School Board Newsletter #44, September 13, 1998

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Subj: Schoolboard Newsletter #44
Date: 9/13/98 3:32:55 PM EST
From: jklagge@bev.net (Jim Klagge)

Dear friends,

Hope the new school year has started well for you.

1) Closing some schools early due to heat twice during the first week was an experiment--never having been done before. It seems to have worked fairly well, and been fairly well-received by parents. It was a difficult decision for the superintendent--some parents were upset at the schools closing early, some parents would have been upset if the schools had not closed. As with snow, it was not possible to predict the weather perfectly. I'm happy to hear any comments either way. Probably, as with snow, the administration will start thinking about what procedures could be put in place for dealing with these kinds of cases in the future. The partial closing also raises the question of whether we might ever want to consider partial closings for snow, according to the road conditions in different parts of the county. I think it is worth thinking in new ways like that.

2) We gave a presentation to the supervisors on August 24th explaining and propounding the idea of 2 middle schools in Blacksburg. That presentation seems to have been very well received. The Supervisors have put that issue on their agenda for discussion at their (rescheduled) meeting Monday, September 14th at 7pm. I am hoping that at that time they will accept the idea and move forward to buy a particular piece of property. But we'll have to wait and see what happens. I am optimistic. We also recommended that they move forward at this time to acquire land in Blacksburg for a high school, to be built sometime in the future. We also hope that something can happen soon on this front, since it will only become increasingly difficult to find large tracts of good land in Blacksburg in the future.

3) At our meeting on Tuesday, September 15th at 7:30pm the school board will have a hearing on whether to accept applications for charter schools in this county. As I explained in my last e-mail, the state has given local school boards considerable control over charter schools. They certainly will not be ways for private schools to get public money, nor will they be like vouchers. They will be more like magnet schools, in being focusable on special concerns. If you have strong feelings about whether we should, or should not, consider applications for such schools in this county, please speak up at that hearing.

4) This spring the Virginia General assembly passed legislation concerning drugs in school and school events that is quite comparable to legislation concerning guns. Basically, we are expected to expel for violations. We will be considering exactly how to formulate this policy at our meeting on Tuesday. But it is important that parents know about the severity of this legislation--no doubt the children will be informed about it through their schools at the appropriate time.

But I want to use this newsletter as a bully pulpit to parents: From what I hear, from various sources, drugs ARE a real problem in schools in THIS county. And I also hear that some drug use is CONDONED by parents. Please do not give your children the impression that some illegal drug use is really ok. While I may admit it is theoretically possible for some adults to use some drugs in moderate amounts without an adverse affect on the rest of their lives, that is not a possibility that teens are able to evaluate soundly for themselves. It is too easy for people--teens and adults--to be self-deceived about what they can handle in a healthy way. Don't act as though that is a decision that teens should be able to make for themselves--it is not. And even when drug use is not condoned explicitly by parents, it sometimes seems to be condoned by the fact that parents are too willing to look the other way, or not try to look into their kids' activities at all. Don't let your kids down like that. To love your kids is to care about everything they are doing. Caring about what your kids are up to is not being a busybody. It is being a good parent. Of course some drug use happens despite the best efforts of parents. Please know that the schools want to do all we can to bolster those best efforts. The drug-free schools legislation leaves us with less flexibility than we might like--but it also conveys an important message that students and parents need to hear. Please listen!

5) We did, at our last meeting, approve a retirement benefit for part-time employees in the district. As you drive or walk through any commercial area you will see help-wanted signs in most every establishment. Schools must not only compete for scarce labor in these times of low unemployment, but we must be sure we find RELIABLE people who CARE about children to drive our buses, serve as classroom aides, cafeteria workers and custodians. This is not easy to do, and we are lucky to have the people we do have. A retirement benefit is ONE way to attract and retain such people. But it is also important that these folks simply feel appreciated for what they do. Please take time to thank the staff that work with your children. We tend to focus on their teachers, but our children's lives are held securely in a lot more hands than just those of the teachers. Let them know you appreciate that!

-Jim Klagge
School Board Chair
District F Representative.

email: admin@gisone.com