May 14, 2008
At last night’s public hearing on the budget at Vernon Johns
Per the P-I, folks called for full funding of police, full funding of schools, and a decrease in the tax rate. Once again (here, here, here, and here), the mandate seems to be: find a way to provide core services by making cuts elsewhere in the budget, liquidating assets, promoting business development, and/or ???, but not through an increase in real estate taxes. The article notes that in a similar context of rising assessments and an uncertain economy, Richmond has recently decreased the tax rate on real property.
A quote in the RTD on this same meeting well summarizes:
“Mary Harwell said police, firefighters and schools need money but that many departments are top heavy.”
People are starting to get it. Schools exist so that children can become productive and valuable parts of the community. They don’t exist as a vehicle for “jobs.”
From an article I posted elsewhere:
“The make-work bias is best illustrated by a story, perhaps apocryphal, of an economist who visits China under Mao Zedong. He sees hundreds of workers building a dam with shovels. He asks: “Why don’t they use a mechanical digger?” “That would put people out of work,” replies the foreman. “Oh,” says the economist, “I thought you were making a dam. If it’s jobs you want, take away their shovels and give them spoons.” For an individual, the make-work bias makes some sense. He prospers if he has a job, and may lose his health insurance if he is laid off. For the nation as a whole, however, what matters is not whether people have jobs, but how they do them. The more people produce, the greater the general prosperity.”
“Gloria Brown said the city needs to reduce its reliance on real estate taxes and start actively seeking businesses to locate in the city.”
Smart woman. People are starting to get it. You can’t be anti-employer and pro-employment at the same time.
These new jobs would pay better than the dept of public works, but they’d be better supervised, and some folks wouldn’t like that, in my humble opinion.
Fifth-grader Ian Christian is cute, and seems very intellegent.
I think what he needs most desperately is a field trip to cuba, where there is supposedly near 100% literacy — yet the richest people there are poorer than the average petersburger.
Or maybe North korea.
I think those lessons are the ones he’s not getting in his present environment.
He’s right about the school’s failure, but has been misled about the causes.
It is clear that last night meeting was more of a formality than anything else. Their minds have always been made up before they come to these meetings.
City Attorney Robert Dawson
Chief Dixon
Dr. James Victory
Fire chief ?
All these men are new to the area, they all live in the city, yet they are all falling into the old craters, said part it is not by choice. These old politicians have a way of sucking the life of those around them.
We need to watch things as we may lose some very important people to the are. the folds of the city.
management is pissing them all off, the non financial support is not helping also.
referring to #4: That may be the case with a few, but I understand some of the reps and the City Manager are meeting with concerned taxpayers/citizens to try to understand better the community’s changing priorities, and to work toward meeting these changing expectations. I wouldn’t give up on them yet, but consistently get your message out there and offer them your support in effecting the desired (and difficult) changes.
John: you are correct in what you are saying. This is a very quick way to run off the new people.
All these guys have been very visual within the community and have done great jobs by giving back.
To raise the personal property is also an easy way to run more citizens out of the area. For the council and city manager failures is why we have to keep spending our monies to offset the cost of running the city. But as other have said how do we truly know what you will spend on.
some four years ago the City Manager stated that out taxes would not increase to the then acessed values of our property. So they dropped the tax rate down from $1.38 to the current rate of $1.35, and immediately not the promised two years our taxes went up.
In the past 4 years my house has incresed some 35,000,yet I have not made one single outward appearence upgrade.
I am aboput to have my roof done, so I guess once that is complete I can add another 15k to the acessors rate hike.
“City Attorney Robert Dawson
Chief Dixon
Dr. James Victory
Fire chief ?
….
management is pissing them all off, the non financial support is not helping also.”
They aren’t alone in getting pissed off.
I, for one, cannot fathom that only 2 of 7 City Council members have submit the paperwork necessary for the efficiency review study to move forward. To date, they are now the only individuals/entities that have not submit all required paperwork. This Council was the body that articulately spoke to the need for such a study, and voted to allocate taxpayer monies to same. Council needs to get their surveys in to Berkshire Advisors so that the study can be conducted!!! Who knows, the results of the study could suggest ways that our budget can better fund policing, schools, code enforcement, roads, and other cores.
Unfortunately, if petersburg can get it’s act together, we may have new problems:
http://www.inrich.com/cva/ric/news.apx.-content-articles-RTD-2008-05-14-0170.html
But we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.
I bet wilder is now rueing the day he lit a fire under his butt to get his college degree. Now, he’s probably one of the most employable men in the country, considering present-day politics.
The guy has done a great job, and wilder did a great job in hiring him.
Let’s see if he can clean up all the deadwood in richmond’s schools, without the squealers throwing him too off course.
The sad part in all this is the thought that is Monroe leave Richmond then Dixon may leave Petersburg to fill his spot. Life is easier when you have the support of people moving in the right direction.
Shawn is it? I really am not sure as to what you are attempting to say in your snide remarks about my son, but I will say this straight out. 1) You are quite possibly the one being mislead about the causes of a great many things and 2) Why don’t you make that trip to Cuba or any where else for that matter and stay. 3) Be careful how you comment on people’s children. Last but not least, when you make reference to his enviroment, you meant what? I’m quite sure your enviroment is not what you would have us think it is. Again, watch what you say and how you say things about my son. He has just as much right to speak about issues concerning him as you do.
Mr. Christian,
Were your son under any kind of attack, you would have every right to defend him.
Your son is in fifth grade, and even though he has a right to speak at council, I find it a highly unusual thing that he speaks there.
“Why don’t you make that trip to Cuba or any where else for that matter and stay?”
That’s not nice. You should be asking me to go to singapore, new zealand or switzterland. Places that are sucessful democracies. You might get rid of me that way.
You have an intelligent-sounding child that looks like he will be a handsome young man some day. I worry that he is being taught not to rely on you, or himself, but rather the government to solve his problems for him.
I think this community is rife with this kind of thinking, and the negative results are manifold.
Relying on the government saps intiative, and eventually destroys self-confidence.
“You are quite possibly the one being mislead about the causes of a great many things”
You are quite possibly right. My knowlege and experiences with urban school systems may not apply to petersburg. But I don’t think I’m wrong. Yet. Maybe you can change my mind.
“I’m quite sure your enviroment is not what you would have us think it is.”
I’m not sure what you mean.
I don’t want anyone to think ANYTHING about me personally. This is a forum for ideas.
Besides, Mr. Christian, I don’t think I am exactly popular here…
I am serious, Mr. Christian. This is a good place for you to tell people why you think the school system is failing. It might be a more civilized thing to do than using implied threats to try to shut up the other side of the debate.
I hope that is not taught in PPS.
Please excuse the snideness. I really do think a field trip to a communist country can do a lot of good for the education of a young man, albiet one older than a fifth-grader.
It not only really broadens one’s horizons, but it helps one see how good we have it here.
Also, please remember that if you hear ME speaking at council, you have every right to criticize what I have to say.
I would think that would be true of what you have to say, or even your son’s opinions.
Have a good day tomorrow.
Oh, and by the way, I’m sure you love your son very much.
Post #3: I invite you to go to http://www.petersburgtv.com and view the presentation by young Master Ian Christian and tell me what part of his articulate and most intelligent request to have the schools and police fully funded, did you hear to make you think he “desperately” needs to go to Cuba or North Korea.
“Your son is in fifth grade, and even though he has a right to speak at council, I find it a highly unusual thing that he speaks there.”
Why do you find it “highly unusual?” The illiteracy rate is not 100%. There are some of us who can speak a word or two of explicit and concerted conversation, or would you rather we all rap in insidious and hateful expletives?
“I think those lessons are the ones he is not getting in his present environment.”
What lessons? What are you talking about? This child asked that we fully fund schools and police. He declared that public safety would help youngsters such as he and his peers to stay on the right track as they would feel protected in their community.
Our young people feel that we older folk don’t want their input and don’t respect them. It is comments like the ones you made in reference to his standing up to be counted that increases the alienation and intellectual disenfranchisement of the next generation.
Budget decisions are not easy I would surmise, and we the general population don’t have all the information that has been afforded our council reps. Maybe council will become more transparent and citizen inclusive in the future, but right now, the citizens are afforded the opportunity to express ourselves at public forum and should be allowed to do so without being offered a slow boat to Cuba when we do, or Korea.
Kings knight captures shpawn.
Monroe IS leaving for Charlotte.
This is really too bad. Richmond finally has strong leadership, and the biggest symbol of this improvement is leaving.
Good luck to the chief.
Weighing in… I agree with the principle of teaching a man to fish rather than giving him a fish (as a rule), however, it seems to me that the taxpaying (and the future taxpaying) community was expressing their priorities to our representatives in relation to allocation of funds in the coming year’s city budget. I do not see such communication as “relying on the govt”. Or to put it differently, I’m not hearing ‘Give me more money please’, I’m hearing ‘Please allocate the budget like this.”
Also, while a youth standing to speak at a public forum may be unusual, he clearly is a stakeholder as a consumer of govt-funded/regulated services (e.g., education), and I think it is awesome that he is choosing to engage, as he is very likely learning great skills that will serve him well in his adult life. (Certainly must be a better education than sitting at home in front of the TV or some such thing.)
Re: Richmond’s Chief Monroe… here’s the news in the RTD
Chief Rodney is apparently moving to a nice place to live:
http://finance.yahoo.com/real-estate/article/105075/Charlotte-Named-Best-Place-to-Live
This is not irrevelvant to this region. Everyone knows what is going on in northern virginia. But the I-85 corridor from Ralliegh to Charlotte is predicted by the U. of Pennsylvania to grow even faster in comming years.
http://realestate.wharton.upenn.edu/newsletter/pdf/may06.pdf
Richmond, and yes, little Petersburg are right between these two phenoms. This is bigger than all of us, and our petty biases. You can shake your fist at it, call it whatever derrogatory name you want — or you can be smart and adjust your life accordingly.
(blow up the map on p. 14 and you will see chesterfield county is in the second fastest category for growth — that means northern chesterfield will have to become more urban — there will undoubtably be some gnashing of teeth)
One thing is certain: 1. the growth to the south of us will translate into a stimulus to the economy (in rented motel rooms alone) of the richmond MSA, which will bring more jobs and hence, more skilled workers from the northeast and midwest fleeing antibusiness state governments. 2. We WILL eventually have better mass transit here. Parochialism here will be trumped by the needs of people to get from DC to charlotte in a jiffy, and there will be a stop within a half hour from here (and maybe even here.)
Some people would obviously like to know why some people who profess to care about how our nation’s, and petersburg’s, children achieve in school do not do more to try to improve the school system in the same ways that they are doing — and most probably wonder this sincerely. A lot of people probably wonder why, if they care so much about the community, they send their kids to private schools, or home school them. Many of these concerns are sincere.
A LOT of those people who do not “show up” have FUNDAMENTAL disagreements with what should be taught to young people, philosophies about education, and how and who should be administering it.
I for one have no intension of being shouted down, threatened, or called evil, in public, because I question the wisdom of others’ educational philosophies, or political tactics.
When you are in the minority, and you go into a place that seems like a philosophical echo-chamber,speak your mind, –especially if you are a newcomer — you can not only expect hostility, but that many will excuse virtually any tactic used against you.
You do not find that in communities that have a more balanced political ideology.
Diallo, a native son who ran for delagate here, had some people whispering that he was trying to bring things like THIS to petersburg, which no doubt scared some people:
“New York schools
Six books a week
May 8th 2008 | NEW YORK
From The Economist print edition
Harlem parents are voting for charter schools with their feet
THOSE who had won whooped with joy and punched their fists. The disappointed shed tears. Some 5,000 people attended April 17th’s Harlem Success Academy Charter School lottery, the largest ever held for charter schools in the history of New York state. About 3,600 applied for 600 available places, and 900 applied for the 11 open slots in the second grade.
The desperation of these parents is hardly surprising. In one Harlem school district, not one public elementary school has more than 55% of its pupils reading at the level expected for their grade. And 75% of 14-year-olds are unable to read at their grade level. So Harlem parents are beginning to leave the public school system in crowds.
If a charter school gets more applications than it has space for, a lottery must be held. Hence April’s event. Joel Klein, the chancellor of New York City’s schools, attended, describing it as a “transformative night” that would “go down in the history of school reform”. Mr Klein said he thought Harlem’s public schools were getting better, but noted that a little competition helps everyone run faster. Last November he announced a plan which, in effect, would “charterise” the entire New York City school system, which has 1.1m children.
Harlem now has the most charter schools per square mile in the United States, yet demand still exceeds supply. Harlem Success is opening three new schools this summer. About 40% of all eligible children in central Harlem applied for kindergarten at Harlem Success schools. The reason is obvious. Tests taken at the beginning of the 2006-07 school year at Harlem Success showed only 11% of six-year-olds were at their grade level in mathematics. By the end of the year, 86% were. This may have something to do with grouping children by ability rather than by age, and with involving parents, who have to read six books a week to their children.
Unfortunately, many local politicians oppose charter schools. They have tried to cap their numbers, or refused to let them share buildings with public schools. The legislature in Albany has mandated that if a charter school has more than 250 students before its third year of existence, the teachers must unionise. That spoils everything.
David Paterson, New York’s new governor, once opposed charter schools. But he spoke enthusiastically about them at the lottery. A good education for all children, he said, was the most important thing. If charters can provide it even in Harlem, so much the better.
http://www.economist.com/world/na/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11332273
Diallo now lives in NYC.
To me, if someone wants better education for their child, they’ll rent an apt. somewhere that is getting education right. They won’t assert that everyone is out to get them, that every new building renovated is all about discrimation, that all businesses and homeowners that pay the bills are just dishonest crooks.
You want a bright future for your children, teach them RESPECT for the business community that provides goods. services, and jobs for a communinty, and DON’T teach them that all they are are discriminatory tax-cheats.
You want a bright future for your child, and have family ties in a community that is failing at education, or are too poor to move to a community that is getting education right, write to your representatives that the poor should ALSO have school choice, that you DO NOT support teachers’ unions (even though they protect “jobs” — (unless of course you are a teacher that is embarrassing people by trying to raise standards)) and by voting for candidates who support school choice for the poor NO MATTER their party affiliation.
There are many in the democratic party who would support school choice, and oppose the teachers’ unions, if they didn’t feel it would be political suicide.
I care about petersburg’s children, because I am an American. I do NOT want to see America fall behind. I care about the children of people who self-identify as being part of groups that are different than me. I care because those children are my neighbors, and if I have
children, they will be my children’s neighbors.
I don’t want those kids to hate my kids, or waste my kids’ time with political nonsense. When people are fighting over a broken chair, instead of building new chairs, productivity is squandered.
For a lot of ideologues, the means becomes the ends. There was an excellent letter in the PI today about teen pregnancy that tried to show that SOME people will ignore what WORKS in favor of what they WANT to work.
I am probably guilty of this myself sometimes — but I really try to be vigilant. I use two things: 1. look first at those who are sucessful at something — then see how they do things.
2. Use Ayn Rand’s maxim of “never bother to examine a folly, look only to whom it benefits.”
These two things will often debunk much wrong-thinking rife in every political movement.
Here is an article about school choice (egads!) in —– Richmond. (!)
http://www.inrich.com/cva/ric/opinion/oped.apx.-content-articles-RTD-2008-05-02-0028.html
Before I come to any meeting about giving more money to the schools, I’d like to have the numers of how much is spent per pupil here already, and compare that to other localities.
Before I enthusiastically support Dr. Victory, I’d like to see the numbers that show we have statiscally significant improvements in standardized test scores. Remember the last guy Petersburg hired for superintendent? I’m not saying he was bad, because I don’t know. I just know he was paid a small fortune, then they fired him, then they hired him again, then they fired him again, and paid like 200k for him to leave quietly.
And I don’t think we were ever given a real explaintion, this probably having something to do with lawyers.
Not a track record that inspires confidence, so I hope I can be forgiven for withholding my judgement on Dr. victory unitl I see the RESULTS of the changes that so many are so enthusiastic about.
As far as competion for public schools is concerned: Some will always forsake what works for what SHOULD work, and some will just not want themselves to be judged based on the success of their students — the only basis on which they deserve a job in education in the first place.
Meanwhile, the list of countries that are outperforming us in education is growing, but the list of countries that pour more $$ into education per student is not.
Richmond will get its first charter school!
http://www.inrich.com/cva/ric/news.apx.-content-articles-RTD-2008-05-20-0135.html
No guarentee that it will be better than richmond’s pathetic, corrupt, and expensive public schools. But it is guarenteed it will be an alternative available to the poor.
School board sure dragged their heels, and the NAACP opposed it, of course.
Y’all know at least ONE member of that august organization. Decide if THOSE are the type of people shaping your child’s worldview…
Have a great morning!
Akin: Your comments on Ian are correct as usual. The voices of the children here in Petersburg have been silenced for many years. I think it goes back to the a child should be seen not heard.
These children are exploding from the scenes, with a lot on their minds. Many have home issues that none of us have faced ever before.
A couple of years ago I started youth forums inthe area to see what was on the minds of the younger people inthe area. We have strengthen some of our relationships with the kids, but need a more inclusive setting with the schools to take this further along.
There is a lot of frustrated kids out here and some have a valid reason to be. From the faughts of parents and relatives to their teachers and administrators, and many have themselves and peers to be made at. Yet there is enough blame and responsibility to go around.
How do we go about helping these young people is key?
Cuiusvis hominis est errare, nullius nisi insipientis in errore perseverare.
Strong on style,…
When I was in fifth grade, I supposedly tested at the twelth-grade reading level in english.
Yet I could not have written such a succinct, convincing, speech.
Kudos.
“every time you cut, it is I who bleed…”
Yet, no cuts were made. An INCREASE was proposed, just not as big as Dr. Victory asked for.
At the end of the day, they raised the INCREASE.
Was this refusal to hold the line on spending political cowardice, or responsiveness? I actually do not know.
I have to commend akin s. for filming it, and maybe condemn the press for making it sound like everyone was JUST asking for $$ for the schools. Even the aforementioned young man asked for more money for the police too, and was equally convincing on that subject, but I don’t remember reading about that.
But why isn’t anyone praising the excellent Dr. [Fowler's?] speech?
That very sophisticated-seeming person gave a speech that, while a little overwhelming, was filled with numbers and facts.
Oh, that’s right….
I am not in the business of praising people’s words for who they are, but what they say. Who cares about the individual’s IDENTITY, asian, old, hispanic, female, white, young, poor, or not poor, — who cares.
Who is CORRECT?
Doesn’t that matter a bit?
Not a word of praise for that woman’s speech, but praise for “stakeholders.” who “are finally participating.”
Then, add-in the assertion that I said we send someone on a “slow boat” to somewhere, which is a totally different thing than a “field trip.” (people come back smarter from field trips)
The things that people will resort to.
Perhaps some people like to put words into others’ mouths, just like some try to equate picking up trash and planting flowers with cultural genocide — as if it were possible to be ethnically poor, or sloppy.
I mean, if you have ever BEEN to council, it is hardly like we never hear about the poor, or the children. In fact, it is usually the SAME THREE PEOPLE who speak all the time, and try to draw hair-thin connections between the tiniest thing and racial discrimination, and some shirking of duty to the poor (who, of course, have no duties themselves, apparently) Heck, someone wants to spend some money, talent, and sweat to put some nice apartments into an ALL BLACK neighborhood, these three even claim it’s all about SEGRAGATION –even though the neighborhood couldn’t possibly get MORE segragated already — and the net result will be LESS segregation.
Yet these councilmen-at-large are praised for “participating” when what they are asking for is for others to come to town, build them safe homes, give them jobs that there is no demand for in the world market, educate them, give them better health services and then — kindly leave, please, because we don’t want to have to compete with y’all for resources, or respect.
Look at page 5
http://pburgpn.net/documents/Minutes%20021908%20Council.pdf
Oh, they want “change” all right, but, like the head of the NAACP, they don’t want the CHANGERS, they don’t want the ideas of the changers, and they don’t want the changers to be rewarded for their efforts.
Because the changers are wrong. And jerks.
These aldermen-without-portfolio want ALL the rewards to go to the people who passively refuse to change their ideas about themselves, and the world, without paying for anything.
They want the changers to “make that trip to Cuba or any where else for that matter and stay.”
John H.
“How do we go about helping these young people is key?”
What do you think I am trying to do? I am trying to do what Daniel Patrick Moyniham was trying to do in the sixties, before he was shouted down.
I think enough of us have moved far enough to listen to what WORKS now. If I am wrong, my detractors will get their wish.
PS: anyone who wants to shut me up need not threaten me, put words in my mouth, or insinuate darkly that I am evil. All they need to do is find out how much money is spent per child in petersburg, and then find out how much is spent in other localities per child, and post a link.
If petersburg is spending significantly less (even though petersburg is poorer, and the other localites are hardly efficient themselves) per student than the other localities — I really have no case, even if I am perhaps right in general.
Believe it or not, if you do that, I will THANK YOU, and will conceed that maybe we should at least get the funding at par, but I will still want to see firings going on in the adminstrative areas and increases in teacher quality (even if that means paying them more) if we do so. And I will want to see incentives for people, teachers, students, to perform better, compared to their peers in at least other parts of this state, if not the world.
Case in point:
http://www.inrich.com/cva/ric/news.apx.-content-articles-RTD-2008-05-20-0163.html
Who does this person think she is sueing?
John H.
“How do we go about helping these young people is key?”
What do you think I am trying to do? I am trying to do what Daniel Patrick Moyniham was trying to do in the sixties, before he was shouted down.
I think enough of us have moved far enough to listen to what WORKS now. If I am wrong, my detractors will get their wish.
PS: anyone who wants to shut me up need not threaten me, put words in my mouth, or insinuate darkly that I am evil. All they need to do is find out how much money is spent per child in petersburg, and then find out how much is spent in other localities per child, and post a link.
If petersburg is spending significantly less (even though petersburg is poorer, and the other localites are hardly efficient themselves) per student than the other localities — I really have no case, even if I am perhaps right in general.
Believe it or not, if you do that, I will THANK YOU, and will conceed that maybe we should at least get the funding at par, but I will still want to see firings going on in the adminstrative areas and increases in teacher quality (even if that means paying them more) if we do so. And I will want to see incentives for people, teachers, students, to perform better, compared to their peers in at least other parts of this state, if not the world.
Hey Shawn I will not disagree with you here. The cost per student is 10k plus. I am in agreement of also some top officials need to go. The administration staff here in PCPS is very top heavy and the salaries of some are ridicules.
I have asked of the SB officials why pay off these high paid officials when they can teach for the rest of their duration of their contract. I would have never allowed for Hamlin to leave with all that money to go some place else. I would have sat him in a classroom to teach and if that was beneath him then he can breech his contract not me.
As far as those three people forever speaking at Council meeting I am very aware of who they are. I will actually be there tonight, as I have attended at least 65% of the meetings since 2004.
I do ask you to come out and be a part of PTA (you need not have a child to be a part).
As far as the suing of the school system I think it is more of a statement than to actually get money.
Many are disheartened about the last minute change of the graduation for next month. When families have spent money and have guest arriving it is a total disruption of a great day for any family. Remember how proud you were of your own graduation, you may have had parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and others that may have wanted to be a part of this.
The 25 invitations were around $300 which is not a cheap price, yet I still don’t understand why if we have a printing department in our schools why are they not seeking the pay to do this very same thing?
The schools and city waste a lot of money on items that can be done in house this is how you cut the but items. For this same $300 PCPS could have done the work for less than half and still come out with a profit of about $100 per student, and with some 250+ graduation that is some 25k added back to the budget.
It also counts as a grade for those students entered into the class. The automotive class can perform oil changes at a discount rate for teachers and administrators.
That was Dr. Farley that spoke out against the spendings of the budget.
The very same person that said reading was not necessary in the Petersburg School system.(she was once the mayor and school board member)
John H.,
I am aware of who you are, and can only hope that if I have children, I am as good a father as you are.
10k+/student. You got a link?
If that is true, they pay a lot more than the national average:
http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/economic_surveys/006685.html
Look, the cost of petersburg’s students is twice utah’s.
That must mean petersburg’s kids get TWICE the education that Utah’s kids do, because of all those smart administrative people they’ve got.
Right?
http://www.midwestsites.com/stellent2/groups/public/documents/pub/mws_am_ed_000924.hcsp
Oppps. Looks like Utah’s test scores make them #20 in the nation, and virigina is only #34. And petersburg is worst in the state, am I correct?
Maybe I wasn’t misled after all.
PS: Re: PTA
That’s very kind of you. I may just, if I find out there are more leaders like you in town.
“That was Dr. Farley that spoke out against the spendings of the budget.
The very same person that said reading was not necessary in the Petersburg School system.(she was once the mayor and school board member)”
Hey Paul, you got a link?
Now that you have given me her actual name, I know who she is, and she is no stranger to education. Sorry for the skepticism, but there a lot of people in this town that have trouble with facts, so… give me a link.
You don’t like this Farley person, then
I’ll also say the no-doubt white-power-loving vice-mayor webb pretty much said exactly what I have been saying about bloated administration in PPS.
Of course, we could be listening to people who NEVER EVEN WENT TO COLLEGE, right? That would be smart. Right?
Or some one like King Salim who probably studied “oratory,” considering his alma mater.
Or maybe or own NAACP:
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=70894051
They probably know a lot about education.
Oh, I’m sure Dr. Farley just HATES education.
http://www.voicesofpetersburg.org/transcripts/transFlorenceFarley.pdf
Second in her class in high school, first Educational Psychology graduate of VSU (before the school went down-the-tubes), first black professional at Central State Hospital, first female mayor of petersburg.
And here is what she said at council on may 1st:
http://www.petersburg-va.org/council/minutes/050107.htm
Dr. Florence Farley, 18 South Little Church, stated that she feels that it is necessary to have a budget from the school board that is teacher-friendly or faculty-friendly. She stated that she is suspicious that this budget may not be. She stated that she can not find out exactly what is going to happen with the budget. She stated that she would ask the school board what are competent teachers. She stated that she is concerned about the children of the City today. She also stated concerns about the truancy rate in Petersburg.
Oh, and I found the “reading” issue you were talking about. I don’t think she ever said “Petersburg’s kids don’t need reading in the schools”
She said this:
http://www.progress-index.com/site/news.cfm?BRD=2271&dept_id=462946&newsid=8228102&PAG...
“Maniego and Farley contend that if a student is reading and can comprehend four other subjects in order to pass, then it demonstrates his reading ability, whether he passes the reading course or not.
Farley and Maniego pointed out the high number of retentions the school division has seen in past years, a great deal of which they said is caused by a student failing only one subject such as reading. Those students are forced to repeat an entire grade, even though they passed all their other subjects, the school board members said.
Plus, kindergartners were being retained when the focus of kindergarten should be development, Farley and Maniego said, taking away from the purpose of having such young children in the classroom.
“Nobody is saying throw academics out,” Farley said. “We are talking about an approach to education. There is something wrong with the system and we are trying to get on the side of the child.”
In her opinion, Farley said, holding a child back because they failed one class such as reading is “penalizing” a student rather than fostering growth and development.
Maniego said that during their studies, the curriculum committee found an “enormous” amount of failures and that the school division “has not been able to keep those numbers down because we have not met the needs of our students.”
“We have failed kids two and three times in the same grade,” Maniego said. One such case she pointed out was that of a 9-year-old in the first grade. “That child can’t afford to fail again.”
Maniego said that sometimes by a holding a child back a grade, they are causing more damage than good by discouraging the student in making them take classes they have already passed.
“We are not about short-changing students,” Farley said. “We must work in harmony with children so they feel they can succeed.”
School Board members did table the issue however, saying they were impressed with the turnout at the meeting and convinced that more needed to be done before the policy could be passed so that educators and parents alike could enter a new school year confident in whatever changes are made.
And changes, Farley said, are on the horizon.
“There are some significant changes that need to made in this school system, in curriculum and accountability,” she said. “We will be looking at all of it.”
She used “reading” as an example. If she was talking about my mother, she would’ve said “math.”
She had a point. I am as against social promotion as ANYONE in petersburg, so I am against just passing someone — but it would be highly innovative if petersburg came up with a college-like system of class cells. You fail one subject, you are held back and much repeat THAT subject.
And then, there is summer school…
It is just like the public to twist something someone said into something truely damning.
One thing I disagree with her about: She grumbled something about “tests” last night, saying that there should not be so much emphasis on them.
As someone who is NOT from this community, NOT a VSU grad, and NOT a leader in petersburg — I must say that from a big-picture view, standardized tests are the only way for a state, a country, or a college, to know that the “A” from your school is the same as an “A” from someone else’s school.
The idea that it is not fair to compare students from one community to ones from another is short-sighted. Petersburg is hardly independent, and thus needs to be held accountable for the money they get from outside, and petersburg’s graduates must compete for jobs worldwide.
This isn’t Waco, Texas.
John H.
What do you think of this?
Petersburg School Board deserves praise for moving graduation to morning
Today’s PI:
To the Editor:
For 33 years I taught seniors at a large high school in Chesterfield County and for about half of that time co-sponsored the Senior Class.
A part of that responsibility involved organizing graduation. In the 1970s and the majority of the 1980s our graduations were held in our football stadium. Preparing for a dignified event became increasingly difficult.
Every year we prayed it would not rain as June is prime time for late evening thunderstorms. If the weather was perfect, we were lucky. When we had to move indoors at the last minute because of storms and lightening, we were beset upon by parents who cursed and berated the faculty and staff, who were at the entrances to the building, as only several hundred of the several thousand in attendance could come in. One would have thought we chose to “ruin” their child’s graduation. We also had to attend to the logistics of trying to prepare for both eventualities.
Because the ceremony was at 6:30 or 7 p.m., we also had to worry about graduates and their families and friends who may have chosen to begin their celebrations early and arrived at graduations in less than perfect condition. Additionally, evening graduations brought about the problem of drop in traffic looking for something to do on a warm evening. So, to provide a higher level of security we began a ticket system and we got complaints for that.
In the late 1980s Chesterfield decided that all graduations would be held at the Richmond Coliseum on a rotating time schedule. Some were held at 10 a.m. and some in the afternoon and some at night and since there are so many schools, on more than one day. Schools were rotated as to their time slot and it changed from one year to the next. Today that same system is in place but in a different venue. Somehow, everyone has a ticket, and parents and close relatives all managed to park and attend, and many have to make adjustments at work to do so. I have no recollection of a parent telling us that they were penalized by an employer for attending their child’s graduation.
I commend the School Board in Petersburg for moving their commencement ceremony to the morning. I strongly suspect this year’s graduation will not be rained out, folks will be in a more dignified mode upon arrival, and graduates will have a more dignified ceremony to remember. It takes courage to do the right thing and with all of the problems faced by this board, parents really need to support a group that appears to have, at least in this situation, the best interest and safety of students in mind.
As an aside, to compare this decision as “inhuman treatment” as one writer wrote, is an insult to those persons throughout this world who really are suffering. I would respectfully suggest that the people of Myanmar and Dharfur and China and Tibet would have a hard time recognizing this minor adjustment to a high school graduation as a major human rights issue.
Heather M. Sloan
Chester
I think the whole richmond region is laughing at us.