[CrozetEagle] Resource Study

[Penny Wagner]

Dear Parents -- 

As most of you know, there are meetings at 6:00pm this Tuesday , September 25 (Cale Elementary) and Wednesday, September 26 (Sutherland) to share your thoughts on the best use of resources within our school system.  The meetings will be conducted by a team from the Commonwealth Education and Policy Institute at VCU.  The team is charged with conducting a utilization study; they will be meeting with parents, teachers, and administrators.  This is our chance to speak out about how financial, human, and volunteer resources are allocated at our school.  If you absolutely can't make it, you can send your ideas and comments to Marti Collier at mhcollier at vcu.edu or to Dr. Carol Hastings at hastings at K12albemarle.org . 

The Crozet PTO wanted to schedule a pre-meeting to learn about the issues that might impact our own school and our kids.  Given everyone's limited time, I volunteered to interview Karen Marcus about our school's specific needs.  I also spoke with Dr. Carol Hastings (new head of transportation and the person responsible for coordinating with VCU on this study) who explained that the purpose of the study is to figure out how we can best use our existing resources to improve student achievement.  This isn't about more money -- its about working smarter with what we have.  Are our resources appropriately distributed or are we dissipating our efforts all over the place to the benefit of no one?  

>From my conversation with Karen, I learned that there are three areas that are particularly challenging at Crozet: 

    • general staffing of teachers as enrollment fluctuates 
    • recruiting and retaining specialists as enrollment fluctuates (like literacy and technology specialists), and 
    • keeping pace with technology 




We have been very fortunate at Crozet to have a reading specialist and a technology staff person full time -- that is because Karen finds the money in her budget to make up the difference between what the school system pays (.45 and .5 % respectively, based on our enrollment) and what would be a full-time position.   These positions support all students --and, not all, but much of what they do doesn't change based on enrollment.  This is just ONE example of how our resources are used -- there are too many to include in this already long email!  

If you have any ideas, suggestions or questions on how resources are allocated for our kids, please think about attending one of these meetings or sending your thoughts via email to Dr. Hastings or Dr. Collier.  I'm sure that Karen Marcus or Mark Green would also be willing to answer any of your questions in depth. 

Thanks, Brenda Yordy 
(parent of Clare and Eli)
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