Few people are privy to the workings of the inner circle that make up the Danville Public Schools central administration. However all Danville residents are members of the school district by the simple fact they are taxpayers or “stockholders” in this corporation called the City of Danville. As a stockholder every taxpayer has a right to see how the district is operated and be assured the district is being operated efficiently, openly, legally, and professionally.
However try to get some information out of the school district. It would be easier to get the combination to Fort Knox. The ivory tower cannot be challenged so sayeth the queen.
Make a call to the tower. Las Vegas would give better odds as to whether you would: a) actually get someone to answer the phone or b) actually get someone to return a call. The deck is stacked against you.
Really want to stir the kingdom up? Call and ask for the middle school SOL scores. These are more closely guarded then the missile launch codes. Just merely asking for them would cause the office to raise the threat level to red. The SOLCAT (SOL Crisis Action Team) would be triggered and the blast doors would swing shut. The high command would call an emergency meeting and they would huddle in the bunkers and contemplate the question, “How can we spin these numbers so they will look good? “ The crystal ball would come out, the Merlins’ would recite incantations, magic potions would be mixed, and the sacred book, “Lies of the SOL’s”, would be pulled from the shelf. The seven dwarfs of the school board would be assembled and the call would go out, “All Is Good”. The queen would rush in and the spin would begin. “Let them eat cake!” the queen would bellow. “How dare they challenge the high command!”
When all the smoke has cleared you would not be any closer to an answer then you were when you started.
Now lets look at the hemorrhaging of money from the district. Recently the High Council (City Council) withdrew their heads from the sand for an instant and gave the queen and the dwarfs $300, 000 additional to an already bloated budget. The reason? To add onto the Golden Child called Galileo High School. Yes, the administrators pleaded, we need money, money, money! We are so poor and we must shore up the Golden Child! And then the High Council (they must have been high to agree to this) forked over the money with no questions asked. Suddenly, as if by magic, (magic book keeping that is) the sacred education kingdom three months later announces they have a $1 million plus surplus left over! Hmmmmmmmm Lets see…I need $300,000….but I’m sitting on $1 million plus………….and I did not know this? In the meantime poor GWHS , once the flagship of the district, has been relegated to second class citizenship. Ahhh what has happened and why has it been allowed to continue!
Apathy has allowed it to happen. The only way to get the district back on track is to elect new leaders. Leaders who have a vested interest, leaders who know what is going on, leaders who realize the current direction is like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic after it has hit the iceberg. The current board is simply not up to the task. The seven dwarfs need an “Extreme Makeover-Danville Edition”. This can only happen when concerned citizens step forward and take on the status quo. Next year school board elections are scheduled. Several seats will be up for renewal. Are there any Danville citizens willing to step forward? Will the queen continue like some actor in a weird Monty Python movie? Tear down an old building in Danville and the preservationists come out of the woodwork. Tear down a school district and not a peep is heard. Recently a good candidate for the school board was asked why they did not run the last election. The answer was depressing yet revealing. This person answered, “I think its to far gone to fix. I would only be one voice is a dark and murky sea. I really don’t have the fight in me to beat my head against the wall. The words “common sense” ring hollow with this group. I’m too old to take on windmills.” Sad, but true.
The High Council shares a burden of this blame. They have allowed the school board to blatantly squander money and allow practices that are detrimental to the district go unchecked. They answer, “Well the school board is independent!” True, they are an independent group but the High Council holds the money card. They need to reshuffle the deck and demand that reasonable expectations be adhered to and followed. Only by holding the leadership accountable can the castle be brought into line. The subjects (taxpayers) of the Kingdom of Danville deserve better. There is a two ton elephant in the room that no one wants to talk about it.
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Monday, August 27, 2007
We Wonder What Day Our School District Died......
Danville has always been a place that has resisted change. The feeling has been that "home-grown" is the way to go. This is not always a good thing. Sometimes "new ideas" and the dreaded word "change" will help elevate a city above the common belief that the old way is the best way.
This is exactly what has happened to the Danville Public Schools. After several years of outsiders running the district the thought process evolved to a point that an insider, regardless of who it was, could run the district the "Danville way". Unfortunately the pickings were mighty thin at that point in the city's group of candidates and a decision was made to install a person that had been swimming in the shallow end of the intellectual pool.
That was the day the district began to die.
Danville was already suffering from the pains and muscle spasms of a city that had already experienced a Katrina-like economic hurricane. A long term employer, Dan River, was removed from life support and allowed to gasp for breath and slowly sink out of sight. Tobacco, the areas other economic lifeline, has succumbed to a barrage of public health attacks and competition from foreign suppliers. There was a huge "sucking sound" as jobs were vacuumed up and shipped overseas. The city intelligentsia scrambled to rebuild the economy with words such as "nanotechnology" and "information based economy". The wheels churned, the whistles blew, the great new Danville started its chug up the long hill slowly repeating "I know I can. I know I can.....".
Laying silent like a dormant volcano was Danville Public Schools. Down but not out. Enrollment had dropped like a rock, free lunch rates inched upward as the district made its painful transition to an urban district. After several years of rocky leadership a partially new school board (the seven dwarfs......you can guess who Grumpy and Dopey are.....) stood on the bow of the good ship DPS and proudly announced "we're king of the world...." with a new leader. Danville Public Schools were saved! Unknown at that time, but widely suspected, the emperor had no clothes.
Despite all the hoopla and fanfare the district employees soon realized homegrown was for tomatoes and not school leaders. Morale started a deep nose dive as the district became more and more confused as to what kind of animal it was. The spin doctors worked hard and long to put on a face of "Everything is ok. Just don't drink the water!" The central office became the palace of the queen and all subjects were to swear allegiance and walk in step or be banished to the outside of the walls of the castle. The inner circle had spoken. The queen brought more and more clones in until the central office resembled a form of the Matrix. And the school board, like the band on the Titanic, kept playing the same tune assuring everyone that all was well.
The district' heart began to miss beats.......
As the months passed the schools became more and more confused as the walls slowly crumbled. Edicts were passed down from the ivory tower without thought or reason. Money was hemorrhaging out of central office as the leaders in training tried to put fingers in the holes in the dike. Test scores were massaged, manipulated, and spun to create a sense that all was ok. But high in the tower all was not well. "Drown them with policies! That should keep their mind off the test scores", rattled the queen. And so like a perverted Harry Potter movie the walls of the palace grew and changed, doors shrinking so only the select few could enter.
And the district developed a clot.......
The Merlin's of the district came up with a new idea. "Let's combine schools that are failing, change their names, and restart the clock for accreditation ". The leaders sat back and smiled, the kingdom will survive. Unknown to them however was the fact that the subjects were not as dimwitted as they thought. Teachers, students, and the last few effective leaders abandoned the district and jumped over the moat to Pittsylvania County and retirement. Some simply gave up, some ran to escape the flames, some just wanted a queen or a king who cared about them.
The district was put on life support..........
Again the seven dwarfs simply whistled "Hi Ho Hi Ho Its off to oblivion we go......." The queen and her court gathered in their new palace and wrung their hands. How can we blame all the problems on the past when our reign has become over two years old! "I know", said the queen, "Throw more money at it!" And so it moves on, the queen scrambling, the seven dwarfs burying themselves in policies, and the children suffering.
And the district gasped its last breath..................
Where it may seem like a bad fairy tale it is true. Only a reincarnation can save the schools. But the Grimm brothers are dead and there doesn't seem to be anyone to write a new chapter. Is there a J. K. Rowling out there?
Next: How can they operate the district this way?
This is exactly what has happened to the Danville Public Schools. After several years of outsiders running the district the thought process evolved to a point that an insider, regardless of who it was, could run the district the "Danville way". Unfortunately the pickings were mighty thin at that point in the city's group of candidates and a decision was made to install a person that had been swimming in the shallow end of the intellectual pool.
That was the day the district began to die.
Danville was already suffering from the pains and muscle spasms of a city that had already experienced a Katrina-like economic hurricane. A long term employer, Dan River, was removed from life support and allowed to gasp for breath and slowly sink out of sight. Tobacco, the areas other economic lifeline, has succumbed to a barrage of public health attacks and competition from foreign suppliers. There was a huge "sucking sound" as jobs were vacuumed up and shipped overseas. The city intelligentsia scrambled to rebuild the economy with words such as "nanotechnology" and "information based economy". The wheels churned, the whistles blew, the great new Danville started its chug up the long hill slowly repeating "I know I can. I know I can.....".
Laying silent like a dormant volcano was Danville Public Schools. Down but not out. Enrollment had dropped like a rock, free lunch rates inched upward as the district made its painful transition to an urban district. After several years of rocky leadership a partially new school board (the seven dwarfs......you can guess who Grumpy and Dopey are.....) stood on the bow of the good ship DPS and proudly announced "we're king of the world...." with a new leader. Danville Public Schools were saved! Unknown at that time, but widely suspected, the emperor had no clothes.
Despite all the hoopla and fanfare the district employees soon realized homegrown was for tomatoes and not school leaders. Morale started a deep nose dive as the district became more and more confused as to what kind of animal it was. The spin doctors worked hard and long to put on a face of "Everything is ok. Just don't drink the water!" The central office became the palace of the queen and all subjects were to swear allegiance and walk in step or be banished to the outside of the walls of the castle. The inner circle had spoken. The queen brought more and more clones in until the central office resembled a form of the Matrix. And the school board, like the band on the Titanic, kept playing the same tune assuring everyone that all was well.
The district' heart began to miss beats.......
As the months passed the schools became more and more confused as the walls slowly crumbled. Edicts were passed down from the ivory tower without thought or reason. Money was hemorrhaging out of central office as the leaders in training tried to put fingers in the holes in the dike. Test scores were massaged, manipulated, and spun to create a sense that all was ok. But high in the tower all was not well. "Drown them with policies! That should keep their mind off the test scores", rattled the queen. And so like a perverted Harry Potter movie the walls of the palace grew and changed, doors shrinking so only the select few could enter.
And the district developed a clot.......
The Merlin's of the district came up with a new idea. "Let's combine schools that are failing, change their names, and restart the clock for accreditation ". The leaders sat back and smiled, the kingdom will survive. Unknown to them however was the fact that the subjects were not as dimwitted as they thought. Teachers, students, and the last few effective leaders abandoned the district and jumped over the moat to Pittsylvania County and retirement. Some simply gave up, some ran to escape the flames, some just wanted a queen or a king who cared about them.
The district was put on life support..........
Again the seven dwarfs simply whistled "Hi Ho Hi Ho Its off to oblivion we go......." The queen and her court gathered in their new palace and wrung their hands. How can we blame all the problems on the past when our reign has become over two years old! "I know", said the queen, "Throw more money at it!" And so it moves on, the queen scrambling, the seven dwarfs burying themselves in policies, and the children suffering.
And the district gasped its last breath..................
Where it may seem like a bad fairy tale it is true. Only a reincarnation can save the schools. But the Grimm brothers are dead and there doesn't seem to be anyone to write a new chapter. Is there a J. K. Rowling out there?
Next: How can they operate the district this way?
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