Editor’s Note: This article is now complete.
We’re LIVE! at tonight’s Danville School Board meeting. The meeting starts at 6PM and we’re the only place where you’ll know what’s happening LIVE! Be sure to refresh the page often for the latest happenings, commentary and photos.
New work session seating format!
Nice idea!
This means a lot. It gives us a place to spread out and take notes. Well done, School Board!
A media table too. I’m impressed! Hey, no Register & Bee reporter tonight.
Now the school board members are all within fighting range. Bwahahaha!
We’re underway.
Renee Hughes is not falling out of her chair, we promise.
Cheryl Bryant will be late. School Board Attorney Alan Spencer isn’t here.
October will be Bullying Prevention Month, and School Bus Safety week will be during October.
Discipline overview is next. Noticeable improvement. 55% decrease in infractions overall in August 2014 vs. August 2013. Increase in bus violations at the elementary level due to clear policy objectives. Sharon Dones questions difference between “defiance” and “minor insubordination”. GW students late to classes have to go to an office if they’re late to class. That office tracks tardies. 2 tardies is a parent notification. Bonner & Westwood share the drops in decreased middle school referrals. Only a few students in the elementary school level are causing the majority of problems. Example is 3 students at Johnson and 10 at Gibson. We’ll have a NumbersCentral on this report on Friday.
Jackie Rochford talks about the giant Career Fair on October 1st and 2nd. It will be at the Olde Dominion Agricultural Center outside of Chatham.
The school system has satisfied 2 of the 4 $500K “repayments” from the City Council loan.
Financial reports continue. Homebound instruction costs were $150K below budget, as fewer kids were sentenced to homebound for disciplinary offenses.
The view to my left…
Textbook reports are next. Textbooks are used for seven years before a new version is used. Foreign language textbooks will be updated this year on the 7-year cycle.
Kathy Osborne is “Concerned” … as an Interim Superintendent should be. Ha!
3 schools are fully accredited, Forest Hills, Galileo and GW. Others missed at least one goal. Osborne talk about other achievement goals that weren’t met, but she’s throwing out so many jargon terms that I’m completely lost.
Cheryl Bryant asks about changing to a 10 point grading scale to help with graduation rates (did I hear that right?). After the meeting, I asked her about that. She said most Northern Virginia schools have gone to the 10-point scale so that puts Danville at a disadvantage in the statistics. That makes sense.
Sharon Dones says what we said. Too much information to digest that quickly.
Personnel recommendations are next. Osborne says 1 vacant teacher position left at GW and 2 remaining in the elementary schools. Sharon Dones pulls 4 personnel recommendations into the closed session.
Somebody bring Philip Campbell an extension cord. Heh.
October’s work session is moved to a Monday to avoid a VSBA meeting conflict.
Three search firms submitted proposals for the Superintendent search.
Sharon Dones asks if the discussion can go in closed session. That ruffles my feathers. Absolutely not. BWP & Associates is the company selected for the superintendent search. They are from Okatie, SC.
Recess then closed session for disciplinary offenses. Normally, everybody leaves but I’m sticking around.
A parent comes out and starts talking to me about why she’s here. Her son is facing expulsion for a fight. Her story is that her son had a big football player intimidate her son by verbal harassment and getting chest-to-chest with him. Her son hit the bigger kid and knocked him out. The first hearing board recommended 365 day expulsion and the school board hears the appeal tonight. She says that the bigger kid got a 5-day suspension. Wild story.
We’ll wrap this up with a few bonus photos…
glad u can sit in on the work sessions. since they are not channel 10 broadcasted
Note to Cheryl Bryant: The object of the school system is to teach, not lower the standards for graduation so that more will graduate without proper education. We did not elect you to lower the standards, but improve the school system to better educate the children of Danville.
Thank you! That’s exactly what I was thinking!!
I’m not an expert on closed meeting law, but I’m not certain what aspect of choosing a company to run a search would qualify.
None. I bristled and a few members noticed. No board attorney here to shoot it down quickly.
Closed session can only be used to discuss specific personnel, real estate purchases, or discipline of students.
Other things too…
The discipline report is way off. There are many fight stories that don’t get reported. Before this meeting, had you heard of this fight story? If discipline is ignored, the report gets better. Go to the halls of gw and witness what goes on. Don’t expect the school officials to report it. The true report would make them look bad.
Truth
Well, I hear that things are much better at GW (info from someone who works there). The reason-the Central office is letting the school do what they need to do! Imagine that. This means that they are cracking down on infractions-and I tell you-they are! It is making a difference and will continue to make a difference. Seeing that they mean what they say, and will do what they say can only continue to improve what is going on in the schools. As far as the grading scale, you do know that a 10 point grading scale is not so uncommon now? College’s do it and I understand so do many schools. There is already “grade” inflation going on in schools. You think all these kids in AP classes making A’s are really that smart? Inflation, colleges know this now and that is why students must make a certain grade on AP exams to get the college credit. If you were to see grades of local student you would think Danville has a lot of genius students in their schools! LOL! Sorry mommy and daddy, they aren’t really as smart as you want to believe they are. LOL!
Just because it’s uncommon doesn’t mean it’s a good thing. How can making a C student a B student or a D student a C student just by changing the grading help anyone? This is why colleges are now spending so much time and money on remedial math and reading classes.
Someone who works at GW is obviously confused and Gave you bad information.
Unless you give something specific that you know about and I can factcheck it, I have to go with what’s provided by the school system.
Oh we believe that’s what they said in front of you. But as a parent of 2 (soon to be 3) in DPS I can tell you they’re way off! Do I have absolute facts to prove this? No … I just listen to the children.
You are the investagative reporter.
And i gotta have something specific to investigate.
You will never get a true report from the school administration.
You don’t get it! !!