WJC BUDGET WRAP-UP

5/17/07

Dear School Supporters,

THANK YOU to everyone who advocated for the WJC Schools’ budget this year. Our efforts had positive results!

THE GOOD NEWS

The James City County Board of Supervisors contributed about $1.6 million more than it had initially allocated for the schools’ operating budget, and the county and city nearly fully funded the schools’ capital budget. While not fully funding the School Board’s operating budget request by $1.75 million, the county and city allowed the schools’ budget to grow by 12% over last year. These funds are sorely needed to open, staff and operate two new schools, and accommodate additional student growth, teacher raises, increases in health benefits and retirement costs among other important items.

I hope you will take the opportunity to thank the county supervisors and city council for their support of our schools.

Even though full funding was not provided, the School Board decided to retain the Pre-K expansion and the full-time math coordinator. Take a moment to thank the School Board for retaining Pre-K especially. Your support of Pre-K no doubt gave the School Board the added incentive it needed to keep it in.

THE BAD NEWS

The Center for Educational Opportunities (CEO) as it is now, no longer exists.

The School Board could have gone with the “CEO Option,” the regular day, 9:30am-4:30pm, 5 teacher program which is most like the current CEO program. Instead it opted for the 12pm - 7pm ALL program, hastily created and not entirely thought through, that appears to rely on volunteers for the first three hours and on part-time teachers for a four-hour period of academic time, although it is unclear how the academic program will actually operate.

While additional pay for teachers to work in the ALL program sounds attractive at first, it is difficult to imagine teachers who after working an entire regular school day will be interested in extending their work day on a regular basis. It is reasonable to fear the administration’s ability to staff ALL with teachers willing and able to work beyond regular working hours and with the skills necessary to work with a challenging population of students. One might expect retired teachers to find this opportunity more attractive than regular teachers.

Many of the components of ALL were already occurring at CEO. William and Mary would have participated in the CEO Option or the ALL option, though one would hardly have know that the way ALL was presented at the School Board meeting.

It is interesting to note that the firm who conducted the independent efficiency audit was well aware of CEO (the 2004 CEO Evaluation Report was mentioned in the audit) and no recommendations were made to change the program to make it more efficient.

Moreover, the Board seemed to think, based on the options provided by the administration, that going with the CEO Option would have prevented them from funding Pre-K when that was not the case. The Board could have done both had they looked into the budget for $273,000 of additional savings, which, though difficult, could have been accomplished.

Skepticism aside, the School Board has decided to support the ALL program and we can only wish them the best of luck that it is successful. It remains to be seen if ALL will be judged using the same high standards as was CEO.

It is imperative the School Board and community monitor the ALL program very carefully. Hopefully the new Alternative Ed Task Force will look to the real needs of these most at-risk students and construct a program that truly serves their needs.

In the capital budget, the technology plan was underfunded by the county and the multipurpose spaces in the high schools (aka, the auxiliary gyms) were not funded. More discussions will take place in the next budget cycle to see if and when these priorities will be funded.

GAZETTE or GOSSIP?

Virginia Gazette publisher W.C. O’Donovan commendably reconsidered some of his April 14 editorial critical of Dr. Mathews. The Gazette has not always reported information about the schools correctly or fairly, so his corrections were very welcome.

However, O’Donovan ate a little more humble pie than he needed to.

While Dr. Mathews does not oppose alternative education in general, there is no question that he did oppose WJC’s alternative education program, CEO, and set out to discredit it when the location became an issue. Unfairly spun evidence of high costs, ineffectiveness and “gang activity” were suddenly brought forward when only weeks before had the Ace Hardware store been “the place” for CEO, it would have very likely operated just as it has in the past.

Using the Eastern State property for trailers became an option only when brought up by people outside the administration. Dr. Mathews’ plan to use trailers at Jamestown would have likely fallen victim to opposition from concerned Jamestown parents and then entire program would have been lost completely.

The community stood up strongly for the CEO students and teachers, and should take credit for the fact that a program remains at ALL.

As always, thank you for supporting our schools. Have a great summer!

Mike Ludwick

P.S.: At the April 10 Board of Supervisors meeting, my comments included a line “A dream we dream alone is only a dream, a dream we dream together is reality.” It’s a quote from either John Lennon or Yoko Ono (I find conflicting evidence on the web) and I should have mentioned it at the time. Thank you for you dreaming the dream of that our schools have the funding they need so that our students have the best education possible.