2/16 School Board Meeting Comments & Recap

Comments from GEPA Members:

JOHN WRIGHT

My name is John Wright; I live at {redacted - KGM}. Board members, I am speaking to you tonight on behalf of the Goochland Education Parents Association.

Mr. Miller, as you are aware I was present when you addressed the Board of Supervisors on February 2nd of this year. In that address, you stated that you have, and I quote, “worked under many different Superintendents” in your time on the School Board. This statement, I believe is at the root of issues that GEPA and many of your constituents have with the budgetary process, and with the actions taken (or not taken) by the School Board recently. Dr. Underwood works for the School Board, not the other way around. We have seen all too frequently the consequences of the Board’s rubber stamping of proposals put forth by the Superintendent, and feel that those consequences have done the Board and the citizens of the county a great disservice.

We have gathered literally hundreds of signatures on petitions submitted to the Board of Supervisors, asking them to reject the budget that you approved on January 26th of this year. Our differences with the proposal are well documented, so I will not repeat them. People signing this petition feel, like we do, that the budget submitted does not reflect the public’s best interest, and in fact feel that it has driven a wedge between the citizens and Dr. Underwood.

Dr. Underwood has committed a breach of confidence with the citizens that she serves. Constant avoidance of specific questions, bait and switch tactics with budgetary items, a lack of good faith in executing her duties, and a refusal to supply requested information have created this breach. In fact, had we not gone over her head to the Department of Education, I have serious doubt that we would have ever gotten past budgetary information her office is required to make available under state code. To top it all off, Dr. Underwood is on record, both here and before the Board of Supervisors, blatantly misrepresenting the facts about the categorization of administrative staff as instructional. She said it’s been that way since before she ever began working in Goochland. A quick check of historical data proves that administrative staff was shifted in the FY 2007 budget when she was Assistant Superintendent, and that as Superintendent, she created six new clearly administrative positions which she placed into the instructional category.

The School Board’s use of parents as pawns in their ongoing chess match with the Board of Supervisors is reprehensible. To ask us with a straight face to go to the Board of Supervisors and request a tax rate increase when obvious waste was never addressed is shameful. The use of our children’s educational future, as well as their emotions, for political gain is enraging; causes distrust, and further alienates the public from the Board and Dr. Underwood.

For all of these reasons, we respectfully request that the Board perform a formal review of the Superintendent and ask that the results be made available to the public. A copy of this request is being provided to each member of the Board of Supervisors.

JANE CHRISTIE:

Back in November, early on in the budget process, one of the School Board members used the analogy of the school system being like an airplane, that the School Board and Superintendent were trying to keep up in the air.

The cuts to the School Board budget requested by the County were likened to being asked to cut off one of the wings, because so many cost cuts had already been made to the plane, that there was now nothing else left but the nuts and bolts.

We would like to say that we don’t want a pilot and a team of mechanics who would try to keep our plane up in the air by:

Diluting the jet fuel

Shutting down the main engine, or

Hacking off the end of the wing.

What we are looking for is a pilot, and a team of engineers, who would have the good sense to kick the 6 elephants out of the cargo bay, before even attempting a take-off!

Now, I don’t say this to mock you, gentlemen. The goal is simply to couch our message in terms you might understand, in an attempt to convey what GEPA has been trying to explain to you for months.

Because despite all the public “hearings” held during the budget process, if we had managed to have just one, solitary public “listening”, it really might have made a difference to the outcome.

Recap of the Meeting:

Next week's meeting on Tuesday conflicts with a BOS meeting, so the SB agreed to move their meeting to 6 PM and recess at 6:45 to allow people to attend the BOS meeting. So I believe the schedule next Tuesday is:

3 PM - BOS meeting -- John Herrman giving his whole presentation
6 PM - SB meeting
7 PM -- BOS meeting -- County Administrator presenting the county budget proposal

JD Wright and Jane Christie spoke during the comment period.

John Hedron provided an overview/demo of the use of technology in the schools.

Stacy Austin presented his Randolph School Improvement Program.

There was a discussion about the school CIP:

In regards the CIP . . . the county is changing the way the CIP is handled, and only items actually funded for the next 5 years are contained in it. None of the SB's proposed CIP items are in the county CIP. This means NONE of the GES improvements are there. However, there has been discussion between Dr Underwood and the county about a CIP item to renovate the old High School gym and the old middle school. Essentially, the county would renovate the old middle school and move the Parks and Rec department there. Currently the Parks and Rec uses the old High School gym building (this is behind the Free Clinic/up the hill from the Specialty Center). This CIP item would renovate the old gym building for use by GES. This would add a gym and 4-5 classrooms to GES. (which would be good -- not as good as a new school, but better than nothing). Dr. Underwood pointed out that this does not address capital needs within the existing GES building --- I believe bathroom renovation and HVAC are among the primary needs. So she has asked the county to look at addressing those needs within the CIP, as well as having a discussion about the general building usage roadmap for the entire county. The current line item for the old High School gym and old Middle School renovations is $3.077million.

Budget update: Dr Underwood indicated that she had met with the county and a consultant to discuss an RFP for healthcare (for schools and county). She indicated that they had asked that the RFP include non-traditional options including HSAs and self-insurance. When asked about the timeline, she indicated that the county's current plan renews 7/1, so presumably a decision would be made before that. She also indicated that she is talking to the county about sharing of services -- namely mowing. Currently the schools contract out all grass mowing. The county indicated that they believe that they can take on all mowing for the schools except the balls fields with just their existing staff and addition of some equipment.

Brad Franklin talked about a grant that they are pursuing in regards to Readiness and Emergency Preparedness. If the GCPS receives the grant they could gain UP TO $150k over 24 months for planning, equipment, evaluation, etc.

Mattox asked Dr. Underwood about the potential for Governor McDonnell to change the state's calculation for school system allocations (unfreezing the LCI -- see this article: http://www.wtop.com/?nid=600&sid=1889634). If this goes through, Goochland is the only local school system that actually gets more money (a whopping $4000 -- but other systems could lose millions more). She agreed that this particular change would not hurt us, but that the governor's office was looking at deeper cuts in the overall budget that could mean $300,000 more in cuts in state funding to Goochland in 2011 and again in 2012.