Part 1 will remain on Anti. I hope no one said anything that we can’t live with out. If you said something totally great, cut and paste and bring it on over.
By request this thread is being moved to the top and will address school board budget topics.
This sounds good. I hope the new blog will be successful. Congrats, and I like the name by the way!
I think my kids would have been in therapy if the Sea World trainer who chose them to do tricks with the orca several years ago was dragged into the water and drowned.
oops, didn’t realize there was already a thread on that topic…
You are fine, Emma. Its our first day and things aren’t exactly where we left them.
Everything seems the same but yet it is different if that makes sense.
And by the way, I am glad you and GR are both here.
Thanks, Moon. And please don’t accuse me of being partisan against orcas đ
I promise…regarding orcas. They are beautiful animals aren’t they? They look like giant aquatic boston terriers.
That time I went on the orca watch in Canada was really terrific. Some people went out in zodiak in wet suits. Not sure I would want to be quite that up close and personal with..a wild animal.
Aquatic Boston Terriers. lol
I’ll take the canine version. Thank you very much.
This is for any of you who currently have children enrolled in the PWCS Specialty Schools program. Dr. Walts budget is calling for transportation to be cut for those students who live outside of that particular home school. This is a great disappointment because these Specialty Schools rely so much on those students coming from other areas in the County, and this will more than likely spell the eventual end of the specialty programs. This is at the same time the Superintendent and School Board WILL be providing transportation to the Governorâs School, a multimillionaire dollar program they started knowing very well that PWCS would be facing an unprecedented budget deficit. It is also of note that PWCS will continue to provide transportation to Fairfax Countyâs Thomas Jefferson School.
For many of you, the response may be, âWho caresâ or âThey didnât have specialty schools when I was in school, why should they now?â In response, this is the one thing that sets PWCS apart from any other N. Virginia school, or most schools in the country for that matter. At this point the County is not even considering providing a âpay for transportationâ plan, which would at least be a viable alternative.
These programs have brought excitement to many students who totally lack enthusiasm with regards to their education. In addition, this is at least in part, a program of real School Choice. If you know of anyone with kids in the Specialty programs, please let then know about these cuts. For those interested in taking action, see below:
The Prince William County School Board will hold a public hearing on the Superintendentâs Proposed Fiscal Year (FY) 2011 Budget and Capital Improvements Program at 6 p.m. on Monday, March 1 in the auditorium of Stonewall Jackson High School. Stonewall Jackson High School is located at 8820 Rixlew Lane, Manassas.
Citizens may sign up to speak at the public hearing through the School Board Clerkâs Office until noon on March 1 by calling 703.791.8709 or by emailing [email protected]. Citizens may also sign up on March 1 at the entrance to the Stonewall Jackson High School auditorium door from 5 p.m. until 5:55 p.m. Citizens must sign up by these deadlines in order to speak. Each speaker will have up to two minutes to make comments.
The budget public hearing previously scheduled for February 8 was canceled because of a snowstorm.
A budget work session will be held following the Boardâs public meeting at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, March 3. A special work session for final markup on the budget is scheduled for Wednesday, March 17 following the School Boardâs regular meeting which will begin at 7 p.m.
The School Board has rescheduled its vote on the Superintendentâs Proposed FY 2011 Budget and Capital Improvements Program from March 17 to a special meeting on March 24. That meeting will begin at 7 p.m. in the School Board meeting room in the Edward L. Kelly Leadership Center, 14715 Bristow Road, Manassas, and will be broadcast live on PWCS-TV, Comcast Channel 18 and Verizon Channel 36.
M-h, you don’t have room on the blog for all of the things I’ve said that you could live without:-)
Now Al, don’t sell yourself short there. You are a valuable asset both to this blog and its old home.
Welcome, Lake Ridge. You have brought up some very valid points. I advise everyone who lives in Prince William County Schools to read your mini essay.
Much of what you have brought up also applies to the thread on housing assessments. Having the specialty programs attracts people to Prince William County. It is a drawing card. There is a flip side that no one probably wants to talk about.
The speciality programs are often housed in the schools with the lower SOL and SAT scores. Years ago, some brilliant person same up with this plan to help balance out the schools with kids who wanted to be there and wanted to learn–High achieving kids whose parents were all in favor of them being there so they could participate in the speciality prgram that interested them the most.
Now, take that same set of kids and try to enforce a boundary change. You have months and months of highly charged public hearings with people threatening to shoot the superintendent. The specialty program is a far easier, kinder, gentler way to economically balance schools and level the playing field a lot.
Dr. Walts is mighty short-sighted if he doesn’t see this for himself. There is a Kelly Building. I hope he isn’t counting on there being a Walts Building.
A couple of quick points in response to Lake Ridge and M-H:
First, transportation is NOT repeat NOT in the budget for the new Governor’s School. At this point, only Pennington and Porter (the traditional schools) retain transportation, and they will “pay” for this privilege by having their start time shifted to the HS schedule, which is necessary but not terribly popular. TJ is a separate issue and may very well change as we go forward. (And as an aside, the Governor’s School is not a multi-million dollar program either – it’s actually a pretty good deal for the County.)
Second, the specialty programs are housed in all 10 High Schools and many of the MS and ES. They are not just in schools with lower SAT and SOL scores. We consider them a County-wide asset, and their purpose is not (and never was) to “balance out the schools”. The temporary lack of transportation (we will restore it just as soon as funds permit) will not kill the specialty programs. We don’t like this any better than the specialty program parents do, but we have no choice. We are slashing things all across the budget, not just the specialty programs. Dr. Walts is extremely unhappy at what he is being forced to do by this budget situation, but he (and we) have no choice: we are required to present the BOCS with a balanced budget.
Finally, in response to Lake Ridge, we HAVE considered a “pay for transportation” plan. It is not a viable alternative. To make out-of-boundary transportation self-funding would require parents to pay such a high price that most wouldn’t do it. And lower income families would be effectively shut out. The current proposal, in my opinion, does less damage to the program than the alternatives.
Both M-H and Lake Ridge, thank you for publicizing the Budget Hearing next Monday. There is still time to weigh in with your suggestions and opinions before we begin finalizing the budget in March. My only request is that if you ask us not to cut something, be prepared to propose what else you would cut instead, or other alternatives. We are operating under the assumption that the current revenue estimates are all we’re going to get.
Welcome Don Richardson. We thank you for a quick response.
Back in the beginning of the specialty programs, it sure looked like a way to bring affluence into the older schools in older neighborhoods which did not have as high of test scores. I probably will not ever be convinced that wasn’t in part, some motivation for putting IB programs at Garfield, Stonewall, Beville, SJMS, ……Regardless of the motivation, it was a good idea. In fact, I would go so far as to say if that wasn’t the reason, it should have been. What other ways to we have to level the playing field in our schools?
Aging schools have self fulfilling problems. Look at the stink the Gainesville parents raised over their kids going to SJHS rather than Battlefield. There has to be a carrot.
Back to transportation-how about those activity buses that run in the afternoon to take kids home from detention, homework clubs, sports practice, and extra curricular activities? Will those buses still run and will there be a charge for them?
If I were king or queen for the day, I would charge all the kids who feel they need to drive to school about a grand a semester to park my car. Make most of them ride the bus. Then I would rent out the parking lot as commuter space. That would earn some money for the schools.
I heard some rather troubling rumors while out this evening. Apparently word is going around that sponsors of speciality programs have been told by the powers that be that they are not to tell parents about the meeting Monday night about the transportation unless specifically asked. I also heard that they have been told if they spread the word it will be considered insubordination.
Is it true? I don’t know. The person who told me was heated up over this issue. I would think that parents should know all about the plan to cut transportation off. Many parents simply won’t be able to get their kids to and from a specialty program if it is not at their base school. What a horrible shame!!!! Sunlight is our friend. Parents should have full information on the funding or defunding of transportation to and from these specialty programs.
That is horrible. Why would teachers and school personnel be banned from telling parents how cuts in the budget would impact their child’s education? Most parents don’t know these things. It is up to the school personnel to tell them.
The school system gets its money from the board of supervisors. It isn’t like they can go out and raise their own money.
Another blog is blaming schools for telling the parents to ask for the tax rate to be set higher. I don’t know why the schools shouldn’t tell parents how bad things are going to be and to ask for more money, if that’s what it takes. Working for Prince William County Schools does not take away your first amendment rights and it sure shouldn’t make you not tell the truth to the parents.
Mr. Richardson, I appreciate your prompt response; I certainly didn’t expect one from a Board member, so it was a pleasant surprise. My concern by your response is that it almost sounds like it’s a done deal. My impression of the budget process is that your body serves as a check on the powers of the Superintendent, which is how it works at any other level of government. In saying that you have “considered the pay-for-transportation” plan, I’m assuming this is without input from parents.
Mr. Richardson is correct that these Specialty Schools are not only housed in schools with lower SOL and SAT scores. My son, a rising 9th grader, planned on attending Osbourn Park, a school far from the characterization of a previous poster.
I again implore the Board to seriously think about what sets PWCS apart from other schools. This decision will most definitely lead to PWCS losing its competitiveness with other N. Virginia schools. For many of us, it is programs such as this that have encouraged us to settle down in PWC and send our children to PW Co. Schools. I can tell you that my son, who was so excited about the prospect of going into the Biotechnology program, is absolutely crushed.
As for other areas to be cut, the School Board seriously needs to look at the type of spending that goes on within the individual schools, where with many, spending is absolutely out of control. If you want to find ways to save money, then require stricter auditing of what the schools are spending their money on. It may time to pull away from site-based management.
Thanks, M-H. It is certainly true that in many places, specialty-type schools HAVE been used to entice certain populations to go to school in other than their home areas, in order to bring some demographic balance. If we only had them in certain schools, you would be right in making that assumption about PWC, but we’ve gone way beyond that. Our very first specialty school was Pennington, which was an entirely separate school designed around a “traditional” program. It has been very successful and is still very popular.
As for your question about the activity busses – don’t know for sure at this point but I would be surprised if that is not one of the line items that gets debated during our worksessions.
I like your last paragraph, especially the out of the box idea to raise revenue by turning HS parking lots into commuter lots. Not sure it’s feasible, legally or politically, but I may toss that out there for discussion if a worksession is in danger of getting too boring. (grin)
Re: your second post: if you have specific names of individuals who have been trying to dampen public comment, I would appreciate having them (privately, you know how to reach me!). The fact that we have limited options for dealing with this situation does not relieve us of the responsibility for letting parents vent and share their concerns.
Daisy Duke, you are right: school personnel have First Amendment rights the same as everyone else. But folks need to be careful how they exercise them. Writing emails or sending letters on your own time and using your own computer is one thing, but doing it with taxpayer-provided resources, during the workday when you are supposed to be doing your regular job, is problematic for a lot of folks. It’s not an easy situation to balance.
Monday night. 6 PM. Stonewall Jackson HS. Be there.
The school board needs to check in to what the specialty program coordinators are being told. It doesn’t sound very pretty. It certainly doesn’t bring parents in to the loop. There is no reason for staff to feel threatened.
Furthermore, everyone who has kicked around PWC for the past 20 years knows the game plan behind the speciality schools. No, not ALL specialty schools are in your older schools with lower scores. However, when specialty (magnet) schools first started up in the county they were at your older schools. It was actually a solid plan and a lot friendlier than other ways school systems have of distributing students.
Check out where some of the original specialty programs in secondary schools were housed for yourself. Godwin, Beville, Garfield, Parkside, Stonewall Middle, Stonewall Senior just to name a few. The plan was well received and parents and students liked the idea of magnet programs. The plan grew. But the original idea served a purpose. It was a win/win solution to make schools from older communities more desirable.
There are IT programs, Bio Tech, IB, foreign language centers, math and science centers Cambridge programs in various locations all over the county. They make a lot of kids and parents happy. Many parents work in this area and it will be almost impossible for some kids to stay in their specialty program if transportation goes. Cut activity buses and middle school sports programs first. Make them pay as you go rather than slashing buses for academic programs.
I am not against athletic programs. However, if there are only a certain number of dollars to go around, then we have to look at what schools are really for and prioritize in that manner.
Lake Ridge is correct. Parent input is needed. They should be given the opportunity to pay for transportation. Perhaps a new business could start up in the county. Curbside bus service. Maybe Gary Jacobsen would consider expanding his pentagon vans.
Parents need to be told in no uncertain terms exactly what the proposed cuts involve. They need to be told by the schools and the school board. If parents want to continue with the World Class Education Program in Prince William County, they have better be willing to pony up a lot higher tax rate than our supervisors seem to have in mind. Perhaps its time for a mother’s march on the BOCS.
It looks like Mr. Richardson and I crossed in the mail.
Lake Ridge posted while I was drafting my first post.
To quote the late, great John Belushi, “nothing is over until WE say it is!”. No, at this point the budget is far from a done deal. However, in looking at the money we are likely to have vs. the different options we have for cutting, it is already clear that some things just won’t be do-able, at least not this year. With regard to asking parents to pay for specialty transportation, I asked Staff to consider that, in response to several suggestions from parents. No, we did not send out a county-wide survey, but we cannot survey the community on each and every budget choice we have to make. This is why you elect a School Board – to use their collective judgment and their knowledge of their constituents’ desires to make the best possible decisions. Based on 8 years of service, my judgment agreed with staff’s response – namely, that it wasn’t a viable solution.
I would change the wording a bit on your definition of the School Board’s role vs. the Superintendent. He has no powers that we have not given to him. His budgets are drafted to respond to strategic goals and priorities set by the School Board. He works for us. We have the final responsibility for determining the budget, not him, and we often make changes to his draft budget before finalizing it. Some folks accuse us of merely being a rubber stamp for whatever the Superintendent wants, but in fact most of the proposals he brings us are directly in response to the desires of one or more Board members. If the Superintendent brings the School Board proposals that respond to what they want, then why WOULDN’T we vote in favor?
Thank you for re-emphasizing that the Specialty programs are one of the things that set us apart from other school systems. Let me say again, I dislike these cuts as much as you do, and will be working to restore that funding as soon as practical.
Regarding your last comment, I disagree that the spending in individual schools is out of control. However, you should be aware that the Board has directed staff to undertake a comprehensive look at Site Based Management (this has actually been going on over the last year) and at some point there may well be changes made. Site-Based is one valid concept for school budgeting, but we implemented it over 20 years ago when the County population was only half the size it is now, and when the demographics and a lot of other factors were different. There are a lot more state and federal rules today governing how we spend our money, so more oversight may well be in order. With appropriate transparency and auditing, however, we should still be able to maintain the basics of Site-Based. This is an ongoing review so don’t expect to hear anything immediately, but it is being looked at.
Thanks to all for the thoughtful comments.
Don, sorry about this drive-by but if you want to talk out of control or perhaps more correctly unsupervised spending, why don’t we talk about the amount of money the school system spends on legal counsel, and in Ms. McGowan’s case, I use that term loosely.
Just one final thought, then I have to get on to other pressing business.
M-H, I agree completely that the academic programs should be highest priority. The Superintendent’s draft budget does in fact call for higher participation fees for both MS and HS sports. My understanding is that the fees at the Middle School level will cover most if not all of the program costs. Somewhat less so at the HS level, but nonetheless parents will have to pony up a lot more than before. So some of the burden IS being shifted to athletics. I suspect Activity busses may also come up as an alternative cut. However, cuts in those areas may not be enough to make up for the cuts elsewhere. It’s a pretty complicated jigsaw puzzle to put together.
That said, I appreciate the way you are approaching this by way of offering suggestions and alternatives. Not all will be practical but all should certainly be considered. Parents of out-of-boundary specialty students, for example, need to band together and create carpools. Parents who have the ability to drive their kids could team up with other parents who don’t have that option, with the latter compensating the drivers for part of their gas costs.
Thanks you for trying to outreach to parents, Mr. Richardson. And I know you are one of the good guys. I will try to find out a names of those directing people not to talk to parents. I can’t reveal sources, as you know. One slip up there and your sources dry up. And I do hope I made it clear that it was an unconfirmed rumor.
Of course Mr. R is right about Pennington. I never consider it a specialty school but it is. And it is wildly popular. There is always a waiting list. I also never even thought about 2 entire schools being without transportation since they have no ‘boundaries.’ And if an exception were made, how would that go over with the other specialties program kids?
The BOCS is going to have to decide if it is going to educate kids or if it is going to continue holding out a carrot for businesses. If the schools are going to operate in any life form we might recognize, it is going to take money.
As for staff responsibilities, I would say kids can’t do a darn thing about the budget. However their parents can. Budget discussions do not belong in the classroom. Parent contact if fair game though and they should be told every step of the way.
The time is now, before that tax rate is etched in stone. I am not sure that the BOCS even knows the desperate straits the School Board side of the house is in. I believe only 1 has children in public school which speaks volumes about confidence. Mr. Richardson, if you will email me a budget time line (I know, I should know it by heart) I will be glad to post it.
[email protected] <----- there is a dot in there beween moon and howler.
The School Board has on several occasions in the past discussed how we get legal representation, and we continue to do so. Now may very well be a time for a different model. However, when you take shots at Mary McGowan, you are way off base and I take personal offense. Your comments would be a lot more effective minus the cheap nastiness.
That last comment was in response to Mom, if it was not obvious to all.
Mr. Richardson, I appreciate you posting here. It keeps us informed and hopefully people will feel that they aren’t just howling in the wind since you have been so quick to respond.
Lake Ridge or others, if you need a thread about this topic or other budget issues especially as they relate to education, let me know privately or publically. It is fine to use the open thread also.
I am going to ask our contributors to remember our sub-title about civil debate.
Elena and I want Mr. Richardson to come here often, and bring the rest of his colleagues. We have a serious problem in this county with money for education. It has dried up locally and at the state level. It is only through discussion and brainstorming that we can take this crisis and come up with viable solutions.
Translation: I don’t want Mr. Richardson or any other school board member to feel like they are walking in to an armed camp when they come to Moonhowlings. We’ve got work to do. Send him an email if a nastygram is in order.
Moon,
Yes, you need a thread on this and keep at the top. The budget meeting at Stonewall is tomorrow night. I’ve had many friends contact me and say they are gravely concerned about the cuts at the schools. I certainly want to address the Governor’s School and perhaps Lake Ridge, might change their opinion somehat on the school. This is something I’ve been following very closely from the beginning.
Mr. Richardson,
Thanks for your thoughts on the budget. I’m curious what happens if hundreds come out to speak tomorrow night. How will that be handled with regards to hearing everyone? One it be a “marathon citizens’ time” of sorts? Or would their be a continuation of the meeting to hear all citizens’ input?
corr: Would it be a “marathon citizens’ time” of sorts?
Edit Moon, please.
Don, I don’t know why you would take it personally, the shot wasn’t at you but your legal representation, that is unless of course you question the postions taken as a result of legal counsel as well. That being said, I feel no compulsion to apologise for the comment as there is every indication that the legal opinions and actions of the School Board’s counsel lack transparency and IMHO sound legal basis. I know of no other law firm other than the one representing the School Board that doesn’t provide a line item accounting for their billing, an accounting generally broken down into five minute detailed increments. If, as has been reportedm, your current legal representation presents a block bill without such detail, I question how you can possibly know what you are paying for.
A law firm that does NOT give a line item bill. Are you effing kidding me, mom? Especially a bill that is paid by the taxpayers of PWC. UFB!! Why would the county or anyone accept a bill like that?
Well Lafayette, if the local paper is correct, apparently not, that or the “district” is misrepresenting the billing circumstances.
“His requests were denied by the schools with the school attorney citing exemptions in FOIA law. After the denial, he requested the schools send him a copy of all attorneyâs fees relating to his previous FOIA request.
The district again denied him with its legal representation stating that it wouldnât be able to separate its fees due to its âblockâ billing.”
What say you Don?
Mom, you have every right to question the mechanics of how legal billing is done, and other relevant topics. Where you lose me is in taking cheap shots at Mrs. McGowan’s legal abilities. I’ve worked with her for over 8 years now and she’s a good lawyer. The fact that you disagree with her advice (or what you perceive her advice has been) does not necessarily mean it was bad advice. Legal advice is given in private for good reason. Transparency does not trump our ability to receive and discuss certain topics confidentially and the law backs us up on this. You have no idea of all that goes into our decisionmaking in this regard.
Since I don’t know who you are, I have no way of assessing your qualifications to judge someone else’s legal work. Your allegations (and your cheap shots at her abilities) would mean more if you would publish them under your own name.
For the record, I take it personally when ANYONE I know and respect is unjustly and anonymously slammed. And that is all I am going to say on this topic.
In response to Lafayette’s question, we will begin at 6 PM and each citizen will get 2 minutes. Unless we really get overwhelmed by turnout, I would imagine we would sit there and listen until everyone has had their say. 2 minutes per citizen theoretically equals 30 people per hour, although there is a certain amount of time lost in transition from one person to the next. Let’s say we can actually hear 25 people per hour. That means we could hear 125 by 11 PM. Can’t imagine it would get that huge but we will just have to see. The Board Clerks have already been warned to keep us well supplied with coffee.
Nothing about the billing? Hmmm.
BTW, I do know quite a bit about what goes into the decision-making process that occurs in closed session and am all too familiar with the provisions of 2.2-3711. As is often the case IMHO, the School Board too often presumes a lack of knowledge or insight and dismisses criticism based on that prejudice, care to open the MI can of worms.
As an aside, as an elected official you should realize that by posting on a blog you open yourself up to questions and criticism, not only of yourself but also of those you supervise. That’s not meant to discourage your posting but merely a recognition of present realities.
I personally am glad Don Richardson is here because he is the elected school board member for the Gainesville Magisterial District. Most of our base is in that district. I consider his presence a welcome asset to this blog and I felt the same way on Anti.
I am concerned about the AP or any kind of few remaining honors programs being impacted. Our kids have enough of a battle competing for the few slots available to Northern VA high schoolers in our public universities. Has anyone looked recently at the GPA necessary to enter any state insitution – the ones we pay for? If a GPA of 3.8 or higher is needed for Tech, UVA, W&M, CNU, JMU what is the “less gifted” B student to do? Forget VA college if you are a C student. Well, you can go to NOVA and transfer, but you won’t have the four year experience that those with a C+ or B from Henrico or Roanoke or Virgina Beach will have on my tax dollar.
Frankly, if I had realized what a disadvantage it was for our children to live here I would have moved to a jurisdiction south or west to increase my child’s chances of actually attending a Va state school. Education doesn’t end with PWC EDU and frankly, I think they’ve forgotten that. Especially for the “less gifted” B students.
Well Don, two hours and nothing but crickets. I’ve spent some of my time reviewing past budgets and note cost overruns on your legal line item to the tune of several hundred thousand dollars. I note that this year’s budget proposal includes a quarter million dollar reduction in the legal line item but given past performance question the validity of the proposal, particularly given the “block billing” practice currently in place. To that end, how do you monitor or limit spending on that line item if you don’t know what you’re spending the money on. As the responsibility ultimately falls on the School Board, the entity endowed with the public trust and oversight of our tax dollars, I’m really curious how you would explain the current situation and if you intend to place stricter controls on those particular expenditures. As a start, you might consider a cost benefit analysis of a more narrow application of FOIA exemptions v. the cost of defending against a civil action, transparency after all is a good thing is it not.
We also need to consider the ripple effects of having thousands of students return to their base schools. Although there will be additional teachers brought into those schools, it will definitely mean even larger class sizes. Hundreds of teachers will need to be de-staffed at the specialty schools and placed into the other schools. This shifting of teachers will only spell a very chaotic situation for the schools in which those children will be returning. Thinking of the multiple effects of just this one decision is absolutely overwhelming. Let there be no mistake, this is going to have an impact on all high school students, regardless of whether they attend a specialty school or not.
Lake Ridge once again makes some excellent points. How many kids are involved in speciality programs? How many buses are involved? These programs are what set PWC apart from other localities. What will happen to high school kids who are in the IB program from other schools?
Please repost the times and directions for signing up.
The Prince William County School Board will hold a public hearing on the Superintendentâs Proposed Fiscal Year (FY) 2011 Budget and Capital Improvements Program at 6 p.m. on Monday, March 1 in the auditorium of Stonewall Jackson High School. Stonewall Jackson High School is located at 8820 Rixlew Lane, Manassas.
Citizens may sign up to speak at the public hearing through the School Board Clerkâs Office until noon on March 1 by calling 703.791.8709 or by emailing [email protected]. Citizens may also sign up on March 1 at the entrance to the Stonewall Jackson High School auditorium door from 5 p.m. until 5:55 p.m. Citizens must sign up by these deadlines in order to speak. Each speaker will have up to two minutes to make comments.
A budget work session will be held following the Boardâs public meeting at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, March 3. A special work session for final markup on the budget is scheduled for Wednesday, March 17 following the School Boardâs regular meeting which will begin at 7 p.m.
The School Board has rescheduled its vote on the Superintendentâs Proposed FY 2011 Budget and Capital Improvements Program from March 17 to a special meeting on March 24. That meeting will begin at 7 p.m. in the School Board meeting room in the Edward L. Kelly Leadership Center, 14715 Bristow Road, Manassas, and will be broadcast live on PWCS-TV, Comcast Channel 18 and Verizon Channel 36.
I have a general question. How, if at all, does homeschooling a child affect county education budgets? Does the county still have to allocate funds in the budget in case the child is moved back into the system or are the funds not allocated at all?
Could it be a defensive measure to ask more parents to homeschool (to provide a more classic education in reading & writing, as an example) and to help with internal budget estimations?
Just tossing out an idea.. I could be off base and would like to really understand how it ‘works’.
Juturna is on a roll today and she makes some excellent points. Our high school kids must be competeing with all the other NoVA kids and it is very competitive. Look at those numbers required to gain admissions. There are only so many kids with a 3.8 GPA.
This problem will get even worse. About 6 months ago I read where fewer and fewer spots are allocated for Virginia kids at Virginia schools. Why? The colleges need money and where can they get it? Out-of-state students bring in more money to a school. The in-state tuition simply doesn’t bring in as much money to each state college or university. It might be interesting to research the ratio of in-state to out-of-state students this past year. What is projected for next year.
It looks like the students of Stonewall Jackson are taking part and have set up a cause page on FaceBook.
http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=357095711354&ref=nf
Lake Ridge has indeed brought up an good point regarding students returning to their base schools. This will cause some schools to be overcrowded and then there will be schools below capacity due to the vacant houses that will leave some schools below 100% occupancy. The change then could lead to boundary adjustments which always gets parents fired up, and as it should.
Moon, the speciality schools have transportation provided at the middle and elementary levels too. Are they not under consideration of being cut or just the high school specialty schools? I thought this cut would effect transportation at school levels.
Marinm, I believe the per pupil allocation only kicks in if that student attends school on Sept 30. No expert here on home schooling though. Sept 30 is the magic day though.
How does this proposal affect SIGNET kids? Is there a SIGNET center in every school? Will they receive services in their base school now?
So lots of unhappy kids, unhappy teachers and you need a 3.8 to go to a state institution. Dandy. I’m sold.
Again, I’d zap that Administrative layer that is in EVERY school. Centralize it, reduce administrative overhead and hey, here’s an idea – get back to the mission. The mission is not a kingdom, it’s teachers and students.
I’m quite pleased to see the students of my high school taking such an active role in the budget proccess. I’ve seen a couple of bright students mention on thier FB pages that will not be able to afford the tests at the IB level and will taking some regular courses due to the costs. A full time IB student said she could be faced with almost $600 in testing fees.