[PC News] Tax Rate Reduction, April 12th Agenda, March Minutes,
At-large Reps Sought
Shelley Payne
shp33 at alumni.virginia.edu
Tue Mar 29 14:16:30 EST 2005
Parent Council News
March 29, 2005
http://avenue.org/parentcouncil <http://avenue.org/parentcouncil>
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Topics in This Issue:
* BOS Considering $.02 Reduction in Tax Rate
* April 12th Parent Council Agenda
* 2005-2006 Parent Council At-large Representatives Sought
* March 8th Parent Council Meeting Minutes
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BOS Considering $0.02 Reduction in Tax Rate
At their March 23 budget work session the Board of Supervisors voted to
propose a 2-cent reduction in the real estate tax rate from $0.76 to $0.74.
The vote was 4-2 to recommend the reduction, with Ken Boyd & David Wyant
voting against this proposal, as they would like to lower the rate still
further (a 3 or 4-cent cut). At the work session Dr. Castner noted that a
cut of more than 2 cents would put the School Division budget at "a real
challenge level." As it is, with the 2-cent reduction, there's a deficit of
$1.1 million in the proposed school budget.
The Board of Supervisors will hold a Public Hearing on the county budget
this Wednesday, April 6th at 6:00 P.M. in the Auditorium of the County
Office Building. You may sign-up to speak starting at 5:00 P.M.
April 12th Parent Council Agenda
Please remember that the April Parent Council meeting will be on the 2nd
Tuesday of April due to Spring Break..
Parent Council Meeting, April 12, 2005
Agenda
1. 7:00 - 7:10pm Welcome and Old Business:
Approval of minutes to March 8th meeting; other Old Business, if any - Chip
Deale
2. 7:10 - 7:25pm New Business:
Nominating Committee report re. proposed slate of Parent Council officers
for 2005-2006 (note: this agenda item might be deferred to May 3rd meeting)
Feedback on and discussion regarding proposed revisions to School Division
policy on fund-raising in schools
3. 7:25 - 7:45pm Superintendent’s Report: Dr. Kevin Castner
4. 7:45 – 8:45pm Program Presentation & Group Dialogue:
Parent/Family Involvement: Effective outreach practices, programs,
successes & problems – Miriam Rushfinn, Director, The Parent Center (
www.theparentcenter.org <http://www.theparentcenter.org/> )
5. 8:45 - 9:00pm Good & Welfare:
An opportunity for attendees to share thoughts, comments, ideas or opinions
on any Parent Council, school or general education-related topic.
6. 9:00pm Adjourn until May 3rd
2005-2006 Parent Council At-large Representatives Sought
Parent Council is seeking nominations for At-Large Representatives to the
council for the 2005-2006 school year. At-large Representatives should have
an interest in public education in Albemarle County but do not need to have
children attending county schools. Ideally, representatives should
represent the business community and/or a demographic group such as senior
citizens that currently aren’t members of council.
March 8th Parent Council Meeting Minutes
Members present: Carole Saller, Albemarle High School; Tom Pajewski,
Baker-Butler Elementary School; Jess Haden, Brownsville Elementary School;
Shelley Payne, Burley Middle School; Chip Deale, Crozet Elementary School;
Meredith Noble, Greer Elementary School; Brenda Dierolf, Jack Jouett Middle
School; Dan Dunsmore, Meriwether-Lewis Elementary School; Teresa Hashisaki,
Murray Elementary School; Ron Price, Stony Point Elementary School; Cindy
Adams, Walton Middle School; Lisa Moorefield, Western Albemarle High School;
Monica Pawinski, Woodbrook Elementary School.
Guests present: Mary Huffard Kegley Scott, Meriwether-Lewis Elementary
School; Linda Kobert, Alliance for Community Choice in Transportation.
School Board present: Sue Bell Friedman.
Staff present: Dr. Kevin Castner; Steele Howen; Christy Sinatra.
1. Welcome and Old Business
a. The meeting was called to order at 7:05 p.m.
b. January 2005 Parent Council Meeting Minutes were approved.
2. New Business
a. Volunteers were solicited for a three-person Nominating Committee to
develop a slate of proposed Parent Council officers for 2005-06.
b. The April 12, 2005 meeting agenda will include a program presentation on
Parent/Family Involvement by Miriam Rushfinn of The Parent Center. This
program has been rescheduled from its original date of March 1, 2005.
3. Superintendent’s Report – Dr. Kevin Castner
a. The 2005-06 school year calendar has been approved. Parents can view the
calendar on-line at
http://www.k12albemarle.org/Communications/2005_06_APPROVED.pdf
b. Early-start proposal for elementary schools
i.
The early start proposal for elementary schools was included in the
Superintendent and School Board Funding Request for the 2005-06 school year.
ii.
Based on public input, the School Board developed a compromise proposal that
results in 10 minutes being added in the morning and five in the afternoon.
iii.
Over the course of a child’s career in elementary school, this change will
add 45 days of learning time. This fact is what influenced the decision to
add 15 minutes to the elementary school day.
iv.
The School Board report on this topic can be viewed on-line at
http://www.k12albemarle.org/Board/NewPages/boardinfo.htm
c. Strategic Plan
i.
The strategic planning process has given the division an opportunity to
examine its core values and hear from stakeholder groups it doesn’t
regularly hear from and fold that information into a goals development
process for the school system.
ii.
Through the focus group sessions used in the strategic planning process, the
Division has heard that some groups feel marginalized, especially people of
color and those at the lower socioeconomic levels. We have heard some of our
outreach efforts are not working and that we must be more proactive.
iii.
The Strategic Planning Team will present a proposed plan to the School Board
on April 28. The goals from the new strategic plan will drive the work done
in the division and the budget for the next four years. The plan will be
communicated to schools and parents starting in the fall.
d. Division budget
i.
The division’s funding request for the 2005-06 school year has been
submitted to the Board of Supervisors for consideration. The budget proposal
was built upon the Board’s established priorities and that helped it earn
the support of the School Board.
ii.
The proposal is about $1 million off in expected revenue.
iii.
The Board of Supervisors does have about $3 million in funding set aside.
How to spend that amount will be debated during the next two weeks. This
funding comes primarily from two sources – the car tax and real estate
property tax assessments that were higher than anticipated. The Board of
Supervisors can opt to spend that funding on a variety of needs, including
schools.
iv.
How the Board of Supervisors spends that funding will affect the future. The
support of parents in general for education is important and can make a
difference. We appreciate it if parents will attend the Board of Supervisors
public hearing on the budget on March 9 and thank the Board of Supervisors
for its support and advocate for our funding request.
v.
If the school division does not receive all the funding requested from the
Board of Supervisors then we may have to make cuts to the 2005-06 budget. If
we need to make cuts, parents will need to weigh in on the things they feel
strongly about with School Board members.
vi.
Information about the school division budget proposal can be viewed on-line
at http://www.k12albemarle.org/Board/Budget/budget.htm
e. Redistricting
i.
At the School Board’s March 10, 2005 meeting, the Superintendent will give a
report and recommendations on redistricting. At this point, the
Superintendent expects to support the Redistricting Committee
recommendations.
ii.
The Superintendent will support the following Committee recommendations:
1. Transferring Camelot subdivision from Hollymead to Baker-Butler
affecting 44 students.
2. Designating Brownsville Elementary as the school for the Old Trail
and Foothill Crossing developments where currently there are no students
3. Transferring 25 students from Milton Road, including Auburn Hills
and Milton Hills subdivisions, from Walton to Burley Middle School
4. Reconvening the Long-Range Planning Committee to reconsider a
decision to build a 400-student Southern Urban Elementary School and
consider either increasing the size of the Southern Urban Elementary School
or expanding the facilities of Cale, Red Hill, and Scottsville elementary
schools.
iii.
The Southern Urban Elementary School has been on the books due to growth in
the south. When it was proposed it was for 400 students feeding from mostly
Cale and some of the higher poverty areas. If built as currently proposed,
the school would have more than 40 percent of its students on the free and
reduced lunch program. The average in the county is 20 percent. Starting a
school at 40 percent made the Committee look at the possibility of taking
populations from other areas to balance the Southern population to make it
more similar to schools across the division. To do so, we would need to
increase the school population by 200 students and at a cost of about $2
million. To resolve the Southern Elementary problem, we would take students
and staff from Cale and Stone Robinson and when you add in establishing a
new school, the change would impact three school cultures. The Committee
then talked about the possibility of expanding Cale. It decided it was too
soon for such a decision and that the issue will need to be reviewed and
studied.
iv.
There also are potential impacts on middle schools and high schools. Henley
has the capacity for 900 students and could take students back from Jouett
Middle School. The Committee also posed the question of expanding Western
Albemarle but that would require more students to travel long distances. It
questioned expanding Albemarle High to 2000 students. At present, the
Long-Range Planning Committee believes the location of Albemarle High
supports an expansion to 1900 students. The division will be studying the
impact on instruction and building learning communities.
v.
The Redistricting Committee did much to place the division in a good place
for the future. They have done much more than they are getting credit for.
vi.
Redistricting Committee member and Parent Council member Ronnie Price said
it was a good exercise and that members on the committee are likely to stay
involved. It was a very interactive dialogue. The job is mammoth, even
transportation-wise in moving kids around the system. It was a good
experience.
vii.
Information about the Redistricting Committee’s work can be found on-line at
http://www.k12albemarle.org/Board/LongRangePlanning.htm
The following questions were asked by Parent Council members and answered by
Superintendent Kevin Castner:
Q1: Is the middle school enrollment goal 700 students?
A: 600 students is ideal. 900 students is not a strain, it’s probably in the
middle for middle schools in Virginia. If we had a choice, we’d probably
choose 600, but for us with our geography and growth, more students is how
we will best maximize our funding. This puts seats where the growth is. We
watch enrollments and at the same time we keep some elementary schools at
certain enrollments so students don’t have to experience even longer bus
rides.
Q2: If Albemarle High expands to 2000 students, will that mean adding to the
buildings?
A: Yes. What will be added to is infrastructure. This has not been decided –
it’s out there for discussion. Our Board will probably work on this issue
for its next three meetings.
Q3: Albemarle County is probably not the only fast-growing area. There has
to be other examples of what happens to schools when they are expanded
rather than new campuses being built. Are we looking at other school
divisions for information?
A: I have had experience teaching in schools with 3,200 students. As for the
information out there, some of it is trend data, some of it is about ranges.
If you have a choice, the thought is that smaller is better. You don’t want
to increase school size just for efficiency. In terms of research, there isn
’t anything definitive to say what sizes are good or bad. I’d like us to
base our decisions on instruction.
Q4: What would the free and reduced lunch percentage be at Cale?
A: Larger than it is now. However, there are houses that are being built in
that area that start at $300,000. Ronnie Price added that one of the biggest
challenges in determining school attendance boundaries and feeder patterns
is our county geography. We have so many pockets that make it difficult to
develop feeder patterns and boundaries in a neat way.
f. Middle School Changes
i.
There is a lot of variance in the middle school program for grades 6-8. We
have more concerns from parents at the middle school level than any other
level and that’s probably true nationwide.
ii.
The division has had a group studying middle schools for 1 ½ years to
propose changes to make middle schools better. The top priority is to
maximize learning time for students. We found through study of data that
there is a difference in student achievement between schools with 90 minutes
of Language Arts and Math and those with 45 minutes. When students spend
more time in both subjects, they do better, especially those students who
are affected by the achievement gap.
iii.
We also believe that to maximize learning time and have equity, all five
middle schools need to look similar.
iv.
For exploratories, we are reducing minutes but not eliminating
exploratories. We will move from six required exploratory strands to three,
which actually gives kids more flexibility. This will require some
adjustments to minutes and that’s what has caused controversy as people look
at the change as hurting exploratory programs. This isn’t good or bad, it’s
about leveling out our middle school program and expanding our core academic
learning time. There are certain schools that offer more exploratories and
that will be examined.
v.
Burley, one of the block schools, actually has the highest band
participation. They also have the highest percentage of people in band
continuing with band in high school; they are almost 15 percent higher than
any other school.
vi.
Principals can choose among some schedule options
vii.
An area that will give our system strength is having world languages in
seventh and eighth grades. Henley is doing languages in seventh grade. One
thing we don’t like is that now only some students have access to world
languages and all kids should have access.
viii.
The middle school changes aren’t really changes; they’re already present in
system. It’s really about a re-norming so that all schools are consistent.
It’s to build equity.
ix.
Parents are encouraged to talk with principals. More information about the
middle school proposals can be viewed on-line at
http://www.k12albemarle.org/Board/NewPages/boardinfo.htm.
The following questions were asked by Parent Council members and answered by
Superintendent Kevin Castner:
Q1: Will faculty teaching exploratories get their time cut?
A: We pay teachers to teach full loads. In the music areas, the loads are
high. In some technology areas, we’re not sure what will happen. In schools
where we’ve had this happen, we haven’t had much attrition. We’ve had the
Board give us some extra staffing to help with this transition. The middle
schools will now be on similar schedules and that means schools could even
share a teacher. We couldn’t do that before.
Q2: Do teachers at the impacted schools know about this?
KC: There are still some unknowns that principals are working out and some
issues we’re monitoring quite closely. Unfortunately, we made a mistake in
presenting some possible scenarios that were considered the worst and people
took those as fact before decisions had been made.
Sue Friedman added that she and Diantha McKeel visited middle schools this
week and Don Vale at Henley wanted to make sure that people knew that he
whole-heartedly supports these changes and thinks they are the right thing
to do and can be done effectively. She said all elementary and middle school
principals have voiced support for these changes because they are the right
thing to do for instructional excellence for all students. Sue said having
spent three years on Equity and Diversity Committee and as a Board member,
her responsibility is to all students.
Q3: At Burley, the music program is not really changing but with the
implementation of world languages, will there be a change in scheduling?
A: In seventh grade.
Q4: I think everything is in how an issue or change is presented and is
there somebody out there who can make it understandable for all parents?
Issues like this are going to come up and have to be dealt with for
instructional purposes. There should be some method of communicating that
from the principals because that’s where most parents feel most comfortable.
In that way people feel they have input at a level where they feel
comfortable; I’m trying to look at this as access at all levels for parents
and a way to make this information more understandable. It’s a barrier for
parents. A parent’s first hurdle is understandability – it’s just too much.
With the elementary start time, if it could have been packaged differently,
I think it would not have been such a hurdle.
A: In the budget proposal for next year, there is a new position for
community outreach and that person will become responsible for these areas.
Q5: Is there a way to have a parent advisory group for that community
outreach person to help decide how to get information out effectively?
A: We will connect that person to Parent Council.
Q6: For the foreign language program, we’re adding to seventh grade but are
we adding more content or just one more period?
A: I would like to bring in the world language coordinator to present to
Parent Council. We are allowing French and Spanish. We are promoting world
languages for a seventh- and eighth-grade program of continuity. Students
will experience this in middle school after having five years in the
elementary schools.
Q7: What happened to having real world languages – are we allowing for
Chinese, Japanese, etc.?
A: We have Chinese, Japanese, and Arabic in the high schools. The
enrollments are very small and we don’t know if the Board will continue to
subsidize them. We might need to look at distance learning. With consistency
in scheduling, we may be able to offer these classes to all schools through
distance learning.
Q8: What are key issues on our budget to communicate to the Board of
Supervisors at the hearing?
A: I personally think they need to have some wisdom that before they give
revenue back, they need to look at long-term infrastructure issues. You will
need to ask them to wisely support education knowing they are competing
against some important things. The idea is to look to the future wisely.
4. Program Presentation – Linda Kobert, Coordinator, Alliance for Community
Choice in Transportation
a. It’s an organization of citizens in the Charlottesville area and safe
routes to school is the main focus.
b. A generation ago, most of us walked to school; 70 percent of students
walked or rode to school. Today, nationally, it’s 3-10 percent of kids. In
Albemarle County, only 1.5 percent of kids live in a designated walk area to
their schools – that’s only 172 students out of more than 12,000. In roughly
the same time period, obesity has become a major problem.
c. Community design is maybe one underlying reason. We’ve changed the way
we look at planning houses and roads to favor cars over people. We’ve gotten
to be such busy people, we try to find the fastest way to get to one place
or another, yet our lifestyles have often become sedentary. There are
consequences in terms of health and a lack of knowledge about pedestrian and
bicycle safety.
d. Safe Routes to School is a national program that integrates health and
fitness, traffic relief, environmental awareness, and safety. Safe Routes to
School works with schools, parents, community and public officials to
advocate for meaningful exercise through walking and biking to school when
possible.
e. At schools where walking or biking to school isn’t feasible, we can do
other activities at the site. We can work on training kids in bike and
pedestrian safety, identify safe routes to school, work to correct
infrastructure programs, or special events or lessons.
f. Educators tell us that when kids walk to schools they say they have more
energy and feel better. Teachers say kids are more alert in class and have
fewer discipline problems.
g. We started about three years ago with Greenbrier and have added several
more schools. We tailor programs to meet the needs of a schools. Some
schools may form walking programs where families in neighborhoods form
“walking school busses” and walk to school together. Some schools do
“walking Fridays” where kids do two laps around the school and have a
healthy snack at the start of the day. We have pedestrian and bicycle safety
curriculum that is SOL-compatible for PE and other teachers. We do bicycle
rodeos and the Police Department helps us with bike safety inspections and
information. We also have walking incentive programs like “Walk to Hawaii.”
In this program the students walk around the school and tally their miles.
They pause in their journey for humanities lessons and when everyone has
reached Hawaii at the end of the year, there will be a luau.
h. We also will bring in partners to map existing safe routes in areas and
identify barriers to our routes. We then support parent groups in advocating
the city or county for improvements such as walk/don’t walk lights, painting
crosswalks, etc.
i. This year they would like to operate programs in Albemarle County
schools and are looking for some schools to serve as pilots for hosting some
walking events in the spring.
Parent Council members asked the following questions that Linda Kobert
answered:
Q1: Schools that are logical for walking programs are Hollymead, Sutherland,
and a few more, but after that it might be a problem. What can you offer
schools where walking to and from school isn’t realistic?
A. We can do walking incentives at schools with PE teachers and a lot
of what we do is pedestrian safety instruction to give kids an opportunity
to practice.
Q2: In your program, do you allow parents to act as crossing guards? For
many parents that safety issue is there.
A: That’s entirely a possibility to get people to work it out in a way that’
s safe.
Q3: There’s a nice trail that leads from Baker-Butler but there is an access
problem at a part of the trail where a property owner won’t let people
cross. Is that something you can help with?
A: It’s possible for us to be part of that conversation and it may be
possible to figure out how to make that happen.
Q4: The Brownsville area is growing. Do you work with developers of these
properties to integrate some pedestrian traffic toward schools and if people
are not being involved in the program, how do you incorporate them?
A: We would love to work with developers to incorporate walking into design.
We’ve worked mostly in the city and haven’t had those issues but I can see a
way to make that link and I think parents and the community getting together
to have the conversation is the way to go to make that happen and capitalize
on the idea that the developer has a stake in this.
Q5: I have seen this come up at the Planning Commission where they’re trying
to make developers have more sidewalks, even for people to walk to work.
Developers usually respond to what the Planning Commission says but it
costs money. Maybe it will help if there is grant money available.
Q6: One thing that may be a help to you is that the state, through its
Healthy Virginia program, is giving away pedometers and I would think if you
had a contest with kids and schools it might be a really nice way to
incorporate it.
A: We did talk with Regina Kirk and she does have some pedometers in schools
but that is an example of what we can do.
Q7: How much lead-time do you need for in-school events like bike rodeos?
Stone-Robinson has a wellness fair coming up and Crozet is doing a Family
Fitness Festival. Could it tie into that?
A: We can put it together fairly quickly if there’s already an event in
place.
Q8: How can a walking program work in schools with no walking access?
A: At some schools on walk days the busses let the kids off at a distance
from the school and they walk down to the school.
Q9: Have you had any success working with middle and high schools?
A: Most of our focus for walking and incentives has been at elementary
schools but we have done PE activities for middle schools and mapped the
Buford area for safe routes to school.
5. Good & Welfare
a. Albemarle High School is having a teen driving safety presentation on
March 22 at the school. It was postponed from February. The information will
go out to all high schools in the county and it’s open to the community. We
will have a panel of people involved in teen driving issues.
b. The Board of Supervisors will have a public hearing Wed., March 9 at 6
p.m. in the County Office Building Auditorium and the Parent Council will
have representatives there to voice support for the school division funding
request.
c. The next Parent Council meeting will be April 12, 2005.
6. The meeting was adjourned at 9:09 p.m.
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