High drama last night!  I watched D-Mag give her budget presentation.  Got home just in time to catch some of citizen's time and all of the budget.  For her first time out of the gate (in our system anyway) I thought she did quite well.  She was familiar with her material and the presentation was well-crafted.  Way better than previous years I thought.

As to the content of the presentation, I particularly liked the part of the presentation where she broke out what changes she was making at each school.  She did reduce headcount in the budget but not a bunch.  She's clearly being pretty careful with her money and that's good news to me.  The previous administration seemed to view money in a rather abstract fashion.  I watched the presentation, I understand the priorities, the strategies she wants to employ could have been articulated in laymen's terms a bit better but I get what's going on.  A bit more financial information would have been nice but it was a pretty good balance – you can't go on forever!

What did surprise me was the discussion the School Board had after the presentation: a relatively long (for a discussion at the dias) talk about our enrollment at the governor's school.  Nobody seemed much interested in why our attendance at that school is so low.  Apparently our demand for excellence isn't as strong as it might be. 

I'm about to get myself in trouble here but this really bothers me.  When I'm bad at something I need to do, I don't quit doing it.  I work to make it better.  I try to make it better without upsetting any particular apple cart.  It's just easier.  Philosophically I like to try to solve problems "inside of the system".  I'd rather make a call or write a letter to someone in charge and quietly resolve something but that hasn't worked with one of the main problems at Osbourn High School and that's the Guidance department.  I don't know how long it's been bad but I know that I've never had a satisfactory encounter with them.  Neither has my daughter or most of her friends.  I went to a meeting a couple of years ago for rising freshmen that was so bad I, and many others, just left.  The auditorium was full of people and the guidance department was standing at the front of the auditorium.  Not on the stage and not using the PA system.  The net effect is that you have these people trying (and mostly failing) to use powerpoint and screeching at the top of their lungs in order to be heard.  One of the presenters faced the audience and turned their head to read the slides…verbatim.  There were no handouts.  It really was theater of the absurd.  This was a meeting that was held at 7:00 on a Thursday night.  These parents are your true-believers and they should never leave a meeting discouraged.

However, I thought that the damage these people might inflict would be relatively limited but I was wrong.  I was chatting with a kid the other day – and I know she is smart.  I asked why she wasn't going to the Governors' school at GMU?  You're smart.  Ambitious.  Her reply stunned me: "I asked guidance about it because I really don't know anything about it and, if it doesn't fit my path, I don't want to jeopardize my GPA because I know I can score well in calculus right here at Osbourn.  My counselor said to me that he didn't really know anything about it so he couldn't advise me.  He said he would do some research but I've never heard from him."  

The philosophy over there seems to be that the smart kids will take care of themselves – their parents are mostly involved so they'll figure it out sooner or later.  The parents I talk to that have had interactions with guidance share similar tales.  The consensus among parents seems to be that the best path is to find another parent or kid who has done what your kid wants to do and ask them.  I know that there must be some capable people in that department but the results just aren't there.

Enough's enough friends.  Can't we fix this problem once and for all?

 

It seems as though our good Dr. Magouyrk is up to something.  I've seen an article on the Patch, petitions on Facebook calling for at least defeat of this plot and, at worst, hanging in the public square.  I've also had several parents write me asking me to explain what the deal is.  I hate to disappoint everyone but I really don't know all of the particulars of education policy.  Indeed, my critics would gleefully point out that I'm probably lucky to remember to breathe!  However, I do try to help things along when I can make a call and get a meeting with someone.  I did just that with the good Dr. (btw, I'm shortening her name to D-Mag from now on.  It's just too cool a moniker not to use.  Too bad I don't have one.  "A-harr" is just sad) and she agreed to meet me for lunch to explain the goings-on.

First of all, I need to tell anyone who bothers to read this screed that I'll roll through my conversation with D-Mag and then onto a bit of an opinion piece.  You'll probably want to skip the opinion piece as you'll be drooling and clinging to consciousness about halfway through it so….you've been warned.

I met with the Superintendent at my city office for lunch.  We've met a few times before and, while I wouldn't consider us BFF's, I do think we're comfortable enough with each other to have a discussion.  I asked her straight away to explain the 111-teacher layoff and here's what I got:  It isn't a layoff.  The 111 number is based on the State's recommended SOL staffing formula.  Stated differently, the state has a formula that they use to give guidance as to how many teachers are required for a given number of children.  When you apply that formula to Manassas, you end up with 111 too many positions.  I pointed out that this seemed to be a relatively crude measure of staffing and she agreed.  What she has done is to take those "excess" positions and ask the Principals in the affected schools to justify those positions.  If they really need 'em, she'll keep them.  If they are teachers with 3 students in a class then maybe not.  She also offered that as those positions are above the state formula, Manassas receives no state funding for them.  In a system that spends more on a per-student basis than our surrounds, she believes it is important to be mindful of that gap.  I agree.

I decided to press her somewhat on the spending gap and what could create that delta.  She indicated that she didn't have all of the answers but that she's looking everywhere.  At least some of that is evidenced by her zero-based budgeting approach this year and her determination to make a difficult change if she believes it will make a difference.  I could tell from our discussion that this gap bothers her quite a bit.  She's a pretty conservative gal I think.  Certainly the staff numbers need examination but so do, in her opinion, all of the operational areas.

The last thing we talked about was the Central Office saga.  She indicated that she currently has her staff spread across all of the school buildings in the City.  I don't really see that as a crisis but understand the concern.  Of more interest to her is rebuilding Baldwin elementary school.  Enrollment in our schools is increasing and we need more space for those kids.  Pretty much everyone agrees that the cheapest way to make that happen is to build that new school on the same space occupied by the Central Office – we already own the land.  This means, of course, that Central Office has to move elsewhere.  

That pretty much summed up our conversation as we both agreed it would be a quick lunch.  So….what do I think?  I think that this is all pretty normal.  Is it counter-intuitive that a reduction in headcount could produce better results?  sure but a resulting increase in focus might be very productive.  Does it seem frivolous to be interested in new digs for the school administration?  Maybe, but not in light of the plan for rebuilding Baldwin.  Look, change makes people uncomfortable.  Change is a hard, nasty business.  Established interests oppose it.  Proponents tar opponents as dim-witted Luddites.  Parents get nervous and PTA's get involved.  After all, you're shaking up the environment in which those same parents most cherished possessions are: their children.  Everyone wants the best for their children.  

However, more and more of our residents are deciding that "the best" for their children means moving.  This is not a tenable situation.  We must change our schools for the better and the only way that can happen is to plow the tough ground ahead of us.  I believe we must give our Superintendent the room to do the fact-finding, planning and re-organizing that her expertise leads her to believe are necessary.  Might it cost some folks their jobs or end up costing the city more money?  It might.  It might not.  I don't have any idea just yet but I do know this: what we were doing previously wasn't working and if our system is to be successful it must look different.  As I've stated before, we've got kick-ass teachers and good administrators.  There's no reason we can't be successful but the one thing we can't do is be afraid to take the difficult decisions.  This system can't look or work like it did before.  It's going to take a couple of difficult years but this is what Manassas has always done.  Our leadership and our citizens have joined arms dozens of times over the past 50 years and done the tough duty: Lake, airport, school system, building new schools, career fire and rescue and on and on.  We're not afraid of the hard work.  

The one thing that I do know for sure is that if your idea of change is to simply parachute a different body into the corner office over on Tudor Lane every coupla years that the ultimate failure of the whole system is screaming towards us at 500 miles an hour.  No organization on the planet does such a thing and is successful.  You bring in new leaders 'cause the organization ain't working and needs new vision, direction and energy.  Those three things ultimately result in an organization that looks different.  Give D-Mag some support and room to work.  Roll up your sleeves and pitch in.  I was as surprised as anyone else by this turn of events but after chatting with her, I think it's still something I'm willing to support as a path forward. We must pursue all paths forward, even the difficult ones.