Thank you Mr. Mattox and Thank you Lt. Col Davis!!  Personally, I would like to see GCPS, The Athletic Depts and Booster Clubs to try to find a way to raise money either through the budget or fundraising before asking for fees for our kids to play school sports.  Having to pay an unexpected $86 fee for my sons a/p class, plus the other school fees was a little more than expected.  We have members in our community still losing work or looking for work who can hardly make it now.  Hopefully, with people like Lt. Col. Davis and his efforts or combined efforts we can bring in some money without having to access a fee.  All of my fundraising friends, it is time to put your thinking caps on!!!!!!  If we can do it for little league, we can do it for our schools!

Kudos to Lt. Col. Davis! It is heartwarming to see that he not only keeps up with what’s going on at home, but that he would lead the charge for the needs at home too (typical behavior from members of the armed services).

On the note regarding RIF notices, it is great to see that the schools were able to rehire 5 teachers, the schools and students certainly needed them. Mr. Meng went to great effort to point out that 26 teachers were not RIF’d in the workshop, saying that the public had made such assertions. He was mistaken in that statement, which was certainly targeted towards members of the Goochland Education Parents Association (GEPA). GEPA did publically state (and accurately so at the time) that the schools had reduced the number of teacher positions by 26 (not RIF’d as he stated). GEPA arrived at that number by including the 12 teachers lost through attrition (retirement, leaving for jobs elsewhere, etc) that did not have their positions replaced with new staff members in the total number of positions lost. Those 12 positions in addition to the 14 RIF’s sent out last school year do indeed add up to the 26 positions GEPA accurately referred to publically. Again, I’m thrilled to see that 5 positions were able to be “backfilled”, reducing the number of positions lost to just 19.

It seems silly to have to play symantics games in order to reflect what actually happens. I frankly didn’t want to go back over this stuff, as we all need to be focused on the next budget cycle. However, it seems that his spin forces me to do so in order to not mislead the public.

As a former coach of Girls Basketball, track and football with championship in all noted sports, I would like to make a donation to ensure that our future leaders have a positive outlet. I have been in Afghanistan almost two years and I will be returning home within the next three weeks. Who do I see to make this donation and to challenge the community to support this action? I had 17 great years in Goochland and I wish to see it grow to its fullest potential. I can be reach at 817-567-4217 until 5 September 2010 or e-mail me at the following e-mails: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)  Lieutenant Colonel Ronnie M. Davis

R. MALCOM DAVIS
LTC/CM
TEAM LOGCAP
AFGHANISTAN
COM: 817-567-4217
CELL:079-621-3761
AKO: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
GMAIL: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
TARIN KOWT, ANACONDA, COBRA, TYCZ and WOLVERINE
LOGISTICAL SUPPORT OFFICER

I’m glad the school board is educating the public on these issues now versus later. This is a good beginning to more dialogue that they should be enabling.

Much like the student fees that were discussed here last week, additional fees for athletics should be open to discussion.  IMO, the county needs to be consistent in how it handles these issues (which it seems they are clearly not right now).  If they require students in band and art to pay for supplies, and students pursuing AP tests to pay for testing,  the same should certainly hold true for students participating in athletics, shouldn’t it? 

Most parents pay at least $70 for children to play in recreational baseball, basketball, soccer or football, where children do not receive coaching 5 days a week, as they do in Middle or High School athletics.  So $100 per sport seems very reasonable for these sports that practice 5 days a week for an entire season: ($100)/(50 days of practice)/(2 hours per practice) = $1 per hour. 

FWIW, high school athletics is mostly funded by football game attendance at just about every high school that offers an athletics program.  Some of the bigger schools, on a big game night, will generate +$10,000 in revenues ($5 a head for attendance + concessions * 2,000 in attendance).  So the importance of good weather on 5 or so Friday or Saturday nights in terms of revenue generation, can not be understated as it pertains to a school’s ability to fund ALL athletics (not just football).