As the new budget is getting ready for discussion the school board is preparing their fantasy proposal and their “draconian” budget cuts. It is an indication that spring is on the way as the ground around city hall will not be covered with snow but tons and tons of BS.
As is their usual procedure the board and administrators will moan and groan about “the children” when in reality they are trying to protect their sacred programs. One such program is the pre-school which they claim is the answer to all their problems. In reality it is a glorified babysitting program that produces no sustainable results. The school board cannot point to one single peer review based analysis of the preschool program that would show that it works. Children in this program may gain a little in the beginning but by grade four they have lost all benefits of the program. But the administration not only clings to this failure program but actually invested quite heavily in it with the construction of a new, and might I say, ugly addition to Johnson School.
DPS has a little over 6,000 students and is dropping at the rate of roughly 100 students a year with no end in sight. Yet the budget continues to rise and decreases in personnel do not match the drop in enrollment. In addition buildings are being kept open that are underutilized and need to be mothballed. Reducing overhead and personnel is the only way DPS will reach a balanced budget.
Unless the board takes a serious look at these issues there is no chance of cutting what needs to be cut. They need to wake up, look at the figures, and realize some drastic reductions are needed.
Attention potential school board candidates! Here is your platform. It will ring clear with the beleaguered citizens of Danville. Reduce, cut, and better use the money they have.
Now for our third annual “What to Cut” forum. Send in your suggestions for cuts to savetheschools2@aol.com by February 15. The best will be printed and discussed. As always no one will be identified since we are all aware of the revenge nature of DPS. If the school board can’t do their job I guess it’s up to the citizens and employees of DPS to do it for them.
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
School Board Elections/Pre-school Debacle
As the end of the year approaches it becomes more imperative that individuals considering running for the school board begin the groundwork of collecting petitions and talking up their candidacy. This year is an important one since city council members are also up for election. From sources it appears that several interesting potential candidates are considering both boards. A widely respected businessman with critical views of the school board is considering a run. His intent is to get the board back on the “right track”. Specifically he wants a careful audit of all school board expenditures. He already has uncovered some questionable uses of funds. He has stated he will not be “a board yes man” but intends to ask questions that many people want to know the answers to but that school board members have been negligent in asking. This person is just one in a growing list of people who want to see real change and fiscal responsibility in regards to the city schools.
A common theme among all new candidates is the fact that the district needs to consolidate operations and close some underused facilities. There is simply no reason for some facilities to continue to operate with such low numbers. It is time the school district got off its high calorie diet and trimmed a little fat.
The district unwisely already has committed funds to an ill conceived pre-school program at Johnson. At one time pre-school programs were thought to give disadvantaged children a “leg up” on the learning process. Head Start was based on a few pilot programs, such as the Perry Preschool program, that were believed to be effective. Advocates asserted that a national preschool program for disadvantaged children would yield the same positive results. However, the 2010 Head Start Impact Study, a scientifically rigorous evaluation of multiple Head Start sites throughout the nation, found that the program is clearly ineffective. The program has had little to no positive effects for children granted access to Head Start. More recently, the General Accounting Office reported that there is simply no evidence that Head Start provides lasting benefits. Essentially, children end up back where they started. Those findings are consistent with 40 years of research on early intervention that shows that short-term benefits are possible but lasting gains are elusive.
So why is DPS investing so heavily in this program that has statistical evidence that it does not work? That’s a question for the new candidates to ask. And also ask why $600,000 has been thrown away while other students at Johnson are still learning in 20 plus year old trailers..........
A common theme among all new candidates is the fact that the district needs to consolidate operations and close some underused facilities. There is simply no reason for some facilities to continue to operate with such low numbers. It is time the school district got off its high calorie diet and trimmed a little fat.
The district unwisely already has committed funds to an ill conceived pre-school program at Johnson. At one time pre-school programs were thought to give disadvantaged children a “leg up” on the learning process. Head Start was based on a few pilot programs, such as the Perry Preschool program, that were believed to be effective. Advocates asserted that a national preschool program for disadvantaged children would yield the same positive results. However, the 2010 Head Start Impact Study, a scientifically rigorous evaluation of multiple Head Start sites throughout the nation, found that the program is clearly ineffective. The program has had little to no positive effects for children granted access to Head Start. More recently, the General Accounting Office reported that there is simply no evidence that Head Start provides lasting benefits. Essentially, children end up back where they started. Those findings are consistent with 40 years of research on early intervention that shows that short-term benefits are possible but lasting gains are elusive.
So why is DPS investing so heavily in this program that has statistical evidence that it does not work? That’s a question for the new candidates to ask. And also ask why $600,000 has been thrown away while other students at Johnson are still learning in 20 plus year old trailers..........
Sunday, October 9, 2011
Castaways
Ahhh back from hiatus. What has been happening while I was out of the country? Lets see. Same old thing? Hope not! Let’s look at the highlights:
Langston Focus School (is it still a focus school? Focus on what?) gains accreditation. Sounds good doesn’t it? But let’s look into it a little deeper. Danville hired a company to help them get accredited. So who did they hire? Pearson Educational Measurement. Now who designs and writes the SOL tests? Surprise! Pearson Educational Measurements. Despite the fact they were the high bidder Pearson was awarded a $139 million contract by the Commonwealth of Virginia to produce the SOL tests even though they were $35 million more than Harcourt Assessment. Well discussions of the wisdom of the DOE are for another day. The point here is simple, the same company that is helping Langston pass the SOL’s is the same company that is testing them. Conflict of interest? Perhaps but let’s look a little further.
Part of the Langston “plan” was that the state gives a little leeway to “special schools”. A part of that is that they do not have to meet the same requirements as other schools. So the fact that Langston is “accredited” takes on a new meaning. Let’s look at what accreditation means for Langston. Here are the “accredited” scores: English-59, Math-48,History-31, Science-39. Compare that to GWHS “accredited” scores: English-90, Math-82, History-75, Science-76.
So as you can see accredited rates don’t really mean much in Virginia’s watered down standards. How about NCLB (No Child Left Behind)? Ooops, they failed in every category. Another interesting statistic: Of the five teachers in the district provisionally licensed all five are at Langston! Way to go!
Again the cause of this problem is poor leadership from the top. The emperor has no clothes. THAT my friends, is the naked truth.
Langston Focus School (is it still a focus school? Focus on what?) gains accreditation. Sounds good doesn’t it? But let’s look into it a little deeper. Danville hired a company to help them get accredited. So who did they hire? Pearson Educational Measurement. Now who designs and writes the SOL tests? Surprise! Pearson Educational Measurements. Despite the fact they were the high bidder Pearson was awarded a $139 million contract by the Commonwealth of Virginia to produce the SOL tests even though they were $35 million more than Harcourt Assessment. Well discussions of the wisdom of the DOE are for another day. The point here is simple, the same company that is helping Langston pass the SOL’s is the same company that is testing them. Conflict of interest? Perhaps but let’s look a little further.
Part of the Langston “plan” was that the state gives a little leeway to “special schools”. A part of that is that they do not have to meet the same requirements as other schools. So the fact that Langston is “accredited” takes on a new meaning. Let’s look at what accreditation means for Langston. Here are the “accredited” scores: English-59, Math-48,History-31, Science-39. Compare that to GWHS “accredited” scores: English-90, Math-82, History-75, Science-76.
So as you can see accredited rates don’t really mean much in Virginia’s watered down standards. How about NCLB (No Child Left Behind)? Ooops, they failed in every category. Another interesting statistic: Of the five teachers in the district provisionally licensed all five are at Langston! Way to go!
Again the cause of this problem is poor leadership from the top. The emperor has no clothes. THAT my friends, is the naked truth.
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Odds and Ends
I have been negligent keeping up with the blog but things have been happening so fast. First, getting to the results of the worst ideas by DPS or the biggest waste of money, here they are in order of the most votes:
1) By far the most votes went to Chalk Talk. If there ever was a complete waste of money and time this is it. One person wrote “…..like watching a train wreck…” to describe the show. One described it as the Diane Locker Comedy Hour. How can you ask so many questions and then proceed to answer them also? Most one sided show on TV. Seriously, it is a ridiculous waste of money.
2) Langston School. Once a proud part of the DPS system it is now a holding pen for the alternative school disaster. The campus needs to be shut down to save money or until they find a reasonable use for the campus.
3) Surprise, surprise, The Galileo School came in Number 3. As one person stated “It is the golden child at the expense of everything else. The worst part is that it isn’t very good either…..”
4) The quality and experience of administrators. Many felt that principals around the city are the bottom of the barrel. Some noted the tendency to only hire people retiring from somewhere else. Waste of time and effort.
The rest of the votes were scattered among different issues, some very personal. But the votes show that many employees are very unhappy about the way things are being run. Please note school board: Your time is coming. A lot of interesting names surfacing about people who may run. More on that later.
Without a doubt the “mysterious raise” was the talk of the town. The explanation given defies all logic. The facts are simple. Anyone who has ever been on a board knows that you discuss the terms of a contract with a candidate prior to any vote. Therefore the superintendents knew she was getting a raise—first lie. Two weeks later she announces she knows nothing about it---second lie. Board vice chair tries to cover and just muddies the water. Teachers get no raise but super does? Credibility is at an all time low. Fail-superintendent. Kudos to Adam Tomer for calling the board’s hand. Hope he remembers it next year at budget time.
1) By far the most votes went to Chalk Talk. If there ever was a complete waste of money and time this is it. One person wrote “…..like watching a train wreck…” to describe the show. One described it as the Diane Locker Comedy Hour. How can you ask so many questions and then proceed to answer them also? Most one sided show on TV. Seriously, it is a ridiculous waste of money.
2) Langston School. Once a proud part of the DPS system it is now a holding pen for the alternative school disaster. The campus needs to be shut down to save money or until they find a reasonable use for the campus.
3) Surprise, surprise, The Galileo School came in Number 3. As one person stated “It is the golden child at the expense of everything else. The worst part is that it isn’t very good either…..”
4) The quality and experience of administrators. Many felt that principals around the city are the bottom of the barrel. Some noted the tendency to only hire people retiring from somewhere else. Waste of time and effort.
The rest of the votes were scattered among different issues, some very personal. But the votes show that many employees are very unhappy about the way things are being run. Please note school board: Your time is coming. A lot of interesting names surfacing about people who may run. More on that later.
Without a doubt the “mysterious raise” was the talk of the town. The explanation given defies all logic. The facts are simple. Anyone who has ever been on a board knows that you discuss the terms of a contract with a candidate prior to any vote. Therefore the superintendents knew she was getting a raise—first lie. Two weeks later she announces she knows nothing about it---second lie. Board vice chair tries to cover and just muddies the water. Teachers get no raise but super does? Credibility is at an all time low. Fail-superintendent. Kudos to Adam Tomer for calling the board’s hand. Hope he remembers it next year at budget time.
Sunday, April 17, 2011
Integrity in Leadership
"Leadership is the capacity and will to rally men and women to a common purpose and the character which inspires confidence." British Field Marshall Montgomery Integrity and leadership go hand in hand. Integrity is one of the positive traits for an effective and good leader. Personal integrity represents an honest, reliable and trustworthy person. If you are a leader; then you will bring along that good trait into your leadership style. It is a blessing for an organization to have such a leader in their organization. Having many integrity leaders will indirectly shape up the organization to be an integrity organization; be respected by employees and public. Why integrity is very important to leadership? Since integrity is a trait that exists from inner self; as a leader, you only can prove your integrity by the actions that you took and the decision that you choose. Integrity speaks by itself and it reflects on all your actions and decision. A leadership that built with integrity normally is part from an integrity organization; they can be confident that an individual with flawed character will not last long in their organizations ; as it goes to the good people, will not stay for long in bad organizations. As the result; only integrity people will be working in the integrity organization. DPS lacks this integrity combined with leadership. The most recent events concerning the superintendent accepting a pay raise in light of the current economic conditions makes this issue even more important. Employees have gone three years without a pay raise, several employees have lost their job, teachers lack adequate materials for their classrooms, yet the board offers the superintendent a raise for mediocre performance? Being paid over $50,000 more then the county superintendent with a district almost 25% smaller shows just how far out of touch the board is to the realities of the time. At least the county superintendent had the integrity to turn down any raise. That is one word that we will never hear describing the leadership in DPS—integrity. This lack of integrity carries over to the board. Have they been living under a rock for the past three years? Have they not observed the recent economic conditions in Danville? How totally out of touch can one board become? The proverbial handwriting is on the wall. This is not Wall Street. We should not reward bad, unethical behavior. The board needs to show some integrity themselves and resign and apologize to Danville on their way out.
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
April Fools and other School Board Employees
Well it appears the inmates are running the asylum. Word is out that the school board offered a new contract through 2014 to the worst leader DPS ever had. I can see Mr, Christopher turning over in his grave. What a shame that the board is so clueless as to what is happening to the district. I think it’s interesting that the salary for the new year was not revealed. Do you think the employees might just be a little perturbed that their concrete queen is getting a raise while they have been without one for three years? Is anyone really surprised at the lack of leadership on the part of the school board? Well readers it is time again for the DPS Darwin Awards! This award goes to the dumbest, most wasteful decision, project, or program in DPS. Yes I know there are so many to choose from but each year I try to narrow it down to one. This year, due to the tight budget, the award has more meaning then in other years. Send your nominations to savetheschools2@aol.com. Remember to include as much information as possible. As always, your identity will be protected. So write up those nominations and get them in by April 20. How much is that wall in front of Galileo? The wall along the street is being replaced with really nice landscape block. After several calls it was confirmed that the city is paying for the work and not the school board. I guess so since the city still owns the Galileo site even though the school board has invested almost $1 million in the building. I bet a lot of landlords would love to get a tenant invest that much money in their building!!!
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Fiscal Irresponsibility
Well now is the time for the school board to circle the wagons, open up the coffers, and wait for the city to fill them with gold. Soon you will read about the “fiscal crisis”, the “money worries”, and oh yes “possible layoffs”. All these phrases are intended to scare the council and the public into giving them money. Hopefully these are some council members with kahunas that will not fall for this dog and pony show.
Since 2004 the fiscal irresponsibility of the district under the present leadership has skyrocketed. Even though the population of the district hovers around 6,000 (from the 2000 level of 8,200) yet the budget and number of employees continues to climb. The cost per pupil is at an all time high.
Recently it was pointed out in another blog that the IB program at Galileo is a farce. In 2009, there were two eligible students, and neither one received the diploma. In 2010, there were three eligible but only one received the diploma and he was a transfer from Martinsville after their program shut down. This is a $10,000 yearly cost for the program not counting the cost of the testing. DPS was never an organization that could evaluate itself. Perhaps it is time to cut their losses and get out of the program. But of course the powers to be would never admit they were wrong.
The district board needs to take a long hard look at their finances and get back to the core values of the system. The truly hard decisions will be closing schools, eliminating programs, and letting pet projects die. These are the type of decisions that a school board needs to make. If they can’t step up to the plate perhaps the council will do it for them.
“Being ignorant is not so much a shame, as being unwilling to learn.”
Benjamin Franklin
Since 2004 the fiscal irresponsibility of the district under the present leadership has skyrocketed. Even though the population of the district hovers around 6,000 (from the 2000 level of 8,200) yet the budget and number of employees continues to climb. The cost per pupil is at an all time high.
Recently it was pointed out in another blog that the IB program at Galileo is a farce. In 2009, there were two eligible students, and neither one received the diploma. In 2010, there were three eligible but only one received the diploma and he was a transfer from Martinsville after their program shut down. This is a $10,000 yearly cost for the program not counting the cost of the testing. DPS was never an organization that could evaluate itself. Perhaps it is time to cut their losses and get out of the program. But of course the powers to be would never admit they were wrong.
The district board needs to take a long hard look at their finances and get back to the core values of the system. The truly hard decisions will be closing schools, eliminating programs, and letting pet projects die. These are the type of decisions that a school board needs to make. If they can’t step up to the plate perhaps the council will do it for them.
“Being ignorant is not so much a shame, as being unwilling to learn.”
Benjamin Franklin
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