The Virginia Daily Education News is a daily update (Monday through Friday) of education news throughout Virginia. Links are created to various newspapers throughout the state. Questions or comments regarding the Virginia Education News should be sent to herbc@vsba.org. Thank You - go here for Previous Issues of the Virginia DailyEducation News.
Photos on homepage courtesy of Cumberland County Public Schools
Issue 2,067 - Tuesday - August 31, 2010
PETERSBURG - A recently formed group that opposes Gov. Bob McDonnell's push to open a charter school here held its first public event Monday. The group, which calls itself the Committee to Save Public Education, sponsored a public forum at the Appomattox Regional Governor's School, drawing an audience of about 100 people.
A survey of parents of Roanoke public schoolchildren indicates there is support for sexuality education in the city's classrooms -- and most favor a broader range of topics than currently offered. The nonprofit organization Planned Parenthood Health Systems commissioned the automated telephone survey of 363 parents and found 80 percent said sex education should be taught in city schools. The majority deemed middle school the appropriate age level for lessons on topics such as sexually transmitted diseases and birth control.
Across Campbell County, members of the new facilities steering committee have begun meetings to discuss the future of the division’s school buildings over the next 20 years. Committee members include school staff, parents and other community members such as ministers and business people. Brookville and Rustburg regional subcommittees met for the first time on Monday. Altavista and Brookneal area subcommittees are expected to meet today. Those committees are expected to meet five times over the course of this school semester.
Halifax County School Board members will meet at 1 p.m. today in the School Board Office Conference Room for a special called meeting to hear a presentation from Virginia Association of School Superintendents (VASS) from Bob McCracken and Bonny Wilson. During a previous school board meeting, Virginia Department of Planning and Budget (DPB) Associate Director John Ringer explained the efficiency review program to board members, saying a study could possibly be conducted in the Halifax County School Division during school year 2011-2012. Studies are conducted on a first-come, first-serve basis, and currently seven school divisions ahead of Halifax County, he said.
Fairfax County education officials are set to roll out a new million-dollar program aimed at improving student performance this year. The Priority Schools program will provide additional resources, funding and training to educators at 30 of Fairfax's roughly 200 public schools, according to Deputy School Superintendent Richard Moniuszko. Moniuszko said the program -- which will cost county taxpayers about $1.3 million this year -- is designed to eradicate the "achievement gap."
Montgomery County school plans may be too much for taxpayers - Board of Supervisors discuss $124 million plan. (video)
Martinsville Middle School made Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) this spring, after not doing so the year before, by finding out and meeting students’ individual learning needs, according to the school’s co-principals. AYP, one of the cornerstones of the federal No Child Left Behind Act, measures year-to-year student achievement on Virginia Standards of Learning tests in reading, writing and math, according to online information.
Dressing younger children for school can sometimes be a struggle of wills. With teens, clothing choices can incite all-out war. As the first day of school approaches, the Compass revisits Norfolk Public Schools' dress code policy.
NORFOLK Wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the word "Believe," new Superintendent Richard Bentley told about 5,000 school employees at a pep rally on Monday that they have a "moral imperative" to make a difference in Norfolk students' lives. The rally, paid for by private donations, seemed to accomplish its goal of boosting spirits and solidarity.
CHESAPEAKE Nearly 600 school employees who are eligible for retirement are about to be offered an incentive to take their leave in June. The incentive is a $12,000 lump-sum payment, but those who have worked for only seven of the 10 years needed to receive full health coverage in retirement can swap the payment for that health benefit instead.
WJCC - Warhill High School Principal Sharmaine Grove will start the school year with a new position and new title. Acting Superintendent Scott Burckbuchler announced Grove's appointment to serve as the division's new supervisor for career and technical education programs and business partnerships position, pending School Board approval on Sept. 7.
Choosing words carefully, members of the Gloucester School Board agreed Thursday night they won't give a presentation to the Board of Supervisors on Sept. 7 on why the school district funding method shouldn't be changed. Instead, the School Board will again request that the Supervisors agree to discuss the school funding issue at a joint meeting between the two boards on Sept. 21. Four members of the School Board agreed to make the request at a Thursday night work session; three board members were not at the meeting. "I'm not sure what they expect from a presentation," said Ann Burruss, School Board chair.
The Gloucester School Board has met twice recently behind closed doors to conduct evaluations of Superintendent Ben Kiser. Last year following its evaluation the Board gave Kiser a three-year contract, effective July 1 of this year. And the results of this year's evaluation? "We are extremely satisfied," said Ann Burruss, chair of the Gloucester School Board. "We are extremely fortunate to have Ben Kiser as superintendent."
Pro / Con: Should chocolate milk be allowed in schools?
Late News - August 30 - 10
Dr. Marvin McGinnis, principal of Body Camp Elementary School, and Marsha Sheinman, the school’s secretary/bookkeeper, were placed on administrative leave last week just as students were preparing for this week’s return to school. Ryan Edwards, the school division’s spokesman, wouldn’t reveal the reason for the move, stating that it was a personnel matter. The Bedford County School Board will review the issue to see if any further action will be taken.
Issue 2,066 - Monday - August 30, 2010
A case of whooping cough has been confirmed in a Halifax County Middle School student, Southside Health District Director Charles J. Devine III, M. D., said late last week. Parents of children in classes and who ride the bus with the infected student, as well as those who are friends with the student will be notified by letter, Deputy Superintendent Larry Clark said Friday morning.
Clarke County Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Michael Murphy told the Board of Supervisors that with the school budget in the “black” he hopes to continue financial reforms both in the budget planning cycle and by establishing a “carry-over” allowance that will provide the school division with greater control over its annual spending.
It was a tough year for Virginia schools, as the state as a whole failed to meet Adequate Yearly Progress targets for the 2009-10 school year, according to data released Aug. 12 by the Virginia Department of Education. No local school divisions met the criteria, either, though the majority of individual schools did in the City of Galax and Carroll and Grayson counties.
Most of the funds for the Phase III schools construction project will go toward adding new spaces to Carroll Intermediate and High schools. Not much will be left over to improve the older spaces. Carroll School Board members seemed worried during a presentation at their Aug. 10 meeting that some important renovation work would be left out of the $26.7 million project.
Galax Elementary School students were greeted this year with a renovated library and two new computer labs paid for with stimulus funds Galax schools received. “We've been successful with adequate yearly progress, and we're just trying to go beyond that,” said GES Principal Brian Stuart. “We're just trying to become modern, even if we are in an old building. We're excited.”
Dr. Amy Griffin was named as the Cumberland County Public Schools new superintendent during a called division-wide meeting on Friday afternoon. (no additional information)
U.S. Rep. Rick Boucher announced today that the U.S. Department of Education, through its Readiness and Emergency Management for Schools program, is providing a federal grant of $164,897 to Pulaski County Public Schools for the development of a new emergency plan.
Rather than develop their own community survey for hiring the next superintendent, WJC officials copied boilerplate. “We didn’t feel a need to tweak anything,” said Denise Koch, co-chair of the search committee. The survey reads “Dear Williamsburg/James City County citizen,” but copies verbatim a version by the Virginia School Board Association that was used by York a few years ago. Koch called it a “time-tested” document. The questions take a broad approach without referring to any specific issues, such as redistricting, teacher pay, alt-ed, extracurricular budgets, arts funding, etc. Participants get to rank certain criteria among eight categories.
CHESAPEAKE There's plenty to worry a new ninth-grader about starting high school without tossing in the dreaded "Freshmen Fridays." It's just a rumor that upperclassmen haze freshmen on Fridays, but one potent enough to make an incoming ninth-grader at Grassfield High this week ask whether or not it's true.
Portsmouth - When school doors open this year, students will find spiffy, new features in some buildings and see improvements under way in others. I.C. Norcom High students will get to play on a new, competition-quality gym floor. The nearly $92,000 project was finished this month.
NORFOLK Navigating Granby High is hard enough for freshman new to the labyrinthine, 292,000-square-foot school. For Jessica Bryant, its size - which is bigger than five football fields - is even more daunting because she is blind. So the handy floor plans posted in some hallways throughout the school can't help her.
GLOUCESTER Jurors have awarded a former Gloucester High School student $5 million for permanent injuries he suffered in a 2006 lunchtime fight. The jury on Friday also awarded Gregory Gagnon interest dating back to the fight, which could increases the award by $1 million. In awarding the damages, the jury determined that a student who threw the punch and an assistant principal should pay the majority of the damages.
PORTSMOUTH - School Board members voted Thursday night to drop the 2.0 GPA requirement to graduate from high school, and to adjust the division's grading scale to align it with other South Hampton Roads cities.
SUFFOLK - The School Board decided Thursday to schedule a meeting with the City Council to discuss how to select a site for a new elementary school. Nine options are on the table, Chairwoman Lorraine Skeeter said, declining to elaborate. The School Board would like to talk with the council by Sept. 9, the date of the board's next monthly meeting.
Three years ago the Hampton Clean City Commission was contacted by a member of the Parent-Teacher Association at Armstrong Elementary School about a serious problem around the school. "They were having a terrible problem with pet waste," said Clean City Commission Coordinator Debbie Blanton. "The children would have to walk through a minefield of pet waste.
King George High School may have an interim principal for the entire 2010-11 school year, Superintendent Candace Brown said recently. Brown said she hopes Joe Pociask, who recently started the temporary job, will stay for the school year, but she said he has "some other commitments that he has to consider."
Richmond does not have the demand it once did for a specialty school for students with severe behavioral and academic problems, but it still has three years left on a seven-year, $30.2 million contract for such a school, even while its enrollments decline. What it doesn't have is the $10.5 million it budgeted two years ago to build the school a new home as required in the contract.
The Prince William Board of County Supervisors postponed accepting and budgeting federal stimulus funds for school jobs Tuesday, halting Superintendent Steven L. Walts's effort to hire 180 more teachers by next month.
Communication and cooperation will result in better schools and financial efficiencies. - That's what the Northampton Board of Supervisors and School Board resolved in a policy agreement reached by consensus Monday during a joint meeting.
News from Elsewhere
Administrator in Arizona spends $1,000,000 tracing Flying Saucers (video)
Language buried in a report on a Senate appropriations bill may provide a glimpse of the bar Congress will set for judging the effectiveness of school improvement interventions in the next iteration of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.
The U.S. Department of Education is awarding Teaching American History grants totaling $4,448,914 to four Virginia school divisions to improve American history instruction by expanding the content knowledge of teachers and promoting effective teaching strategies. "The projects supported by these grants will enhance the instruction of history in our classrooms," Superintendent of Public Instruction Patricia I. Wright said. "While the focus of these grants is professional development for our teachers, the ultimate beneficiaries are the students who will receive instruction from these educators." In applying for funding from the Teaching American History grant program, school divisions agreed to partner with one or more public or private institutions with expertise in American history, such as universities, museums, libraries, historical societies and foundations. The Virginia school divisions receiving grants are as follows:
late news on August 26, 2010
Schools fund salaries with one-time dollars
Issue 2,065 - Thursday - August 26, 2010
During the first week of school, Waynesboro and Augusta County each welcomed about 100 more new students than administrators anticipated for the year.
Big new bus costs loom for schools - - Federal mandates about school choice have saddled Roanoke City Public Schools with a $725,000 expense. As many as 500 Roanoke students may transfer to better performing schools than the ones they are zoned to attend -- potentially complicating bus routes less than two weeks before the start of school and adding a $725,000 expense.
The Pittsylvania County School Board has no plans to get rid of new user fees it will charge to youth sports programs and other organizations that use its athletic facilities. The school system should be reimbursed what it costs to let groups use its gyms and fields, including electricity and other costs, said Calvin “Bunky” Doss, chairman of the Pittsylvania County School Board.
The Washington County School Board has narrowed its options for the next superintendent down to two candidates, Lee Brannon and Eleanor Smalley. No stranger to the community, Brannon served as assistant superintendent in Washington County for two years. Currently, he is Wythe County’s schools chief. Prior to taking the job in Wythe County, Brannon served as superintendent at Norton City schools for three years.
Montgomery County - Blacksburg High School again made Newsweek magazine's America's Best High Schools list. BHS is ranked No. 556 among 1,734 public schools across the country. It is the only school in the New River Valley and among only about 100 in Virginia on the list. The magazine has ranked the nation's schools nearly every year since 1998.
Auburn Middle School teacher Pamela Bostwick has been named a finalist for a national award. - Bostwick is up for the Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching, and she is one of two teachers in Virginia nominated for the award, according to a news release from the Montgomery County school system.
Pediatricians across Fairfax County can tell when school is about to start back up by the influx of vaccination appointments scheduled just weeks before the school year kicks off. In Virginia, students must receive a number of vaccinations -- including measles, mumps, and rubella and varicella (chickenpox).
As Clarke County debates how best to utilize the school construction budget surplus that was created by lower-than-expected construction costs for the new high school, initial school enrollment figures for this year point to a lower than expected student population.
On August 17th School Board chairperson Robina Bouffault told the Clarke County Board of Supervisors that consolidating CCPS’s vocational and agricultural education buildings on the new high school campus was “not an option”. Bouffault’s announcement has since stirred surprise and controversy with many people in the community who believed that consolidating the agriculture program into the main campus was still being negotiated.
Warren County Public Schools have until next year to spend more than $1 million in federal stimulus money that was recently awarded for special education purposes. School Board members unanimously voted on Wednesday evening to ask the Board of Supervisors to increase the school division's current fiscal budget by $372,815 so that the remaining funds can be spent on new vehicles and supplies, as well as a dedicated aide position at Skyline High School.
CUMBERLAND - A superintendent announcement will come during a special Cumberland County Public Schools division-wide called meeting on Friday, August 27. During this meeting, the School Board will be making the selection of the new leader for the school system. According to information received by The Herald, the special meeting will begin at 3:45 p.m. in the Middle/High School cafetorium. The Board's formal announcement will be made at a called meeting that is set to begin at 5 p.m. Dr. Amy Griffin took over the acting superintendent position on July 1 and since then the School Board has led and conducted its own search process. According to Chair Dr. Christine Ross, the application process closed on July 21. (no additional information)
Four Martinsville High School students took time out of their summer breaks recently to beautify an upstairs hall in Albert Harris Elementary School, guided by art teacher Clare Norris. Pictured (from left), rising junior Britteny Ross, senior Jessica Li, and sophomores DeVante Martin and Miranda Givens work on the mural Friday. Called “The Foundation of Our Success,” the mural will feature a person reaching for the stars, standing on top of a rock foundation highlighting practices that encourage success for students at Albert Harris.
Suffolk School Board meeting to discuss band trip -The School Board has called a special meeting for 10:15 a.m. today to consider contributing to a high school band trip and to continue discussions about the superintendent search and the location of a new elementary school.
VIRGINIA BEACH For the first time, a Virginia Beach school is facing sanctions for failing to meet federal performance goals. But instead of giving parents a choice of sending their children to other schools, the division will offer free tutoring to some students at the school, College Park Elementary.
Although Poquoson City Council has agreed to give pay raises to city workers, employees of Poquoson City Public Schools will not be seeing any additional pay. On Monday, the City Council approved a $1,000 raise for full-time employees, and $500 for those who are part-time. The money for the current year will be paid in a lump sum in coming weeks, while next year's raise will become part of workers' regular paychecks.
Two former Gloucester High School students testified earlier this week that a student punched in the face who later filed a $9.3 million lawsuit against the assailant, the assailant's sister and an assistant principal appeared to be the aggressor in a fight.
The plan is just a seed, but one that some Petersburg leaders aren't sure they want to nurture. A coalition has formed in response to Gov. Bob McDonnell's desire to open more public charter schools in the state, including one in Petersburg. The group's formation comes amid a charter school proposal for the Petersburg school district, which has warranted unprecedented state intervention because of its chronically low-performing schools.
Late News: Issue 2,064 - Tuesday - August 24, 2010
Winners in Obama education reform unveiled - Nine states and the District of Columbia will get several billion dollars from a federal "Race to the Top" school reform competition, the U.S. Education Department announced. http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/38832341/from/toolbar
Teacher Fired for Facebook Comments
Issue 2,064 - Tuesday - August 24, 2010
Spotsylvania County's school nurses have been erroneously rejecting medical exemptions for the vaccine required by state law for sixth-graders who are scheduled to start school today. Nurses at the school level and the supervisor of the school division's health department had been telling parents they would not accept immunization forms signed by pediatricians who declined to give their patients the tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis vaccine before age 11. But state health department officials say that was wrong. And, as of this morning, Spotsylvania school officials will accept those forms, schools spokeswoman Sara Branner said
Hearing postponed for Richmond school employees accused of leaving boy on bus
CHESAPEAKE - Harry Murphy's shop is a little rough. Sawdust and tools cover the floor and long wood planks stretch from end to end - pieces he uses in his fence- and deck-building business. Murphy's leadership style also can be rough. A former Navy officer and 12-year veteran of the Chesapeake School Board, Murphy is unapologetically direct about the clashes he has had with fellow board members and the changes he wants to make to Chesapeake's schools. 
Henry County - Teachers, parents and other area residents are getting together to help school officials figure out what schools will be like in 2015. During the first of several “Conversations with the Community” held Monday, more than 30 parents, educators and school officials discussed their ideas for the school system’s future. The event was held in Bassett High School’s library.
For the second time in nearly a month, the Williamsburg-James City County School Board denied a stimulus fund spending plan Tuesday of more than $1.3 million for the district’s special education program. The Board sent staffers and a citizen advisory committee back to the drawing board to determine how to use the money. After voting down two motions to approve staff’s spending proposal, the board asked W-JCC staffers and members of the division’s Special Education Advisory Committee — a group of residents and parents of special education students— to meet again to develop a plan both groups could agree on. Board Member Jim Kelly was also appointed to represent the School Board on the advisory committee. Board members Joe Fuentes and John Alewynse were not present at the meeting. The board’s decision followed several comments from advisory committee members who criticized the special education stimulus budget, saying many of the proposed expenses wouldn’t improve the students’ performance. The proposal included money to pay for teacher training, technology and early intervention programs such as the Academy for Life and Learning, the middle school dropout prevention program. The bulk of the money, however, was proposed for more full-time personnel to support special education programs and students. (no additional information)
Lynchburg - The first students filed through the blue doors of the new Sandusky Middle School — the city’s first new school since Heritage High School opened in 1976 — for their first day of school in the building Monday. Most seemed to be taking the scenery in quiet stride as they attempted to navigate their new schedules.
The Mathews County School Board fittingly tapped one of its own former outstanding students to head up the division’s gifted program. During Tuesday night’s meeting, the board unanimously appointed Lesley Rae Hunley to serve as gifted coordinator. Hunley, a 2003 graduate of Mathews High School, was valedictorian of her class. After graduating from MHS, Hunley enrolled at the College of William and Mary, earning a bachelor’s degree in 2006. While a teacher in Poquoson City Public Schools, she received the Meritorious New Teacher Candidate designation from the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education.
Virginia schools will soon receive some money from the federal government. The $26 billion federal jobs bailout that Congress passed will mean an extra $250 million for Virginia education. The state Department of Education
has not yet announced how it will split the money between school districts but says it could potentially create 3,800 new jobs. However, Harrisonburg City School Superintendent Scott Kizner says he wants the district to consider using the money to support current staff rather than to create new positions. "You hire people, which is often the temptation, and then a year or two years from now, you recognize that you don't have the money to keep supporting those positions. So, what I'd rather, maybe, initially look at is how are we utilizing our current staff and how can we support them," says Kizner. (no additional information)
Doors open for new East Rockingham HS (Video)
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Budget Impact on Schools Nationwide - Video
Issue 2,063 - Monday - August 23, 2010
Helping Roanoke City Public Schools is a task that local interfaith volunteer group Congregations in Action has taken up as a mission. Whether it's assisting school children with reading, providing socks for students during winter or helping teachers out in the classroom, Congregations in Action has made a difference in Roanoke-area elementary schools for the past six years.
School start date deserves debate - by David B. Carson - Carson is the school board chairman for Roanoke City Public Schools.
On Aug. 10, more than two months after he was exonerated in Fairfax County Circuit Court on charges he sexually assaulted a 12-year-old female student, Centre Ridge Elementary School teacher and soccer coach Sean Lanigan was finally told by Fairfax County Public Schools that he could return to work. Instead of returning to Centre Ridge Elementary School, where he taught for the last 13 years, Lanigan will begin the new school year at South Lakes High School in Reston, according to school officials. "He was transferred there and will begin the new school year as a teacher there," FCPS spokesman Paul Regnier confirmed on Monday.
Nelson County Public Schools as a whole did not meet the federal adequate yearly progress (AYP) benchmarks this year, but three of four schools did, according to information released by the Virginia Department of Education last week.
Grayson Highlands School opened Aug. 16, but it was without a playground or ball field — and that worries at least one parent and some school board members. Grayson County School Board Vice Chairman Shannon Holdaway said during a meeting Aug. 9 that the school system needs to grade and level land at the school for a ball field.
The Patrick County school division was one of only 12 of the state's 132 divisions that made Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) under the federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act during 2009-2010. Other divisions with that achievement were Fairfax County, Henry County, Highland County, Lexington, Martinsville, Mecklenburg County, Radford County, Salem, Scott County, Warren County and West Point. Sixty school divisions made AYP last year. Patrick County was one of only seven school divisions in which every school in the division made AYP.
SUFFOLK - The years-long process to build a new elementary school in the southern half of the city is at a standstill. Thursday night's School Board vote against a City Council-recommended site in the village of Holland leaves the board with few, if any, options for where to locate the school. The new building would replace Robertson and Southwestern elementary schools, located in the Whaleyville and Holland areas, respectively.
VIRGINIA BEACH - A teacher at Pembroke Meadows Elementary School has been indicted on four counts of falsely obtaining welfare assistance of more than $200 and seven counts of making a false application for welfare. A grand jury returned the 11 felony indictments against Whitney Wheeler O. Gray, 48, on Aug. 2. The alleged offenses ranged from May 1, 2007, through May 28, 2010.
Teachers in the Virginia Beach/Norfolk/Newport News metropolitan area brought home wages slightly above the national average in 2009, according to data released today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The average secondary level teacher earned $55,340, close to the national average of $55,150. The region's middle school teachers did somewhat better, earning $56,470 compared with the national average of $53,550. And the region's elementary teachers also were paid above the national average, earning $54,380 compared with a national average of $53,150.
SUFFOLK The School Board informally agreed Thursday to form a committee to study whether the division's grading scale needs to be changed.
YORK — — Grafton High School Principal Paul Hopkins, who was recently named as a defendant in a $10 million wrongful death civil lawsuit against York school officials, has resigned.
All Hanover schools expected to be in compliance with state goals-With the Hanover County school system preparing for a Sept. 7 start to the 2010-2011 year, the superintendent told the county School Board recently that "the federal direction is becoming increasingly fuzzy and frustrating." Stewart D. Roberson said the Virginia Board of Education's accountability system is among the nation's earliest to be created and continues to be viewed as one of the nation's most rigorous.
By the time school bells ring in Spotsylvania County tomorrow morning, secondary students will have walked farther to reach their bus stops, fall athletes will have felt the sting of a new sports fee, and school officials will have placed additional desks in some classrooms.
The principal and an assistant principal at King George High School recently resigned. Principal Todd Satterwhite and Assistant Principal Holly Wargo submitted their letters of resignation last Friday, King George County Superintendent Candace Brown said. Brown said the School Board must approve the resignations, which she said are effective Sept. 1, at its meeting on Monday.
Late News - Thursday - August 19
75% of Greene County Schools that take SOL tests make AYP - The Virginia Department of Education released its annual Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) report on Thursday. The report showed that three of the four schools which give Standards of Learning tests met the benchmarks. William Monroe High School, William Monroe Middle School, and Ruckersville Elementary School exceeded the objectives of more than 79 percent in mathematics and more than 81 percent in reading. William Monroe Middle School and Ruckersville Elementary made significant gains which contributed to their AYP status this year. Nathanael Greene Elementary School will remain in the state’s school improvement program which will allow students to receive supplemental educational services beyond regular school hours. (no additional information)
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