Following Fairfax?

Some days, I feel like Fairfax County's little brother. Whenever I, or someone else, want a change to LCPS policy or practice, the question comes up: How does Fairfax do it? When we look at the budget the perennial opening questions are "How much is Fairfax paying its teachers?" and "How much is the Fairfax budget/tax rate changing?" Nobody asks this about Prince William, Faquier or Clark counties who we also share borders with.

Today's question is: how does Fairfax grade its students? And if Fairfax changes its grading policies, should Loudoun do the same? I wrote about this back in February in a post called What Should a B Be? in response to another Washington Post story on the grading and I don't have anything new to add to the coversation today except that I'm interested, I'm paying attention, I'm trying to judge how much interest there is among Loudoun parents.

In reading today's article here was the most fascinating paragraph:

Meetings at McLean High and Langley High each drew more than 100 parents. Meetings are scheduled at Centreville High, Herndon High and South County Secondary in the next few weeks. A presentation in Korean is scheduled for May 2 in Tysons Corner.

LCPS also holds meetings in schools around the County to make them more accessible to parents (the recent meetings about Math Investigations come to mind). I also advocate holding our Board meetings in high schools around Loudoun on occasion but that's a topic for another day.

When reading the paragraph, did you notice that the first two meetings in Fairfax were at Langley and McLean High Schools, the two wealthiest schools in Fairfax? They're next door to each other, they provide no geographic diversity. Why? Is their influence disproportionate due to their wealth? Is their interest in this issue disproportionate due to their wealth?

The other thing that struck me was: Presentations in languages other than English are a fantastic idea. But Korean? Is this of more interest to Korean parents than Latinos who outnumber Koreans dramatically? This fascinates me. Still, it's a good reminder that Spanish is not the only language besides English spoken in our students' homes. Not by a long shot.

Just some thoughts on a Sunday night. Discuss.

Food Allergy meeting report

The turnout was huge for a simple committee meeting last night, but then the topic was very big in its own right.

The meeting led with an introduction to the experience of being the parent of a child with a life-threatening food allergy by Loudoun Allergy Network (LAN) president Maria Hardy. There was a presentation by LAN's advising board certified allergist, Dr. Trivedi. Then Assistant Superintendent for Support Services Jeff Platenberg and Student Health Services Coordinator Kathy Sturgeon gave the LCPS side of the story.

Many key LCPS folks including Assistant Superintendent for Instruction Sharon Ackerman, Assistant Superintendent for Pupil Services Dr. Mary Kealy, Supervisor of Elementary Education Dr. Mike Martin, Director of Student Services Anne Lewis, the senior nursing staff and several elementary principals. Thanks to Blue Ridge District Representative Priscilla Godfrey for devoting her meeting this subject and leading the Q&A. Broad Run District Representative Bob Ohneiser also attended and had insightful questions and answers.

Dozens of parents (and some kids) were there, more than at any committee meeting I've ever attended. As I characterized it to the parents last night, the meeting was neither the beginning nor the end of the communication between parents and LCPS on the matter of food allergy safety. It was however a very important milestone and demonstrated to everyone in the room that it is a topic of is great interest from parents and LCPS employees at all levels.

I hope that the excellent presentation made by Ms. Sturgeon will also get wide distribution. Many people would be surprised to learn that every school-based staff member receives food allergy safety training and that many procedures are in place to ensure the safety of each child.

The Loudoun Allergy Network expressed a desire for new policies regarding food safety during and after the meeting. Mrs. Godfrey asked LAN to continue their research into best practices and report back to the committee at a future date. I hope that LCPS elementary principals will pay special attention to the benefits of the healthy snacks policies implemented by Belmont Station and Hamilton Elementary Schools and consider implementing them in their own schools for the benefit of all children.

Special Education Public Hearing

This morning's Washington Post includes a story titled Parents of Special-Ed Students Oppose Changing Consent Rule profiling controversy surrounding one proposed change in Virginia's Special Education rules.

Currently, school systems must obtain parental consent before eliminating such services as speech or occupational health therapy. But the state Department of Education is proposing that schools be allowed to suspend them without such consent. If a parent objects, the service would be maintained until the matter is settled through dispute resolution.

The Loudoun School Board has not taken a position on the proposals. I have asked that the Board be briefed on the proposed changes at its May 13th meeting.

As mentioned in the story, there will be a public hearing where the State Board of Education will hear comment on the proposed changes at Freedom HS on Wednesday, May 15th from 6:30-9:30 p.m. Registration for those wishing to speak begins at 6 p.m. on the night of the hearing.

Additional information, including a link to the proposed changes, is available here.

The rest is from an email I received yesterday:

Individuals seeking to speak will be allotted three minutes each unless the number of speakers requires the Chair to reallocate the time available to ensure that as many individuals as possible may speak. Speakers are urged to provide written copies of their comments. Interpreters for the deaf will be provided.

Those wishing to provide written comments may either submit them during a public hearing or submit them as follows:
• E-mail to ReviseSpedRegs@doe.virginia.go
• FAX to (804) 786-8520
• Mail to Special Education Regulations Revision Process
Office of Dispute Resolution and Administrative Services
Virginia Department of Education
P.O. Box 2120
Richmond, Virginia 23218-2120

Meetings this Week

Here are the places that I plan to be this week:

Monday
NAACP Meeting, 7:30pm Leesburg. Mount Olive Baptist Church

Tuesday
Potowmack Elementary Volunteer recognition, 8:30AM
School Board meeting, 6:30pm. Key items:

• Award of Contract: Kenneth W. Culbert Elementary School
• Personnel Actions
• Elementary School (ES-20) Site Designation
• Rouse Property (Future High School Site)
  
• Policy Revision: Professional Development (diversity training for Board members)
  
• Policy Revision: Selection, Review & Challenge of Library Materials (response to Tango controversy)
• Policy Revision: Admission of Students Expelled or Suspended by other school districts
• Science Textbooks recommended for Adoption
• Title I restructuring for 2008-2009
• 2008-2009 Annual Plan for Special Education
  

Wednesday
Technology Steering Committee, 8AM
Potomac Falls Cluster PTO meeting, 9AM, River Bend Middle School
Health, Safety & Wellness Committee, 6:30pm. Topic: Children with Food Allergies.

Thursday
Loudoun Education Foundation, 8AM
Teacher of the Year Reception, 3:30pm Lightfoot Cafe
Potomac & Sterling Community Outreach, 5pm, River Bend Middle School
Algonkian Elementary Author Night, 7pm
Potomac Falls High School Band Concert, 7:30pm

Friday
Countryside Elementary Family Game Night, 6:30pm

Where I would like to be but probably can't:
Tuesday: Finance, Construction & Site Acquisition Committee, 6:00pm
Wednesday: Schools to Watch Celebration, Blue Ridge Middle School
Thursday: Horizon Elementary volunteer lunch, 11:30AM

Learning a Healthy Life

The Loudoun Times Mirror ran a series of articles just before Christmas profiling Belmont Station Elementary and issues of student nutrition and health. With the Washington Post's article on school lunches that I wrote about on Monday and the upcoming Health, Safety & Wellness committee meeting on school safety for children with food allergies, I thought it was a good time to revisit these great stories.

The story titled The Healthy Snacks School is an interesting case-in-point about how each of Loudoun's 72 schools (soon to be 75) operates independently in many ways. Consider the following:

This is the Healthy Snack School, and everyone seems to be on board with Principal Patricia McGinly's program. Students are starting to read labels. They detected corn syrup in the cafeteria's chocolate milk; now McGinly is on the hunt for a brand that shuns the offending ingredient.

Note that there is no system-wide directive here, no new policy. There is just the principal deciding that this will be an area of emphasis at her school. I emphasize this to parents repeatedly: If you want something done, don't start by lobbying the Superintendent to change the rules for every school, start by convincing a principal to change the approach for one school and let the success of your pilot program spread to other schools. That's the way almost every new program at LCPS comes about, even for those implemented by the senior administrators.

Despite the reporter's assessment that "everyone seems to be on board with" the program, my guess is that not every parent at Belmont Station likes these new rules. This can't be an easy culture shift, and I'd be interested to learn more about the growing pains.

Emphasizing the importance of study before implementation, the story called Learning To Eat profiles the study by a local researcher of the impact of various educational practices on students in four schools (the students volunteered to be a part of the study).

A 24-week study of the effect of teaching nutrition and offering structured exercise programs at four Loudoun elementary schools led researcher Karen Gabel Speroni to conclude that school nurses might use their position as "role models and spokespersons to foster increased activity and improved nutritional education in their schools and communities."

The study even had conclusions for the School Board, according to the story:

She recommended to the school board, at the conclusion of her study, that choice may not be the best path to health. Better, she suggested, to put out the "best choice" tray – the child can still choose between the two main entrees, but everything else will already be on the tray. The diner will not have the option of passing up the fruit and the vegetable.

I don't recall seeing the study or its conclusions, I hope that we will have a chance to review both in an upcoing Health, Safety & Wellness Committee meeting.

Finally, because health isn't all about the food, there is another story about innovations in physical education, again profiling Belmont Station as a host to a pilot program.

The children at Belmont Station get to work out with balance balls, exercise ladders and other equipment that helps them develop their core muscles. This program enables exercises to be tailored to each student's ability level. "This way, they all look like they're doing the same thing, and it doesn't single out kids," Jones said.

With limited time in the school day and ever-increasing pressure to improve academic performance, one of my favorite questions to ask is "how can we increase cross-discipline programs?" (Director of Instruction Peter Hughes is probably really sick of hearing me say that by now). The story cites a perfect example of this:

"We try to make anything fun and integrate academics whenever possible,” Comins said. An example, he said, was when they create a dance where the steps correspond to the water cycle. By remembering the dance, they remember academic material.

I applaud the parents, students and principal of Belmont Station Elementary for striving and innovating, not waiting for changes to be implemented at the top but instead setting an example for all the schools around them. I also applaud the Times Mirror for focusing on these important school issues.

Special Ed Screening

One of the many, many important issues that I work to be informed about is special education. I attend the meetings of the Special Education Advisory Committee as often as possible. When LoudounExtra posted a report back on New Years Eve regarding the conflict that often exists between parents of kids with special needs and the administrators tasked with meeting those needs, it was familiar territory for me:

Parents Protest as Schools Delay Screening to Save Money

Since a 1975 federal law gave students with learning disabilities a right to special education, the number of such students who receive such services has risen to 6 percent of the public school population. The figure was less than 2 percent in 1977.

Many educators say learning disabilities have been over-diagnosed and are seeking ways to address learning difficulties in mainstream classrooms, rather than addressing them through special education for as much as twice the cost. Loudoun officials estimate their cost per pupil in special education is $22,000 a year, compared with $12,000 for most students.

Among the issues that concern my fellow parents, special education strikes a particularly deep nerve. Two of the cuts to the originally proposed LCPS budget this year were for positions dealing directly with special education, an Eligibility Coordinator and a Diagnostician. This will have an impact on many students and parents.

This is the most complicated issue I have come across. Assistant Principals generally oversee special education programs within their schools. I know of multiple APs who are hailed by the parents at their schools as great educators and administrators and at the same time decried as harsh, uncaring bullies by other parents who watched the AP lead the process of evaluating their child and meeting the child's needs.

Special education is at once a highly specialized field and one that affects kids in nearly every classroom. It is at the same time a challenge that requires a systemic approach and one in which every child must be cared for individually. These contradictions lead to many questions but no answers.

School Lunch Budgeting

Today's Washington Post features a poorly-titled front page story called Schools Get a Lesson in Lunch Line Economics about the cost of providing school lunches and the cost of not providing them well. It leaves out statistics about Loudoun County, so I thought I'd provide a few for you.

• Most Loudoun Schools serve both breakfast and lunch. Menus and prices are available online.
• Prices range from $1.30 for breakfast to $2:30 for lunch in Middle & High schools. Adults pay $3.20 for lunches.
• Breakfast meals, even at that inexpensive price, actually turn a profit for LCPS.
  
• The price of all full-price meals will increase $0.10 for the next school year.
  
• There is a separate line item in the Board of Supervisors budget to reduce the cost of lunches for all full-price meals. This year the amount is $900,000.
  
• Four kids eating lunch at school every day will cost their parents about $184 per month. The $0.10 increase pushes that up to $192.
• LCPS is the largest food service provider in the County, providing more meals to more people.
  

Note that the cost of the things that LCPS must buy (milk & bread are cited in the story) is increasing much faster than the 3% inflation that most folks like to reference. The same is true for most other items in our budget.

I have had lunch with my kids in their elementary cafeterias nearly every Tuesday for the past five years, and this year I have breakfast at a Middle School every Friday. By my count I am approaching my 200th meal at LCPS. I have seen significant improvements in the food quality over time, and I hope that the budget pressures will not reverse that trend. The food service workers will always have my thanks for how well they serve our kids.

Useful LCPS Contacts

Bookmark this page.

It contains the names, titles and phone numbers of over 120 people in the LCPS administration. It's on the LCPS web site but is very difficult to find just by poking through the menus.

Reminder: for most parents with concerns or questions, your child's teacher and principal are almost always the best first contact if you have a question or concern.

Top Students, Top Schools

Recently I had a meeting with moms in my area, and the first topic of conversation was how difficult it was for the top HS Seniors they knew to get into their first-choice schools. Today's Washington Post includes a front-page article about exactly this topic, which is apparently a problem for many students in the region.

The thrust of the article is that Northern Virginia graduates more than it's share of exceptional students, who compete against each other to be the regional representatives to Virginia's top public universities.

College applicants from Northern Virginia are facing unusually stiff competition -- increasingly from one another. The region, with an extraordinary concentration of high-performing schools and students, might have to adjust long-held assumptions about the power of scores and grades in college admissions.

According to a former TJ guidance counselor:

"many Northern Virginia families overlook that large numbers of students in the region have high test scores and good grades. Many of them, she said, are in competition with each other. The top state undergraduate institutions, such as U-Va., the College of William & Mary, Virginia Tech and JMU, also "cannot take all of their students from Northern Virginia," Bloomquist said. "They have to leave room" for students from other parts of the state.

For the Love of Loudoun Arts

Recently I learned about a major event that will benefit local child development programs and showcase talent from LCPS students as well as the Loudoun Symphony Orchestra, Loudoun Ballet Company, the Loudoun Lyric Opera and more. The more I have learned about the event, the more excited I have become about the benefit to our community and sheer entertainment value. My family will be there: It will cost less than taking them to the movies, they'll get a lot more out of it, and so will my community.

The entire cost of the event is covered by sponsors, so that 100% of the ticket price goes to Loudoun County charities, which are under great strain this year due to an increase in demand coupled with declining incomes.

For the Love of Loudoun Arts is on May 10th from 2pm-6pm at the National Conference Center and is sponsored by the Northern Virginia Community Foundation, which has recently opened an office in Leesburg. You can purchase tickets online.

Click here for a downloadable Flyer (PDF, 255k)

Blogging Colleague

I'm not the only Loudoun School Board member with a blog, you know. Tom Reed started his long before I joined the Board. He's made a couple of very interesting updates in the past few days that you may be interested in:

Mr. Reed attended the recent National School Boards Association convention held March 28-April 1 and took advantage of many great sessions. I wish I had been able to take the time away from work myself to attend along with him.

In another post, Mr. Reed writes in favor of the interactive smart boards approved as part of our budget on Monday.

In his own post-budget meeting post, he outlines some specific proposals for an LCPS ombudsman.

Budget Postscripts

At last night's School Board meeting there was a palpable relief among School Board members and staff alike, streaked with physical weariness from long hours in recent days. I am very eager to begin writing about topics other than the FY09 budget, but we're not quite done with it yet.

We actually get about five different budgets from the Board of Supervisors, the Operating Budget is only one of them. The next big one is the Capital Improvement Plan. We have separate budget for the school lunch program. Last night we wrapped the last of the voting on another, the Capital Asset Preservation Program (CAPP), basically our physical plant maintenance budget. It includes things like replacing HVAC units, windows, resurfacing parking lots and sidewalks and roofs and repairs to athletic facilities. This was created as a separate budget back in the mid 90s in order to keep these things from competing with the Operating Budget for funding, which had led to LCPS falling behind and a special bond issue on the ballot just to play maintenance catch-up.

(Good Washington Post article here)

This year, the Board of Supervisors cut our CAPP budget by approximately 70%, down to $1.4M. I don't have an electronic copy of it to share, let me know if you really really want one. So, needless to say a lot of projects planned for the upcoming year got pushed out to future years. Assistant Superintendent for Support Services Jeff Platenberg last night described the significant impact on our energy efficiency resulting from delays in roof, window and HVAC replacements. I tried to make one change to it by delaying the resurfacing of the Broad Run High School tennis courts in favor of new HVAC units at Sterling Middle School and Catoctin Elementary. This was not staff's recommendation because those HVAC units aren't on their last legs and the tennis courts are... enough to be a safety issue for kids who play on them and apparently enough that they could not be used for competition. I didn't get any takers.

Finally, I kept a record of motions and votes throughout our reconciliation meeting on Monday night. I thought you might be interested to see what was proposed, who proposed it, and how the voting went. BTW, an 'A' vote means either Abstained or Absent. I used 'x' when a motion received no second and was not subject to a vote.

FY09 LCPS Reconciliation Budget Motions

Final Budget Votes, FY09

The superintendent's recommended budget changes remained largely intact last night through several attempts by members of the school board to reinstate various positions on his list. The only two changes approved were the implementation of Full-Day Kindergarten to three of the four under-enrolled elementary schools (Aldie, Middleburg, Lincoln and Hillsboro). The School Board did not determine which of the three schools would benefit from the program. The Superintendent asked the School Board not to create the program because we do not have a path forward to Full-Day Kindergarten in all schools, primarily because of space limitations.

The second change was in support of our classified employees, who will receive two more paid holidays than last year, for a total of six. The original plan called for four additional days to be implemented but on the whole the Board felt limited by this year's budget restrictions.

While some of the funds for the changes come from a small reduction in the number of interactive whiteboards to be purchased, the Board did not respond to my strong push to remove the whiteboards from the budget and so next year each Middle School will be fully outfitted with them, as the High Schools were this year.

Over the course of the evening additional cuts came to light as members attempted to cut purchases that, as it turned out, were already cut by the Assistant Superintendents to meet their 5.8% reduction commitments. For example, when I looked for funds for speech therapists by cutting the new PFHS scoreboard and new expiring security stickers, we were informed that they had already been cut over the course of the past week. I think that parents, teachers and other school staff will discover many small cuts like these, primarily once school opens again in the fall.

I commend the LCPS headquarters staff, who worked very hard all through the budget season and balanced this budget by keeping the impact out of the classroom as best they could. They do an excellent job throughout the year.

Final Budget questions

Two hours before the budget reconciliation meeting begins, here are the final questions, the lion's share were asked on Friday and over the weekend by Ms. Bergel, with a few by Ms. Godfrey. There's one from me at the end but it wasn't a budget question, they must have thrown it in there just in case, but it does bring up an important point... the Supervisors cut the LCPS maintenance budget as well as the operating budget.

Final Budget questions (76-86)

You'll see that Ms. Bergel is looking very closely at:

• activity bus costs
• strings program expansion
• custodial positions
• shortening the school year and
  
• full-day kindergarten.
  

Bergel and Godfrey are looking at limited smart board solutions.

Another interesting fact shown within is that by the end of this school year all schools will have at least one smart board.

Budget Day today, Budget Year tomorrow

Decision time. Thank you to everyone who has contributed your thoughts via email, the comments section, or in person. Please continue to give your thoughts during the day.

A year ago after the reconciliation, I put thoughts of the budget largely out of my mind until the Superintendent's recommendation came in November. This year will be very different. There are budget initiatives which need to be taken and proposals to be evaluated that cannot be done in the crunch of budget season, and must be done over the course of the next six months.

Like me, you can't forget about it until next year either. Whether you are an LCPS employee, a parent or a concerned citizen your voice is needed throughout the year as we prepare for the next budget. Advocate for your beliefs both to your School Board members and the Board of Supervisors throughout this year.

More Budget Information

Preparing for Monday evening's budget reconciliation session, School Board members have been asking a lot of budget questions. If you want a peek at where we're looking for cuts, what various members are likely to propose, look to see what questions they're asking:

Impact of Proposed Staff Reductions (43k) (or reductions in in the increase, if you prefer)

School Board Questions Part 1 (1-28) (17k)

School Board Questions Part 2 (29-40, 42-55, 57-60, 69-72, 73) (40k)

School Board Questions Part 3 (41, 56, 61-68, 73, 75) (34k)

These are all searchable. Some highlights:

• What is the approximate amount the current budget for books would be reduced if LCPS charged parents (assume means testing would dictate those who get free lunch would also qualify for free books)?


• What would be the savings if all core subjects were required to have at least 90% of the school board target class size?


• If we eliminated ALL in-service training this year, how much would be saved from the budget?


• If each family in LCPS were to pay a $50 "supply fee" at the beginning of the school year, how much money would that generate? Also show me the same at $75 per family? $100?


• If each student were to pay a fee for participation in sports once he/she makes the team, how much money could be generate?


• If we froze the library budget for one year - no new books and no aides hired - what would the financial savings be?

Cuts I'll Vote Against, New Cuts I'll Propose

Only two people showed up to provide input on the budget last night. I still can't figure out why the Supervisors get hundreds of speakers about school budgets and we get two, when we determine 75% of County spending. Where were all the people last night who are so angry that teachers might get any pay raise at all, that LCPS ever purchased a smart board, who demand that Dr. Hatrick take a pay cut? Where were all my blog commenters?

I have received a very few emails, no phone calls and had one really great meeting with 10 LCPS moms. I'm taking all of that input very seriously, because there are no opposing voices.

LCPS released additional information on the impact of the Superintendent's proposed cuts in his new personnel request yesterday, please read about them.

I do not support some of the Superintendent's recommendations for budget cuts.

• Educational Diagnostician ($90,523)
• Eligibility Coordinator ($109,842)
• Paid Holiday initiative for Classified employees ($685,000)
• Speech Therapist ($146,530)
• Social Worker ($90,523)
• Full day Kindergarten expansion, ($213,823)
• Data Analyst for Pupil Services ($71,244)

That means I'll need to find a total of $1.407,485 in additional savings. Here are some of my proposals:

• Digital Video Distribution System ($80,000)
• Expiring visitor badges ($64,600)
  
• Health & PE PDAs ($42,075)
• New scoreboard for Potomac Falls High School ($30,000)
• Promethean Smart Boards ($2,994,800)

I'm waiting to find out how much money is still intended for the Smart Boards, but With the feedback I've heard from citizens and supervisors alike regarding Smart Boards, it's clear that they do not have the support of the community and I will vote against purchasing more of them this year.

A Little Analysis of the Suggested Cuts

I spent time on Tuesday night crawling through the suggested cuts, here's what I found:

1. Class Sizes will increase across the county. The Superintendent says that this will result in mixed-grade classes at some schools.
2. Two thirds of the positions cut are teachers or teaching assistants
3. The cost of living increase was eliminated, cutting the requested pay increase in half
4. 50% of the cuts are salary cuts and elimination of teaching positions
5. 50% of new teachering positions planned for next year were cut
6. The average salary of a cut position is under $50K

I already have a list of changes I want to see to this proposal. I will wait until after tonight's public input session before finalizing that list, and I will write more about those in the coming days.

LCPS Budget: Final Stage for FY09

The Board of Supervisors had its final vote today, cutting $48.7M from the LCPS budget request. The state budget is $1M less than anticipated as well, so we have $49.7M in cuts to make.

Here's what happens next:

• Within the next two days the School Board expects to receive a recommendation for cuts from the Superintendent.
• Thursday April 3rd at 6:30pm the School Board will hold a public input session. Please come and speak to let us know where you think we can find budget savings. Please also send me your input via email.
• Monday, April 7th at 6:30pm the School Board will discuss and vote on the budget. Chairman DuPree's goal is to stay as long as it takes to reach a final decision.

You can download the Superintendent's recommended budget cuts here.

Schedule, Week of 3/31/08

I'm posting this a day late, but here it is:

Where I'll be:
Monday, Rally for teachers' salaries, Leesburg Gov't Center, 5:30
Monday, Governor Kaine's Town meeting, Farmwell Station Middle School, 6:30
Wednesday, Meeting with concerned parents, private home, 9AM
Wednesday, Leg/Policy committee meeting, 6PM, considering:

• changes to book challenge policy
• requiring School Board members to attend diversity training
• policy regarding students suspended from other districts

Saturday, MSAAC parent involvement symposium, Stone Bridge HS, 8:30AM

Where I won't be, where you might want to be:
Monday, Personnel Committee, considering changes to teacher workday schedule and conditions
Tuesday, Board of Supervisors votes on Budget for County and LCPS
Thursday, Curriculum & Instruction Committee, 7pm