PWC School Board Disses the Math Department

MoonHowler

 

School Days School Days….dear old golden rule days.  Readin’ and Ritin’ and Rithmetic…Taught to the tune of a hickory stick…

There is a nasty little rumor circulating around PWC schools.  That rumor deals with the School Board and the Math  Textbook Selection  Committee.   Rumor has it that the school board selected its own text books and disregarded the work of a committee that had spent 5 months meeting and collaborating.  When one hears rumors like this, it’s best to   turn to videos to see if the rumor is true.

On February 1, the PWC  Math Department  presented the recommendations of the math  textbook adoption  committee  to the PWC School Board.  Mrs. Knight, math supervisor for the county,  gave a  slide presentation which included committee history, methods utilized, and recommendations.  School Board members asked  questions  for clarity regarding the process and the recommendations.   Mrs. Knight answered a continual stream of questions regarding method, participants, conclusions. Her answers appeared honest and direct.

The Textbook Committee involved well over  100 teachers, principals, and parents representing all different grade levels.  There were sub committees that matched content from each  text book series to the curriculum, compared and contrasted  grade level content , evaluated vertical strands, and held on average 16 hours per person of collegial discussion  about the text books being scrutinized.  Evaluations were put in rubric form and recorded anecdotally.

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PW Teachers Hold Grade-In at Gainesville Wegmans

MoonHowler

About 60 teachers gathered at the food center at Wegmans in Gainesville for an old fashioned grade-in.  What’s that, you might ask?  Those damn union teachers!!!!  Actually, they met at Wegmans, ate lunch, and spent several hours grading papers and making lesson plans.  Their goal was to show the public some of the things that they have to do outside the regular school day.  PWC teachers have not had a step increase in 3 years. 

The public has been very supportive.  The County needs to stop poor mouthing.  First class quality education starts with teachers with good morale.  People who haven’t had a raise in 3 years generally feel under appreciated.   The housing market is coming back.  Businesses are returning..  The Board of Supervisors needed to set the tax rate high enough to support the County school system.  Trying to educate OUR children on the cheap just isn’t going to fly. 

According to insidenova.com:

Some of those shirts even had a roadwork sign emblazoned on the back that read “Educator at Work.”

PWEA and other teacher groups have been lobbying the Prince William Board of County Supervisors, the School Board and even state legislators for additional funds for the school division after learning in February there are no plans for pay step increases in the 2013 budget and perhaps not until 2016.

“The grade-in is designed so that the public can see that there is a lot more in the daily life of a professional educator than just 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. or 7 to 2,” said Jim Livingston, a PWEA board member. “There’s a lot of activity that has to go on outside of the contract day.”

David Foose, a music teacher at Sinclair Elementary School, brought a thick, black three-ring binder full of lesson plans and papers to grade.

“This is all work that’s done outside of the school day,” he said.

“We’re expected to do more and more with less pay,” said Trish Purschwitz, a second-grade teacher at Sinclair. “This is just to show the public that teaching isn’t just done at the school.”

Riley O’Casey, a civics teacher at Bull Run Middle School, said although it varies week-to-week, she works up to 12 hours a week beyond her contract hours.

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Prince William County Teacher Work to the Rule

MoonHowler

News and Messenger:

Teachers walked out of Forest Park High School as a group to the sound of applause at 2:18 p.m. Monday.

As the teachers made their ways to the faculty parking lot, students stood outside the school and showed support for their educators.

Teachers at Forest Park, Battlefield and Patriot High Schools, as well as Potomac Middle, started a “Work to Rule” campaign Monday in response to the recent school budget proposal.

Superintendent Steven L. Walts’ proposed budget does not include a step increase for any schools employees for a third year in a row. There are no plans for staff or program reductions, either.

The budget, which was discussed at two recent School Board meetings, also indicates that there are no plans for raises until 2016 at the earliest.

On Monday, teachers entered their respective schools as a group at the same time — 7:15 a.m. at the high schools — and left schools when their contract hours ended at 2:15 p.m.

A crowd of about 30 teachers walked out the front door of Forest Park to their cars shortly after that scheduled time, many of them wearing “Work to Rule” pins.

Nicholas Watkins, an English teacher for 10th and 11th grades at Forest Park, said around double that number walked in together in the morning.

“There were 50 to 60 teachers,” he said, wearing a “Work to Rule” badge.

Teachers and staff members who receive stipends or other compensation for coaching athletic teams or other like commitments remained at the school as required. Watkins said that contributed to a lower turnout at the end of the day.

This is the third year that teachers in Prince Willliam County have not  had a step increase.  This year they will not get a raise and it is predicted that there will be no raise through 2016.  This is absurd.  In the same  newspaper was an article saying Prince William County was the 9th wealthiest county in the United States.  9th wealthiest?  Pay your teachers and pay them well.  They also have the largest class sizes in the state of Virginia, on average. 

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Former Gar-Field teacher pleads guilty to sex with student

MoonHowler

Inside Nova  tells us that Tina Marie Amato plead guilty to sex with a student.  Immediately, seeing the title, an image popped into my head of an older person taking advantage of a younger person–a sexual predator as it were.  After I read the article, I am not so sure that is how it worked this time.

I knew one of the men who was arrested last year at one of the local schools. I have friends who knew the kids involved.  Every last one of the professional  adults I spoke with felt that the teacher was set up by this kid.  Whoa!  That’s a switch.  Now am I saying the male teacher was innocent.  Oh hell no.  He was stupid, dumb and all the other words that pop up.  And he was set up.  He crossed a professional line that allowed him to be set up.  He got what he deserved for not maintaining his professionalism.

I expect the same thing happened to Ms. Amato.  She was convicted of :

“… three counts of taking indecent liberties with a minor by a custodian and one count of crimes against nature.”

We all know what that means without spelling it out. However, it marks Ms. Amato for life and puts her on the sex offenders list for time immemorial.  If she ever gets her life straightened out and has a family, she probably won’t be able to even go to a parent-teacher conference for her own kid.  She has destroyed any chances she ever had of a teaching career.

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Corey Stewart relegates students to over-crowded conditions by refusing stimulus

MoonHowler

Is Corey Stewart is still harping on the stimulus money the BOCS turned down?   He hasn’t yet acknowledged  the stupidity of not accepting stimulus money last August to hire around 180 new teachers that the school system indicated was needed.  Instead, the BOCS tabled the decision.  What ended up happening?  PWC kids were in over-crowded classes and someone else took the stimulus money,  would be my guess. 

The following quotes were found and reported by a little bird from an unknown blog in an unread land:

“Stewart said the bill was a sign of just how out of touch with fiscal realities and good government Congress is: “It is not just irresponsible, it is crazy. Congress suffers from deficit-spending induced dementia.” 

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Stonewall Student Arrested for Sexual Assault

MoonHowler

From insidenova.com:

An 18-year-old Stonewall Jackson High School student was charged Thursday with sexual assault, police said.

A 14-year-old student at the school told police that Phillip Andrew McNuss, 18, a person she knows, sexually assaulted her in a stairwell inside the school, which is located at 8820 Rixlew Lane, more than one time between April 11 and April 15, Prince William police spokesman Jonathan Perok said.

Perok said the victim reported the incidents on Wednesday afternoon to school authorities, who then contacted police.

McNuss, of the 10200 block of Jamaica Lane, in the Townes of Ashleigh neighborhood, was charged with sexual battery, contributing to the delinquency of a minor and carnal knowledge, Perok said.

McNuss was held without bond.  Police did not have his court date immediately available.

We don’t usually cover crime.  However, this story affects many of our readers.  Maybe it’s time for some of the curtains to come down.  A 14 year old is  sexually assaulted, (whatever that means) inside the school in a stairwell during school hours?  Where were others?   Teachers, students and administrators?  Were  both students out of class?  What about security cameras?  Don’t they have those in stairwells?   How does something like this happen?

The alleged attacker lives off of Williamson Blvd.  That is a little too close for comfort.  Additionally, this is certainly not the first time that a student has been viciously attacked at SJHS.   If this kind of illegality is going on at Stonewall then security must be upgraded.  Prince William County citizens don’t send their daughters, sisters, granddaughters, and nieces to school to be sexually assaulted any more than they send their sons, nephews, brothers and grandsons to school to be brutally attacked. 

Hopefully the school will have some explanation of how this was allowed to happen on their watch. 

And if  someone is accused of sexual battery and they go to school with my family members, then I guess they should know I will plaster their  face on my blog: 

Reminder: (mainly for Moon)  Everyone is innocent until convicted by a jury of their peers. 

 

ACLU blindsides PWC Schools

MoonHowler

School officials in Prince William County were blindsided on Monday with a letter from the ACLU threatening a lawsuit over Internet filters on gay and lesbian sites.  According to the Gainesville Times:

The letter, signed by Rebecca Glenberg and Joshua Block of the ACLU of Virginia, states that the school system is blocking gay support group sites in violation of students’ First Amendment rights.

The issue is filtering software that blocks access to, among other sites, the Gay Student Alliance Network, Day of Silence and It Gets Better.

“The Prince William County Public Schools do not have a legitimate pedagogical basis for censoring students’ access to these websites, which provide support and resources for LGBT students and gay-straight alliances,” states the letter.

PWC Spokesman Ken Blackstone had the following to say on the subject, in the same article:

“The ACLU is making some claims and we’re reviewing them to see if they’re accurate and to see how we can respond to that,” he said. “They bring up important points.”

Blackstone said the school system is required by federal law to use Internet filtering software to keep students and staffers from looking at inappropriate content at school.

The school software, Blue Coat Filtering, filters 32 different categories.  It doesn’t distinguish between appropriate and inappropriate.  Generally, if students or staff believe something is being filtered that is acceptable for use, there is a process by which the site can be reviewed and unlocked.  Mr. Blackstone said that no such request, to his knowledge, has been submitted for  review  of the sites for student appropriateness. 

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Gang Members Indicted for Murder of Mickey Hernandez

MoonHowler

From News and Messenger:

A grand jury in Prince William Circuit Court has indicted a Fairfax teen on a murder charge for the November stabbing death of 15-year-old Miguel “Mickey” Hernandez in Manassas.

Boris Alfred Juarez Ascencio, 18, of Blake Lane in Fairfax, is charged with first-degree murder for the Nov. 19 stabbing.

According to court documents, Juarez, who was 17 at the time of the incident, has been certified to stand trial as an adult.

In court documents, witnesses said that Juarez stabbed Hernandez several times as he walked home from school on Bartow Street.

Another teen, 18-year-old Mauricio Martinez of Manassas, has also been charged in Hernandez’s death.

According to testimony at a preliminary hearing, Martinez and Juarez were both members of the criminal street gang of Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13.

Witnesses said Martinez identified Hernandez as a member of a rival gang and then Juarez stabbed him, according to police and prosecutors.

Police and Hernandez’s family members have said he was not affiliated with a gang.

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No Raises for PWC school board employees for the 2nd year

MoonHowler

Superintendent Walts , in his address to the school board Wednesday night said, “For the second straight year, PWCS employees would not receive salary step increases, according to the fiscal 2012 budget proposal. And though there won’t be pay raises, the proposed budget to the school board will include a onetime, 1 percent bonus this will be paid to school employees sometime in the second half of 2012. “Since we wouldn’t have money for raises,”Walts said, “[the bonus] was a way we could do something in terms of compensation for every employee.”

I believe it has been 3 years since the non-school board employees have had a raise. They no longer have any 401k match.   There seems to be this feeling that government employees should take their lumps and not complain.  Perhaps if the public attitudes were different, getting no raise might be more palatable.  These same folks are also being told that their pension is costing a fortune and they will be paying for it themselves, if the legislation goes through. 

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School Board Passes Resolution Asking for Federal Funds

MoonHowler

The Prince William County School Board has passed a resolution asking the BOCS for permission to apply for federal Education Jobs Fund  money to hire teachers in the current school year.  The county school system ended up with an additional 807 students for the current school year which made the current teacher shortage even more severe.  The cost for this many students is just under $8.7 million, or just under $11,000 per pupil. 

According to News and Messenger:

Prince William County Public Schools has been allocated about $17 million through the Federal Education Jobs Fund Program, but the school division can’t use that money unless the county approves it.

The School Board voted 7 to 1 Wednesday to ask the Board of County Supervisors to allocate $5.8 million of the federal money to the school division in the current school year to help pay the costs for the additional students who enrolled. The other $2.9 million needed would come from state funding.

Neabsco District representative Lisa Bell cast the dissenting vote.

The School Board’s resolution also proposes discussing what to do with the remaining $11.2 million in federal money during its budget process for fiscal 2012.

In August, the Board of County Supervisors passed a resolution stating that they would not address the federal education jobs fund money until the fiscal 2012 budget process.

The School Board is hoping they will change their mind.

One has to question Ms. Bell.  What plan does she have to pay for educating over 800 more students?  Meanwhile, it will be interesting to see what the current BOCS does in response to the School Board resolution.   Last August the BOCS got hysterical because they thought Superintendent Walts was issuing contracts to teachers without permission from them to take stimulus money.  They called an emergency meeting even though Corey Stewart, Maureen Caddigan and John Jenkins were out of town. 

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PWBOCS Cuts 8 More PWC Police Officers

MoonHowler

Today, the Prince William County Board of Supervisors unanimously cut  8 more officers from the police department budget.  That makes a total of 8 officers and 12 support staff in the past 2 years.  In addition, a million dollars has been removed from their supplies budget.  This would have covered  training, radar, and other equipment.  Another half million dollar cut is looming on the horizon.  The cut became effective today.

There have been no new police officers added in the past 3 years.  Supervisor Nohe asked if they were really cutting police officers.  The answer is yes.  Even though there were 8 vacancies, there are still 8 fewer uniformed officers out defending public safety today than there were yesterday because these positions were abolished and cannot be filled. 

Perhaps one of the most devastating areas to be cut  is in the schools.  Starting 2011, there will be no police officers in middle schools.  The school police officer program  has been a highly successful one which cut down on neighborhood crime, bullying, gang membership and other annoyances that seem to plague kids of middle school age.  These officers knew the kids, the teachers, the administrators, the bus drivers, and many of the parents and had a good working relationship with all of the above.  They were able to ward of f potential problems.  After this year, the schools will just have to call and get whoever responds.

There are still 6 officers who are authorized to process 287(g) related matters.  These officers in the Criminal Alien Unit only work on issues dealing with illegal immigration and continue to  be funded. 

Prince William residents are going to have to decide how important public safety is to them.  Most folks don’t give it much thought until something happens and they need a police officer, on the double.  The wait time might be getting a lot longer as retiring officers are no longer replaced.  This might be the time to start asking how much more of a loss can we take. 

Reading the paper, it seems that PWC is plagued by more crime that is associated with inner city crime.  Any time something large happens, many officers are tied up on the scene and cannot respond to other calls.  When officers work a large crime scene, that means they aren’t out in your neighborhood or mine.  Are we willing, as a county, to let this happen?  Or should we start howling and demand that PWC begin to budget for these losses from the state.  A few pennies added to our tax rate might make a great deal of difference in public safety in Prince William County.

School Board Dissatisfied with the 4 Horsemen of the BOCS

MoonHowler
Anything to get re-elected
Anything to get re-elected

Many years ago, in Prince William County, there was a gang on either the BOCS or the appointed school board who were not-so-affectionately named the 4 horsemen. They were seen as enemies of the school system. It seems that the 4 horsemen have been reincarnated, after several decades, on our board of supervisors. I am trying to remember . Why they were named that?   Was it a nice way of speaking of the educational Apocalypse on the horizon or was it short for horse body parts? Perhaps those  readers  who have been around PWC for a while will remember.

But I digress….

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I Guess They Showed Him

MoonHowler

I guess the BOCS showed Dr. Walts. Apparently many of them think he is getting too big for his britches.

From the Washington Post:

The Prince William Board of County Supervisors postponed accepting and budgeting federal stimulus funds for school jobs Tuesday, halting Superintendent Steven L. Walts’s effort to hire 180 more teachers by next month.

“We always respect and honor the decisions of our governing bodies,” Walts said in an e-mail. “While our preference is to have the new teachers in place for this year in order to positively affect our students’ learning as soon as possible, we will postpone our plans. . . . For the thousands of students who will not have the additional teachers this year, I am extremely disappointed.”

Class size will continue to be a problem as long as the budget is tight. The BOCS, however, hit a double. They got to show Walts who is boss, or in their case, who ultimately holds the purse strings. In addition, they all got to show that they wanted to ‘cut spending,’ even though counties run by smarter leaders will get the money.

Class sizes and the organization of special ed classes will continue to keep PWC Schools from being a world class school system. Walts was hired to create the best learning environment for the children of Prince William County. It seems that he walked on other people’s turf while attempting to do what he was hired to do.

The children of PWC will be in overcrowded classes while Walts gets taught a lesson and the BOCS can crow to their constituents that they voted down spending.  And whoever gets the money that would have gone to PWC Schools is laughing all the way to the bank while they use our stimulus money to pay salaries, benefits (including VRS) for additional teachers. 

Prince Billy Bob strikes again. 

Full Story from the Washington Post

No Stimulus Funds for PWC Schools — Too bad, kids! Squeeze in!

MoonHowler

Hats off to Frank Principi who tried to postpone a decision regarding the federal stimulus money until the next regularly scheduled BOCS meeting on September 14. That sounds like the right thing to do. However, that was not to be. As it stands now, pressed on by the urgings of CXO Melissa Peacor, stimulus funds will be considered during the next fiscal year.

In the first place, this was a mighty important decision to be decided on such short notice. 3 board members were absent: Caddigan, Jenkins and Stewart. The time line is fuzzy. Superintendent Walts wanted to begin hiring up to 180 new teachers. That’s understandable. He has a school system to run and that school system starts up Monday, August 30 with kids coming in the Tuesday after Labor Day. Walts doesn’t have time for the BOCS to grand stand and posture for their upcoming elections in 2011.

If there are strings attached to the stimulus money, then naturally the BOCS needs to be aware. If 3 of them aren’t there….there is a problem right from the git-go. It seems to me that the stimulus fund issue ought to be discussed during the Sept. 14 regular BOCS meeting. The School Board and the Board of Supervisors need to find a more effective way to communicate.

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