Last night I attended my first School Board meeting ever. How do I find the words?
Pitiful.
These people are elected to direct education and educational funds in Fauquier County for those who decide to take advantage of the public education system for their children. Did I hear honest people with direct and honest intent? For the most part, no. Did I hear petty bickering and semi-indirect wise-cracks (mainly by one person) at others? Yep.
On to what happened. for this meeting which lasted around an hour.
First off, a committee (of what appeared to me to be Middle School Principals) discussed their desire to eliminate inter-scholastic middle school sports and replace them with intramural sports intended to encourage lack of competition (the argument being competition is not good at the 6th-8th grader age) and encourage more participation (the stats on the try-outs and team positions are lame, often 33% make the team). Is there plenty to talk about here? Sure is.
What else was talked about? Funding for High School athletics, specifically Freshman sports which have had declining participation.
What was practically not talked about? The elimination of funding for 21 teaching positions. Granted, Mr. Gorg (representative for the Center District) voiced his concerns that not one board member brought up the discussion of the impact of the loss on teaching positions, except the administrator who addressed his direct question of essentially 'what will happen?'. Note to the reader--this is in direct contrast to the exhaustive conversation on the funding, participation, and importance of after-school middle school sports, not to forget the funding of Freshman sports teams which was discussed at length as well.
As was mentioned by some concerned citizen after the meeting--those sitting on the board have known budget changes were coming for around 5 years. What have they done to prepare for it? Nothing. What are they doing now? Gnashing their teeth.
Pitiful.
No comments:
Post a Comment