares of VRS for employees. The RCPS BOS are worried that the state will come back in December requiring a higher local match of funds. They are also concerned that this issue will carry over to the next budget cycle.

The fourth thing discussed was fire code amendments. To be honest, I listened to that for a moment or two then left.

I’m very pleased that we’ve gotten a cadre of dedicated RCEA members to attend the Board of Supervisor meetings. I would encourage any other members who wish to join the fun to email me at Newt999@gmail.com.

thom ryder

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