The School Board’s been working on rules and procedures for dealing with simple questions like who decides what we talk about at meetings (the Board Chair and superintendent come up with a draft agenda, then send it to all Board members for input) and more complicated issues like publicly supporting a Board decision even if you voted against it. Now we’re hashing out what I thought was one of the simpler matters, should Board members regularly visit the schools without an administrative escort? Members already agree to giving school administrators a heads up that we’re in the building, and no one seems interested in interrupting classes or putting teachers and students on the spot, but some disagree with my opinion that there’s value in visiting the schools both with and without administrative oversight. Obviously, it’s great to have someone show us what we might miss on our own, and tell us things we don’t even know to ask. But I think we get another valuable perspective, from things we see and people we talk to, without an administrator standing by. The discussion continues in October.
Also at the September meeting we heard some interesting facts about Fluvanna’s Adult Education program. Last year Adult Ed served 58 students, split about evenly between African-American, Hispanic, and white populations. Most were age 25-44. 57% were employed. About 3000 people in Fluvanna have less than a 12th grade education.
September’s budget discussion included a report on enrollment. We’re down from last year by 33 students. The state estimated we’d be down by 99, but fortunately they count and adjust our revenue several times during the year. Attrition rates are lower in the middle grades than at upper and lower levels.
One of the final items at the September meeting was a throw back to August’s failure to gain a second on the motion to approve that month’s policy updates. With all members present this time, the same items were presented for approval and all passed, though not unanimously. I voted against the policy on leaves and absences (there’s more information about this in my last post) and Mr. Rittenhouse voted against alternative paths to attaining standard units of credit for graduation because he felt it lowered the bar for graduation requirements.
Meeting adjourned!
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