Budget trivia

I'm doing my budget reading tonight and keep coming across interesting little factoids. I'm going to use Twitter to post them.

Sanders Corner Sadness

The Sanders Corner Elementary community in Ashburn is struggling through two tragedies that occured within the past week. Over the holiday weekend, kindergarten teacher Mrs. Abbas lost her husband. They have young children including a newborn at home. On Wednesday night, art teacher Mary Loudermilk died, also very unexpectedly and much too soon.

Mrs. Abbas was my son's kindergarten teacher last year, he and my daugher also knew Mrs. Loudermilk and are very saddened at the loss, as is the entire SCES family. I informed the other members of the School Board last night at our meeting and we all extend our deepest sympathies to Mrs. Abbas and her family and to the family, students and colleagues of Ms. Loudermilk.

US News Rankings

The Washington Post reports today on US News' ranking of America's Best High Schools, including the #1 ranking of Fairfax's Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology. I have a couple of bones to pick with this study, and not just because Loudoun's schools are not included in the list.

First gripe: The only way that it is possible to rank High Schools nationally is by relying on test scores, which are helpful tools to evaluate but when used for rankings in this way they become the only criteria that people use to judge the schools. Rankings such as these motivate communities to push test scores above all else, constricting efforts to transform our schools into models for 21st century flexible learning.

Second gripe: TJ and other magnet high schools should not be ranked. Consider this quote:

"Public high schools have a mission to educate a range of students. It's not enough to just focus on the best kids or to just focus on remediation for the worst kids. You have to do both," said Brian Kelly, editor of U.S. News. "This methodology is set up to allow a fair comparison of that."

Pardon me for saying so, but Brian Kelly needs to wake up and smell what he's shoveling. TJ, while a great school doing a great job, doesn't do "remediation for the worst kids." TJ selects the most academically gifted students out of nearly a half million of the most affluent high school students in one of the most educated metropolitan areas in the entire world. The TJ administration could let those kids watch Cartoon Network all day, they'd still have high test scores.

US News needs to take this week's issue, put it in the trash, and start over again.

Capital Improvement Plan

On Wednesday and Thursday nights this week, the School Board held public work sessions on the Capital Improvement Plan. The CIP calls for $1.3 Billion in land acquisition and construction costs over the next six years. See the story in Leesburg Today and associated comments from readers. You can download a one-page summary view (a somewhat skewed PDF) of the plan from the LCPS website.
Did you notice that there was just one school bond on this year's ballot? That will be the last time that happens for quite a while. We need more schools, folks. We're packed to the gills. Most schools in growing areas are over capacity and the problem just gets worse in the coming years.
Only one speaker came to the public hearing held on the CIP on Tuesday, eighth-grader Katie Stevenson, who pressed us to build a Humanities Academy.
The major point of discussion by the Board this year revolves around building a new Monroe Advanced Technology Academy to replace the aged C.S. Monroe Technology Center. This project has had a very herky-jerky history with the outgoing Board of Supervisors that I don't have time to write about at the moment, but a year ago it was on the School Board's list of projects for this year, and the Board of Supervisors put it off. Trying to stay within the Supervisor's debt cap, the Superintendent has now proposed to delay the construction an additional three years to allow us to catch up on base Elementary, Middle and High Schools. This is distressing to the School Board, which is committed to updating the career & technical education facilities as soon as possible. The question of the day among School Board members is whether to press the new Board of Supervisors to move $100M to the front of the plan (FY2010) and get the new academy built sooner.
Unlike the operating budget, which is funded by the Supervisors but within that limit is set by the School Board, the Capital Improvements Plan is ultimately under the full control of the Supervisors. The School Board only makes a recommendation. That vote is expected at our January 8, 2008 meeting.

Hearsay is the Strangest Thing

In my short time as a public official, I must say that the strangest aspect is the frequency with which people attribute things to me that I have never said, and just how dramatic those things can be. You might sometimes hear a politician gripe about being misquoted in the press, but that isn't what I'm talking about.

What I'm talking about is the conversation where one person tells another "John Stevens said he's moving to Timbuktu." My favorite variation adds "Three different people told me they heard him say it!" The best part is that this isn't just speculation on what I'm thinking, or what I might do... these are quotes attributed directly to me.

I'm not bothered by this in and of itself, but when it gets back to me it's usually because whatever I was quoted as saying was upsetting to someone. If people are going to be upset by something I say, I'd prefer that it be about something that I actually said (which is also happening with increasing regularity).

I know that this must happen to everyone else in this arena as well, I know I'm not special in this regard. I'm frankly quite surprised that anyone would pay enough attention to me to warrant discussions of this kind. It has taught me not to take too seriously what one person tells me about another.

Truth be told, it's mostly the small group of people who are politically active in our community... party activists, other elected officials and the people who regularly work with them. Many enjoy the maneuvering and relationships that go along with public policy . I'd be insincere to say that I don't also enjoy those things. The gossip is part of it I suppose.

When one of these oddball statements finds its way back to me, I can respond with "I never said anything of the sort," but it always seems to leave the questioner wondering. The best I can do from there is to say "I guess you'll find out for sure when a little time goes by and I haven't moved to Timbuktu."

While I'm on the subject, here's something else that makes me chuckle: people who bring up something from my blog (often within an hour or two of my posting) who immediately add the disclaimer "not that I read your blog, I don't have time for that." Folks, I don't expect anybody in particular to read what I write here, except that I know my mother checks it daily (hi Mom). If you do read and it's interesting to you, I'm glad. If you don't read it or when you do it isn't of interest, that's fine too. I don't quiz people on it, tally who is paying attention, or take it seriously enough to think that anyone else should.

LEAP looks at AP

There is an excellent writeup on the LCPS website about a very interesting forum about Advanced Placement courses by the Loudoun Education Association of Parents at their November meeting.

Fellow School Board Blogger

I read on the Municipalist blog last night about a Jennifer Abell, member of the Charles County, MD Board of Education. Ms. Abell has a blog called "Ready, Willing and Abell." It looks like a very good example of what a local elected official's blog can be. I'm going to try to add some of the great features of Ms. Abell's blog to mine, such as a calendar, better links and more readable comments.

Superintendent's Budget Presentation

Tonight the Superintendent presented his proposed budget for FY2009. This is my first time through the budget process and I anticipate that it will be a tremendous education experience for me and the two members-elect who haven't ever been through the process before. We have meetings about four nights/week until January 8th, when we expect to vote on the final budget and send it to the Board of Supervisors.

You'll read about it in the papers I'm sure, but here are my bullet-point notes from the presentation, in case you wanted to look over my shoulder. I won't elaborate on any of it because it's late and I'm tired.

• Supervisors York, McGimsey, Buckley, Waters and Miller attended.

• 14% group health insurance rate increase ($16.7M)

• 5.8% teacher salary increase including step
• Classified Employee 6.0% increase
• Auxiliary 6.4% increase
• Administrator 5.6% increase
• Email archive servers
• Potomac Falls High School stadium scoreboard
• Proposed ($801.4M) ($110.9M total increase, $84M local)

• 16% budget increase
• Budget distribution:
  

o 79.9% instruction

o 8.5% Ops & Maintenance

o 6.8% Pupil Transportation

o 3.0% Administration

o 1.3% Attendance & Health

o 0.5% Facilities

• 291 new teachers needed to accommodate growth

Hopefully I can get you a link to the Superintendent's powerpoint presentation.

New Meeting Formats

Tonight's School Board meeting will feature the presentation of the proposed 2009 LCPS operating budget by our superintendent, Dr. Hatrick. Two weeks ago he presented a proposed capital improvements plan (CIP), and the next month features several meetings on each, evenings and Saturday mornings. If you have a concern about the school budget, whether it's something you think needs adequate funding or something you think gets too much funding, now is the time to let me know and email is the best medium.

Also tonight, three of my colleagues will join me in proposing changes to the School Board Bylaws that, if passed, will affect the way our meetings are conducted in the future. The biggest change will be to hold one regular School Board meeting at each Loudoun County High School each year. There are other Virgina School Boards that do this with great results. While we'll be pushing Board members and senior staff out of our comfort zone at the Admin building, I think that the benefits outweigh the potential inconveniences.

It is my hope that holding alternate School Board meetings at High Schools instead of in the Admin building we will:

• Make the meetings more accessible to the public by holding them closer to home in a familiar building
• Generate interest among High School students about how they can influence how their schools operate, and how the decisions of the community affect them
• Make Board members more familiar with the High School clusters in different areas of the County (I envision each meeting in a High School beginning with a short presentation and welcome by the Principal).
  

Other changes we are proposing to the way that Board meetings are conducted are primarily focused on making the meetings more efficient by limiting the time allowed for board member comments and questions, staff presentations and ceremonial recognitions. Anyone who has ever attended one of our common Tuesday-night marathons will understand. You can download the specific proposals here. We hope to vote on the proposals on Tuesday, December 11th.

Forum & Convention Blogging

Today I'm going to three different events, concluding with the Virginia School Boards Association Annual Convention. First I'm going to Potowmack Elementary School for the opening of a new bank branch just for students. Then I'll join Vice-Chairman Tom Reed at a forum downtown called "Putting Race on the Table," an annual event sponsored by The Community Foundation to discuss the persistent minority achievement gap in the region.

Tomorrow I'll be at the VSBA convention all day long. During the day I will host a box-lunch roundtable for new school board members.

I'm going to make up for the fact that I probably won't be able to write any lengthy entries over the next couple of days by trying a little live-blogging from the road using Twitter. Let me know if you're following along.

Rethinking Restlessness & Abstinence-Only

I was struck by two newspaper stories today that you may find interesting also.

First, if your recent teacher conference about your Kindergartener didn't go so well, or if your kid is ADHD and you're worried that it will affect him forever, don't fret. The New York Times reports this morning that Bad Behavior Does Not Doom Pupils in a story that reviews two new studies of early childhood behavior. In what one researcher called "landmark findings,"

One concluded that kindergartners who are identified as troubled do as well academically as their peers in elementary school. The other found that children with attention deficit disorders suffer primarily from a delay in brain development, not from a deficit or flaw.

Kindergartners who interrupted the teacher, defied instructions and even picked fights were performing as well in reading and math as well-behaved children of the same abilities when they both reached fifth grade, the study found.

As for kids with ADHD, the problem may not be a malfunction but instead just a delay:

The basic sequence of development in the brains of these kids with A.D.H.D. was intact, absolutely normal,” Dr. Shaw said. “I think this is pretty strong evidence we’re talking about a delay, and not an abnormal brain.”About three in four children do grow out of the problem by early adulthood, he said.

Here in Virginia, Governor Kaine is trying to balance the state's budget and found $275,000 in savings by cutting the funding for 14 non-profit groups teaching abstinence-only education. You can read about it in this Washington Post story.

Of course, the small-government conservatives who usually decry government funding of non-profits are naturally outraged:

Several social conservatives reacted angrily, accusing Kaine and Planned Parenthood of hiding his decision until after the Nov. 6 election. Sen. Ken Cuccinelli II (R-Fairfax) said he will try to get the General Assembly to reverse Kaine's decision when it convenes in January. "The longer you delay the commencement of sexual activity, you have healthier and happier kids and more successful kids," said Cuccinelli.

Actually, Cuccinelli is wrong about that according to another study published recently and documented in Sundays' Washington Post story:

Other things being equal, a more probing study has found, youngsters who have consensual sex in their early-teen or even preteen years are, if anything, less likely to engage in delinquent behavior later on.

While social conservatives would like to believe that if you only tell kids about abstinence they'll practice it, the evidence doesn't show that. The evidence actually demonstrates that kids are desperately curious about sex and that the more you tell them about it, the less likely they are to do their own research while Mom & Dad are at work. I applaud Kaine's willingness to stand strongly with the evidence. Parents who don't want public schools telling their kids about sex should be sure to take care of the responsibility themselves, and you can be sure that "don't do it" isn't a complete lesson.

These budget cuts and studies aren't likely to affect anything in Loudoun County Public Schools, which have had a stable sex education program as part of Family Life Education for umpteen years. Read all about it on the LCPS FLE webpage.

Wash Post features LCPS Stories

This has been a week of heavy coverage of Loudoun Schools in the Washington Post from a number of different angles. Here are some stories you may be interested to read...

• Lovettsville Still Debating Schools' Site: This is a very good overview of the most contentious issue now facing the School Board by the woman who is possibly Loudoun's best reporter on the beat right now, Michael Allison Chandler. Frustration about the location of a new western Loudoun high school contributed to the defeat of the only incumbent member who lost in this week's election, and now the pressure will be on newcomer Jennifer Bergel to bridge the gap between the many competing parties and interests with the innovation she has promised.
• Shaping a Wetlands Habitat: As a "green schools" advocate, this is one of the most exciting things I've seen at any LCPS school. Our facilities occupy a lot of ground space, and we should be moving away from the propensity to make all of that acreage into artificial surface cover. Incorporating hands-on ecological improvement into the curriculum is a great way to save costs, prepare our kids for the future and be good stewards
• Lingering Academic Gap Riles NAACP is another story by Ms. Chandler that is late in coming (the quote from me is two months old), but rather than say the Post is late to the party I'm going to compliment them for having an attention span that outlasts that of most media. I'm grateful for the way that it sustains the community awareness of one of those crucial issues that doesn't go away once the headlines move on to new things. I have some new developments on this front that I will write about in the coming days. There are at least 100 reader comments on this story, unfortunately they have little to do with the story itself and serve mainly to demonstrate how the issue of race in America is still an emotionally-charged tragedy.
  

Potomac Falls Cluster Welcoming Night

I can't believe I didn't post this a couple of weeks ago. Tonight (Thursday, November 8) is the first Potomac Falls Cluster "Welcoming Night" for parents who are new to the schools which "feed" to Potomac Falls High School. This includes:

• Algonkian Elementary
• Countryside Elementary
• Horizon Elementary
• Potowmack Elementary
• River Bend Middle School
• and Potomac Falls High School itself.

The event is at 6:30 at Potomac Falls High School, and all of the new families should have received invitations through their school. School Board Chairman Robert DuPree At-Large Member Tom Reed will join me there tonight along with PTA represenatives and the principals of each school to welcome everyone.

From the LCPS Website announcement:
Potomac Falls Cluster Holds 1st Welcoming Night

The Potomac Falls High School Cluster schools are having their first annual “Welcoming Pride” evening on Thursday, November 8th.

The purpose of the evening is to welcome families into Loudoun County Public Schools and, specifically, to the schools in the Potomac Falls Cluster. Administrators representing each school in the cluster (Potomac Falls High School, River Bend Middle School and Algonkian, Countryside, Horizon and Potowmack elementary schools) will participate in the evening. There will be information provided about the Potomac Falls Cluster with break-out sessions for more information on specific schools.

The event will begin at 6:30 p.m. on November 8th in the Potomac Falls High School cafeteria. Dinner will be provided by the Buffalo Wing Factory of Sterling. Community publications and prizes will be given out. Interpreters are available upon request.

Government Bloggers

I was introduced recently to a fledgling blog called "Municipalist" that profiles government bloggers. I've read all of his entries to date, and I'm surprised to read that officials who blog are very rare. The author of the blog contacted me and my colleague Tom Reed (who writes "Loudoun Schools Dais") to ask us some questions. He posted my interview on election day, and I invite you to have a look.