School Board Newsletter #53, February 11, 1999

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Subj: School Issues Newsletter #53
Date: 2/11/99 12:34:18 PM EST
From: jklagge@bev.net (Jim Klagge)

Dear Friends,

If you are a parent of a school child, or have been reading the newspapers, you know that SoL results have hit the street. Across Virginia only 2% of schools achieved the passing rate required for accreditation in 7 years. But the most difficult thing is that many students have been receiving non-passing scores, including many students who have not traditionally had problems with school. This is a significant concern. In a previous newsletter (11/2/98, Newsletter #47, www.gisone.com/schools47.htm) I discussed what I saw as some of the problems with these tests. You can access this in Mike Ewing's archive of my newsletters at www.gisone.com/schools.htm.

The superintendent, Fred Morton, has arranged to discuss this issue at PTA meetings at each of the schools. Please plan to attend one of these if you are concerned. Two have already occurred (Auburn Elementary & Price's Fork Elem), and if you missed yours, or can't attend yours, please feel free to attend one at another school. Here is the schedule (though it is subject to change, and BMS has not been scheduled yet):
Auburn HS/MS- 3/4, 7:30
Beeks- 4/8, at 7
Belview- 3/9, at 7
BHS- 3/17, at 7
C-burg Elem- 2/22, at 7
C-burg Primary- 3/29, at 7
CHS- 3/1, at 7
CMS- 3/23, at 7
Elliston-Lafayette-3/11, at 6:30
Falling Branch- 3/15, at 7
GLE- 2/15, at 7
Harding Ave- 2/25, at 6
Kipps- 3/8, at 7
Shawsville Elem- 4/12, at 7
Shawsville MS/HS- 3/22, at 7.

On Tuesday, 2/16, the SB will have a two hour meeting in executive session, starting at 5:30pm, when we will have a chance to read any and all of the SoL tests that were given last spring. We thought it was important to do this, even though we will have to swear that we will not divulge or discuss the actual contents of any of the tests. But we will have a public discussion about the tests at the regular session part of our meeting, starting at 7:30.

As we have said on several occasions, the SB is committed to doing what we can to see that the SoL tests are done well, and that students at all our schools have the education they need to do well on these tests, but also to keeping the SoL tests in proper perspective. The main topic on the agenda for our SB retreat, Feb 19-20th, is assessment. This will be led by Bena Kallick, an educational consultant who led our retreat last year as well. She will be coming to town a day early so that she can spend most of the 19th meeting with administrators and teachers from around the district, and get a clear sense of where we are currently.

I mentioned in an earlier newsletter that we would be getting the SB budget proposal up on the web site for you to review. This is now available at www.mcps.org. The date for our presentation of the proposal to the BoS was supposed to have been Feb. 22, as I announced in the last letter, but that has now been cancelled and not rescheduled. I'll let you know when they decide to reschedule us. However, March 23rd is still the BoS public hearing date on the budget and tax rate.

Jim Klagge
Chair & District F Representative
Montgomery County School Board.

email: admin@gisone.com