Dear Colleagues:
Welcome back from Spring Break! I hope you enjoyed time with family and friends. Between now and the last day of school on June 12, time will seem to fly. With more than the typical number of inclement weather days we’ve experienced this winter, I know we all feel the importance of maximizing academic learning time for quality learning each and every day. Learning is at the heart of our work. Having said that, I would like to take this opportunity to update you on some current events at the state and local level that will impact our work.
On the local front, many of you have expressed appreciation for keeping you informed about the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors and School Board’s current budget process. This Tuesday, April 8th at 6 p.m., in the County Office Building on McIntire Road, the Board of Supervisors will hold a public hearing on their advertised property tax rate of 80.8 cents per $100 of assessed property valuation. This rate would increase homeowners’ property taxes by $3.50 per month for each $100,000 of assessed valuation. The rate, if approved, would reduce our funding request deficit for next year from $5.8 million to $2.4 million, thus helping us to avoid significant increases in class size or the elimination or reduction of the employee compensation increase directed by both boards.
Our supervisors place a high value on public input. Several have noted the strong support for schools from members of the community during the public hearing on the county executive’s budget. To increase two-way communication around the school division’s funding request as well as other areas of concern in the County’s budget, supervisors have been meeting with constituents at town hall meetings throughout the county prior to approving a final tax rate on April 15. They have a better understanding of the impact of reductions on our students from your sharing feedback with them. No one can offer a more accurate picture of the impact that substantial cuts to our funding request would have in the classroom. Your perspectives continue to be important to them as they approach making a final tax rate decision.
I believe the upcoming funding decisions will influence the quality of education we are able to provide the young people we serve. Through the recessionary years that began in 2008, we have stretched resources to sustain an overall programming level that represents our community’s core values, including small community elementary schools, reasonable class sizes, commitment to core learning staff and librarians, counselors, intervention staff, career and technical educators, as well as staffing and time to offer art, music, physical education.
Our School Board has held dear our quality program opportunities despite decreases in the federal and state contributions to K-12 education during recent years. Indeed, we staff Albemarle’s schools well above Virginia’s minimal Standards of Quality (SOQ) in most areas. If we staffed to the state’s minimal standards, the impact would be tangible. For example, the Virginia SOQ only requires a half-time principal in elementary schools with fewer than 300 students (we have five such schools). If we staffed to SOQ standards, almost no middle or elementary schools in the county would have an assistant principal. Our art, music, and physical education elementary staff would be reduced almost in half. Class sizes could run as high as 29 in kindergarten and into the mid-thirties in secondary classes. Under the current SOQ we would not be required to support gifted resource teaching positions in any schools. Counseling and library staffing would be significantly less than we currently provide. The School Board and I know our Albemarle standards for positions make a difference to children, offering a variety of programs and opportunities to reach every learner. That is why we hold our higher staffing standards dear.
Even with efforts to keep reductions as far away from schools as possible, we all can also describe impacts that have diminished services to our students. Inflation coupled with reductions in central instructional funding has resulted in both reduced buying power and funds for learning resources. I know from conversations with you that it’s common for you to spend “out of pocket” money for needed resources. We have maintained the same or lower per pupil expenses every year since 2008-09, and our current per pupil expense now equals the national average of $11,800 (NCES). Many employees “take home” about the same or even less pay than in 2008-09 as a result of changes in the Virginia Retirement System (VRS) and elimination of the Social Security tax holiday.
Beyond this year, the outlook for public education in our county promises to improve. Both boards have talked about the need to find a permanent and sustainable funding model. The pattern of the past several years has been difficult with declining revenues and cost increases beyond our local control. It only has been through your selfless efforts that our county has been able to protect and improve student performance with fewer and fewer resources.
At the state level, changes are occurring as well that will impact our work. During its annual session this winter, the General Assembly took legislative actions that the Governor has signed into law that represent changes in Virginia’s system for high stakes testing and accountability that has been in place in Virginia since 1998. As a result, we will first see a reduction in the number of SOL tests administered to elementary and middle school children in the 2014-15 school year. For content areas that will no longer be tested with standardized state tests, each division will be expected to certify the use of alternative assessments. A second action on the horizon will be led by Virginia’s Secretary of Education, Ann Holton, who will empanel a committee to look at further changes in state testing, including current high school requirements. A third action of note is the delay of the Commonwealth’s newly adopted program for applying letter grades to Virginia’s schools. This program has been shelved for two years so that the plan can be critically examined.
It is important to note here that for four years, our School Board has been a leader in advocacy for reduced state testing and provision of more local control over assessment responsibility. Our Board has also opposed the VDOE’s plan to use letter grades to define our schools. On a final note, Dr. Patricia Wright is retiring as Virginia’s Superintendent of Public Instruction. Dr. Steven Staples will assume that role on May 1. Dr. Staples is a former superintendent in York County and currently serves as the executive director of the Virginia Association of School Superintendents (VASS). I believe he will actively engage educators and parents from across the Commonwealth to shape Virginia’s vision for public education.
I look forward to our School Board finalizing its budget for 2014-15, likely by the end of April after the tax rate is set. As I stated at the outset of this letter, learning is at the heart of what we do, and you make that happen. I hope that the information provided here is helpful to you, and that you are as heartened by the efforts of staff, our Boards, and educational leaders at the state level, as I am inspired in knowing your daily efforts for children. You make the difference.
Thank you for your wonderful work on behalf of our students and their families!
Pam