Ok, gonna shift the spotlight a little closer to home again. The Education Forward committee met a couple of weeks ago. I haven’t posted anything as no minutes have been available. The City Clerk (who is responsible for mintes, etc) was waiting for the schools to send an official version of their proposals. Those minutes are here. We had about 10 folks there from the community. It was a relatively short and compact meeting. The School Board folks presented their proposals, there was a short bit of discussion and that was it. I didn’t have a whole lot to say. Some folks asked about my silence but please don’t read too much into it. I’m looking for a new office manager for my business (without which none of this is possible) and I’m kinda pre-occupied.
I’m encouraged that the School Board have taken a few steps towards making things better. It’s modest but it’s a start and I hope that we’ll be able to continue making progress.
September 6, 2011 at 8:01 pm
A good start would be for the school board to answer their emails. Why have one if they ignore it?
Only Ms. Sebesky (sp?) took the time to reply.
September 6, 2011 at 8:03 pm
Not all of us can make their meetings and this is one way that tax payer’s should be able to have questions or concerns addressed.
September 7, 2011 at 11:56 pm
Thank you for posting the draft Minutes….I am amused with reference to needing a PR, and also Mr. Bushnell & Dr. Pope commenting “It is important to note that much of the information that has been reported is out of date and does not reflect the current situation in the schools.”
Maybe the Board needs to start with themselves – NOT ONE WORD that I have found has come out either in their Board Meeting Minutes nor in any local paper about how both Weems & OHS were selected by the Governor back in April 2011 as two of the 168 schools to participate in the “Teacher Performance Pay Initiative”. See the Governor’s Press Release below:
http://www.governor.virginia.gov/News/viewRelease.cfm?id=701
September 8, 2011 at 2:02 am
Some follow-up to the comment above:
I checked the N&M website. The closest there is to reporting on the City schools’ being on listed is in this article in a one-liner in about the middle of the article how apparently four schools on the Gov.’s list were in Manassas City or Manassas Park. Interestingly the County Schools were the focus of that and another article on the matter… Makes ‘ya wonder what the County is doing that the City is not doing to get attention in the N&M…
September 8, 2011 at 7:33 am
I’ve emailed the school board before and never got a response. ever.
September 8, 2011 at 8:56 pm
LOLed at this “change:”
“The MCPS will pay for A/P exams, which will be required for those
students taking A/P classes and dual enrollment classes.”
That’s the way it was when in there until my senior year (that was the 06-07 school year for those of you who don’t know me) then they made us students choose whether or not to take the test and we had to pay for it. It’s not really a new “change”- more like a “return to the way it was.” Of course, I should say in my classes, it was a 50/50 split at best in regards to who took the class to take the test and try to get college credit and who wanted wanted the “GPA Boost.” You see, when I went there AP Courses were “weighted” so an A would count as a 5.0 in the GPA, a B a 4.0, and so forth. Honors Courses were “weighted” so an A would court as 4.5, a B a 3.5, and so forth. Don’t know is still the same way today. Some of my peers just took those courses to get the “GPA Boost” you got from those courses and I know some who graduated with over a 4.0 GPA because of the amount of Honors and AP courses they took and didn’t care if any college credit from the tests because they just wanted the high GPA for their college applications. (I myself graduated with something like a 3.98 GPA if I recall correctly thanks to me AP and Honors courses and how well I did in any other courses of course. I also took all the AP tests in those courses and GMU gave me five classes credit for them- or enough to equal an entire full-time semester) Make of that what you will.
LOLed at this too:
“Mr. Bushnell asked City Council to direct those citizens with complaints back to
the School Board for resolutions. As an elected body, the School Board answers to
voters and should be given the opportunity to address any problems that arise.”
It’s funny reading these two (hopefully) voters tell of how they tried to contact the Board but in one case, got only one reply, and in the other got no reply. I’m sorry, why is Mr. Bushnell saying this when he apparently doesn’t even answer his email?
September 9, 2011 at 4:32 am
Andrew, I even sent my requst through the clerk for the school board and ask that she makes sure each board member receives my email.
Also asked her to send me the individual email addresses of the school board members because I hate the “form” email you fill out on their website. Of course that part of my request was completely ignored.
September 9, 2011 at 10:10 pm
And that’s just it. Why on one hand is the Board saying it wants voters, I perfer they would say citizens, to contact them with issues so they can address them but on the other hand it doesn’t look like the Board is very responsive when they are contacted? Seems like a contradiction to me…
Also, why aren’t the Board members’ emails up on their website like the Councilmembers’ emails are? (Sidenote: I guess Vice Mayor Harrover has left the Council since his picture, phone, email, and other info is gone. See here.) And I mean their real emails, not that form you get when you click the link on the members’ bio page.
All this goes back to my main point: If they want to be contacted, why is so hard to actaully to directly contact or hear back from them?
September 12, 2011 at 4:26 pm
http://www.manassas.k12.va.us/education/components/whatsnew/default.php?sectiondetailid=13198&viewType=detail&id=1726
September 15, 2011 at 4:40 pm
Nice to see in Septermber 22 News & Messenger front page a plan to address the issue around AYP!
September 18, 2011 at 10:48 am
Interesting article in the Prince William/Manassas section
of today’s WaPo on MCPS.