High School Stress Reduction

If you're the parent of a stressed out high school student, or if you are a stressed out high school student then you may be interested in this New York Times article about a high school that is implementing stress-reduction programs for all of its students.

From the article:

"Mr. Richards is just one principal in the vanguard of a movement to push back against an ethos of super-achievement at affluent suburban high schools amid the extreme competition over college admissions."

Sound familiar? These schools are responding to problems like:

• cheating
• alcohol & drug use
• depression
  
• suicide

“One of our big goals is to try to help students become more resilient,” Mr. Richards said. He wants to help students learn to cope better with the inevitable setbacks, he said, “so they don’t fall apart if they get a B-minus.”

Some of the changes schools like these are implementing:

• stop publishing the honor roll in the local newspaper
• relaxation consultants
• mandatory yoga classes
• homework-free weekends and holidays
• requiring students to get parental permission before enrolling in Advanced Placement classes
  
• experimenting with later start times so students can get more sleep

Elementary Boundary Changes

It's that time of year again, time to decide whose kids will go to a new school next fall. You can read about it in the Loudoun Connection, Leesburg Today, and Loudoun Independent.

This is the first time through the process for me as a Board member, so even many of the parents are more veteran than I am and if you want to hear from an experienced Board member about it, see Tom Reed's blog post entitled Seven Stages of School Boundary Changes.

Many parents of Ashburn children are unaware or unconcerned. But some are very concerned, I listened to them speak at one of the information sessions and I read their emails last night and this morning. I'm sure I'll be reading many more emails in the coming weeks.

So with that in mind, I'm posting a few notes here that I would want my Ashburn friends to know. I want to stress that this is based mostly on what I have heard and read so far, and not on my own past experience. If your experience contradicts this, let me know.

I'm going to make the most important point right up front:

I heard it stressed at the public presentation and think it should be more widely reported that everyone who received a letter from school about boundary changes and is concerned with where their child will go to school next year should pay attention to and if possible be a part of this process. The initial publicized plans are just a starting point. Just because your neighborhood isn't indicated to move on the initial maps doesn't mean it won't be when the final vote is taken.

By the same principal, don't panic just because the map shows your kids going to a new school. Get involved, but don't panic. Here's why.

The draft plans that the LCPS planning staff put forward are not "the plans." They are not the staff's recommendations to the board. They are discussion starters. They are purposefully not an attempt to make the best plan, for two reasons. First, the planning staff doesn't know the area as well as the people who live in and represent it. Second, when in the past the planning staff has tried to make the best possible plan prior to public input, they have been accused of rigging the process. Of course in this scenario they get hammered for putting together a plan that obviously needs work, so either way they'll be vilified by somebody. This is another example of how people who can't be civil spoil it for everyone else for years to come.

Something that may surprise you is that the school board goals and policies for boundaries are self-contradictory. The policy states that we will take into consideration:

• student enrollment projections,
• school capacities, new facilities and/or renovations to existing school
  facilities,
• school location and site characteristics
• transportation issues (walk zones, transportation times, costs, safety,
  existing and planned road networks)
• natural and man-made geographic features
• existing and planned communities
• whenever possible, minimize the effect of previous boundary changes
• demographic characteristics of the students and communities
• whenever possible, equitable distribution of programs and resources, and
  
• long-term costs.
  

In the very text of the policies, it says "the School Board recognizes that it may not be reasonably practicable to reconcile each and every factor in any boundary change." I say this to make the point that a boundary line that makes sense under one goal may directly contradict another, leaving parents very frustrated.

I'll give you two examples of how principles sometimes cannot be reconciled. First, there is at least one school in the area under discussion this fall in which there are more kids living within walking distance to the school than there is capacity at the school. This means that there are some kids who could walk to a school who will instead be bussed to a more distant school.

The second example is the attempt to balance demographic characteristics with the benefit of having neighborhood schools. I think it's pretty well accepted that it's important that we avoid breaking our district up into 'rich schools' and 'poor schools.' This priority (demographic characteristics) may clash with the second (existing and planned communities) when there are rich and poor communities. I would be hard pressed to show you a poor community in Ashburn, but people are aware of various degrees of wealth and prefer to cluster with others of similar means.

As I'm reading the parent emails, I can't help but chuckle at all the names for the little enclaves. They have such formal titles. It all looks like "The Meadow Glen Farms at Broadlands Foxtrot Estate Villages" to me. I suppose it's the same for folks who got here before I did and think it strange when I refer to the different parts of Sterling north of 7 as Countryside, Cascades and Lowes Island. I don't say that to poke fun, I say it to make a point. I don't know these areas, the people who represent them (primarily Mr. DuPree and Mr. Ohneiser) do know them, and I will need to rely on their recommendations in deciding how to vote.

LCPS Gifted Programs

There is an interesting conversation about Gifted programs in LCPS over on Loudoun Schools Feedback. This is a blog that I read regularly for a critical parent's view of the system. I'm not going to respond directly to the points made on that blog because I don't want to undercut those views and because I'm not the LCPS PR department. I do want to add my thoughts to the blogosphere though.

First, for more information about our Gifted programs, see the Gifted Programs page on the LCPS website. You might be particularly interested in the Gifted Programs FAQ. Second, if this is an area that really concerns you, please get involved with the Gifted Advisory Committee, which meets next on November 15th.

LCPS and all other districts are required to issue a local plan for the gifted to the state every five years, and our report was issued just this past June. The Gifted Advisory Committee worked together on the report, which is on the LCPS website as Proposed Local Plan for the Education of the Gifted. When this plan was put forward I needed extra time to read and understand it, and it was held from the board agenda until I was able to sit down with Assistant Superintendent for Instructional Services Sharon Ackerman, Director of Curriculum and Instruction Peter Hughes and Gifted Program Supervisor Julie Kelly. We talked for over an hour about the LCPS approach to gifted programs.

I think that they are the best folks to represent to you what the program philosophy and execution is, so I refer you again to the LCPS website and the Gifted Advisory Committee if you want to learn more. For my part, I am satisfied that this is an area of considerable emphasis for LCPS and that at the administrative level we have the best people available working with the best available knowledge on the subject. As with many areas, other school districts come here to learn how to run a successful gifted program.

One note of interest is that our programs are different than in Fairfax County Public Schools, where kids are labled "Gifted & Talented" and then pulled into separate classrooms from their peers. I have friends with "GT" kids in the Fairfax system who find this to be a problem for a number of reasons. One is that gifted kids are not gifted in all areas. Another, that a kid who shows gifts at one age may have gotten ahead of peers who may well catch up in a few years. Most importantly, isolating kids as gifted apart from their peers in Fairfax has a tendency to create enormous pressure to get into Thomas Jefferson HS among that group, and no encouragement among students who aren't in it. Finally, the whole concept of separating these kids almost entirely from their peers is just elitist.

LCPS is also developing programs for kids who are "Twice Exceptional," meaning that while in one area they are gifted, in another they need special education services. This is leading-edge in public schools, and illustrates directly the incredible complexity surrounding kids' intellectual abilities.

One final note, especially for those of you who champion the SOLs and NCLB standardized testing. When every kid must pass the same test at the end of the year, every teacher must teach from the same text and our schools are judged entirely on how many kids pass and not on how many kids excel, the emphasis will be on the bottom line and not on the leading edge. This was the design of NCLB... to not allow schools to ignore the kids who are struggling while trumpeting the kids who are soaring by basing evaluations entirely on the kids who are struggling. I think there is plenty of room to argue in favor of this approach, but there is no room to deny that it is a shift in our emphasis in which some kids will win and some will lose.

So as you think and talk about Gifted programs in LCPS remember that this is a complex issue, that our folks are doing their very best for every child, and that there is an opportunity for you to get involved and make it better.

Should Teachers be Wired for Sound?

There is an interesting article circulating among School Board members about putting audio systems into every classroom that will amplify the words of each teacher through a wireless microphone though speakers placed throughout the classroom. This is one of those things that seems like an extravagance until you read the data. According Time Magazine article called Now Hear This (admittedly a year old) :

• A 2002 Brigham Young University study found that standardized test scores for fourth- and fifth-graders rose from 10% to 15% in every subject at a Utah public school the year after amplification began, though no other changes were made.
• These systems may be especially helpful in the early years when kids' hearing systems are still developing. A "small but influential study" done in 2002 found that "78% of preschoolers and kindergartners in sound-amplified classrooms scored above the mean on a key prereading skills test, compared with just 17% in a comparable group without the technology."
• This may be leading edge, but others are paving the way. Since 2003, the State of Ohio requires that "districts using state funds to build or renovate schools include sound amplification in their construction plans."

I wonder what our elementary teachers think of this idea. I wonder if I can get a system like this for home. ;)

Upcoming Board Agenda

Next week's agenda was released today, and it includes a couple of items that may interest you.

1. Adoption of the 2008-2009 school calendar. See my previous post on the subject. We have received dozens of emails on this topic. They mostly fall into one of three categories:

• "Please start the school year before labor day so that kids aren't in school for three weeks in June."
• "Thank you for starting the school year after Labor Day so that kids aren't in school during August."
• "The calendar is just right, don't change a thing."

I haven't counted them up, but opinion seems pretty evenly divided. There have been a few other suggestions, including changing the teacher workday schedule, reducing the number of snow days and holidays, increasing the length of the school day and more. I look forward to hearing whether other Board members have suggestions for changes. If you are interested in learning more, see LCPS Policy 7-7 (PDF Link).

2. Accepting enrollment projections for the 2008-2009 and 2009-2010 school years. These were presented at the October 9 meeting, very late in the evening. There wasn't much discussion then and I wouldn't expect much this time. This year our enrollment is 54,047. Staff is projecting that in two years we will have 60,873.

3. Lease agreement for the new Steuart Weller ES to be built at One Loudoun Center. We are leasing the land from the developer until proffer obligations are met which will allow the developer to deed the land to the school district.

4. Virginia School Efficiency Review. In February, the School Board directed LCPS to apply for a program run by the Virginia Department of Planning and Budget to provide an efficiency review of non-instructional functions. The reviewing company will be MGT of America, Inc. The cost to Loudoun will be $30,000, which is 25% of the total. The review begins on October 29, there will be a public forum in December and the report will be completed in the spring of 2008. I think everyone's hope is that the review will help us to identify what LCPS is doing well, what can be improved and where there are opportunities for cost savings without sacrificing high standards.

As always, the meeting is open to the public and will be broadcast on Comcast cable channel 98 and via webcast.

In the press this week

Some stories of interest you might have missed in the local press this past week:

• Reader Q&A with Superintendent Hatrick in the Washington Post's Loudoun Extra
• LCPS Administrator salaries were published in the print edition of the Loudoun Easterner
• Washington Post Story on the Special Education Advisory Committee's report to the School Board
• Read a profile of new Loudoun Education Association President Sandy Sullivan

What about housing?

An anonymous reader posted the following comment on a previous post, and I thought it deserved a more prominent followup than a response comment:

---

I was really excited to hear about your appointment to the school board because of the issue you wanted to highlight, but I am curious about what you are doing to bring affordable housing to school employees.

I work for the school district and I just had a very disheartening conversation with a realtor. I cannot afford to live in the community where I teach. I also make too much money to qualify for the affordable housing program through the county. I feel like this is a massive problem within the county that has not been given more than lip service.

What is the School Board doing to help the hundreds, if not thousands of teachers like me???

---

I have not done much on the issue of housing for LCPS employees since joining the Board, mostly for two reasons. First, it is a budget issue and our budget planning season is just beginning now. Second, we were waiting on the Board of Supervisors to take action on revised housing policies drafted by the Housing Advisory Board. I was part of the group that drafted the revised policies, and their adoption opens up not only several million dollars in new funds but also many new program options for people outside of the previous eligibility ranges. These programs are administered under the Department of Family Services.

That said, I pledged action on this issue and I expect to be held to it. With the budget season underway and the new policies in place, I will ask that the School Board:

• advise the Board of Supervisors of the need for programs under the new housing policies to meet the needs of LCPS employees,
  
• direct the Superintendent to work together with the Department of Family Services to develop, advertise and enable LCPS employees to take full advantage of these housing programs, and
  
• create a housing benefit fund specifically for LCPS employees starting in the FY2009 budget.
  

I encourage LCPS employees and anyone looking for a place to live in Loudoun County to go beyond your real estate agent to find out what programs and benefits you are eligible for. For more information about affordable housing programs in Loudoun County, see the following links:

• Housing Services
• Workforce Housing Resource Guide
• Virginia Housing Development Authority
  
• LCPS Employes should contact the Department for Personnel Services to learn about specific programs for which they may be eligible
  

Cost Per Pupil

How much does it cost to educate a student in Loudoun County?

Here are some interesting figures for you:

School Year	Total Cost	County Share	% Local $
1996-1997	$6,451.15	$4,852.44	75%
2006-2007	$12,338.20	$9,047.44	73%

Definitions:

• Total Cost is the total operating budget divided by the number of enrolled students. It does not include the capital budget or debt service.
  
• County Share is the amount paid from the County's budget, including property and business taxes
• % Local $ is the percentage of the total paid from local tax dollars. This number fluctuates between about 70% and 76% each year.
  

In the past 10 years, overall spending has increased by 92%, an average of 6.8% per year. In the most recent budget our cost per pupil increased only 1.56%.

By the way, if you get the urge to compare this to private school tuition, make sure that you add on the cost of special education, reduced-price lunches, transportation to and from school, massive curriculum variety, free SAT and AP testing and counseling services to whatever prices you find. Teachers, administrators, parents and other people who know more than I do about what LCPS offers that private schools do not should feel free to add to this list as appropriate in the comments.

LEAP takes on FLE

Acronym soup? FLE = Family Life Education. LEAP = Loudoun Education Alliance of Parents.

“Everything your Child Knows, and You’re Afraid to Ask” – A look at LCPS Family Life Education (FLE)
LEAP will present a straightforward discussion about the development and use of our FLE (Family Life Education) curriculum. Our varied panel of speakers will present information and take questions regarding the current LCPS policies, recent controversies, and medical data related to sex-education in the schools today.

From the left, discussing the merits of comprehensive sexuality education, will be David Fishback, Board member of PFLAG DC. David helped to create a new Montgomery County sexuality education curriculum that included homosexuality as a topic.

From the right, advocating an abstinence-based curriculum, Moira Gaul, Director of Women's and Reproductive Health at the Family Research Council.

My hope is that this will be a lively event, respectful of all viewpoints. I will be there and I hope you will join us.

Full Tuesday Agenda

If you're planning on attending the School Board meeting on Tuesday October 9th, or even just watching it on cable or the webcast, you might want to have a nap in the afternoon. It looks like it's going to be a marathon.

In addition to recognitions, delegations and the Superintendent's report, we'll be looking at:

• Adding state code to the School Board policies on the powers and duties of the school board,
• Hearing a report from the Special Education Advisory Committee
• Considering a request from Leesburg representative Sarah Smith for a study about adding certain special education services currently only offered by the private sector into the public school budget
  
• Hearing a report on changes in the cost per pupil
• Receiving a Fiscal Year 2007 Year-End financial review
• Hearing a report on Enrollment projections for 2008-2010
• Considering a proposal on land appraisals by Sugarland Run representative Joe Guzman.

Most of these items are likely to come with lengthy discussion, so it will be twice as long as a football game but without all the enthusiasm. I'll enjoy it from start to finish, because I'm just that kind of a policy geek.

School Board Party Endorsements

Loudoun Times Mirror reporter Shannon Sollinger has a piece online today about the Nuzzaco/Bergel race and how party endorsements come into play in School Board races. See Party Endorsements -- Good for School Board candidates? It is an interesting article, but there are two glaring ommissions from it that keep it from being a really good article.

There is a race for School Board this year that mirrors the race described, in which an independent is running against an incumbent Republican. In the Blue Ridge District it is an independent running against an incumbent Democrat, Priscilla Godfrey. How do the races compare? How do the independent candidates and their motivations compare? How does the reaction of the party-endorsed incumbent compare?

That ommission leads to the second one, which is that there were three Republicans interviewed for the piece on the meaning of party in School Board campaigning and service. While I don't take objection to what the Republicans said, it might have been interesting to know if Democrats agreed from across the aisle.

One additional note: The article states "seven of the nine sitting members ran with the Republican endorsement." Actually (and this may be nitpicking but I'd like to set the record straight), only six members ran with the Republican endorsement in 2003. Mr. DuPree ran as an independent, Mrs. Godfrey ran with the Democratic endorsement, and I wasn't on the ballot in 2003 at all.

School Board Taxing Authority

Did you know that approximately 72% of the Loudoun County budget goes to the public schools? Did you know that while the school board decides how to spend those funds, the Board of Supervisors sets the size of that budget based on the tax rates and fees it establishes?

Knowing that, the influence that the Board of Supervisors has on such things as classroom sizes, teacher salaries and even the length of your child's bus ride to school becomes clear. But did you know that the Board of Supervisors spends just a handful of meetings in the spring of each year to consider school budget issues?

This issue of control over the school budget by a Board of Supervisors little informed about the details of that budget and the needs of the school district is a frequent point of discussion around the Commonwealth. Some suggest that the right answer is for School Boards to be able to set a tax rate of its own, giving it complete control over its budget. This obviously isn't a simple issue. Would this give the voters more control over their taxes, or would it cause a runaway school budget?

On Friday I'll be attending a conference called "A Closer Look at Taxing Authority." Since 1996 the Virginia School Boards Association has advocated the separation of the school budget from the county budget. This conference will discuss the issue in depth, exploring the experience of other states whose school districts do have this autonomy.

What do you think? Is this dry, esoteric stuff that only a policy wonk could enjoy? Or does the very thought light a fire under you as an advocate for education or for taxpayers?

Middleburg Eccentric Questions

I received a questionnaire last week from Dan Morrow, publisher of the Middleburg Eccentric. Dan asked very pointed questions, and the answers from all who responded will be published circa October 23rd (Dan's words). Normally I would just wait and let you read them in the paper, but I thought Dan's questions were particularly thoughtful, so with his permission here are those questions, and my responses:

1. Immigration

If it were possible for the county to deny educational facilities and/or and services to the children of illegal immigrants…would you support such measures? Why or why not?

Let’s be clear that it isn’t possible under our constitution, and for good reasons. It serves no-one to deny education and services to children. Also remember that the children of undocumented residents are sometimes US citizens or have other legal status even if their parents don’t. Most importantly, remember the words of Matthew chapter 25, verse 45: “I say to you, what you did not do for one of these least ones, you did not do for me.” These children of parents who live in poverty and fear, in our very neighborhoods, are the least ones.

2. Creationism

Would you support the teaching of Creationism as a science? As part of a philosophy class? At all? Why or Why not?

Creationism, or “Intelligent Design” is not science, it is religion, and has no place in a science class. It’s perfectly fine for parents or private schools or churches to teach it as science, but clearly inappropriate for public schools. In public schools these topics can be appropriately studied in comparative religion or political science classes alongside competing approaches.

3. Textbooks

Should Loudoun County move away from printed textbooks and toward providing learning materials to both teachers and students in digital form? Why or Why not?

Yes, I believe that we can move away from textbooks in favor of digital and selectively-printed lesson formats. Our children live and thrive in a digital world, a world that we can help to preserve (saving money in the process) by cutting down on our use of paper.

4. Cheating.

Should coaches teach kids the "tricks of the trade" and how to "get away" with cheating in order to win. (For example, how to get away with holding in football; or hand-checking in basketball.) Why or Why not?

There is a fine line between good strategy and cheating, and I’m in no position to dictate where that line is. Ethics is an important part of sports, and I trust our coaches to include it in our athletic programs.

Candidate Profiles

Most of the local papers will carry candidate profiles in the next few weeks. I saw the first one online today and thought I'd provide a list of links for people who'd like to find out more about the the questions candidates are being asked, and my responses to them.

Washington Post