Haven’t seen this anywhere but the School Board is having their Public Hearing on their budget on Tuesday the 28th at 6:00. City Hall. If you’re interested, I’d recommend getting over there. I plan on attending if possible.
Update: check the comments. Mr. Randolph found an ad in the paper that indicates it’s actually at 7:00
February 24, 2012 at 1:01 pm
Andy, may want to check the time.
I think it starts at 7:00 pm.
February 24, 2012 at 2:42 pm
According to this, it’s 6:00: http://www.manassas.k12.va.us/education/components/calendar/default.php?sectiondetailid=15352&rid=26850&sw=&w=&ss=&se=&st=&match_type=&sc=&et=month
February 24, 2012 at 4:22 pm
Apparently, they have a closed session that begins at 6pm.
The public meetings starts at 7pm.
Public Input (on FY 2012-13 Budget)
City of Manassas School Board
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
7:00P.M.
Council Chambers, City Hall
(Legal ad, today’s N&M (B7))
The city website also shows the public meeting starting at 7pm.
February 25, 2012 at 4:06 pm
Pertinent questions could be asked at this meeting if one were to look at Meeting Agendas (on the MCPS website under SB MEETINGS) and then to Ratification of bills. Dollar amounts are shown and to whom there are written, very interesting reading. For example, Houghton Mifflin ($13,000.00) provides text books but isn’t part of Steps to Literacy, Fast Forward, Read 180 or any other reading program. There a multiple law firms, finance consultants, etc.
Special Ed and GT/Governors school are always good places to start when scrutinizing the budget as well as the HR Department and testing.
February 26, 2012 at 7:39 am
Tenacity,
They routinely submit the ratification report which always identifies the vendor, invoice number & amount paid, but never a brief description of goods/services . When asked last year by a Board member to help make sense of the budget I suggested including such a description. Sup’s office responded they never did it before, none of the other school districts do it that way, and it would be laborious to do so (even though invoices are tracked). Nonetheless, a motion was made to request such a description but no other Board member seconded the motion and here we are today continuously accepting these reports with no understanding of how much was actually paid for what.
February 26, 2012 at 1:05 pm
This School Board spent years praising Gail Pope, even though she produced one disaster after another. At every meeting in which I was a spectator, they deferred to “Dr. Pope this…and Dr. Pope that…” even while she was obfuscating the issues and responding in meaningless malapropisms. Meanwhile, they never knew the detailed facts of what is going on in the school system. Most of their understanding of what was happening came from press articles exposing the failings. The only member to press forward to discover facts was/is Pam Sebesky.
Attending the “public meeting” after the “closed session” has made their decisions is like sitting quietly and having lemonade outside of the barn after the horses have fled and the barn has burned down. That’s what the school politicians have decided is best for the City. That’s why it’s time for a change.
February 26, 2012 at 2:32 pm
It occurs to me before I actually get asked the question, I probably ought to state what I would do differently if I were elected to the Board with respect to the budget. I believe the Board should require the budget be submitted in summary form based on a work break down structure. In other words how much of the budget goes to actually teaching students, how much to actually conducting administrative tasks, how much is for “teaching the teachers”, buying textbooks & supplies, transporting students, etc. I did already send a letter to the entire SB Feb 18, copied to the City Council recommending just that. To date response so far is two SB members acknowledging receipt of my latter.
I went ahead and decided to create a proposed work breakdown structure just to help me get a sense of what is really happening with the budget. Even though I do not have all the budget info yet, its interesting what is revealed when you perform the exercise I recommended.
For example, preference is for smaller class sizes for English and Math. Let’s look at Metz: 15 teachers for English, 15 teachers for math which equates to 22 to 23 students per class. We also have 5 ESL teachers devoted to the approximately 20% limited English proficient students, and 3 Reading specialists in the Metz mix. On top of that because they are accounted for in the budget differently, there are also 8.5 Title 1 reading & math specialists counted as teachers and 12.2 Title VI teachers, but no explanation how they are distributed among the different schools. So given these extra specialists and teachers, how many instructors are really allocated to serving our students at Metz? Hard to know unless you account for all the full time equivalent personnel devoted to that task in the same place, which is not how the budget is provided to date.
We will have to wait for March 20 to see all the details regarding staffing, but I sure hope it all balances and it indicates an effective allocation. For example, the GT, ESOL, Spec Ed budget summaries (presented completely different for Spec Ed and ESOL) accounts for 171.5 full time equivalent Spec Ed personnel at $13.3M yet the Spec Ed org chart identifies around 211 full time equivalent personnel for Spec Ed & Related Services (numbers are so small hard to read). What do the remaining 39.5 cost and where is it in the budget? The power point charts allocate 160 personnel across the 8 schools (org chart indicates 117.75 school based personnel and 43.15 regional funded personnel), but where are the remaining (difference between 171.5 and 160 or should that be 211)? It’s people who make things happen, and if you cannot account for your people, how do you know the right things are getting done right?
February 26, 2012 at 7:19 pm
Also remember that the majority of Title I “specialists” are not teachers at all but individuals “supervised” by a teacher.
Regional funds/program is a whole other topic in itself, just as the Governors school and the Title I audit, school choice and SES (Supplemental educational services), etc.
Questions, questions, questions…..
February 26, 2012 at 11:08 pm
Want to check on a teacher’s license?:
https://p1pe.doe.virginia.gov/tinfo/searchteacher.do
February 27, 2012 at 9:47 am
FYI – A news release today from MCPS states a survey “related to
superintendent criteria” will soon be sent home with students
and a public hearing on the topic is slated to be held at Metz
on March 13th at 6 PM.
February 29, 2012 at 9:35 pm
Be sure to complete the survey for the new School Superintendent (see MCPS web site). Some of the questions miss the mark a bit, but it can provide useful input to the decision making process.