School Board Report for April 3, 2013.
School Board Report for April 3, 2013.
As of July 1, 2012, PWCS had almost $760 million in bonds outstanding. To date I have never seen anything that accounts for what those bonds are used for. I’ve been trying to track the bonds PWCS has “issued” in the past two years, and I can’t find about $20 million. I have no clue what the bond money was used for, and on one I’ve asked does either.
I hope you find that as shocking as I do.
As this budget season comes to a close, one unfinished issue stands high above the rest – too large classes in Prince William County Schools. Over the past several years, as the economy crashed and has struggled to come back to life, PWCS has slowly been increasing class sizes to save money. Last year class sizes were pushed to the state’s legal maximum. The net effect is that classes in PWCS are the largest in the state by a significant margin.
Many parents have complained to me about high school math classes with 40 – 42 students in them. Many teachers have told me that they believe learning has been undermined by too large classes. Unfortunately for our school age children, there appears to be no plan whatsoever to bring class sizes down.
I think this is partly because our leaders are too busy batting around unachievable slogans to show real leadership.
Can you opt your child out of SOL testing in Virginia? Yes you can, depending on what grade / tests your child is set to take and where you live.
Testing, and it’s effects on the quality of instruction and learning in Virginia and the nation, is a huge topic, especially now as SOL testing season is right around the corner. Because we get asked about this quite frequently, we’ve added a page containing information about opting your child out of state SOL testing in Virginia.
You can find that page here Opting Out of State Testing in Virginia.
Nothing sets me off more than politicians who lie, regurgitate what they’ve been told without checking to see if it’s accurate, or pretend that the bow tied cow patty they’re trying to sell me doesn’t stink. A few weeks ago I went off on a diatribe on the PWC Ed Reform facebook page about comments Mrs Lillie Jessie had made during board matters. After I posted that diatribe, several kind people called and sent me messages inquiring about my state of mind.
Since my mind is what it is, I thought I’d elaborate on what Mrs Jessie said that made me so angry.
Mrs Jessie said the new ESEA had replaced NCLB and called for a new and better way of teaching. Sounds pretty innocuous, right? Unfortunately, what she said is 100% totally and completely false.
Several items are on the Agenda for the Wednesday, April 3, 2013 School Board meeting that may be of interest to folks.
Over the past year we’ve all been treated to stories about federal employees having a grand time at taxpayer expense at conferences in Las Vegas and other locations. Because of the controversial nature of these events, I thought it might be worthwhile to look at conferences and travel in PWCS.
In the original FY 2014 budget PWCS projected that it would spend over $1.2 million on conferences and travel, with more than half of that coming from our elementary, middle, and high schools.
