Penguins are Budget Distractions

As was reported in the press yesterday, my esteemed colleague Warren Geurin lamented on Tuesday night that the Tango controversy has distracted attention from the current budget process. He mentioned my blog in particular, as a few folks think that I've been fueling that "distraction." Certainly there has been significant press coverage of Tango, I'm sure in large part because people like to read about controversy and reporters in particular tend to be interested in censorship issues, as they base their careers on freedom of speech. I happen to also think that it was (and remains) a critical issue.

For the benefit of those who think I haven't contributed enough to the budget discussion, I have created a review below of the many budget posts that I have written in the past four months. At least one Supervisor read my most recent budget post but commented to me that s/he would need more than that one to be convinced. Well citizens, feast upon the following and then use the links at right to write to your representatives on the Board of Supervisors and tell them what you think of plans to cut the LCPS budget even more deeply than the previous Board did.

Click here for the printable version.

February 25: “The leanest central office I’ve ever seen.”

Critics of the recently submitted school budget feel that too much money is spent on administrative salaries, which, in turn, causes rising Loudoun taxes.

Leibowitz said, "This administrative structure is bare-boned. It's the leanest central office I've ever seen.

February 16: Administrative Costs & Textbooks

“93.1 percent of LCPS' employees are school-based, the highest percentage of school-based personnel among districts in the metropolitan area, according to the D.C. Washington Area Boards of Education Guide” You'll also see in the numbers that about 3% of our budget goes to Administration, while 79.8% goes to Instruction.

February 7, 2008: Teacher Salaries (concisely)

Our teacher salaries are set based on that free market, not as a moral judgment of how much someone deserves to be paid. When I consider the challenge and importance of the work that teachers do and the impact it has on the future of our world, I think they should be paid much more (same for law enforcement, firefighters, military and other public safety personnel), but no society has ever though it could afford to pay public employees according to the importance and risk associated with their jobs.

February 2, 2008: Four Good Questions

Realizing economy of scale is important and at LCPS, the number of administrators has steadily declined over the years in comparison to the number of students. While the student population has grown 141% in the past ten years, the number of administrators has grown only 90%. Of the ten DC-area public school districts, only the City of Manassas has a higher percentage of school-based personnel.

January 29, 2008: Self-Sufficiency Standard

"Everyone who works a full-time job should be paid enough to meet basic needs without help from family, friends or the government.”

January 13, 2008: Anatomy of a decision

In an $800 million dollar budget, there’s only so many $20K items you can have time to go over with a fine toothed comb. This is the nature of a large institution and you can’t pin that on LCPS. It’s the same at every large corporation and government organization I’ve ever worked at, with the US Military topping the list.

January 13, 2008: Budget Amendments Complete

While we cut back new school office staff, new technology and raises for our substitute teachers we added full-day kindergarten at four schools, gave a tech boost to our poorest schools, rolled back a school lunch price increase and started thinking in a new way about how we determine the appropriate starting pay for our custodians.

January 7, 2008: Budget Amendments Underway

We approved without amendment the following relatively small areas of the budget:

• School Board
• Superindentent's Office
• Deputy Superindentent's Office
• Public Information Office
• Planning & Legislative Services

All of this constitutes less than 1 percent of the budget. The total, by my calculations, is $5,889,881. It is an increase of 1.46% over the FY08 Appropriation. All of these offices combined have a total of 26.8 FTEs, and no new employees were added this year.

January 3, 2008: FY09 Growth and Funding

A reasonable person would then ask "Why does LCPS have an increase so much higher than the rate of inflation?" Here's why.

January 2, 2008: Budget Tools and Indicators

Cost per pupil: This is the big metric that everybody looks to, as if all the answers were in this one number. In FY08 our cost is $12,751 per student. This is 6th out of the 10 metro DC jurisdictions. Prince William, Prince George and Manassas spend less.

December 16, 2007: Weekend Education News

Since the School Board hasn't even yet voted on the budget, it is premature to suggest that we're bickering with the Supervisors over it. We all understand that this is going to be a tough year, and we're all going to do our best to work out the best possible budget for the kids and the county.

December 13, 2007: AP Fees & Budget Cuts

In the midst of the difficult choices that both Boards will need to make about tax rates, class sizes and what creates educational excellence, some School Board members are eyeing the AP fee payments, particularly for the many students from affluent families, as a potential target for savings. What do you think?

December 6, 2008: Budget Immersion

It is, officially, the "Superintendent's proposed budget," and before it gets to us it has been through his own vetting process. What it really reflects though is the work of at least a couple of hundred people, from principals and other school-level staff to supervisors and directors with the help of specialists and secretaries and up to the senior staff. To a person each member of the staff demonstrate a very clear command of their area of responsibility. I'm sure that they've had to justify each line item at multiple levels before they get to us, we're just the last so maybe they've warmed up by then.

November 30, 2007: Capital Improvement Plan

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.

October 11, 2007: Cost Per Pupil

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%.

Proposed Policy Revision: Challenges to Materials

Tonight I provided to my colleagues a proposed revision to policy 5-7D, Procedure for Review of Challenged Materials. These policy changes do not directly address the question of the book And Tango Makes Three. They do ensure that in the future the Superintendent cannot act unilaterally or outside of proscribed policy, and that no book will be removed without an opportunity for the public to provide input to its elected representatives.

These revisions implement three major improvements. First, they make binding the decision of the review committees designated by the school principal or the Division Superintendent. Second, they provide for School Board review of any decision to remove instructional material from libraries or the curriculum and require public input prior to removal of materials. Finally, they provide clarity on the status of materials after they have been removed.

The removal of a book without an opportunity for public comment and against the recommendation of instructional professionals and members of the community by the Superintendent who appointed them is made possible by a policy created by an earlier, unelected School Board. The addition of previously restricted materials to a library or the curriculum without review is made possible by a policy created by that School Board. It is the responsibility of this School Board to address these problems.

I make this recommendation after reviewing the policies of school districts around the region and around the country and after consulting with the Virginia School Boards Association and the American Library Association. I hope that my colleagues will approve this policy change and that Dr. Hatrick will submit his recommendation to restrict access to And Tango Makes Three in Sugarland Elementary School to the School Board for review.

The Legislative Policy Committee will review this proposal on Tuesday March 4th at 6pm.

Information on how other Districts approach their challenge policy can be found using the attached links:

• Sample Policies
• Fairfax Policy
• Sample Policy Matrix

"The leanest central office I've ever seen."

With all of the fuss over penguins, I missed a gem of a story last week that I hope every member of the Board of Supervisors, not to mention the many concerned citizens of this county, will read.

Consultant, Celeb's Mom Advises Soon-to-Be Principals is an interesting piece about an educational consultant who is "a nationally known education consultant who has worked with Loudoun County Public Schools for more than 10 years." Yes, she's also Jon Stewart's mother but that's not even the most interesting part (at least for policy geeks like me):

Leibowitz has been working with school systems in the U.S. and abroad since 1984.

I asked her how she thought LCPS stacked up against other organizations she's worked with.

She replied, "It's amazing that [LCPS] is able to have everything in place with the enormous growth they have, and still deliver excellent education."

I also asked Leibowitz how the system's administrative functionality compares to other systems. Critics of the recently submitted school budget feel that too much money is spent on administrative salaries, which, in turn, causes rising Loudoun taxes.

Leibowitz said, "This administrative structure is bare-boned. It's the leanest central office I've ever seen. People don't understand the need for webbing in the operation of a successful school system."

Take a moment to chew on that. I have given readers of this blog similar information in past posts, but coming from an expert who tours the country should give everyone something fresh to think about.

I have now heard from several inside sources that the Board of Supervisors is receiving emails in astonishing quantities imploring them to cut the LCPS budget dramatically. There seems to be only two possible ways to handle cuts of the magnitude we may be facing: slash teacher raises and increase class sizes. If you think those cuts can come from Mandarin Chinese, lacrosse programs and Dr. Hatrick's salary, you'd better try again with your calculator because the money isn't there. It's in our classrooms. Take the money away, that's where the cuts will be felt.

If you can't walk up to your child's teacher and say "I will not support your pay raise this year, and I want more children in class with my own," you should write to your representative on the Board of Supervisors and let them know that you support full funding of Loudoun County Public Schools. Links are below:

Scott York (At Large)
Jim Burton (Blue Ridge)
Lori Waters (Broad Run)
Sally Kurtz (Catoctin)
Stevens Miller (Dulles)
Kelly Burk (Leesburg)
Andrea McGimsey (Potomac)
Eugene Delgaudio (Sterling)
Susan Buckley (Sugarland Run)

Penguins Popping Up in the Press

With each passing day, Superintendent Hatrick's decision to pull the book And Tango Makes Three from sixteen Loudoun County school libraries gains more attention from near and far. This morning brings stories from both coasts.

The Loudoun Times Mirror published a story about New York-based National free-speech groups weighing in on the decision.

Now, national anti-censorship groups have sent a letter to Schools Superintendent Edgar Hatrick III condemning his decision regarding "And Tango Makes Three."

"No one is being forced to read 'And Tango Makes Three,'" states the letter from the New York City-based National Coalition Against Censorship and the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression. " But restricting student access violates the rights of children whose parents want their children to be taught tolerance and respect for diversity."

And while this is a local decision, the LA Times editorial published today makes clear that from coast to coast, this is a national issue and we are being closely watched:

The book certainly sends a message that two-father families exist, and quite happily. That's simply the truth, whether or not some people would like to ban gay ornithological unions. Too bad that, even though two committees favored keeping the book, the superintendent pulled it from all elementary shelves in the school district.

It takes common sense and sometimes bravery to nurture tolerance at school. There are teachers, school counselors and even students doing this every day. Leaders would be better off supporting their efforts than putting more requirements on their shoulders or forbidding true stories of acceptance.

Outsiders cannot solve this for us, they cannot fight for us. We must do this ourselves, in our own way, from within our community, in our own words. And so, in case you missed it the first time,

I firmly believe that And Tango Makes Three
should be returned to the shelves
of Loudoun County Public School Libraries

Ours is a dramatically diverse community in the shades of our skin, the languages in our homes, the ways that we worship and the makeup of our families. We are a beautiful bowl of confetti and that is more so in our public schools than in any other part of our community. We are preparing our students for their diverse future, not our homogeneous past. Our school libraries have books about families of all kinds, books that tell kids about the different colors, languages, places, and ways to worship. They are incomplete without books that talk about different families. The State of Virginia's own Family Life Education program, in kindergarten, recognizes this need to talk about different kinds of families:

K.4 The student will recognize that everyone is a member of a family and that families come in many forms.
Descriptive Statement: This includes a variety of family forms: traditional or two-parent families-mother, father, and children; extended families--relatives other than the immediate family living in the home; single-parent families; adoptive families; foster families; fan-families with stepparents; and blended fan-families--new families formed by the marriage of a man and woman with children from previous marriages.

K.5 The student will identify members of his or her own family.
Descriptive Statement: This refers to identifying the adult and child members of the student's family.

While the state may have its head in the sand by omitting same-gender parents from its list in section K4, the state cannot deny that some kids in our community will identify two moms or two dads as adult members of their family in their finger-paintings that will hang on classroom walls. My kids and your kids are going to know these kids and see these drawings and hear about their families. As kindergarteners they don't know about sex, but they know about love, and we teach them that love is what makes a family. And Tango Makes Three is about love that exists in our children's world and if we let this book be taken from our libraries then next it will be the lesson taken from the curriculum and the fingerpaintings from the walls. Lessons about love and fingerpaintings of family are sorely needed in this world, and in Loudoun we can do our part by putting Tango back in our public school libraries.

Penguin Postcards from the Edge

I'm glad that the book that so much of the community and the nation is discussing this week involves penguins. They're appealing, familiar and easy to alliterate. Imagine if we were all having to write about Echidnas.

Civility. The Board has received dozens of emails about the Superintendent's decision to pull And Tango Makes Three from supporters and opponents alike. I am very pleased that by and large, these emails are civil and focus on the issue and don't personalize the argument. Yes, there are a few unreasonable folks out there who liken the book to teaching elementary students how to use intravenous psychotropic narcotics. And on the other side there are those free speech advocates so incensed that they would have the School Board dispatch Dr. Hatrick into retirement for this one decision. Both suggestions are so ridiculous as to not merit a response, and the harsh tones are not helpful to a healthy debate.

Effectiveness. Many of the emails the Board has received, both for and against, are from people far outside of our community. Texas, Colorado and Lynchburg VA are particularly well represented, but we have also heard from Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Oregon and the Big Apple. Frankly I don't think that these emails mean much to the School Board or the Superintendent. Thanks for your input world, but we've got a local problem here.

The least effective emails of all are not addressed to any member in particular and don't include an indication of where the author lives. Usually these are from Loudoun parents but in a time like this when we're hearing from people across the country, in my mind they are difficult to separate from those coming from out of state. For Loudoun County parents who want to weigh in on this issue (on either side) or on any other issue, here's how to be most effective when you write:

1. Use your individual board member's email address. Don't use the one advertised on the site "to contact all the School Board members or the Superintendent." Here's a link to mine.
2. Always write to both your district's representative and to the At-Large Representative, Tom Reed. They both represent you personally. If another district's representative is taking the lead on a particular issue, include that member too. These are the people who will make it a priority to respond to you.
   
3. Always address the members by name, be it first or last. "Dear Mr. Stevens:" is as effective as "Hey, John-". Again, this will tell us who you expect to hear back from.
   
4. Always, always, always tell us where you live or which Loudoun School your child goes to, if you have a child in school. Again, the impact of the words of parents of children in our schools is tenfold beyond that of an anonymous emailer.
   

Finally I'd like to leave you with a priceless email that I received last night. It's an excellent example of someone taking a side without making it personal:

I respect and feel privileged to have worked with [Dr. Hatrick] and his family and I think he is wonderful....but on this issue, I certainly don't agree with him. It just doesn't seem like the Ed Hatrick I worked with years ago, not to embrace diversity. Hopefully he will realize he has made a wrong decision and correct it.

See? It is entirely possible for us to disagree with each other and yet remain civil, friendly even. Thank you to all of you who have taken the time to add your voices. Yes, thank you even to the angry outsiders who think I'm an idiot. We're all in this together.

Loudoun schools closed Friday February 22, 2008

It's another short week, another long weekend for students. Administrative Offices will be open.

I'm not the weatherman, just documenting for future reference:

Winter Storm Warning remains in effect until 10 PM this evening. Periods of freezing rain will continue this morning. A glaze of ice is possible through sunrise. Motorists should use extra caution this morning and watch for slippery spots on the roads. Visibilities will be reduced to a mile or less at times.

As the storm moves offshore tonight... most precipitation will end. However... expect lingering freezing drizzle or drizzle and fogthrough the overnight. Significant icing... around a quarter of an inch... is expected fromthis storm. This will likely cause substantial travel problems andsome power outages.

Penguins Marching

In the days since I posted my call to Put the Penguins Back, a lot has happend. The Washington Post published a piece over the weekend, bloggers have picked it up nationwide, there is now a Facebook group devoted to the issue and tonight I read that Church Executive Magazine has picked up the story. Folks have written letters to the Superintendent and to the School Board, mostly opposing the decision to pull the book from the shelves.

If you're keeping score, we have three Board members supporting the Superintendent's decision, three Board members opposed, and three who haven't expressed their opinion yet. At next Tuesday's Board meeting I expect there will be folks coming to the dais to speak for and against, but anyone hoping for the Board to vote on the Superintendent's decison will be disappointed. While I disagree with the decision, the School Board should not make a practice of overturning the day-to-day decisions of the Superintendent outside of the normal channel of appeals, and I will not support such an effort in this case.

I continue to emphasize that an inadequate set of policies for book challenges led us to this situation, and I will post a proposal for revised policies on Tuesday February 26th for consideration at the March 4th Legislative/Policy committee meeting.

Your Budget Comments

A commenter on an earlier post requested an open thread to comment on the budget. Here it is, have your say.

Administrative Costs & Textbooks

A commenter wrote:

All this talk about teacher salaries, what about administration staff salaries? What percentage of the budget goes to Admin staff and how much of the budget could be saved by lowering the raises of only Admin staff instead of teachers? Also, I read on a blog that the Admin Bldg on Education Court has 30% available office space that could be used by other County staff. It would seem to make sense there is room for more there since it is so new. But I have not seen any real data to evaluate this possibly bogus comment. Can you find out what the current # sq ft/employee at the LCPS Admin building and how does that compare with the County Gov't Center on Loudoun St in Leesburg? Lastly, could any savings be realized by issuing CDs instead of books and just have a set of books that can be checked out on an as-needed basis? The size of the books is getting ridiculous - one of my son's books is >8 pounds and covers 2 years of curriculum! I know some kids have medical necessity for an extra set of books because they can't physically manage the weight.

I'll shed what light I can on your questions here. If you want to see the specific numbers for the proposed budget, read the Executive Summary. They are your schools and your taxes, take some time to find out where that money goes. I especially recommend page 12, "Operating Budget Expenditure Increases." Please also see my other budget posts.

Administrative Staff salaries

The FY09 Budget Executive Summary reads: "93.1 percent of LCPS' employees are school-based, the highest percentage of school-based personnel among districts in the metropolitan area, according to the D.C. Washington Area Boards of Education Guide." You'll also see in the numbers that about 3% of our budget goes to Administration, while 79.8% goes to Instruction.

I dug a little deeper. I looked up the categories of Non-School-Based positions that I think people would consider "administrators." In the Washington Area Boards of Education FY2008 Guide, these are classified as "Management" and "Educational Specialists." Managment positions make up 1.08% of LCPS employees, .36% are Educational Specialists. Among DC-area counties, only Fairfax and Montgomery Counties have lower percentages, which is to be expected considering their size. We do not have a top-heavy administration. The people we employ as administrators work hard and generally could make much more in the private sector. We recently lost one skilled HQ employee to the private sector, where he took a $30,000 pay raise. Nearly all of the senior administrators could take a position of greater seniority in any other school district. They are payed well, but I do not believe that they are not overpaid.

I don't have numbers for you on the effect of reducing administrative staff raises instead of teacher salary increases. However, if you consider that there are 123 Administrators and 4,547 teachers (and 95.7 Instructional Specialists, and 966 Instructional Assistants), I think you can see that we aren't going to have a major impact on a $790M budget by reducing 123 administrative salaries.

In an earlier exploration of the budget, I wrote : The only two categories to increase more slowly than the rate of student growth are in the Administration and Secretarial/Clerical categories. The number of administrators has increased by only 90% in that time, it is the only category that hasn't doubled.

Administrative Space

Last year, Loudoun County administration made an inquiry regarding administrative space. Last month I wrote about Lending Space to the County.

Text books

I am also very concerned about textbooks for a few reasons. They are very expensive. They need to be updated with increasing frequency as the pace of new knowledge about subject matter and learning styles accelerates. They are inefficient. And as you say, they are very very heavy. I would much prefer that our teachers have access to and be able to develop lesson materials from electronic resources, and I am sure that those days are ahead, but they aren't here yet. I have had conversations with our administrators about this, and in some areas they say we may be purchasing the last of our textbooks, but in others they cannot envision moving away from textbooks. I believe that this is a matter of the will of the community expressed through the School Board. If the Board makes it a goal to eliminate the use of textbooks, it will be done. Otherwise, we'll continue on this traditional path. So far I sense interest but not attention from my colleagues on this matter. If the commmunity expresses itself to the members of the Board to seek reform, we'll have it. If not, we won't.

Put the Penguins Back

Many of you are aware of the controversy surrounding the removal of a children’s book called And Tango Makes Three from the libraries of all Loudoun County public elementary schools. I have read the book, studied our policies and sought the input of the Superintendent and his staff regarding the process that was followed.

I believe And Tango Makes Three should return
to our libraries’ shelves.

Parents determine what is appropriate for their own children and how to guide their children as they learn and grow. The schools should not be an instrument of censorship for parents who want veto power over the judgment of other parents.

After spending the past week investigating the decision, I believe that the Superintendent and every LCPS staff member involved faithfully followed the policies provided by the School Board. I also believe that the policies, last revised in 1993, are deeply flawed and led to a bad decision. I will work to overhaul these policies.

I am researching the best practices for handling book challenges in public school libraries, and have asked the Superintendent’s staff to provide their input. I will present a new set of policies for consideration at the next meeting of the Legislative/Policy committee on March 4th.

Mandarin Chinese Extended to Third Year

I was going to write about this, but instead today I'm featuring "guest columnists" if you will. A few members of the School Board have traded emails in the past 24 hours about the Mandarin program, and they have staked their positions out better and more completely than I could do myself. With their permission and my gratitude I am publishing those emails here:


(From Tom Marshall, Leesburg District)
I am not as enthusiastic with regard to Mandarin 3 (or 1 & 2). I remember when Russian and Japanese were the flavors of the day. I believe in languages, but I also believe it would be far better to teach students a language like Spanish, given our geographic location, from a very early age, perhaps 3rd grade through high school so our society (not just a few precocious students) would finally master another language other than English. Once our students, who had started with Spanish, at a young age as a graded subject became so comfortable with the Spanish language they, without the inhibitions of adolescence, would willingly speak fluently outside a classroom environment and many would be far better equipped to learn more difficult languages in college deemed important for political or economic reasons.

We are creating with Mandarin Chinese what we created earlier with AP French 5, Ap German 5, many Latin 3 & 4 classes, not to mention ASL 3 ----- courses that are under-enrolled for the benefit of a few and to the detriment of those in lower level languages, who now have larger classes as a result of the staffing pressure brought about by having a teachers of foreign language sacrificing the students in levels 1, 2, and 3 for upper level languages with just a few students. We spread ourselves too thin and our too fad conscious with respect to languages. Why can't we just learn one language well and stop pandering to those who now want another esoteric language for themselves. This is not a sermon---just a thought!
Tom Marshall


(From Warren Geurin, Sterling District)
Dear Tom and all others,

I have refrained from adding my two cents worth, but I want each of you to know that agree with Tom Marshall. The real issue, which has apparently not been given any consideration so far, is the class load for the Chinese teachers we currently employ -- as well as the future costs of adding additional Chinese teachers.

While it may be that the costs of adding one additional teacher is small, in the overall scheme of things -- it is pretty hard to explain to the Board of Supervisors that we need additional staff so that 12 or 13 students in two high schools want to take a 3rd year of Chinese.

Aside from the costs, the guidance folks and principals at these two schools will have a Dickens of a time building an whole schedule around 12 or 13 students. I would much prefer that they sign up for a set of Rosetta Stone CDs and study on their own time.
Our veteran members will remember, of course, that I opposed adding Chinese teachers to our staff from the beginning. The fact that we do have some students taking Chinese 2 does not, in and of itself, produce any evidence that the our experimental pilot program is successful.

If there were as many students wanting to take Chinese as there are students who want to take Latin, German, or French -- then I would be more disposed to the idea that Mr. Ohneiser has apparently convinced Mrs. Ackerman is a good one. I do not think that it is.
Having said all this, I want to express my confidence in Mrs. Ackerman's ability to make this a good experience for those few students who actually sign up for these classes.

Warren Geurin


(From Bob Ohneiser, Broad Run District)
I'm actually pleased we are having this discourse as the basic tenets apply across many goals we aim to accomplish as a team with children and their climate for success as our focus. This will not be a Spanish versus Mandarin review because the audience doesn't need to be overly reminded of trade issues, historic significance of China, billion plus population spread worldwide, trillion or so dollars in reserve, highly difficult language, high school differentiation from viewpoint of college recruiters and the perceived commitment we made to students like the ones who spoke at our school board meeting. This is only a temporary accommodation for two high schools yet it does raise issues I think we should seriously deliberate about during our upcoming planning session. This note is intended to spend a moment balancing arguments with perhaps the opposite pole using the following excerpts I think I perceived from Warren and Tom's notes. I hope this is seen as a constructive way to show we need as a board to discuss planning what the school system should focus on going forward.

1. Should we really teach Spanish to the exclusion of other languages? I think Spanish is an elective not a social mandate where we replace student and parental choice with our own sense of demographic evolution.

2. Should we 1apply resources to teach Spanish through 8 choices in high school as well as middle school choices and FLES which is mandatory in all elementary schools to the exclusion of not just other languages but to the exclusion of other courses which could be offered but for the extensive investment in Spanish. I would like to see how much funding we dedicate to Spanish throughout the entire system so if we decide as a school board to make Spanish available like all other foreign languages what amount of budget could be used for other courses. if we feel as a board that Spanish should be sponsored as a social mandate then so be it but we should decide that openly and understand the cost to education to accomplish this.

3. Should we view American Sign Language or the strings program or the Academy of Science or Monroe or the Douglas School or ESL as expendable because they serve a minority interest or as Tom put it " benefit of a few to the detriment of others". Again I think these are topics of great importance to us as a board to make from a zero budget basis instead of merely agreeing or disagreeing on how much we can afford to expand them. In my experience ALL non-core subject choices are open to discussion and re-prioritization. If our aggregate budget is squeezed we have to make both incremental choices as well as vertical choices in how to apply funding. Thus far we have focused on an incremental view in my opinion.

4. Should we view budget dollars as fungible or on a department by department or subject by subject basis? If everything is important then one could argue nothing is important other than we get our way. As long as the county keeps closing its eyes to the impact of residential growth our aggregate funding needs will appear to be a greater and greater threat so we may have to decide what we want to prioritize. Should class sizes be kept within a narrower range so every part of Loudoun gets equal treatment regardless of economics or ethnicity or recency of immigration? Do we realize that under Virginia Law Section 22.1-238 textbooks are only intended to be provided for free if “parent or guardian is financially unable to furnish them". One could argue we are under no obligation to provide textbooks to the tune of $millions per year to any student who can afford school lunch. Could we use such funds to meet our budget challenge or could we perhaps improve our curriculum or pay custodians more etc by rigorously reviewing what we must do as a school board versus what we choose to do voluntarily.

5. If foreign languages should not be deemed important based on political or economic reasons then why do we continue to support the governors school, debating programs, economics classes or anything else not directly tied to State minimums? ASL is not a foreign language but its classes in some cases are much LOWER than the current temporary accommodation for Mandarin. Based on Mrs. Ackerman's January 31, 2008 report BWHS only has 3 students in ASL 3, DHS only has 8 in ASL 3, LCHS only has 8 in ASL 3 and PFHS only has 6 in ASL 3.

6. China and its impact on the earth in the past and its foreseeable impact in the future could never be considered to be a "FAD" but as a school board we need to balance how much of our future funding should be focused on courses that do not directly add competitive advantage to our students as they approach college and/or the job market. The size of our investment in ESL is now $10's of millions per year as just one example. I doubt that the many courses to teach Spanish for Spanish speakers is going to create an advantage in getting into a good college or a better job given it is the student’s primary language especially if the offering of this cuts into that students ability to master English which is their second language. English is still most likely to be the primary language on their job beyond local food service facilities.

7. Teaching the same elective courses to all students is another interesting concept in terms of balancing expense and educational value. I tend to favor teaching courses that students are genuinely interested in as electives so they devote their interest and hard work into making the course important to them for the long term. I think Mandarin qualifies in this area.

8. Re-elected board members will remember I asked for Russian, Arabic and Mandarin. WE settled on Mandarin on a pilot basis but I still believe LCPS should consider piloting Arabic next. I hope we don't view the transfer of wealth to the middle east or other reasons Arabic is important to understand and the history surrounding such populations are a fad or an esoteric exercise. I think students who choose challenging electives will truly benefit from a climate for success as they reach well beyond the local Burger King for long term participation in the world we live in. Our AP testing expenses are testament to incenting students to stretch beyond basic rudimentary state minimums. Isn't AP accomplishment especially students who take many AP courses garnered by a minority of students? Doesn't this give them a competitive advantage from a college recruiter perspective?

I look forward to all of us getting in a room to thoroughly review our goals and mission for LCPS to make sure we agree on the degree we deliberately extend our tax dollars beyond basic reading, writing and arithmetic putting the best interests of all students above anything else as long as it makes sense for the world they will be living in. I hope we can meet sooner rather than later so LCPS will use our input for this next years budget instead of skipping a year before we can have any change in impact.

Regards, Bob

Happy Valentine's Day: Normal Schedule

When there is no word on the TV, radio or websites then school is operating as normal.

Loudoun Schools Closed Feb 13

Loudoun County Public Schools will be closed today, February 13, 2008. The Administrative Offices will open two hours late.

Enjoy the day, kids!

Loudoun Schools Close Early Today, Feb 12

All Loudoun County Public Schools will close one hour early today because of the threat of snow mixed with sleet and/or ice later this afternoon. All after school activities are canceled for today, Tuesday, February 12, 2008.

Censorship at Sugarland Run

And Tango Makes Three has been removed from the shelf at Sugarland Run Elementary School.

It isn't time for me to comment on this yet. I found out about it on Friday, but I have few details yet. I have read the book. I have heard from Dr. Hatrick. I am studying the relevant policy. I just want you to be aware, and I want you to know that I am aware.

You may also find interesting the American Library Association's Intellectual Freedom and Censorship Q&A, or information on Censorship in the Schools.

Is the "C" word too strong? The ALA's definition:

Censorship. A change in the access status of material, based on the content of the work and made by a governing authority or its representatives. Such changes include exclusion, restriction, removal, or age/grade level changes.

Not everyone will agree that this is censorship. Some will say it's just good judgement. More to follow.

What Every Teacher Ought to Know

Each year in August, before the start of school, LCPS calls all of its teachers together for three days of training workshops. Hundreds of workshops are offered, every teacher is required to attend, but as I understand it no one session or topic has been required of teachers in the past.

At last week's meeting of the Minority Student Student Achievement Advisory Committee's Steering Committee, Superintendent Hatrick agreed to make cultural/racial diversity/sensitivity/awareness training mandatory for all teachers during these workshops. I caught the tail end of the meeting, I don't have all the details. The details are probably still under development and the details aren't the subject of this post.

There is considerable debate between the some members of the MSAAC & NAACP leadership over whether LCPS has an acute problem with discrimination. That debate is also not the subject of this post.

I am certain that my friends on the Special Education Advisory Board will be interested to hear about the implementation of mandatory training, because they too would love to have mandatory training about students with special needs for all teachers. I'll bet that the parents of kids with food allergies wouldn't mind a mandatory training for elementary teachers about the dangers and difficulties that their kids face at school every day. That's not the subject of this post.

"Get to the point, Stevens."

Okay, here's the point... as a community, we put tremendous expectations on the shoulders of our teachers. They're not just teachers. They're also counselors, social workers, law enforcers, life coaches and cultural engineers. We want them to teach our personal views of morality, give every one of our children an individualized education, and cleanse our nation of the stench left behind by centuries of institutional racism that has become unlawful just within my lifetime. And we want it done before mid-June. With each graduating class we hope that we've finally overcome all of our nation's problems with ignorance, poverty, bigotry, crime, personal debt and substance abuse.

We don't just send our children into these classrooms, we send our hopes and desires for what the future of our nation will be, and our advocacy of what it should be. I suppose it has always been this way to some degree.

There was a little-noticed film in 1998 called Alien Nation, in which one of the main characters, an outsider who comes along with his people out of slavery and into this country, marvels at the way that Americans continually set standards that we never reach and still raise the bar with every generation. I've edited the quote slightly so that it makes more sense in this context. The original can be found here.

You are very curious to us. You invite us to live among you in an atmosphere of equality that we've never known before. You give us ownership of our own lives for the first time and you ask no more of us than you do of yourselves. I hope you understand how special your country is, how unique a people you are. Which is why it is all the more painful and confusing to us that so few of you seem capable of living up to the ideals you set for yourselves.

The point then my friends, is that we're asking our schools to be everything that can't bring ourselves to be.

This isn't wrong. But it is something we should be aware of as we're doing it.

Legislative Visit Update

Yesterday most of the Loudoun School Board ventured to Richmond to learn about state legislation affecting education and to meet with Loudoun's legislative delegation. There isn't much to write about in terms of the afternoon... hours of presentations kicked off with a nice speech by Governor Kaine. There was a light reception afterwards, but the real meat of the day began at dinner.

Our delegation was very pleased to be joined for dinner by Senator Mark Herring and his legislative aide Norm, Delegate Joe May, Delegate Chuck Caputo and Tricia Stiles, aide to Senator Jill Vogel. There were two tables so I didn't get to talk to everyone, but I did have the great pleasure of sitting next to Senator Herring but also with Bill Mims, who for years lived in Countryside and was the Delegate and then Senator from our area. Bill is now the Chief Deputy Attorney General of Virginia, and it was a real pleasure to have the opportunity to spend that time with him. (He was also very kind to say that he reads this blog occasionally.)

This morning we have meetings with Senator Vogel and Delegate Poisson. I'll provide links for all of these people later in the day, but for now I need to run and hope there's time for a little bite to eat before the first meeting... these legislators start the day early!

Teacher Salaries (concisely)

I know that the members of our Board of Supervisors are receiving plenty of emails about the county budget, as they will every year at this time. I am copied on some of those emails and I know that many of them go something like this:

My taxes are too high because teachers make too much money. They only work 10 months out of the year but they get a salary as if they worked all year. I only got a 3% raise this year at my job, and they shouldn't get a raise higher than the rate of inflation.

This isn't going to be a long post about economics and cost of living and with statistics and salary charts and on and on. Actually, that will be next week. Even though I have mentioned it before and will write about it again, teacher salaries do take about half of the property taxes in the county so it's worth addressing repeatedly.

Salaries of any job are part of the free market, and set based on what is required to recruit and retain the best employees. Every industry pays different amounts to different people based on the supply and demand of skills, and LCPS is subject to that same free market when it comes to teachers. Our teacher salaries are set based on that free market, not as a moral judgment of how much someone deserves to be paid. When I consider the challenge and importance of the work that teachers do and the impact it has on the future of our world, I think they should be paid much more (same for law enforcement, firefighters, military and other public safety personnel), but no society has ever though it could afford to pay public employees according to the importance and risk associated with their jobs.

I don't know how much of a raise I'll get from my employer this year, I do hope that it outpaces inflation because I want to make more this year than I did last year, and if my raise is tied to the cost of living then it equates to no raise at all. It's the same for teachers and the families that they support, so I do hope that we will be able to give them a raise beyond the rate of inflation. Whether we can or not depends entirely on the decisions of this Board of Supervisors in the coming weeks.

What Should a B Be?

This front page Washington Post story about the different grading systems is more than a month old now, but I held onto it until this week because on Wednesday LCPS parents will see first semester report cards come home. The story has to do with grading disparities between localities, and compares Fairfax to Montgomery.

Simply put, Fairfax high schools set a higher bar for grades than those in Montgomery. To earn an A in Fairfax, it takes a score of 94 to 100. In Montgomery, it takes a score of 90 or higher. Standards for grading in the two counties, including bonus point calculations, are so out of sync that it appears possible for a Fairfax student to earn a 3.5 grade-point average for the same work that gets a Montgomery student a 4.6 GPA.

The article discusses the various impacts this can have on a student's college admission prospects and scholarship opportunities, and reviews the very few studies done on the issue.
I hadn't been aware of or given any thought to this issue until a parent brought it to my attention, so I'm not taking any position, I'm just bringing up the issue for your consideration. Michelle Zuckerman writes the following, printed here with her permission. She makes a number of statements that I have not attempted to verify and a number of others which are her opinion. LCPS would surely dispute much of what she says. I'm sure many parents would agree with her and many will disagree. I leave it for you to judge. I welcome your thoughts in the comments.

I put the Loudoun grading scale up against the Fairfax and Montgomery County scales and found the results interesting.

I have long maintained that our grading scale is too harsh, particularly at the lower end of the scale. The adjustments made several years ago really didn't fix all the problems. It seems to me that earning a grade of 80-81 should not earn you a "C" and that an 82-84 should get you more than "C+". In addition, I don't understand why a "+" added to a grade is only worth .3, rather than .5 points (as it is in Fairfax and Montgomery).

The comparison laid out in the paper highlighting the differences between two students taking the same courses in Fairfax and Montgomery resulting in drastically different GPAs is made even more interesting when you figure out the GPA a Loudoun student would earn for the same courses. We're right there with Fairfax's 3.5, far away from the 4.6 a Montgomery County student would earn.

As the woman interviewed in the article points out, our students are at a huge disadvantage when it comes to college admissions and scholarships. Now the standard line the guidance counselors offer is that "All the colleges know that Loudoun has the toughest grading system." While that may be true for VA schools, it is certainly not the case everywhere else. GPA is the first thing that admissions counselors look at. The same is true when applying for scholarships, particularly for merit scholarships. Loudoun students are at a definite disadvantage because the difficulty of our grading system makes earning a good GPA harder, not so much for the brightest students, but for the average to above average student.

It also fuels the competitiveness of grades at the high school level. The pressure on our kids to succeed is out of control. The push to get as many kids into AP courses and for students to take as many AP courses as they can before they get out of high school is beyond reason (and caused, I believe, in great part, by LCPS' desire to score high on the Post's Challenge Index). We congratulate ourselves on the record number of kids taking AP exams, but conveniently forget that we eliminated the honors courses in all of our history and government courses, forcing many kids into AP classes before they're ready or because their parents don't want them in the academic courses because that's where the behavior problems are. And the pressure and competition lead to all kinds of undesirable behaviors, among all students.

Four Good Questions

I received an email yesterday with some important questions. Sharing seemed like a good idea.

1) Do we need to be competing with Fairfax for teachers? Quality of Life should count for something. Loudoun beats Fairfax in that department for families -- hands down.
LCPS caught up with Fairfax salaries over the past several years to make it easier to recruit and retain the best teachers. The fact is that we have a major challenge finding several hundred new teachers every summer, and most of them are coming right out of school and are looking partly for quality of life (and quality of career) but largely at the bottom line. Quality of life doesn't pay the rent or the college loans. Beyond that, you might consider that if you're 22 years old and single, quality of life looks different than when you're 40 and have a family. Loudoun is a great place to live, but the night life is lacking. And finally, we aren't just competing with Fairfax anymore, or even with the rest of the DC region. We have to recruit nationally to ensure there's a highly qualified professional in every classroom. Our teachers are the most important people in our community, and I would triple their salaries given the opportunity.

2) Are there areas of administration which can be streamlined and / or made more efficient? As organizations get larger, scale efficiencies dictate that administration should rise at a smaller rate than operations.
Realizing economy of scale is important and at LCPS, the number of administrators has steadily declined over the years in comparison to the number of students. While the student population has grown 141% in the past ten years, the number of administrators has grown only 90%. Of the ten DC-area public school districts, only the City of Manassas has a higher percentage of school-based personnel.

3) Do the long term enrollment projections support constructing buildings which will last 50-100 years? Is the ramp up merely a 5-10 year bump which will cause us to start closing schools or having significant over capacity 15 years from now? Trailers, while despised by most parents, are an economical alternative to new school construction and can stretch capacity at critical times.
The projections of both LCPS staff and the Washington COG project continued growth for at least the next 10 years. While it is difficult to do demographic projections past 10 years, the folks LCPS employs to make projections have an exceptionally good track record through the unprecedented growth of the past 20 years. It is difficult to imagine that Loudoun will grow so fast as to have 85,000 students ten years from now, but it was difficult to imagine LCPS with our current 54,000 ten years ago when we had just 20,000. It's also important to note that some of the schools still in use in Loudoun are nearly 100 years old. There is no reason to believe that any of the schools we build now will be at anything less than capacity for decades to come.

4) Is our commitment to keep up with the latest technology keeping us from adequate staffing? Computers are an aid to teaching, not a replacement for humans.
Strong teaching is always the foundation of great education, and LCPS will never lose sight of that. That said, our teachers cannot prepare our children for a technology-driven world with a chalkboard, and the School Board has made a strong commitment to technology that enhances instruction. While that investment is significant, the LCPS technology budget is a tiny fraction of our teacher salaries, and not holding us back from adequate staffing. What *would* hold us back from adequate staffing would be not trying to compete with Fairfax for teachers.

Another weather day

Update: Loudoun County Schools Closed Today, Friday Feb 1st 2008.

It's raining outside. It's just above 32 degrees at my house and doesn't appear to be icing up, but in the Purcellville it's raining and just 29 degrees. According to the National Weather Service:

Ice accumulations up to a tenth of an inch are possible... especially along and west of the Route 15 corridor. Higher ice accumulations are possible closer to the Blue Ridge mountains.

As of now there is a two hour delay, but I also have a message from a principal stating that the situation "will be reevaluated as the morning progresses," meaning that there could still be an all-out cancellation.

The LCPS home page seems to be loading quickly at the moment.The LCPS homepage seems to be overwhelmed again. After it became overwhelmed two weeks ago I know that they were looking at ways to handle that peak traffic. I don't know if they've been able to implement those changes yet, we'll see how the day goes in that regard. (see comments section for updates)

Folks who followed the snow event two weeks ago will be interested to see the explanation of how the decisions were made on that particular day by Superintendent Hatrick. The LCPS Webcast archives has the clip. The link I provided will start you at the 28:30 mark in the meeting, the snow day explanation starts at the 33:00 mark.