Did you know?

Did you know?

91 teachers & instructional assistants, one librarian and a school nurse have been officially notified that they might not have a job in Goochland County Public Schools next year.

No administration, transportation, maintenance or other personnel in the entire school system appear to have received such a notice.

The Superintendent, Assistant Superintendent and 5 Director-level positions of Education, Technology and Athletics, earn over $1 million in salaries and benefits between the 7 of them!

Contrary to the express wishes of parents and citizens voiced during the public hearings, NO cuts are being made to high-level administrative positions.

The budget approved by the School Board for next year will cut the school materials and supplies budget in half.

The School Board budget will also cut the amount spent on textbooks and subscriptions next year by about two thirds, from $161,000 to $58,000.

The Tender Tots preschool program is being completely eliminated next year, to save about $43,000.

The acclaimed Goochland County Center for Gifted is being phased out, to save a maximum of $28,000, and the proposal is for 26 gifted students to be taught in one room with one full-time teacher next year.

Even though Goochland is already among the least efficient counties in the State for transportation and maintenance costs, the School Board budget recommends INCREASING the amount of money spent in BOTH of these areas.

There is NO money in the budget for musical instruments or art supplies next year.

The School Board has approved a budget with over $15 million, or more than 60% of the entire school budget, in a single line item, entitled “salaries and benefits”, and feels that this is an acceptable level of accountability for public funds.

Contact your School Board and Board of Supervisors Representatives!

District 1:

SB James Haskell (457-4161)

BOS Andrew Pryor (apryor@co.goochland.va.us)

District 2:

SB Raymond Miller (457-4602)

BOS William Quarles (wquarles@co.goochland.va.us)

District 3:

SB Ivan Mattox (556-2246)

BOS Ned Creasey (ncreasey@co.goochland.va.us)

District 4:

SB Andrew Meng (784-3866)

BOS Rudy Butler (mbutler@co.goochland.va.us)

District 5:

SB Maxwell Cisne (784-3158)

BOS Jim Eads (jeads@co.goochland.va.us)


Goochland County Voting Districts



Support our Schools!

As parents, we are all busy working and raising our children, but right now, many of our teachers are at risk of losing their jobs and desperately need our support. Please take a minute to note these two dates in your calendar, and do everything in your power to be there:

Tuesday 9, March, 2010 - School Board Regular Meeting, 7.00 p.m. in the Goochland High School Auditorium

Tuesday 30, March, 2010 - Board of Supervisors Public Hearing on the County Budget, 7.00 p.m. in the Goochland High School Auditorium.
There will also be a meeting of the Board of Supervisors at 3.00 p.m. on this date, where there is usually a public comment period.

91 teachers and instructional assistants, a media resource teacher and a school nurse have officially been put on notice that their position is at risk. The next step is an individual notice of layoff, giving 30 days notice to those teachers who have been selected to lose their jobs. This means about half of our teachers are currently living in constant fear of losing their jobs, which is extremely damaging to school morale, and emotionally distressing to all the teachers, students and parents.

Now is the time to contact your School Board representatives to let them know that you are NOT happy that the School Board budget proposes cuts in teaching positions, programs and textbooks, instead of cuts to excessive expenses in administration, transportation, maintenance and health insurance premiums

It is also REALLY important to have a major show of support for our teachers at the School Board meeting on March 9th and at the Board of Supervisors meeting on March 30th.

The Superintendent and School Board seem to have convinced themselves that this issue is going to go away if they simply ignore us. You can ignore a petition or a phone call, but it is hard to ignore real people (a.k.a. voters) in numbers, and in person. The School Board and the Board of Supervisors need to feel the community outrage about this decision - there would be no need to cut teaching positions to achieve $1.4 million in cuts in this budget if the Superintendent and School Board managed the school system more efficiently, and eliminated some of the higher level administrative positions.

In the last couple of months, two churches each mobilized about 50 people to attend the Board of Supervisor meetings to support the planning application for their new churches. How does it look to the Supervisors when parents don't show up in numbers to support our teachers, and express our concerns, when about half of the teachers in the County are now living in fear of losing their jobs?

The Supervisors can require changes to the budget category amounts, and fund the budget, but the School Board has complete authority to spend the funds within the categories once they have the money. It is our job to convince them that the instructional funds need to be spent on our teachers, programs and textbooks / learning tools. If the School Board experiences major public opposition to their decision to cut teachers, then maybe we can influence this outcome, save our teachers, and preserve the pupil/teacher ratios in the classrooms for our children.