August 21, 2010

Dear Honorable Board of Supervisors and School Board Members:

I am writing to share a recent set of editorials that highlight a deepening problem between taxpayers and the Fairfax County School Board.

Many School Board members have stopped “representing” their constituents, which is what these officials were elected to do.  The two editorials below reflect what hundreds of parents and taxpayers have been protesting for years:  a School Board that promotes “listening to the silence.”

When the School Board makes a decision, there is no appeals process, as is found in other school jurisdictions around the country.  Therefore, the only recourse is through the costly court system.  This does not serve the best interest of county residents and their tax dollars.

Given that the majority of School Board members do not listen to the people that elected them, perhaps it is time for the Board of Supervisors to create an appeals process that will address this very serious problem affecting Fairfax County.

Thank you for “listening.”

Kim Farrell

http://www.connectionnewspapers.com/article.asp?article=343698&paper=62&cat=110

The Connection Newspapers, Thursday, August 19, 2010

To the Editor:

Dr. Matthew Brooks
Ag-Chem Consulting
Clifton

 ******************************************************************************

Comments(0)

FYI 

Wednesday August 11, 2010

Parents’ faith in school system betrayed by board members

Fairfax County School Board members Stuart Gibson (Hunter Mill) and Tessie Wilson (Braddock) certainly sound aggrieved that citizens with a stake in the recent Clifton Elementary decision had the gall to oppose their wise decision.

But based on history, their complaints against personal attacks and slander both ring hollow. Many school board members have long used their elected position to push their political and social theories on the school system, while ignoring and maligning parents concerned about school issues. Gibson’s one-year tenure as board chairman in 2002 was particularly notable for his unwillingness to work with parents in good faith. Parents concerned about smutty literature in the schools were, in turn, labeled religious nuts, racists and anti-intellectual. Meanwhile the school board broke its own rules for public discussion of the issue.

Those who trusted that the system was fair were sorely disappointed. This lack of good faith and arrogance on the part of school board members has continued through a charter school application submission and now the Clifton Elementary decision.

The continuing arrogance of the school board points to two possible solutions: Vote the bums out and/or split our giant school district into multiple, smaller districts that will be more responsive to community concerns and more agile in responding to educational issues.

Stan Barton, Centreville

Comments(0)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Suit Filed Against Fairfax County School Board in Vote to Close Clifton Elementary

Fairfax County, VA – Monday, August 9, 2010 – Aggrieved by the targeted closure of Clifton Elementary School, parents, with the support of taxpayers and residents from around the County, filed a lawsuit Friday against the School Board in Fairfax County’s Circuit Court. The action against the School Board comes after nearly a year of debate centering around whether Clifton Elementary, one of the County’s highest performing elementary schools, was ‘worthy’ of renovation.

With support from Friends of Community Schools (FCS), a private nonprofit organization committed to preserving community schools as anchors for the benefit of their entire community, the plaintiffs are represented by Patton Boggs LLP, a highly-regarded public policy law firm headquartered in Washington, D.C. Patton Boggs’ filing alleges on behalf of the plaintiffs that the School Board exceeded its authority, acted arbitrarily and capriciously, and abused its discretion. Friday’s filing refutes the credibility of the data by Fairfax County Public School Staff, including declining enrollment, water issues and renovation costs due to ‘topography’ as reasons for closure, as well as the process the Board followed in closing the school.

“This community worked through every issue on the table, providing reasonable and fiscally prudent alternatives, including historic designation assistance offered by The National Trust for Historic Preservation, access to federal grants – even an offer to bypass its turn in the renovation queue if another school more urgently needs access to funding.” said Elizabeth Schultz, an FCS Executive Board Director. “The School Board had no interest in any solution which resulted in the school remaining open. Geographically representing over 10% of the County, this entire region is now without a single Fairfax County Public School,” said Schultz in support of the plaintiffs, “they have willfully turned their backs on this community and it is simply too great of a transgression to ignore.”

On July 8th the School Board voted to close the school with no plan for where the students of Clifton Elementary will attend upon closure. Advertisement of the school’s closure date is being held until the Board’s completion of redistricting of South County attendance areas in the Boundary Study slated to begin after the start of the school year. On Monday, August 2nd, FCS sponsored a community meeting to update Fairfax County residents on the effort to help save Clifton Elementary. Over 100 people, along with elected officials Senator George Barker and Supervisor Pat Herrity, gathered to discuss the effort and options available to save the community school. The community’s overwhelming support to respond to the School Board’s actions with litigation was clear at the meeting. “It is unfortunate and disappointing that the School Board left the citizens they should be representing with no choice but the legal system. The School Board had an ever-changing ‘concern of the day’, with scope of renovation and so on, which resulted in decision that was arbitrary and capricious, and failed the citizens of Clifton and Fairfax County”, said a supportive Supervisor Herrity.

###

Comments(0)

You don’t have to live in Clifton or SoCty to see this whole issue has been contrived.
Not sure why some pointing gun at Clifton and saying they are to blame (So, ‘Agreed’ - the kids, really, it’s their fault?).
Listen, genious - there’s one clear answer here - and some old nag needs to be put out to pasture - cause she’s a real -
Attachments:

Comments(0)

BEWARE…YOUR child could be next!
Mommies & Daddies - tuck your kiddies away…she’s on the prowl…the boundary study is C-O-M-I-N-G!
Attachments:

Comments(0)

IS SHE A HITMAN ON THE SIDE? THIS IS NO LADY.

More Bradsher – “[I’ll] cripple you … at the knees”

Hat tip to Pat Herrity for pointing this out to me – yesterday’s Barbara Hollingsworth Op/Ed in the Washington Examiner had a gem of a quote from Springfield District School Board Member Liz Bradsher, of the Clifton Elementary closing scandal fame.  Catherine Lorenze, Communications Director of the Fairfax Education Coalition told Hollingsworth that Bradsher phoned Lorenze after the vote threatening that she would “cripple you and FEC at the knees.”   Nothing like an elected official attacking a constituent for disagreeing with her on a vote.  Sounds to me like Bradsher is confused about where she lives – she’s from south county Fairfax, not the south side of Chicago.

In her defense, Hollingsworth reported that Bradsher denied the threats but she also reiterated that she stands firmly behind her flawed vote against her own constituents to close Clifton Elementary.  The problem is that the threat is far more credible than the denial.  This is the same woman who threatened a 16 year old boy “you better watch where you step” at a Back to School Night three years ago.  Her temper has been well documented.  Here’s some audio (1) and (2), provided by Not Larry Sabato.  Is this really the kind of person we want sitting on the School Board? Someone with skin so thin she can’t take the criticism of a 16 year old?

The Clifton Elementary scandal has continued to gain steam, with Springfield Supervisor Pat Herrity being the latest elected official to call out the Board for their short sighted and unjustified vote.   He began his newsletter stating, “In another demonstration of being out of touch with reality and common sense, the School Board voted last Thursday night to close Clifton Elementary School. I believe that their vote was misguided and wasteful.  Judging from the tears on the faces of the children and many of the parents at the hearing and over the last several days, the impact of the decision will be devastating to the children, residents and businesses of Clifton.”

Supervisor Herrity went on to explode all of the arguments the FCPS and the School Board put forward to justify their closing the school and asked a number of key unanswered questions, not the least of which is where the students who currently attend Clifton are going to go – a question that has, remarkably, not yet been answered by the School Board.

Liz Bradsher seems to think that she represents the school system, not the voters of Springfield District who elected her.  The entire point of having an elected school board is to hold the school system accountable to the voters – not to the staff of the FCPS.  Bradsher seems to have forgotten who she represents.  There aren’t many things more unseemly than hearing of an elected official threatening – even politically – one of their constituents.

I think it’s pretty clear that it’s time for a change in Springfield on the School Board.

Comments(0)

School closing was neither fair, nor transparent

By: Barbara Hollingsworth
Local Opinion Editor
July 20, 2010

Community wishes, due process, fair and transparent government were all trampled by the Fairfax County School Board when it hastily voted 9-2 on July 8 to close a beloved school that has bonded generations together in the historic town of Clifton.

The board’s June 29 work session agenda stated that its decision to close or renovate Clifton Elementary would be based on three issues: “The reliability of the water supply, declining enrollment and renovation costs. …” Fair enough. But when community members contradicted FCPS staff on each of these three criteria, they were ignored.

The school district’s chief operating officer, Dean Tistadt — who once had a citizen forcibly removed from a public redistricting hearing for videotaping the proceedings — again demonstrated his scorn for democracy by withholding the results of a study clearing the school’s well water until 12 minutes after the start of the July 8 meeting — in violation of the board’s own strategic governance guidelines.

And FCPS used just one ZIP code (20124) to predict declining enrollment even though two others in Clifton’s enrollment area (22032 and 22039) contained higher student densities. Board member Martina Hone, at large, said that her “discomfort with staff data” was one reason she voted against closure. In more than two years on the board, she added, “I have not seen it right yet.”

Also not published was a revision made at the board’s regular June 10 meeting to “close Clifton Elementary School upon completion of the new elementary school” at the Liberty Middle School site. That idea was dropped like a hot potato when community members pointed out that, contrary to Tistadt’s testimony, the area was contaminated with naturally occurring asbestos.

That left renovation costs. FCPS claimed that renovating Clifton Elementary would cost “50 percent more” than average. Last year, this same school system was willing to spend $130 million on an administration building, but balked at spending $11 million to refurbish a school that has been in the renovation queue for two decades.

Clifton parents told me that when they took out the unneeded repairs to the school’s water system and scaled back from a “gold” to a “silver” standard, renovation costs were reduced to below average. And that didn’t take into account possible grants from state and federal historic preservation groups that have expressed interest in preserving the school.

To make matters worse, board members voted to close this top-performing historic school without making provision for its 374 students, telling anxious parents that they would figure that out later. No wonder angry community members screamed, “You lie! You do not represent us!” at board member Liz Bradsher, Springfield, whose district includes Clifton Elementary.

Fairfax Education Coalition communications director Catherine Lorenze said that Bradsher called her up early one morning after the vote, vowing to “cripple you and FEC at the knees.”

Bradsher denies making any such threats, claiming that she merely “urged her to get her facts straight. … We spent over a year on this issue, and we had the facts. … I was one of nine [who voted to close the school]. I stand firmly by my vote.”

But Clifton parent Elizabeth Schultz, infuriated by the board’s “whack-a-mole” strategy, points out that “all the evidence the community provided was summarily ignored. Liz sold out one community to appease another.”

So as a lesson in accountability, FEC — an umbrella group representing 40,000 parents and teachers — has made Bradsher’s defeat its top priority.

Barbara F. Hollingsworth is The Examiner’s local opinion editor.

Comments(0)

The Fairfax County elected School Board is completely out of control. There is no belief in this County that they operate with any amount of integrity, in particular this Liz Bradsher character (she clearly needs to be the subject of an investigation and/or recall), yet they control nearly 54% of our entire County’s budget. Their administrative costs continue to skyrocket - well over 30% since 2000, with a modest 10% increase in student enrollment. They attempted to spend $180M on themselves last year with a new Gatehouse II towering admin building, but they can’t find a fraction of that to save a local school? There is a systemic fundamental issue here - a group of individuals earning a mere $20k/year but given so much money to spend with no accountability. Clearly they are beholden to bigger political prizes or are in it for the sheer thrill of maniacal control of a vast population of students and families. The Board of Supervisors must intervene - before Fairfax loses further on their education ratings - the slippery slide has already begun and County taxpayers, businesses and homeowners can ill afford any bad press on property values or reasons to NOT do business in Fairfax County.

Comments(0)

SAVE YOUR CHILDREN FROM HER. 

Attachments:

Comments(0)

friends - please feel free to forward to your family, friends and neighbors….

Please share with other parents who are interested in issues facing the FCPS School Board.  Thank you. 

*If you would like to be removed from my email list on these issues, just shoot me an email back.  Thanks. 

Comments(0)