Parents flare up over stolen recess

MoonHowler

There is a hue and cry over Superintendent Walts plan to shave 5 minutes off of elementary recess from now until the end of the year, to make up for lost instructional time due to snow days. To date, PWC has missed 12 days and has had 5 2 hour delays because of inclement weather.

Some parents are showing their displeasure by signing a petition to add 5 minutes on to the end of the day rather than shave the time off of recess.

From Haymarketbeat.com:

Bristow Beat’s Facebook page also saw an outcry against the decision to shorten recess. Parents argued that young children have to sit through too much structured activity as it is in the school day, and that recess is a good opportunity to allow them to be children.

“Kids today spend almost all of their time in structured activities or in front of a screen (tv, video games, computer, cell phone, ipod) with no opportunity to learn to entertain themselves and be active for fun, EXCEPT SCHOOL RECESS,” one woman commented. “Cut that back and then they wonder why kids have such issues with attention span, creative thinking, etc. The business of childhood is play.”

Many parents commenting agreed that recess is a necessity so that students could come back to class refreshed and ready to learn. They expressed their fear that with a shortened recess children’s behavior and academic ability would suffer.

I think adding 5 minutes to the end of the day sounds good but on the other hand, who knows what all in involved with adding 5 minutes to everything involving transportion. There are probably things the average Joe just hasn’t thought about. Which brings up another point. Why is it up to the schools to fix what ails kids?

“Kids today spend almost all of their time in structured activities or in front of a screen (tv, video games, computer, cell phone, ipod) with no opportunity to learn to entertain themselves and be active for fun, EXCEPT SCHOOL RECESS,” one woman commented.

What am I missing here?  Isn’t it the responsibility of the parents to take these toys  and screens away from their children and to chase their kids outside?  It now sounds like this is something the schools have to provide for kids–live without technology.  Back in the day, when my kids were kids, turned off the TV, took away the video games and  I chased them outside.  They were gone from sun up to sun down, off being kids.  Yes, we had perverts back in the dark ages so I don’t want to hear that as an excuse.  Kids are actually safer nowadays, they have cell phones which serve as a leash.

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Taking care of the schools: NOW

MoonHowler

supply room

As Prince William County begins its budget deliberations, I want to encourage the supervisors to remember the poor, beleaguered schools, their students and their teachers.   As it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a county to do the right thing by its schools.  The BOCS must set the current tax rate.

Regardless of political correctness or other artificial constraints some folks will attempt to put on the situation, the BOCS needs to do 2 things.  They need to set the tax rate high enough to start bringing the schools up to snuff after the long , lean period following the housing crash that began in 2007.   They they need to give the School Board a little larger slice of the pie.

The school system needs to do three things:

1.  Start reducing class size.

2.  Give teachers and other employees a raise.

3.  Make basic supplies more readily available.

Frankly, no one wants to hear the old tea party rallying call to ‘Stop Spending.’   Those words are simplistic answers for simplistic people.  The average person has no idea what programs are mandated and what programs are not.  I have spent more years in the system than most folks and I don’t know all the ins and outs in that regard.  No one does when dealing with a hugely complex system like Prince William, Loudoun, Fairfax or Stafford.

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Electronic town hall: The District of Nottingham

MoonHowler

Now we use the telephone

I used to live in the Gainesville District.  In recent times, I am not so sure what district I live in.  I have not moved.

Last night, my supervisor held an electronic town hall meeting.   I like the concept of the electronic town hall meeting.  I enjoyed the last one.  Last night, not so much.  All I heard were talking points from a local blog.  I was disappointed.  I pretty much heard affirmation of an uncooperative board of supervisors and an irresponsible school board.  I don’t believe either of these bodies are irresponsible.  Furthermore, the school board is not made up of members of society from a lesser god.  They are duly elected officers  of the county, the same as the board of supervisor members.

I wanted to ask a question but I figured I wouldn’t get through to my supervisor.  It wouldn’t have been well-received, I don’t think.

The question I would have asked is the following:

If I contacted the supervisor’s office or the county over something that irritated the supervisor, would he post my inquiry on his website, thus opening me up for ridicule and vicious attacks from local bloggers and contributors?

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Candland and Stewart: two peas in a pod

MoonHowler

Potomaclocal.com:

Gainesville District Supervisor Peter Candland held a town hall Thursday night at Alvey Elementary School in Haymarket to speak to area residents about what he said is the need to “act right away” to provide more funds to the county school board to cut class sizes, which are now at their maximum capacity, he said. The number of students in classrooms is larger than those of schools in neighboring Loudoun and Fairfax counties, according to a Washington Area Board of Education report.

Candland advocates raising the amount of money the School Board automatically gets from the county in an annual budget transfer, which is currently 57.23% of the county budget, to allow the Board to hire additional teachers and to pay them salaries comparable to what educators earn in surrounding counties.

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Standing ovation for Mount Vernon High’s dress code

MoonHowler

jeggings

Washingtonpost.com:

When students at Fairfax County’s Mount Vernon High School return to classes next week, they no longer will be allowed to wear “jeggings” as pants.

What exactly are jeggings? They are the fashion cousin of leggings, the skin-tight staples found in many high school hallways. Jeggings are leggings with a faux-denim appearance, providing the tailored jean look that is in vogue among teenagers. To dress in leggings or jeggings, Mount Vernon students must wear them underneath shorts, dresses or skirts that are at most three inches above the knee, according to school regulations.

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Mrs. Caddigan gets it! BOCS–Listen to the lady!

MoonHowler

Get Microsoft Silverlight

Mrs. Caddigan restates the obvious–too much building and not enough of a commerical base. If she could only arm-twist the rest of the guys to stop rubber-stamping the development. “Slow down the construction of the new homes and concentrate on the commericial” is more than fair….

Growth exceeds the rate of revenues. That’s the way it has always been.

The BOCS needs to slow the growth. Good for Pete Candland for echoing  her remarks….before he went off the deep end on zero base budget approach.

For the record, Prince William County, at least in modern times, has never required teachers to buy their own supplies.  Most of them do buy things they want for their own instructional purposes, but they don’t have to.  Many years ago, a secretary at a mid county elementary school used to hand out one strip of staples at a time, or so I have been told.    Perhaps in that case…..

 

PWBOCS: Cheap! Cheap! Cheap!

MoonHowler

Even though Easter has past, I still hear the echoes of Cheap! Cheap! Cheap! resonating across Prince William County.  No, that isn’t the sound of baby chicks.  It’s the sound made by the Board of County Supervisors.

Note a few facts:

Per Classroom indicators show that Prince William County has the highest teacher:student ratio in the DC metro area:

per teacher

Upon further inspection, we see that Prince William county also spends very little per student compared to many of its neighboring jurisdictions.

per pupil2

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Why ARE PWC Schools over-crowded?

Elena

captain_obvious2

One of my husband’s favorite sayings is “Captain Obvious” when someone says something so incredibly, well, obvious.   There are parents in the PWC community that have suddenly come to the realization that our class sizes are woefully too full, so full, that quality instruction is being jepoardized.   PWC school has reached the state’s legal limit for class size.

PWCS raised class sizes to the state limits this school year in response to current budget constraints. In the executive summary of the 2014 budget, Walts notes that reductions of teacher staffing ratios (or increases in class sizes) have led to savings of $4.3 million at the middle-school level and $5.3 million at the high school level. Walts also notes that next year’s budget does not restore those cuts.

In response to concerns about class sizes, Walts’s office has said it would cost $15 million annually to reduce average class sizes by one student at all levels. The Code of Virginia sets the following maximum class-size limits: 29 for kindergarten classes; 30 for grades one through three; and 35 for grades four through six. English classes are limited to 24 in grades one through 12, otherwise there are no state maximum class-size limits for grades seven and above, according to Dena Rosenkrantz, an attorney with the Virginia Education Association.

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Teachers to attend BOCS Tues to ask for tax rate that supports schools

MoonHowler

public education

Prince William County teachers plan to attend the BOCS meeting tomorrow en mass.  Prince William County teachers have not had a step increase in 3 years.    They are not expected to get one until 2016.  They have had a couple of very small raises.  They will once again ask for the supervisors to set an advertised tax rate that sustains a teacher raise and reduced class sizes.

Teachers want  the Supervisors to set a tax rate high enough to accommodate a step increase, raise, and reduction in class size.  The uninformed often wonder why teachers don’t approach the PWC School Board for this raise and reduction, rather than the BOCS.  They do.  However, school boards, in Virginia, do not have the power to tax so they must get the funds from the governing body, in this case, the Board of County Supervisors.   The BOCS sets the tax rate and so they are who the teachers must appeal to.

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Corey Stewart removes School Resource officers from the chopping block

MoonHowler

Wtop.com

A local leader is changing his mind about the presence of officers in schools in the wake of the school shooting that killed 26 people last month in Newtown, Conn.

Prince William County Board of Supervisors Chairman Cory Stewart originally pushed to cut the number of police officers in county schools due to budget problems. He estimated the cuts could save around $500,000 in the new fiscal budget.

However, Stewart is now pushing to increase the number of school resource officers throughout the county.
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Patriot High School: Studley’s dad helps him get a date

MoonHowler
Ruff Ruff Where is Fido?

 

Washingtonpost.com:

A black helicopter hovering overhead can lead those below to become worried, scared or suspicious. But when a large aircraft positioned itself over a Prince William County high school’s football field last Wednesday afternoon, students who had just been released for the day excitedly watched as a stuffed bulldog with a red-bandanna parachute emerged.

The big-eyed pup drifted to the turf, delivering a message from a junior boy to a senior girl: “Fall Fest?”

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E-Code (of Behavior)? PW schools are operating on the cheap

MoonHowler
Code of Behavior, just don’t ask for your own copy

From the Superintendent of Schools, Prince William County,  Dr. Walts:

This is the first year that the COB is being distributed primarily online, saving significant educational funds.

Print copies are available only upon request. Still, it is necessary that a parent or guardian for every student complete, sign, and

return the form sent home the first week of school, acknowledging COB content and availability. If you do not have a form, it

may be obtained—along with other important documents—by request at your child’s school office; or on the pwcs.edu Web site, by

clicking the home page button for Code of Behavior/Forms.

 

I am disgusted that Prince William County Schools have not prioritized this document.   This document should be kept in every students binder all year long.  It should be in a place where it can be whipped out at a moment’s notice for reference, either by an individual or a group or a class.  Without easily accessible rules, it is difficult to insist on enforcement.

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PWC teachers in big trouble over SOL testing

MoonHowler

From the Washingtonpost.com:

Several Prince William County teachers, some of whom were placed on administrative leave, will have to undergo retraining after giving students inappropriate help on state-mandated exams, and students were required to retake tests, according to a school official.

County schools spokesman Phil Kavits said the teachers, who were supposed to interact minimally with students during testing in the spring, were overzealous in offering assistance

Twenty-eight students had to retake tests, Kavits said. He could not say exactly how many teachers were involved.

The testing problems were first reported Tuesday in the Washington Examiner.

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PWC Schools: How Far They Fall in a Decade

MoonHowler

 

In 2001, Time Magazine named Stonewall Jackson High School ” School of the Year.”  Everyone on this end of town crowed and preened themselves over the recognition.  How far they fall in a decade.  Today, Stonewall Jackson HS barely ranked in the Washington Post High School Challenge.  SJHS came in at a 92 rank of all area high schools in Virginia, Maryland and D.C.  Osbourn Park ranked the highest of any of the  Prince William County high schools.  It came in at 45. 

Osbourn and Manassas Park High Schools sure didn’t set the world on fire either.  However, neither of these schools has the maneuverability that county schools have.  As PW residents we should be asking why our top ranking high school comes in 45th behind other area schools.  That doesn’t sound very world class to me.  Loudoun County, Arlington, and Fairfax counties all had schools ranking much higher than Prince William County.

We have to start asking ourselves why this is.  I say it is because Prince William County always wants to go on the CHEAP.  It always wants to appear to have the lowest taxes.   Are other jurisdictions putting more money into the school system so they can attract high quality teachers and keep class sizes low?  PWC has the least competitive pay for teachers and also spends the least money per pupil than any other school system in Northern Virginia. 

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Church State violations here in PWC?

MoonHowler

Richmond Times Dispatch:

RICHMOND, Va. —

The American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia announced Monday that its executive director, Kent Willis, will be leaving his position when a replacement is found.

In a statement, the ACLU said Willis announced his intent to leave last fall and that the organization began a nationwide search for his successor. Willis was hired as associate director in October 1987 and promoted to executive director in March 1989.

“I could not have had a more rewarding job,” said Willis in the statement, “and I am proud to have been part of the ACLU’s many accomplishments and enormous organizational growth over the last 25 years. But something told me it was time to move on.”

Willis really has been there a long time.  The Times Dispatch has a list of his major accomplishments.  People seem to think that the ACLU picks up every liberal gig it can.  That isn’t always the case.  Several of Willis’ accomplishments caught my eye:

  • Defended the right of Jehovah’s Witnesses to avoid government loyalty oaths, the right of ministers to use public parks for baptisms, the right of Wiccans to perform marriage ceremonies, and the right of churches to feed the homeless.
  • Launched a successful challenge to the widespread practice of local governments opening their meetings with sectarian prayers (Currently litigating such a case in Pittsylvania County.).

I sure didn’t know all that happened under bullet #1.  Who would grouse about churches feeding the homeless?  What loyalty oaths must we take?  I can’t think of any.  I also didn’t realize Wiccans can perform marriage ceremonies although it makes perfect sense that they can.

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