School Board Newsletter #50, January 15, 1999

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Subj: School Issues Newsletter #50
Date: 1/15/99 12:29:07 PM EST
From: jklagge@bev.net (Jim Klagge)

Dear friends,

I'd better do this before classes get underway. Hope you are finding this to be a peaceful and productive New Year.

I have added a number of people to this list. If you do not wish to receive these newsletters, please let me know and I will remove you from the mailing list--no problem. Remember, these only give my thoughts about issues of concern to the school board. They in no way convey "official" positions. (I am also trying to "clean up" my mailing list. If you receive copies of this at more than one address, let me know which is best.)

1) SoL Test Results. If you missed seeing the results for Montgomery County, and for the region generally, in the newspaper, you can see them (for the whole state) at: www.pen.k12.va.us/VDOE/News/jan899.html. As you may have heard, only 2.2% of the some 1800 schools in Virginia "passed" the test--none of them in Montgomery County. This will obviously be a topic for future discussion and possible action. I think the superintendent and the SB have done a good job setting out what we see as the significant problems with these tests. (You can see some of these concerns in recent newsletters of mine archived at: www.gisone.com/schools.htm.) But in spite of the many problems, we will still do our best to improve our scores. It already appears that the State Board of Ed may be considering backing off its requirement that schools must pass the tests to be accredited in 7 years, in favor of the idea that schools must be making progress to be accredited.

That is certainly less harsh, though it gives an advantage to schools that did not go all out this time--it'll be easier to improve on that--and puts at a disadvantage those schools that did go all out this time--it's harder to improve on that. But we'll have to see, and you'll certainly be hearing more about this. It remains a priority of the SB that SoL testing is just one part of what we care about, and we don't want that to drive and therefore skew everything else. In the next couple of weeks parents should receive a school report card which not only gives their child's scores on any tests they may have taken, but how the school as a whole fared on the tests, and other useful information about the school.

2) BMS, etc. There will be a joint meeting between the SB and the BoS on Monday (1/18) from 7-9pm at the Blacksburg Community Center (across from BHS). There will not be an opportunity for public address, but you certainly are invited to hear the discussion. My hope is that the BoS will set out what they see as the financial paramenters that they want us to work within in planning for future secondary building in the Blacksburg strand; and the SB will set out what it considers to be the most important educational issues to try to address. This division of issues respects the legal division of authority between the two boards. Then I hope we will be able to find some common ground in which it is possible to meet the most important educational needs within those financial parameters, and we will find a way to move forward rapidly from there. Wish us luck!

3) Shelor's Tax Suit. You may have seen in the paper that Shelor did pay its 1997 tax bill yesterday, but it still has a suit pending concerning the fairness of the merchants capital tax. It has promised that if it wins this suit, it would give the money to the school system. We have had no discussion with them about that. I only want to make one point: In the past when citizens have sought to have the BoS raise taxes for the benefit of the schools, some BoS members have been heard to say that if people want to give more money to the schools, they are free to do so. Shelor seems to be offering a gesture of this sort. Yet in yesterday's newspaper the chair of the BoS was quoted as saying that county supervisors would determine how to appropriate any money given to the school system. This control issue has also come up in other contexts, though not recently. In the past the state has occasionally come up with additional money for schools after the usual budget issues have been settled. This money gets passed to the county which then can pass it to the schools but simultaneously reduce its local contribution to the schools by the same amount and then use the resulting money for any other purpose. The maneuver is not illegal, but it reminds us of the difficulties involved in school boards not having any financial authority of their own. One of the issues that the SB has asked our local representatives to the General Assembly to consider is creating a Task Force to study the possibility of giving elected SB's taxing and financial authority.

4) Gifted Program Review. The SB regularly has programs within the system reviewed by outside people. Two years ago the Special Ed. program was reviewed, last year equity of discipline in the secondary schools was reviewed, and now we are having the Gifted Program reviewed. This is being done by Carolyn Callahan and Karen Lelli of UVA. Callahan's work is very highly respected in this field, and she has conducted many reviews like this in other places. The two made a presentation to the board, and began their work in the county earlier this week. They will be here talking with many people and observing classes occasionally. We hope for a preliminary report in December, and a final report next February. They will be soliciting input from various groups, but they are happy to hear from ANYONE who wishes to comment on their experiences with and thoughts about the gifted program. You can send them e-mail input (please specify that you are discussing Montgomery County, since they are working with other places as well): CMC@virginia@edu and KML4H@virginia.edu. Please take advantage of this opportunity. They are also willing to hear from county residents who do not have their children in public schools because they are disaffected from the programs.

5) School Budget. The superintendent presented a budget proposal to the SB on Tuesday, and we are meeting about twice a week to discuss this and formulate what budget we want to present to the BoS. I will talk more about this in a later newsletter.

Jim Klagge
Montgomery County School Board
Chair, and District F Representative.

email: admin@gisone.com