School Board Newsletter #57, April 22, 1999

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Subj: School Issues Newsletter #57
Date: 4/22/99 11:05:02 AM EST
From: jklagge@bev.net (Jim Klagge)

Dear Friends,
Since many addresses have been added to this newsletter mailing listlately, I want to begin by saying that this is not an official newsletter from the school board, but simply my own views of issues relating to education in Montgomery County. If this does not interest you, please let me know and I will remove your address from the mailing list. If you know others who would like to be added to the list,let me know.

1) Blacksburg Middle School- As you may have seen in the paper this morning, on Tuesday evening the SB unanimously adopted a recommendation to the BoS to move forward with all haste to build a new 1600- student HS in Blacksburg, and renovate the current HS and the current MS as two MS's in Blacksburg to accommodate 1200 students divided into roughly equal sizes. Despite many different views about this issue in the community and on the board, I was very pleased to be able to get a unanimous vote to support this. The work now begins of getting the proposal accepted and funded and implemented by the BoS. I will be meeting with the chair of the BoS in hopes of getting this on their agenda soon. The BoS allows public comment at the start of each of their meetings (2nd & 4th Mondays of the month at 7:15). I hope people will express their views about this, and we can finally moveforward.

2) Inclusion- There was a very nice article about a particular student's (Troy Quesenberry) experience in the inclusive classrooms at Kipps, and about his step-mother's feelings as well, in yesterday's Current. While things are not perfect, it is good to hearabout the successes. There will be a fund-raiser for medicalexpenses for that student at Kipps this evening 6-7pm.

Our Assistant Superintendent, Jim Sellers, has announced that he will be leaving his position in August to take a position teaching at Radford University. Dr. Sellers has been an important visionary and supporter of the inclusion philosophy in the county over the last decade. This philosophy has had a great impact on our schools and, more importantly, on our students. I want to thank Jim for his very hard work, and hope you will too.

3) Budget- Although the effective increase in the county tax rate this year was only 2 cents, the schools will be getting a sizable portion of the new money being brought in to the county this year. The increase in the county's support for schools will increase by over 9%, and our total budget will increase by over 9% this year. This is a fine gesture of support from the BoS. It does not give us all we had requested, and there are many things that cannot be addressed this year. But it is a reasonable increase that will allow us to do someof the very many things needed.

As with last year, the superintendent has convened a task force from the schools and community to look at where we can cut out money from the requests that we made for our budget originally. This helps a wider range of people see the difficulties we face in making hard choices about where to put new money in the face of too many demands. We will then, as a SB, adopt a balanced budget for the coming year. Though much of the new money is already encumbered by various requirements or commitments, I think as much money as we can set aside should go to increasing teachers' salaries. Montgomery County compares very poorly to surrounding counties. We need to become more competitive to recruit new teachers and retain and reward experienced teachers.

4) School Violence- The most important thing that parents and schoolpeople can do to avoid tragedies is to communicate with students and try to keep them engaged with others. Know what your children are doing, and make sure they know that you care and want to know about them. And encourage your own children to help others feel included. Alienation in adolescents is unavoidable, but we can try to minimize it, and envelope it with openness and understanding and love. There are no easy solutions to these problems, but I thinkengagement is key.

We have been working for over a year through the discipline committee on ways to create this kind of engagement of students at school, and we are beginning work on how to increase engagement of parents as well. These are the kinds of things school communities have to work at, even if they are not covered by SoL tests.

God be with the students of the school in Colorado, and the families ofthe victims, and the families of the boys who did the shooting. I hope they can all come together as a community. What we need to do is try to come together as communities before something like this happens. It doesn't come easy, but it is one of the most important things we can be about.

Enjoy the weather,
James C. Klagge
Chair, and District F Representative
Montgomery County School Board

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