Teacher Raises Around the Region

Of the ten Washington metro jurisdictions, eight are raising teacher salaries this year. Two are not, and Loudoun is one of them. We are still behind the same three that we were behind last year: Fairfax, Prince George's and Montgomery Counties, but by a greater degree.

Past post: Teacher Salaries (Concisely)

Special Education changes

Parents Protest Special Education changes is an interesting article in the Loudoun Times Mirror this week about last week's local hearing regarding changes to state regulations for special education (see previous post). Prior to the hearing I received a lengthy analysis by the LCPS Special Education department of the extensive change proposal, in which the department agrees with some changes and opposes others. Regarding the hot issue of parental input into continuing IEP services, the most intersting part of the article was this:

Mary Kearney, director of special education for Loudoun County Schools, said the county also does not support the removal of the requirement for parental consent. "We believe parental involvement in all aspects of their children's education promotes a better education," she said.

On this very same topic, if you have a child with special education needs, you may be interested in a workshop being offered on Tuesday by the LCPS Parent Resource Center called Being an Active Member of Your Child’s IEP Team. There is a session for parents of pre-K students from 9:30-11:00 AM and one for parents of school-age kids (K-12) at 7pm. The PRC holds these sessions monthly throughout the school year.

May 27th Meeting Agenda

At our next Tuesday meeting, the Loudoun County School Board will celebrate the Substitute Teacher of the Year, the Shenandoah University Teacher of the Year and the recognition of LCPS as one of the 100 Best Communities for Music Education.

We will also vote to approve the nomination of Blue Ridge representative Priscilla Godfrey as an At-Large member of the Board of Directors of the Virginia School Boards Association. Priscilla is a leader in our state, something I think more people should know.

A new high school will soon be built north of Leesburg, and there will be a presentation on attendance boundaries for that new school. The new school (currently referred to as HS-5) will need a name, so the Board has nominated a naming committee and those nominees (18 of them, and it appears four are students) will be presented for approval.

We will here a committee recommendation to prohibit the use of tobacco on all school property at any time. Current policy allows adults to use tobacco in designated areas out of sight of students.

There will be a presentation on energy conservation at LCPS, I will work to make that available online.

Finally, there will be presentations on our annual grant application under the No Child Left Behind act and special permission procedures for Aldie and Middleburg elementary schools.

See the full agenda here.

Honoring "The best of the best"

Loudoun has thousands of classroom teachers. Thousands. At our last meeting the School Board honored a very select group of just seven who earned National Board Certification this year:

Meghann Donohue, English Teacher, Harmony Intermediate School
Carla Grodzicki, 2nd Grade Teachers, Selden's Landing Elementary
Paul Hartley, Math Teacher, Blue Ridge Middle School
Michelle Junkin, 4th Grade Teacher, Balls Bluff Elementary
Nancy Sanow, English Teacher, Blue Ridge Middle School
Richard Sisley, Math Teacher, Academy of Science
Allyson White, English Teacher, Blue Ridge Middle School

These teachers were introduced by Director of Employee Relations Paul Webb with the words "Ladies and Gentlemen, these are the best of the best." (Note that three of the seven are from just one school, Blue Ridge Middle School. Somebody needs to tell me what's going on over there.)

They join just 26 others who earned Board Certification in previous years. This achievement is so significant that we re-honored those 26 along with the newly certified. The School Board feels it is so important that we offer a substantial bonus stipend to all teachers who have it. One of those teachers wrote to me after the ceremony, and with her permission I share her letter with you here:

I also wanted to offer a brief explanation on the significant differences between a masters program and National Board Certification.

A masters program has a specific set curriculum. Each class has a guideline with an end in mind, a specific goal predetermined prior to students entering the class. A masters program has a set number of courses that when completed will lead to a degree. There is guidance, mentoring and specific factual information that brings you to a specific ending, your degree. Virginia expects and requires its teachers to continue their education to continue teaching in this state and Loudoun makes this readily and easily available for all of its teachers.

Less than 2% of all teachers in the United States are Nationally Board Certified. I believe that this is because of the significant differences in obtaining this certification and obtaining a masters degree. National Boards has the requirement that each teacher submit a portfolio that is quite different than a graduate or doctorate degree. Each portfolio is in a core area but the teacher has to decide what the topic in the area will be. The teacher has to decide how to pose a problem in the learning area and the manner in which the problem will be taught, analyzed and assessed. The teacher has to reflect on each step to determine why they chose to do this, was this the best way for the children to learn the material, why was this the best way for the children to learn, how do you know the children learned, what would you/could you do differently to make this a richer learning moment. This is vastly different than a graduate degree, there is not a predetermined outline or a predetermined answer. The teacher learns on their own how to reflect on every aspect of their daily teaching lives. Once the portfolio is submitted then its off to the assessment center where again every aspect of every question is reflective. National Boards wants more than the completion of a program. National Boards means that you can apply "ACIAHEART" to everything you do each day. You Assess Prior Knowledge, You Collaborate, You Involve Students Actively in Learning, You Accommodate for Multiple Levels of Students, You have a Home School Connection, There is Equity, Diversity and Fairness, You utilize Appropriate Assessment, You utilize Resources and You utilize Technology. Many people attempt National Boards and do not complete, if this were a graduate program we would say they failed. National Board sees it as learning. Once you start down this path, whether you complete or not you are forever changed, your teaching is forever changed.

I believe it is an honor and a privilege to teach. I believe it is an honor and a privilege to be Nationally Board Certified. I love teaching here in Loudoun and representing Loudoun as a Regional representative for National Boards. I eagerly look forward to motivating and working with students and teachers. Thank you for this opportunity.

Sincerely,
Lois Diann Morales, NBCT

Charlottesville Conferences

I have been swamped, and this blog has had to take a back seat to the day-to-day demands of work, family and school boad duties. At the moment I'm sitting in a hotel conference room in Charlottesville for a Policy Workshop sponsored by the Virginia School Boards Association. I love Charlottesville, but as often as I come here now I never see the parts I love. I see the strip malls along the route from 29 to the hotel in the morning, and I see them again when lunch breaks a little before 2pm and I head back home to get my kids from school.


This is my second trip to Charlottesville this month. Prior to today's policy workshop I attended dealt with school distrtict finances and featured a fantastic presentation by LCPS Assistant Superintendent for Business & Finance Leigh Burden. Leigh has been with LCPS for less than a year but comes with tremendous experience from other Virginia districts. Can you imagine a drier topic than oversight of public finances? Leigh made it very entertaining, very informative, and I think that folks in Loudoun should feel good that out of 135 Virginia school districts our CFO is so highly thought of that she is invited to lecture on the topic (this wasn't her first presentation, and she has already been invited back again). She also picked up on ping pong pretty quickly.

For those of you who are interested in what we're being told, VSBA puts some materials and presentations online.

So today I'm here learning about changes to state legislation and about various policy resources. I expect to enjoy it, I'm a policy geek and I make no apologies for that. I'll collect a number of potential updates to LCPS policies to bring them into compliance with recent changes in state law, and at about 1:30 I'll head back north to pick up my kids.

I'll be back here again on June 6th together with Mssrs. Marshall and Ohneiser for a one-day conference on Virginia school law. At the end of July I'll be in Richmond for a training session for new Chairs & Vice Chairs and then the Governor's Conference on Education. And hopefully after each one of these, I'll be a little bit better representative for you.

School Board Retreat

The Board, Superintendent and senior staff spent Sunday and Monday at an out-of-town retreat. Before I left, my kids asked questions about it and part of the conversation was explaining to them why some people are very critical of such things. I also explained that what we hoped to accomplish by sequestering ourselves outside of a familiar environment and the distractions of our lives and work was an opportunity to improve how we do our work.

As I write this, it is Monday morning before breakfast. I’m in a room at Capon Springs and Farms Resort, WV. Picture the movie Dirty Dancing, and the old-style Catskills resort where the film is set. This is that place, captured in time. It is white bread Americana. Yesterday we spent about eight hours in a tiny meeting room with checkered linoleum floors, notepads and a big writing easel. We ate a dinner straight out of the 1950s among patrons who have probably been coming here annually since then. After the work was done, a few of us played ping pong until they closed it down.

Board members and staff are roughly two different teams, each trying to explain itself to the other across the gulf of our perspectives and experience. While the staff has generally one person speaking on its behalf on any given topic, the Board usually has 3-4 people coming at it from their various perspectives. Most folks would probably be interested to know that among Board members the compatibilities that count have nothing to do with political party or length of service.

The Board and staff talked about core beliefs, about the roles and responsibilities of staff and Board members, our relationship with the Board of Supervisors, about legal issues and the different worlds that we inhabit as part-time politicians and lifelong educators. This morning we are to discuss the budget process for the next school year (FY10), which is already underway, and then to work out a revised set of goals. Four years ago the previous board set 30 goals, and the consensus is that this is far too many to manage, so that they become essentially meaningless. Each of the goals should tie back to the consensus on core beliefs that I discussed above.

The discussion has been at various times guarded and at others candid. We’ve heard new issues and rehashed old issues, but there is still plenty that will go unsaid when all is done. We’ve tried to cram a lot into a little time because this isn’t an opportunity that comes around very often.

Aligning the schedules of nineteen busy people, half of which have other full-time jobs and most of whom have children at home, is a challenge under any circumstance. Getting them all to drop off out of life for two days is terribly rare.

We’re expecting the presence of a reporter from Leesburg Today at some point during Monday’s session, and I expect that this will put a damper on some of the more pointed discussions, especially on the part of the Superintendent and staff because they’re more disciplined than the Board as a group. While it’s good both to have times of unguarded candor and the transparency of open meetings, any understanding of human nature will tell you that those two things tend to work against each other. (Note: after writing this I was pleased to see even better discussions with Leesburg Today reporter Erika Jacobson in the room than we had the day before. Here is her article.)

It’s time now for another eight hours of meetings.

May 13 Board Meeting Preview

Tonight's meeting starts at 6:30pm with recognitions for some of LCPS's very best teachers. Some are visiting international faculty... teachers from other countries who come here for three years. Others have joined the elite ranks of their profession with national board certification. I look forward to hearing about their accomplishments and recognitions and applauding them with the rest of the board.

Following public comment, the Superintendent's report and Board member comments we'll consider final passage of new rules for "Selection and Review of Library Media Center Instructional Materials," which is primarily an overhaul of the procedures under which materials (including library books) can be challenged by parents. This is in the wake of the And Tango Makes Three controversy of a few months ago.

After that we'll receive a report on a $2.4 Million left over from seven school construction projects. The funds will be returned to the County. These are for schools that opened between 2003 and 2005.

If those numbers grab your attention, you'll be interested in the 3rd quarter financial review that projects an end-of-year surplus of $9.3 Million, or about 1.3% of the operating budget. I know that some folks will say the budget was over-funded. My own perspective is that 1.3% is pretty accurate, and good fiscal management.

Finally, one last item, an issue of easements regarding the new Stewart Weller Elementary School in Ashburn.

Download full agenda information: Agenda & Addedum (PDF)

LCPS Graduation Speakers

It's graduation time again, I plan to attend several events this year. I received this years' graduation speakers list earlier this week, it's a very interesting group.

Briar Woods High School: Brett Fuller, Chaplain of the Washington Redskins

Broad Run High School: Patton Oswalt, 1987 BRHS Graduate – Actor, writer, voiceover artist and professional comedian. (Voice of Remy in the movie Ratatouille)

Dominion High School: Michael Bukva, Student-selected faculty speaker, Government Teacher.

Freedom High School: James Thrash, Wide receiver for the Washington Redskins.

Heritage High School: Rick “Doc” Walker. Former Redskin player and current sports commentator.

Loudoun County High School: Steve Coll, CEO, The New America Foundation. Pulitzer prize winning writer and former managing editor of the Washington Post.

Loudoun Valley School: Pending – Original speaker has been deployed for 6 mo., Sponsor and class officers currently looking for a replacement.

Park View High School: Phillip Clyde Bernier, 2001 PVHS Graduate. Member of the winning team on ABC’s Dance War

Potomac Falls High School: Frank Wolf, Congressman. 10th District, VA.

Stone Bridge High School: Grant Harris, SBHS Graduate. CEO of Gstar Wear and a Management Consultant for Booz Allen Hamilton.

Academy of Science, Dr. Kevin Moses, Associate Director for Science and Training for the Janelia Farm Research Campus of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Monroe Technology Center, Aneesh P. Chopra, Secretary of Technology for the Commonwealth of Virginia

Mercer Middle School Overflows

See the front page of the LCPS website today and you'll see a sign of the growth that we aren't keeping up with...

Mercer Middle School to Overflow New Students to Stone Hill in 2008-2009 School Year

The bottom line:

Students who seek registration for Mercer Middle School after the last day of school this year (June 17th) will be assigned to Stone Hill Middle School beginning with the 2008-2009 school year.

Stone Hill MS is 13 miles from Mercer MS.

Week of May 5, 2008

Feliz Cinco de Mayo, everyone! I'm late in getting this out today. Here is my planned schedule this week:

Monday:
Potomac Falls PTSO, 7pm (left early)
Special Education Advisory Committee(arrived late)

Tuesday:
Legislative Policy Committee, 6pm

• Uniform Complaint policy for parents and students
• Tobacco use policy
• High school credits for Middle School students

Wednesday:
Potowmack ES PTA, 7pm

Thursday:
Joint School Board/Board of Supervisors Committee, 4pm in Leesburg
Horizon Elementary Chorus, 6pm
PFHS Guitar Concert, 7pm

Friday:
Potomac Falls HS vs. Broad Run HS athletics, 6pm

Saturday:
Sterling/Potomac Communities Outreach, Seneca Ridge MS, 8AM
For the Love of Loudoun Arts, sponsored by Northern Virginia Community Foundation, National Conference Center, 2pm