Well, I’ve pretty much recovered from whatever it was that was ailing me over the last week. It was terrible. Started off as a cold and fell directly into my chest which was full of crud for a week. The coughing was so bad that my chest and back were sore from it! Anyway, it seems to be on the decline. I actually went for a low-intensity ride yesterday.
So, we had our “Education Forward” retreat awhile back and it ran from Friday afternoon to Saturday at about 1:00. Retreats are always difficult things but I believe now as I do on any of these things: the only way to get people together on tough problems is to spend the requisite time together to reach a level of trust and understanding that makes this happen. It’s a huge committement of time on behalf of the participants: the Board and Council members all have our day jobs, our normal meetings and then commit a further Friday night and Saturday morning to City business.
After some pretty hard work and after about 7 hours of meetings, the group came up with some general guidelines for the staff to work along in order to come up with a proposal to improve the schools. Getting theses discussion going is always difficult and this time was no different. The discussions were heated and, from time to time, rather pointed. Change ain’t ever easy.
The proposal that staff will come back with – is really the beginning of the next phase – a proposal from our staff professionals. I do not know the timing of that right now – it’s up to the Superintendent and the Manager. I expect we’ll see something in the next few weeks. From there, the committee will take that proposal and start from there.
One theme that continues to recur is a unified communications infrastructure. I agree with this notion, that we need someone whose job it is to manage the City’s (City, Schools & Public Safety) communications. This office could also oversee the cable franchises and internal communications. There’s just too much good stuff going on that nobody knows about and this would help that.
I’ll post back when we have a proposal.
May 16, 2011 at 7:36 am
Excellent news. It may have been difficult to get away, but the time you invested will pay off for everyone in the city.
May 16, 2011 at 10:00 am
Was there any discussion on ending the silly budget sharing agreement? Or, how to improve on the 75% graduation rate, and the even lower rate for the students we spend the most on, els? I know Pope has said they work with the students they have, but it seems to me if they are upset with having a poor return on the graduation rate of els students they could lobby for tougher laws against illegals, or even stop accepting enrollment of illegals, and before anyone says we have to educate all students based on the Supreme Court ruling.. the Supreme Court also ruled at one time slavery was legal and people were property, so maybe it is time we challenge another outdated ruling.
In the long run it would be a huge savings for the City, and would do wonders on the PR front to attract to the City the very type of families the City Council have talked about for years.
May 16, 2011 at 1:16 pm
Question to “Citizen of Manassas”:
What exactly is “the very type of family the City Council have talked about for years to attract to the City”
How do you fit into this type?
May 16, 2011 at 4:45 pm
Citizen,
Younger couples who want to move to the City, work in the City, or close by, and raise their kids here. It’s not that shocking to want educated and well off families. It’s good for business and therefore the tax base. It sort of carries over into the school system, and why it’s important to have good schools. Otherwise, it’s harder to attract married couples looking to raise kids. I’m sure Andy can expand on that.
Well, some would consider me young, and I do work in and around the City. How about you?
May 17, 2011 at 6:04 am
School Board Special Meeting tonight at 6:30 pm, Central Office, Unit 1 and Education Forward is on the agenda.
May 19, 2011 at 5:35 am
Attending the meeting and listening to Dr. Meyer’s proposal to the board, and the discussion afterwards gave me a better understanding of what Education Forward might look like. There is a lot the community can do to support whatever the council and the school board come up with.
May 19, 2011 at 7:09 am
Cindy, it is great you attended…at least someone has the information and at least some form of initial document (even if only a powerpoint) as to what it is. I know Mr. Hughes is having an article on it in the next “Town Hall” newsletter as he announced two Council Meetings ago.
That said – and I shall be repeating myself from other postings – it would be real nice if MCPS put something up on their website. I have said more than once there is a real dirth of information on projects/initiatives in this City (which is why I back funding a central Public Affairs position). Many of us cannot make all these various meetings, but having a document to look at and be able to ask questions on makes for a more involved citizenry.
The City Council is always wanting community input – and yet here with a major initiative, another example where either Council or School Board just puts out the wording and nothing to back it. Makes it hard to defend a position, ya know?
May 19, 2011 at 8:34 pm
If it’s any consolation, I haven’t seen it either….
May 19, 2011 at 9:13 pm
It’s a common story that everyone has heard. A childless, young, married, professional couple moves into a city to be close to the ‘action’. They want to live a short commute distance from work and they want to be around all the fun shops, restaurants, walking paths, and festivals. Maybe they even buy a house. Everything is going along just fine until their first child reaches the age of 3-4.
At that point they start giving serious thought to the issue of public school quality. They are horrified by the City schools when compared to those found in the suburbs. (for those Manassas residents that think the schools here are excellent I apologize to you but you have to understand that most outside of Manassas don’t think so and perception is, of course, 9/10ths of reality). In addition, they know that the current public system allows them no choice on where to send their child. So what do they do? They move out. Taking with them forever their tax contributions to the suburbs. You can substitute any city out there for Manassas and the pattern of migration to the suburbs is the same.
If families had a choice in where to send their children for public education they would not feel the need to leave the City. Manassas schools have a wonderful opportunity to develop programs in conjunction with some of our local assets (Hylton, Candy factory) that would attract students from the region interested in an arts or performing arts focus. While other schools from around the region would go on to offer their own attractive niche specializations (i.e. biotech in Manassas Park). The diversity would benefit all.
As long as young professional parents feel trapped by the City schools they will leave in droves when their children reach school age. Allowing for school choice would go a long way to increasing the number of upper middle income families that choose to stay (and pay taxes) in the City.
just my 2 cents.
May 20, 2011 at 11:59 am
Both Andy and Doc just reinforce my point – the Schools have a public relations problem, and are making no effort to get the good stuff like this initiative in front of people. Especially to garnish support since this was one of the contentions in the budget talks. That Public Relations person for the City with centralized news and even using the new Media Center to post rebroadcast of the school board sessions is esssential.
And tis a shame the School Board did not think to shift over to be able to broadcast/record this meeting on the presentation from their trailer to City Hall. At least that way, the concept one could watch it on TV or a rebroadcast becomes an enabler….versus “business as usual”.
May 20, 2011 at 2:14 pm
http://apps.washingtonpost.com/highschoolchallenge/schools/2011/list/local
Osbourn Park – 47th
Stonewall Jackson – 100th
Manassas Park – 111th
Osbourn – 170th (out of 179 local high schools)
Doesn’t look good. We need an explanation – soon.
May 20, 2011 at 5:46 pm
With all due respect MCPS has a lot more than a PR problem.
May 20, 2011 at 6:50 pm
Another insightful read by Professor Boudreaux of GMU.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704436004576299571015982098.html
May 20, 2011 at 10:00 pm
Country Doc, your rigtht…it does. And we’ll see what happens with the annual Washington Post Education Index for challenging students this weekend. I am waiting to see where MCPS falls…but given the dismal falling of the annual students enrolling in AP courses (one of the scoring factors) within MCPS over the last three years, I expect to see a low rating.
Of course, one of the arguements about AP is MCPS stopped paying for it – I paid the last year of my son’s AP courses and they paid off in my not having to pay for GMU Tuition for classes he got equivalency in. In terms of “PR”, that is a point MCPS should be using – what is the value.
May 20, 2011 at 10:02 pm
Dang! Steve beat me to it! Thanks, Steve…didn’t make the connection as I skimmed the comments. And yes, since Dr. Pope will be reporting to the Council this Monday night, maybe Monday morning somebody from Council should call and tell her to be ready – and not like the stumbling Dr. Pope did when the last WaPo article came out.
May 21, 2011 at 10:54 am
Picked up a print copy of tomorrow’s WaPo this morning.
-The printed version includes 195 area high schools.
Osbourn Park -49th
Stonewall Jackson – 104th
Manassas Park – 116th
Osbourn – 184th
– 26 School Systems were graded.
Prince William -8th
Manassas Park – 16th
Manassas -26th
– Suggest a reading of the method used to reach the scores –
“We take the total number of Advanced Placement,
Baccalaurette and Advanced International Certificate of
Education Test given at school each year and divide by the
number of seniors who graduated in May or June. We
call this formula the Challenge Index.”
The City of Manassas, in last place, produced its lowest
rating since 2001. The city school system has stopped paying
AP test fees because of budget difficulties. Most Northern
Virginia districts pay all AP and IB fees. When some attempted
to make students pay this year, state Attorney General
Ken Cuccinelli II (R) said they could not because it violated
the constitutional principle of a free education. Manassas
schools spokeswoman Almeta Radford said charging for the test
might explain why the system’s rating on The Post’s list
has dropped from its high of 1.326 in 2008 to 0.587 this year.”
– A discussion can be had over the merits of the methodolgy of
the Post Challenge, but this needs discussion and action.
I trust the test will be paid for by our school system next year.
(If the AG says we must pay the fees then we must pay them.)
May 21, 2011 at 2:15 pm
Ray,
Your son sounds like an intelligent and driven young man and with a supportive father anything is possible.
I’m sorry you had to pay “extra” for the AP courses beyond what you already spend. Last I read MCPS spends average 13K per student per year on running the system.
Can you imagine a world where you were just given that 13K in a voucher to spend on sending your son to any public or private school of your family choice? Enterprises of schools both public and private would get in gear and line up to attract your son and his voucher. Over years a wide diversity of educational opportunitites would open up, especially in the final grades.
Alas, that would mean the ultimate dismantlement of significant portions if not most of the existing executive structure of “the system”. This is what makes the whole idea of school choice a “pie in the sky” to existing deciderers (to borrow a Bushism).
I personally believe that these folks could get busy helping their public schools get the word out on their strengths and with setting up the new application process.
Anyways, best wishes to your son who sounds like he wont let much slow him down.
May 21, 2011 at 9:58 pm
Doc, thank you for the compliments. I was not sorry for paying his last year the $45 each for his two AP tests – he got a “4” on each. Took a total of 4 AP Courses (two tests paid in his Junior Year by MCPS, two not paid). Considering the GMU Tuition rate for undergrad runs at $1100 for a three semester hour course, and he was able to transfer all four AP courses since he had a “4” score in all of them, the small investment paid off! But the WaPo quotes Steve pulled proves my other point – even without the AG ruling, if the MCPS sells the challenge and reward, most parents will agree to the fee. About 50% of the kids who take AP courses take the test even with the fee, and historically, that happens all the time even when my son tested…the question to ask is “Why are the other 50% not taken it – even when MCPS paid for it?”
My son also was one of the last GMU High School Guest Scholar Program students. He and Mrs. Bass’s daughter where in that cohort of 8. That program has ended and instead, it is the Governor’s School located over at GMU-PW Campus. There still is the program with NVCC being conducted, but personally, a jump into college ways more in my book than the Governor’s School – I don’t view them on the same voting.
I agree with you on diversity of education using local resources. My son received a benefit from a time when MCPS still believed in challenging and having the “best of the best” (he graduated OHS in 2007; GMU December 2010 because of the AP and the Scholar Program…and graduated magna cum laude with a BS and a Minor). The opportunity even to partake of NVCC courses I rank as challenging the student – if nothing else, it is the different learning environment than the “high school years” with different expectations. The words “adult learner” come to mind.