July GEPA Meeting

We have a lot of important things to discuss in our next meeting.

First off, I’m excited to say that two of our GEPA board members are running for School Board!!! Lucky for us it’s time to elect new board members or I’d be on my own!  So, we’ll be taking nominations & voting in new officers at this meeting. This will give us time to help the new folks transition before they officially take office in August. 

We’d also like to discuss the agenda for the school board meeting scheduled for Tuesday, 7/12. We expect the vote on the activities fees to take place at this meeting.

If you have thought in the past you would like to be more involved, then I would ask that you think about it now. I think we have all benefited from the information gained over the last two years. And, the future school board, no matter who is sitting on it, will benefit from parent & community input in the years to come.

Please plan to join us at Rocco’s at 4:30pm, Sunday, 7/10. The agenda will be announced later, but if you are unable to attend and would like to help out next year, then please contact Penny Palen at pjpalen@gmail.com .

Thanks everyone for your continued support of our school system.

Jen Hefner
GEPA Treasurer

School Board Budget Passed

“You can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you
might find you get what you need.”

The GCPS School Board voted at last night’s continued meeting and
unanimously approved the FY12 school budget.  Although some parents
are unhappy that the school board didn’t return 100% of all cuts, I
think it’s fair to say that they actually LISTENED to the parents’
concerns and suggestions this year.  I hope this trend continues on
with a new school board and additional budget cycles in the future.
Keep making your voices heard!

Within the past two weeks, we worked together successfully to get the
following added back into the budget:
• Golf
• Gymnastics
• Swimming
• Part-time art position at elementary level (reduced from one full-
time)
• Part-time music position (reduced from one full-time)
• Part-time drama position, in lieu of eliminating drama entirely (GHS
English teaching position needs to be backfilled. They will have this
position cover drama as well.  Thanks to the suggestion of a student
at the May 24th meeting!)
• Maggie Walker transportation  (The schools considered liability
issues, especially after one parent spoke about his child’s safety at
the May 24th meeting. Great job!)
• The hiring of a Director of Elem. Education (Dr. Geyer)

Here’s the plan for items to be cut and/or reduced:
•  Career/Tech Education now requires co-pay  (Left out of the
presentation last night)
•  Dual Enrollment JSRCC now requires co-pay
•  Pay-to-play athletics (Although this wasn’t actually ever presented
as a “cut,” I believe it is still being considered as an “option.”)
•  Superintendent’s “refreshments” budget was cut from $3K to $1500.
•  Tina McCay’s position in administration will not be backfilled. (It
was mostly funded through grants/stimulus, but the Title I duties will
be absorbed by another member of administration.)
•  4th and 5th year French and Latin  (Although the schools are
looking into various alternatives for educating the students in these
programs … if Blue Ridge Virtual is used, we NEED to have transfer
credits apply to students’ transcripts, which is currently not the
case.)
• Consolidation of 5 bus routes
\
Here’s what wasn’t mentioned:
** Per Ivan Mattox, all positions lost through attrition will be
backfilled.

AN ADDITIONAL ITEM OF NOTE:
Although GEPA and many parents have been questioning the true need of
certain high-level administration positions (ie: assistant principals
at GMS/GHS which are not necessary for Va. Standards of Quality), the
schools did not initially include ANY of these positions in their
Reduction-in-Force policy. Therefore, they cannot be eliminated to
fund the additional changes to the FY12 budget.  Perhaps next year…..

Penny Palen