Mr. Regnier 2/26/10
I am making the following FOIA request:
Please provide me copies of all electronic communication between Liz Bradsher and Bill Curran/Jack Dale from November 1, 2009, thru February 4, 2010.
If you do not understand this request, feel free to contact me at 571 239 4511.
Respectfully,
Mike Grasso
President
Fairness in school sports
www.fairnessinschoolsports.org
Last fall, Fairfax School Public School Superintendent Jack Dale challenged my September 22 column (“Fairfax public schools officials cheat on test scores”) http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columns/Fairfax-public-schools-officials-cheat-on-test-scores-8274810-60043947.html in which I reported that FCPS was fudging standardized test results by steering large numbers of special ed students into “alternate” Virginia Grade Level Assessments (VGLA) instead of requiring them to take the federally mandated Standards of Learning (SOL) tests.
The subjectively graded VGLA portfolios were not the academic equivalent of SOLS, I pointed out. School bureaucrats were the only ones to benefit from excluding thousands of students from the SOLs because doing so made it easier for struggling schools to make annual yearly progress under the No Child Left Behind Act.
In his Sept. 27 letter to The Examiner (”Column on test scores misleading, inaccurate and unsubstantiated”) http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/Letters-from-Readers-8295901.html Dale called my allegations “inaccurate and unsubstantiated” even though I cited FCPS’ own data, which was sent to the state Department of Education, showing an exponential explosion of the use of VGLAs in Fairfax County, especially in its 32 Title I schools.
But savvy members of FCPS Watch, the parent group that first brought this problem to my attention, weren’t buying Dale’s explanation. Neither, it turns out, were state legislators.
On Monday, the Democrat-controlled state Senate voted 40-0 for House Bill 304, sponsored by Del. John O’Bannon, R-Henrico (and also unanimously passed by the House of Delegates) which requires educators to provide “an annual justification, as part of the Individual Education Program, for every student who takes the Virginia Grade Level Alternative assessment instrument in grades three through eight. Such justification shall include evidence that the student meets participation criteria defined by the Department of Education.”
Dale wasn’t the only superintendent overusing VGLAs. Last school year, 47,146 students statewide submitted VGLA “portfolios” instead of taking SOLs, up from 2,031 in 2004. While VGLAs may be appropriate for a small percentage of students with severe learning disabilities, there’s no way their numbers increased that rapidly in five years.
This was nothing but a cynical attempt by educators to make themselves look good at the expense of children who, as I pointed out in response to Dale’s letter (“Alternate assessments are better for educrats than students,” Sept. 29), were not getting the extra help they were entitled to under NCLB. http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columns/Alternate-assessments-are-better-for-educrats-than-students-8310631.html
O’Bannon’s original bill would have required “an audit of any school division that utilizes the Virginia Grade Level Alternative assessment instrument, in grades three through eight, for more than three percent of its students with disabilities population in those grades in any given school year,” but that provision was dropped in committee because audits cost money – and Virginia doesn’t have any to spare.
I hope legislators change their mind. In my opinion, it would be money well spent.
FYI,
Dear Editor,
Supervisor Herrity was correct in his recent editorial that called for a change in the school budget equation by asking for cuts to FCPS administrative overhead before cutting popular school programs.
Members of the newly formed Fairfax Education Coalition (FEC) - an alliance of parent advocacy and teacher groups who have a combined reach of 40,000+ members and supporters - have also made the same call. So has the Fairfax County Chamber of Commerce, which even sent a formal letter to the FCPS School Board about this issue.
Over the past two months, FEC’s budget committee, led by a Harvard-educated former tax attorney, carefully compiled 10 years worth of publicly available FCPS budget documents. FEC’s analysis clearly demonstrates that since 2004, growth in FCPS Administrative spending has significantly outpaced the 5% growth in FCPS student enrollment for that same period.
It is not only right for Supervisor Herrity to scrutinize and question the Superintendent’s spending on administrators - it is something that all Board of Supervisor members should be doing as our elected representatives.
Many in the public may not realize that Superintendent Dale’s control of the FCPS budget may just make him the most powerful official in Fairfax County. He’s not elected to his position. Rather, he’s hired by the School Board. Yet, as an unelected official, Dr. Dale basically decides - with limited input from School Board members - how to spend over half all Fairfax County tax revenues. Of the current $2.2 BILLION budget for the Fairfax County Public Schools, almost $1.8 BILLION comes from Fairfax County taxpayers. (That $1.8 BILLION figure is nearly equal to the cost of a NASA Space Shuttle and nearly twice the yearly profits for cereal maker General Mills.)
Our elected FCPS School Board members don’t have their own staff. Few have the time to fully examine all of the Superintendent’s claims about administrative spending, program costs or to even read the lengthy budget documents. As a matter of necessity, School Board members more or less use the Superintendent’s proposed budget, amend it based on public input from selected high-profile issues like indoor track and foreign language programs, and then vote for it.
As a parent of three students in Fairfax County’s public schools, as a Fairfax County taxpayer, and as an engaged parent advocate, I am very grateful for Supervisor Herrity’s leadership and for other members of the Board of Supervisors who will publicly ask the tough questions about Superintendent Dale’s spending priorities. Thank you for protecting our public schools as well as the hardworking and generous taxpayers of Fairfax County!
Sincerely,
Catherine Lorenze
McLean, VA
FYI,
http://www.fairfaxtimes.com/cms/story.php?id=1004
Michele Menapace: ‘Out-of-the-box thinking’ critical in tight budget times
Cash-strapped state simply cannot stomach $650 million in lost revenue
For three nights last week, the Fairfax County School Board heard from parents, teachers and students who were advocating saving almost every school program proposed for elimination in this dire budget year. As a leader in the PTA, I support their efforts and their passion, as well as their desire to provide the best, most well-rounded education possible. I am a strong advocate for public support of schools’ needs.
The school board will spend the next week reviewing Superintendent Jack Dale’s budget proposals. In these terrible economic times, there will be no easy, quick or best resolution that will satisfy everyone’s wants. There is, however, the “right” solution to address students’ needs, and I am prepared to collaborate with school leaders to find it.
The results of a Stakeholder Engagement Research project demonstrates strong support — from teachers, parents and community members surveyed — for our schools, including increased taxes or fees to pay for FCPS’s superior programs. The results also show, however, some doubt about FCPS leaders’ ability to adequately allocate resources. Perhaps that lack of confidence results from reviewing FCPS recommendations and actions like these:
-The 2009-2013 Capital Improvement Program projected one high school, Thomas Jefferson, with a 200-seat deficit during the five years covered by the plan. Last fall’s school bond referendum, however, moved TJ down on the list of capital needs in favor of construction of a new middle school in the South County area, even though classroom capacity exists at several neighboring middle schools.
-The 2010-2014 CIP book documents a funded addition to Pimmit Hills Alternative High School because students are “currently being underserved in alternative settings.” The fiscal 2011 budget is now recommending Pimmit Hills be closed to save $1 million in annual operating costs and the students be moved to alternative locations.
-Based on the 2008 Working Conditions Survey, only 3 percent of respondents rated professional development as the most important aspect of their work environment in promoting student learning. Why, then, are expenses for this year’s professional development needs projected to be nearly double that of last year: $3.7 million vs. $1.9 million?
-The current school year’s estimated expenses for Supplies and Materials — textbooks, lab materials, art and music books, PE equipment, globes, maps and so on — is more than $86 million. That’s $24.3 million above last year’s actual expenditures and $22.7 million more than the proposed 2011 budget.
-The proposed budget estimates FCPS will spend more than $1.6 million this year and $1.94 million in fiscal 2011 on School Initiatives, described generally as contingency funds to accommodate unanticipated enrollment changes. A review of several years’ budget documents show similar spending estimates and budget requests, as high as $2.36 million in the fiscal 2009 Approved Budget. Since fiscal 2005, however, actual expenditures have not exceeded $271,000.
These are a few examples, among numerous others, and even to someone familiar with school budgeting processes, the budget figures are questionable. To the average reviewer, such distortions are inexplicable except to make the fiscal 2011 budget “needs” look like reductions or budget cuts. Indeed, the budget narrative/summary makes such claims.
FCPS will excel at educating every student because of dedicated, professional educators who refuse to let a child falter or fail. I believe this will be possible only if the school board adopts a budget that protects the number of students in each classroom over anything else.
Our community strongly supports additional fees or charges to maintain extra-curricular activities or sports. I ask the school board to present to us and the Board of Supervisors a budget that makes more, if not all, of these programs self-supporting rather than eliminating them. Yes, it may require some out-of-the-box thinking, some new ways of doing things and perhaps some cuts that aren’t pleasant for everyone. But FCPS can work one-on-one with interested parents and booster groups to identify cost reductions and efficiencies, gather recommendations on how to make these programs self-supporting and achieve consensus on how to maintain them in future years.
Where certain efforts must be curtailed, FCPS can use the situation as an opportunity to review programs, priorities and policy for wholesale revision. The need for early foreign-language instruction is critical in our global society. If Foreign Language in Elementary Schools is eliminated or Foreign Language Immersion reduced this year, can, should or how can FCPS start fresh? Can the best of immersion and FLES be married for maximum potential? Mandated language instruction in every school every day in an immersive setting? Are there models that haven’t been considered yet, like one now being sponsored by a PTA here in Fairfax using proven, successful language instruction software?
I continue to ask the FCPS and the school board to remember the millions of dollars in transportation savings that can be realized by implementing recommendations from the Transportation Task Force, numerous advisory groups and paid consultants. We can’t begin to quantify the potential health and instructional benefits of healthier bell schedules, but we know from substantial data that such benefits will follow the implementation of later high-school start times.
I ask that decisions about any program — full-day kindergarten, summer school, AP/IB/Honors, College Partnership, EXCEL, modified calendars and so forth — be based on the data available about the benefits to students and achievement of the program’s intended outcome.
I don’t envy the decisions our school leadership must make, but we have elected them to make these tough choices and establish the distinctions between needs and wants. I’d venture to say the entire community stands ready to collaborate with the board and staff on this challenge. Let us know when and where to bring our pencils, erasers and experience, and we’ll roll up our sleeves to get it done. Our children deserve it. Our community demands it. Our future depends on it.
Michele Menapace serves as president of the Fairfax County Council of PTAs.
If you care about HS sports, please read the below:
As you know, the school board is discussing eliminating Freshman sports, winter cheer, 50% of swim and dive and more. They also want to charge a $100 fee per athlete per season and send that money to the general fund rather than keeping it in athletics. The Athletic Council has developed an official position on this. Please e-mail every single school board member by this Wednesday backing the Athletic Council’s position. This will take you a few minutes and as FFC taxpayers we all need to take the time to serve our athletic community.
Contact info for School Board members:
http://www.fcps.edu/schlbd/members.htm
The school board members below have shown thus far that they are not committed to our position on saving freshman sports and keeping any fees in the athletic departments rather than the general fund. PLEASE LET THESE PEOPLE HEAR YOU LOUD AND CLEAR!
Stuart Gibson- Hunter Mill District
Jim Raney- At Large
Brad Center- Lee District…………………..key!
Kathy Smith- Sully District
Tessie Wilson- Braddock District
Jane Strauss- Dranesville District
Thanks-