For all of you interested in the Schools and how to improve them, we’ll have the third “Education Forward” meeting on the 10th at 5:30. Second floor, City hall. It’ll be a couple hours I would guess.
By way of background, this is the committee that was envisioned in the original Manassas Next 3 years ago. 3 Council members and 3 School Board members. Citizen attendance has been 2 people and a couple of teachers but that’s about it.
March 6, 2011 at 5:25 pm
I’d like to go, but already have the night booked volunteering with a youth group. When is the next meeting?
March 6, 2011 at 5:34 pm
That’s a shame. The next meeting isn’t scheduled. This is a large group and we haven’t met with regularity b/c the requests for information and presentations that have come out of the committee meetings depend on staff time and availbility which we do not know beforehand. I’ll post for the next meeting.
March 6, 2011 at 5:59 pm
If I may ask, who are the “3 and 3” members?
March 6, 2011 at 11:03 pm
I know that you won’t confront this, but I have it on very good authority that the Council is spending .5 million+ on the 150th-ish year ceremonies of the Civil War, and is cutting that same amount + on City employee healthcare. I may not be one of those employees, or spouse, or child thereof, however, speaking to those whom do belong to that group, I find the following to be a generally true statement: “I knew when I took a public/city job, I would make a lower salary/wage, but it makes up for it with the health insurance and dependable benefits.”
Many of the employees that I may not be part and parcel of, have lost faith that this council cares about their well-being. They feel like their department heads have listened to, and understood their frustrations and difficulties, conveyed those to the City Manager, who then conveys them to you, and have been uniformly ignored. They may be forced to stay due to current economic times, temporarily, but I would not hesitate to say, from speaking with them, that they will leave at a moments notice for the next best thing. Loyalty goes both ways, or at least I thought it did.
Since you’re not going to answer this anyway, how much more than $600,000 are we paying for the civil war ceremony? My guess is 650 total, but I’d love to know the real number.
Oh, forgot I needed to stay on-topic, so let me post something about schools: “There are no gang problems in our schools” is technically accurate, however, if a student of the school is murdered 150 yards from the school, immediately after school ended, by former and current members of the school, it’s not exactly the whole truth, is it?
Somewhat related, there was no perjury on any documents confirming Mr. Ricks as a certified teacher either were there?
March 6, 2011 at 11:27 pm
Andy,
I have another commitment at that time but I look forward to following your efforts.
ForReal,
I have a solution but I don’t think top management would be for it. 🙂 The price tag for the Civil War ceremony does seem excessive given the times and doing it on the back of the city employees makes it even less attractive as a use of the public monies.
March 7, 2011 at 8:37 am
@For Real,
Neither Andy nor anyone else has to confront you or your “very good authority” on how much is being spent – it is all a matter of public record for anyone who can find their way to the City Council Agenda and Minutes. And the number is $683,000 to date.
Feb. 28, 2011 – $409,800 (but do take it upon yourself to watch the replay of the Council Meeting as you will see that allocation also includes such things as landscaping to bring the image of the City back up to par).
Nov. 9, 2010 – $100,000 and on May 24, 2010 $174,00. The funding allocations also included a portion to the Prince William County & Manassas Convention & Visitors Bureau to kick off the advertising.
As for the Health Care Package, you bother to research that out with anyone in City Human Resources? Bothered to notice the move would be from an expensive package to one where there is better cost containment through a PPO Network? And this is not a sound business decision being made by probably small and large businesses/government entities across the Nation?
And dropping the $600K+ leading up to it and during the four days (those four days being around $100K each) – ain’t too far off from funds dropped for the July 4th event, Wine Festival and all the other events or for that matter, running the Ice Rink which sure does not directly pay for itself.
As for Mr. Ricks – we have an elected School Board and School Administration. Verifying documents rests on them, and as you may have noticed, I and others on this blog do not have a lot of love at the moment for either group.
March 7, 2011 at 4:14 pm
Andy, is this one of those work sessions that citizens just watch, or can they give input?
March 7, 2011 at 4:29 pm
Watch, no input during the meeting.
March 7, 2011 at 7:00 pm
3 years in the making?
March 7, 2011 at 9:33 pm
Andy,
If I may shed some light, there were 2 citizens at the first Ed/CC ad hoc committee meeting and 7 at the second.
Raymond, council members are Harrover, Wolf and Bass.
School board members Bushnell, Demeria and Sebesky.
Last meeting the superintendent asked for ipads for students. Before we go there, is it to much to get teachers really informed and trained to understand the autistic child? These Special needs children are not getting their needs met fully.
Let’s pay the 10 Ph.D’s in our school system less, have all our schools filled with certified teachers, not focus on accreditdation so much but rather AYP and meet needs of these autistic children.
By the way Andy, can you tell me why MCPS speech therapist now provides services to the students at All Saints that needs speech therapy by going to All Saints School? I realize the mandate requires meeting these needs but including the PWC students too at our tax payer expense?
March 7, 2011 at 10:38 pm
Lindy, many thanks for the list of the Committee!!!
On the Speech Therapist at All Saints – my understanding from a neighbor who’s child is at All Saints was the school contracted with MCPS to provide services. Of course, not having access to a by-line budget out of MCPS, can’t verify that.
Over the years, and since I am involved with our Disability Services in the area, a good point is raised about Special Needs. Too often the “model” pushed is full inclusion in the classroom, and yet we don’t train our teachers to understand these children. An interesting point made worth following up on.
March 7, 2011 at 10:39 pm
I would have no real way of knowing that. Have you asked the school board?
March 7, 2011 at 10:42 pm
Doug: it was proposed 3 years ago and the mayor then elected not to appoint a committee. It languished until recently.
March 7, 2011 at 11:59 pm
IPads! The woman is out of her mind. Would you like to know what one of the country’s leading computer scientist said after judging a recent regional science fair had to say about the students’ understanding of the scientific method?
I let you know once the scientist stops laughing everytime I bring the subject up.
March 8, 2011 at 8:00 am
Oh…MY…GOD….
Talk about epic fail! The super wants to hand out iPad’s? Andy, I struggle to find words to express how outrageous is that thought.
Oh and guess what. Almost ALL educational web sites are created using Flash. Guess what does not work on iPad’s. Yeah, Flash. And it never will either.
March 8, 2011 at 8:15 am
To be fair, it was one of about 7 things that she had on her list but I admit to being skeptical of the efficacy of such a move.
Have you tried that skyfire browser that’s supposed to do flash?
March 8, 2011 at 9:04 am
Why am I not surprised that there was a list for us taxpayers.
Ho!Ho!Ho!
March 8, 2011 at 9:14 am
Pope just needs to go. She really does see herself as someone larger than life. Ipads are the last thing our tax dollars need to be spent on. At a time when the graduation rate is at 75% and sinking faster, test scores are down, etc, her focus is on ipads.
Again, it should be criminal to have someone like that wasting our tax dollars.
Where are you school board members?
March 8, 2011 at 11:57 am
Andy,
There is no good reason to contact school board members, elected officials, on ANY school matters. All mail to any of them is being answered by the superintendent and has been for some time. I still sit in wait for 3 responses I sent to school board members since September. I have no confidence this school board will hold her or themselves accountable.
I agree with COM, the replacement of this superintendent must be a priority.
March 8, 2011 at 7:29 pm
Where can we find te “list” of the seven items that Pope has asked for?
OHS has some major problems and I am appalled to think that ipads are even being thought about by our superintendent.
What was her reasoning behind this? Technology is nice but Pope needs to worry about the basic foundations of schooling. Reading, writing and arithmetic. She needs to worry about keeping students safe. She needs to worry discipline within the schools and hoe she is going to accomplish that.
Now I am serious, where do we find that list?
March 8, 2011 at 7:31 pm
Posting from my phone. Sorry about the spelling. I really can spell but the fingers sometimes push the wrong buttons.
March 9, 2011 at 2:23 pm
IPads –
I’ve noticed the MCPS & Board have quit posting the Info Tech 5-Year Plan on the website. Guess it got tired of those of us peons in the community hacking it apart because it was terrible. Instead, the IT Department must sit around waiting for dreamscape ideas like IPads.
Many years ago when my kids were at Weems, the Board was budgeting to replace the computer lab machines. They wanted to purchase 30 individual machines to teach keyboarding, basic wordprossesng, and use programs like Reader Rabbit. I went before them and asked why individual machines and not one server, plus dummy terminals which would have met the instruction need, and saved money. Used an example of two computer labs I managed for Army Instruction (25 machines each room with a server in each room) teaching accounting software. Nope, they purchased the machines instead….and maintenance costs just esculate.
March 9, 2011 at 2:30 pm
Raymond
When they are spending money that does not belong to them why should they care about money? And that’s what happened in your example.
March 10, 2011 at 10:32 pm
Ipads are less expensive than laptops. What is the application? Are the ipads to be used in science lab, for testing? or for portable classroom use?
It sounds like a lot of second guessing to me. As anyone asked Dr. Pope why she needs them?
March 16, 2011 at 2:03 pm
Andy said:
“Have you tried that skyfire browser that’s supposed to do flash?”
No, I wouldn’t own an Apple product of my personal volition. Not a fan of the control the exert over the use of their products. If I’m going to purchase something like their electronics products, I want to use it how I want, not how they enforce. For many, that control is not an issue, but for me, it is.