Parents apply direct pressure as elected officials get hundreds of e-mails

The Albemarle County School Board has received an unprecedented number of e-mails from parents in recent weeks, which officials say could influence major decisions.

“I would estimate that this is the most public input we have received on a funding request and it is probably 10 times as much as any year that I’ve been on the board,” School Board member Brian Wheeler said.

Hundreds of e-mails, obtained by The Daily Progress through a Freedom of Information Act request, were sent to the School Board in the month following Superintendent Pamela Moran’s funding request in January.

After a drastic drop in revenue because of the economic recession, the School Board sent a $145.2 million budget proposal to the Board of Supervisors last month, nearly $4 million less than this fiscal year’s budget. Among other reductions, the request cuts at least 22 teachers and about 45 school employees in total, including two principals.

Under a School Board cost-saving plan, some of the county’s smallest elementary schools would not have their own principals. Red Hill and Murray elementary schools would share one principal, and Scottsville and Yancey elementary schools would share one principal.

“The principal is a core part of this environment at Murray,” one parent wrote to the School Board. “On a daily basis, our principal is a visible leader for the teachers, staff and most importantly the student body.”

School Board member Steve Koleszar said of the principal sharing plan: “I think that’s something that the board may reconsider.”

Koleszar said that neither teacher reductions nor principal reductions are ideal but of the two, “I would say increase the [kindergarten through third grade] class size and bring those principal positions back.”

School Board Chairman Ronnie Price Sr. said there’s a possibility he would reverse his vote if the principal-sharing plan is revisited by the board.

“Today, I’d have to think a little bit harder,” Price said in a recent interview.

Some folks e-mailed money-saving suggestions as alternatives to cutting teachers, including furloughs for administrators; limiting technology such as Smart Boards only to courses in which they are essential; eliminating costly overtime payouts, especially for custodial work; and having school heads find a cheaper drink alternative than bottled water.

Some school employees insisted on across-the-board pay cuts.

“If EVERYONE would take a slight reduction in our current paycheck, contingent on total amount, we could work together as a community to support our quality of services and education for our children,” one woman wrote.

Many asked that the real estate tax rate be increased, despite the majority of county supervisors aiming to maintain the current rate. At a Board of Supervisors public hearing last week — which several officials said was the largest turnout they’ve ever seen — the overwhelming majority of speakers asked that the county find a way to adequately fund education, even if it means higher taxes.

Price wrote to one parent that “it is truly a sad moment for me to know I live in one of the wealthiest [counties] in the commonwealth of Virginia but our tax rate and willingness to support our school ranks at the very lowest level. Please help me in urging our Board of Supervisors to support education adequately.”

Price said the pleas at the recent public hearing to raise the real-estate tax rate, currently 74.2 cents per $100 of assessed value, “shows that there is a huge interest” in adequately funding education.

Price noted several folks who actually handed county administrators checks for hundreds of dollars at the meeting, adding he’s never seen “people’s wallets start opening up” at a public hearing.

“Nobody I’ve talked with has ever seen taxpayers so willing to come out of their pockets,” Price said.

As the School Board makes its case for a spending plan millions of dollars over budget, Wheeler said he thinks the support for education at the public hearing “strengthens our presentation.”

Supervisor Kenneth C. Boyd, a Republican and leading voice of a conservative movement on the Board of Supervisors, said a large portion of the e-mails he’s received are from residents calling for funding of the School Board budget.

“But my position on it is still the same. It’s too preliminary,” Boyd said. “We don’t even know what the gaps are going to be yet. Until we get a better feel for what the state’s numbers are, there’s not much that you can hang your hat on in terms of where they are in funding.”

While some school officials project that the School Board’s spending plan could be over budget by nearly $9 million, others believe the number is much smaller, considering that the state legislature hasn’t decided how much education funding to give Albemarle.

Outcry over four-by-four

Many writers scolded School Board members last month for directing administrators to change students’ class schedules for next school year with little warning.

“I just read the article on the front page of today’s Daily Progress (Wednesday, Feb. 17) stating that the 4 X 4 block system will be implemented next year, and I am barely able to contain my dismay,” one woman wrote. “Furthermore, why was it listed as a tier 3 reduction and then almost immediately pushed through without public input? Perhaps I’ve missed something but, from my point of view, this process had been anything but transparent, to say the least.”

Another woman wrote: “It’s a shame that our opinion was dismissed in such a critical matter.”

Instead of taking up to seven classes for a full school year, students will take as many as eight classes in a year under the new system, but most will be only a semester long. Some courses will still last the full school year, such as advanced placement, band and yearbook.

Administrators said the modified four-by-four block schedule would save money at a desperate time and allow students to focus on fewer classes at once and take a wider variety of electives and college dual-enrollment courses. School Board members said at the time that if the new scheduling system were to be implemented for the 2010-11 school year, instead of 2011-12 as administrators originally imagined, the decision had to be made quickly so that schools could start setting class schedules.

The new schedule is estimated to save the school division more than $820,000, because teachers will typically teach six classes per year instead of five, which will allow the school division to keep class sizes the same with fewer teachers.

Athletics redistricting

A large portion of the e-mails came from parents begging the School Board not to change Albemarle High School’s athletic district. The idea had been considered largely to drop AHS into a smaller sports district to perhaps save tens of thousands of dollars by reducing travel expenses.

“I think that’s one example in the process where the School Board ended up revisiting that item and ended up taking it off the table after significant public input,” Wheeler said. “Without the public feedback it certainly would have remained … an idea in the budget.”