Denying children the opportunity to reach their full potential is an irreversible loss - whether that child is a Special Ed. student being neglected in a corridor, or an athletic student whose program is cancelled for lack of funding, a gifted student held back for administrative convenience, a musical child without the financial means denied the opportunity to play a musical instrument, or an average child in a class of 24 who simply cannot get enough attention from their teacher on a daily basis to be successful. The decisions made, and priorities expressed in our school system today directly influence the opportunities available to ALL of these children, and have the potential to affect them profoundly for the rest of their lives.

Massive and, I believe, unnecessary cuts are being proposed in teaching positions, school supplies, textbooks and core educational programs, whilst identified inefficiencies are being tolerated in the areas of high-level administration, transportation and maintenance. If there is one non-teaching position for every teaching position in Goochland County Public Schools, then why have the positions of approximately half the teaching staff (91 teachers / instructional assistants) been targeted for possible elimination, but only 4 non-teaching positions?

With student population continuing to grow, classroom sizes for ALL children will increase dramatically if teaching positions are lost, and non-teaching positions funded by the taxpayer will rise as a total percentage of school personnel. I honestly don’t understand why teaching positions are being targeted in this way, or how the quality of public education in Goochland can possibly be maintained if these proposed changes are allowed to take place.

Jane.

It boils down to the fact that Dr. Underwood thinks this is a game with the parents and taxpayers of Goochland, and she is using the teachers as pawns.  She is literally putting the teachers out front to use as “Human Shields” to protect her backroom bureaucracy.

At the same time she sends the educators e-mails and says “GEPA is after You!” as if the teachers should be thankful to have Dr. Underwood, and as if it is not her who has suggested that educators suffer instead of administration .  Her actions are as pathetic as they are transparent. 

The teachers should be insulted by this.

Truth Teller, the old specialty center building cannot be closed.  There is no room for the kids currently in classrooms in that building, to be relocated in any of the other school buildings.  Currently, there is talk about moving the Parks and Recreation group to the old middle school, so that GES can expand into the current Parks and Rec home.  So closing the old specialty center building isn’t even an option that can be considered.  GES’s next step, if they can’t move to the Parks n Rec building (the one with the Gymnasium), is temporary trailer classrooms.  Thus the county debate about a new elementary school in the middle of the county is critical.  At some point, having kids spread in all these “outbuildings” becomes very inefficient in that you need to maintain systems (old systems) for all these separate buildings (old buildings), keep them up to date, etc.  Maybe it is time to bulldoze all these “outbuildings” and put up a more efficient GES?

Beyond that GEPA agrees that the heavy hitter admin positions need to be evaluated first.  Some of these positions are new in the past 2-3 years.  Regarding the other positions (custodians, food service, bus drivers), there are in-efficiencies in the transportation and maintenance department that need to be explained and resolved.  We are not talking about $20k-$30K in efficiencies, but $200K-$300K. The schools has a fleet of autos that rivals the Enterprise Car Rental at Dulles International. 69 buses (of which 12 are spares) and 61 other vehicles (9 spare sedans), which including 20 pickup trucks, SUVs and vans. And there are some well paid jobs in the maintenance department too.  Can some of these functions be shared with the county given the proximity of all the school and county buildings in the Courthouse areas?  Nobody is suggesting our schools go into disrepair (the elementary schools are 50 years old already, so by definition they are always one step away from that state), but we are suggesting that the county look to operate these organizations more efficiently, share employees across the great divide (schools and counties) and if that means consolidating a few positions, that is what should be done.

Ultimately, you Sir, are correct, nobody should be immune to cuts in trying times. I don’t think anyone believes that.  However, this administration is starting with the teachers, and I believe we can all agree, they should be the last place to go when all other options have been exhausted.

I would like to thank Kriston McNaron for her direct response to my post.  A healthy and intelligent debate prior to the day when some very important financial decisions are going to be made by our county leaders is what is needed right now.  She provided a very good counter point to my position and I respect her for it.

I also do realize even if the Specialty Education Center and all of the associated and unassociated programs housed in its building were not funded and the building closed the school system would still be way over budget.  My point was only that it is a good place to start the budget reduction process.  Also I can think of a lot worse things than a student “not being challenged enough” as one post put it.

Now where else can money be saved?  I agree cuts from the administration are the next obvious choice (especially cuts from the Central Office).  Administration reductions should be made before one teaching position is affected.  I am in complete agreement with Kriston McNaron and GEPA on that point.  However I do take issue with those who would put a teacher’s job above that of a school bus driver, maintenance worker, custodian, food service worker, etc.  Those jobs are no less important than a teacher’s job.  Sometimes teachers need to be reminded of that.  A teacher is not an untouchable when it comes time to balance the budget.  After all if you don’t bus the kids to the school then the teachers will have no students to teach.  If you allow the school buildings to go into disrepair then teachers will not have a place to teach.  If teachers have to spend all of their time cleaning the school then they will have no time to teach in it.  And of course students must be fed at some point during the day and I doubt many teachers would want to take on that additional huge task.  School bus drivers, maintenance workers, food service workers, and custodians are also among the lowest paid employees within the school system.  Cutting their jobs would have the least positive financial impact and a very negative impact on the school system in general.

GES classes now have home rooms in the former specialty center. The only direct additional cost for operating the gifted program in a center based model is the fact that kids at Randolph and Byrd need to be driven to the center of the county daily.  Gifted kids have the aptitude to be ahead of the others, but without a gifted program, or a teacher with unlimited time on their hands to handing slow, medium and advanced learners all in the same classroom of 15-20 kids, these kids will not be challenged.  Some of the practices that are utilized at the program, should be put into place at all elementary schools.  The gifted center is more like the single room classrooms of the past.  The home room teachers for the 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade classes each have a subject specialty and they teach that specialty to all grades. As the kids move from 3rd to 4th to 5th grade, the teacher who has taught them in the past, knows their aptitude, and where they left off in the spring.  Each fall, there is no wasted time. The teacher knows what they have and they run with it. If you’ve ever coached kids in a sport, you’ll know what I am talking about.  You have a kid from the previous season, you know where you can put them on the field.  You have a new kid, and you need time to figure that out (and the parental dynamics). In this model, the teacher and parent are now responsible for the kids for 3 years. At the end of 3 years, there is no excuse, for the student, teacher, or parent.  Plenty of time to fix anything that isn’t right.  Accountability.
  All of our kids need to be academically challenged.  There is nothing worse that seeing someone with an aptitude for something (academics, art, athletics), waste their aptitude because they are not sufficiently challenged, and hence become lazy.  We should want ALL of our kids to develop an academic “work ethic”. This can’t be accomplished by moving them up a grade.  The level of grade does not equate to a more rigorous curriculum.  In the big picture, schooling is all about teaching kids how to learn.  As an employer, the last person you want to hire is someone who requires too much “hand holding”.  If our children are going to be successful, they ALL need to develop good academic habits at a young age, and have them re-enforced over time. 
    GEPA’s mission has very little to do with “gifted education”.  There are plenty of opportunities to cut the budget without a negative effect on educational programs.  For every teacher the school employees, there is another support person (food services, janitorial staff, administrative overhead, transportation, the list goes on) somewhere in the school budget.  Before we permanently cut teachers, can we not examine the support services, be presented with MULTIPLE options and decide which ones we can scale back, reorganize, or do without?  The teachers are where the rubber meets the road in education. They have 15-20 pairs of eyes on them all day long, and are ultimately accountable for success or failure.  If you’ve spent any time in the schools, you’ll know the full time teachers have a tough job at all levels of education, K-5, 6-8, 9-12.  They can’t slack off for a day and surf the Internet in their cubicle, they can’t have a “bad day” and be “half on”, they can’t work hard for a few hours in the AM, and coast in the PM. They are always in front of the customer.  They have 15-20 overseers watching and notifying.  They are the front line to identifying kid problems, the first call when a “customer/parent” has a “customer service” problem, deal with an assortment of family situations, and behavioral issues.Their days do not end when the kids go home (with email parents are communicating with them at all hours).  Are these the positions you’d want to cut first? This isn’t about gifted and non gifted, it is about protecting the positions in our school system who at all levels are(outside of the parents themselves) the most important people in determining educational success, and FUTURE success of all of our children.  http://goochlandparents.blogspot.com/

Dear Truth Teller—

While I understand the concerns you may have over the Specialty Center, let me set some facts straight .  . .

the figure quoted by GEPA comes from Dr. Underwood’s own presentations of what the proposed cuts to the Gifted Program saved.  The Specialty building itself is used for the entire 3rd grade and all of the preschool programs.  Elimination of the gifted program (or the Tender Tots program in the same building—- which is also being eliminated) in no way changes the operating costs of the building.  The children will need to go into some classroom either way, and even with the Specialty Center in full use, GES is out of classroom space.  I understand that the county is looking at turning over the old high school gym to the school to address the space issues. 

Furthermore, even if you wish to disband the centralized gifted program, gifted education is a mandated program as much as special education.  You can’t simply eliminate it.  Nor would I call it equivalent to a private school—- these children use all the same services, take the same PE, Art, Music, etc.  They are simply being taught at their level. . . . as we hope every child would be. 

It is true that a number of GEPA members are parents of children in the gifted program.  But there are hundreds of GEPA members that do not have children there.  There are 600+ signers of the GEPA petition that run the whole spectrum of the county.

This isn’t athletic parents vs academic parents.  This isn’t gifted parents versus other parents.  This is just PARENTS and TAXPAYERS wanting tax dollars used in classrooms and on programs that benefit the kids (whether it be an art program, athletics, ability-grouped classes, etc) instead of administration & other inefficiencies.

I have an “above average” number of Children in GCPS.  None of them are in the Specialty Center.  That said I think the Specialty Center concern is just a red herring.  Goochland has X-number of kids in the system and we need Y number of teachers and classrooms for them.  If you eliminate the “specialty center” you still have same number of kids needing the same number of teachers, rooms, text-books, etc…  I don’t care that the Specialty Center is a different building, etc…  (Unless somebody thinks that we can use less space and save money on buildings.  In that Case, I am all ears)  I think every school system in the country does some type of “ability grouping” as kids progress through the school so that kids are challenged and learn at their level.  It’s not an issue really of additional resources as I understand it.

The issue is though that this administration is trying to save non-educator jobs by threats of TEACHER Lay-offs, instead of non-teachers.  That is what Dr. Underwoods e-mail to the Gordons is about.  I read the Gazette article correctly, of the 95 people that Dr. Underwood sent letters threatening to lay of, 93 of them were CERTIFIED positions.  93 of them were EDUCATORS, only 2 were back-room staff, and I have heard ZERO defense from Dr. Underwood about why the back-room staff are more critical than the people who teach our children, whom I support.

I would challenge the Gazette to some real journalism, and file a FOIA request for Dr. Underwoods e-mails to see whether this is a single issue or part of a pattern of intimidation by this administration.    (I think I hear the sound of hard drives being erased…)

Wow that is so wrong . a class for children already ahead of the others . that money should be spent to catch the slower students up . wth is going on .if these students are so dang smart bump them up a class . dont spend my money giving them special services when others still lag behind . this is wrong in so many ways .
    if the class and services are not open to all students it is discrimination .
    i have a better idea lets say we only allow 1 in that class . now how will the rest of you parents feel than when your child was excluded . well that is essentially what you are doing to the “so-called” slower students .

Yes the Superintendent deserves criticism for not reducing the school budget as needed. 

One could also make a pretty good argument that the School Board also deserves some criticism for being little more than the public mouthpiece of the Superintendent.

But GEPA also deserves a look.  The main reason for GEPA’s creation was to protect the funding for the Specialty Education Center.  What is the Specialty Education Center?  The Specialty Education Center is nothing more than a private school within our public school system.  The purpose of which is to help students who are already ahead of their peers get even farther ahead.  It has its own building and staff.  GEPA reports the closure of the Specialty Education Center would only save 26K “at the most.”  This figure is unrealistic.  Operating costs for the building alone are most likely more than 26K per year.  Certainly the staff’s salaries/benefits would completely dwarf a number like 26K.  Of course our gifted children need to be addressed but providing and funding a private school within our public school system is not the answer.  Programs such as this which benefit only a very few (who are already ahead of the curve) but are funded by the many are one of the main reasons the public school budget is as out of control as it is now.

Raising property taxes, double digit % increases in water and sewer rates, and making our community less safe by laying off Deputies is certainly not the answer.  Elimination of funding for facilities such as the Specialty Education Center is a much more reasonable choice.

salary cuts are whats needed . nobody in our school system is worth over 75,000 a year . a lot of qualified people will step into any school position for that pay .
    there are going to be cuts the best way is to make them across the board and share the burden . 7 positions totaling 1 million no wonder we are broke . right there is 550,000 too much . i wouldnt pay einstein that much .
    i know some of these people who make so much and think a lot of them however that has no reflection on what they should be paid .
        lots of hardworking qualified people looking for jobs right now who would love these jobs . wake up people .
    NO NEW TAXES NO NEW TAXES NO NEW TAXES