Paper, paper, everywhere

We approved a new contract yesterday for copier paper. $100,000 for 4,200 cartons. We spent $41,000 on 1,680 cases last month. Man, we go through a lot of paper. In the 12 months prior to this purchase, LCPS bought 27,720 cases of paper at a cost of $656,124.

With over 54,000 students and 12,000 employees in 72 schools I guess it should not come as a surprise.

But I'll tell you what I'm thinking... incentive program. If a school were to save $2,000 in paper per year, that school should be get an extra $500 in its activity fund. If every school saved $2,000 in paper, that would be nearly $150,000 in savings each year for the system as a whole.

Is it worth the trouble for principals and teachers to change how they work to cut down on the use of paper, for a few hundred dollars in the kitty? What about recognitions? Plaques and applause?

Food for thought.

Faster than a locomotive...

Yesterday's Washington Post carried a story about Loudoun County school construction entitled County Refines Rapid School Creation to a Science. It's very good reading, written by one of the best local reporters in the area. The credit given to the LCPS staff, particularly to Construction Director Kevin Lewis, is well deserved. We all should be aware of and grateful for the exceptional performance that he and his team has delivered consistently for the past several explosive years. We can't improve on the speed, or the cost, but we can improve.

I'm going to pull two lines from the story and put them side by side for you:
"Loudoun schools aren’t known for progressive architecture or energy efficiency, but they are known for how fast they get built.

"Architects are designing a two-story elementary and middle school prototype, moving away from the one-story model used now."

Being in the design phase for these new two-story schools is the perfect opportunity to change that first statement. We should be known for both our speed and our energy efficiency. The speed makes a big difference in the one year that the school opens. The efficiency will make a big difference for that year and the remaining 49 years in the lifespan of the school.

Sept 25 Board Meeting Agenda

This next week's agenda looks like it will make for a short meeting.

• Once again there is a specific time set aside for public comment on next year's operating budget.
• We'll have recognitions and any public speakers, followed by the Superintendent's report, and committee reports.
• The consent agenda includes adoption of new Health & Music textbooks

The headliners for the night include reports on enrollment and new hires for the current school year. Folks who are interested in growth issues should tune in for the enrollment report to witness how fast we are growing as a district. I have encouraged my friends at the Loudoun NAACP to attend for the new hires report, which I'm sure will become a discussion of our progress in improving minority enrollment. See my previous post on the subject.

Public Speakers

I took some heat last night at a community meeting for comments I made late into last week's board meeting. Here is what I said:

"I was going to say to people who are speakers who come that I think we need new perspectives from public speakers, and I think we need reminders of things, issues that may have slipped off the agenda or out of our focus. I think we don’t need allegations of bad faith or intentional discrimination based on class, race or region of the county and you get no traction from me coming in alleging that staff or other board members are not doing their damndest to do a great job for all the kids in Loudoun County."

Video link

Someone was sitting in the audience who had come because he was very concerned about employment discrimination against minorities at LCPS. My comments were made some time after the conclusion of a presentation on the minority student achievement gap for the benefit of the local chapter of the NAACP. Most of the NAACP members had left by the time I made my comments, and the impression that this one man got was that I had waited until they were gone to target them.

In truth I was making a very broad comment, triggered more by a speaker on western Loudoun schools earlier in the evening (who was still sitting in the room) than at the NAACP who spoke nearly a month before. I do not recall the NAACP speakers alleging intentional discrimination, but if they had my response would be the same. This Administration and this Board are made up of people trying hard to do the right thing. They aren't perfect, and they can't do everything they wish to do. But starting with a recognition that we're all in this together, doing our best, is the best way to begin a discussion of how to solve a problem.

Back to School Before Labor Day?

LCPS published its proposed 2008-2009 school calendar this week and is currently seeking comments. Among the highlights:

• School would start on Tuesday, September 2nd, after Labor Day.
• School would end on Friday, June 19th.
• There are two full weeks for winter break
• Spring Break comes in the second week of April
  

The comments we have received so far are about the desire to finish school earlier in June, and a willingness to start prior to Labor Day. Unfortunately the state legislature doesn't see it that way. In Section 22.1-79.1 of the Code of Virginia, it states that no school may open prior to labor day unless it has had lots of snow days in the previous 10 years or is embarking on an innovative new instructional program.

Curiously, it also allows for a 4-day-a-week school schedule.

Please let me know your thoughts on this proposed calendar.

Ramadan & Rosh Hashanah

Last night at sundown marked the beginning of two important religious holidays from two of the three sister religions of Abraham. Our Muslim friends begin a month of fasting, generosity and prayer with Ramadan. At the same time, it is the Jewish new year marked by Rosh Hashanah. It warms my agnostic heart. Best wishes to all of the Muslim and Jewish families in Loudoun county!

Tonight's Board Meeting

I don't think I've yet done a post on a Board agenda, but I should make it a practice. Here's the first. If you attend the Board meeting tonight, or watch it on cable or the Webcast, this is what you'll see:

• Presentation of new Elementary Music & Secondary Health textbooks
• A report on enrollment of the just-commenced school year
• The Board will declare its priorities for changes to the No Child Left Behind Act
• A presentation on minority achievement in response to the NAACP's presentation on August 14th.
• The proposed calendar for the 2008-2009 school year

It's likely to be a long and interesting (to we policy wonks) night.

Back-To-School Fundraisers

Back to School Fundraisers

It’s the end of the first week of school, and all my kids are sitting around the kitchen table this morning, going over fundraiser sale catalogs and the prizes they think they’ll win if they can just convince enough relatives and co-workers to buy gift wrap and magazine subscriptions and pizza-making kits. I don’t like this at all. I don’t like that our schools take time out of their academic day to hold assemblies that are pep-rallies for consumerism. This is how kids in richer neighborhoods get better schools than kids in poorer neighborhoods. This is a sign that we’re not providing our classrooms with the things they need.

I know that these things raise thousands of dollars for every school. I also know that we spent $550,000 on security cameras and buzz-in systems. That’s $7,600 per school. That’s a lot of gift wrap.