Thanks for reading Fluco Blog. I’m Perrie Johnson, Fork Union’s representative to the Fluvanna County School Board. My goal with Fluco Blog is to let people know what’s going on at School Board meetings beyond the reports available online. Be forewarned regarding discussions, most of the comments I remember turn out to be mine. Here’s the latest….
I might as well start off with the big news of the evening, Ms. Keller’s resignation. While the purpose of Fluco Blog is to fill you in on discussions that lead up to School Board decisions, I can’t help you much with this one. Personnel matters are discussed in closed session, which we have one hour before each regular meeting. In this case I can only give you the facts on public record, which begin with the opening of the meeting, and the Board Chair requesting we add two personnel votes to the previously scheduled vote coming later in the evening. For the first vote all agreed to ask the Board of Supervisors to let us keep the money left over from last year’s budget. Then, just before the second vote, it was announced Ms. Keller had submitted her resignation, and we needed a vote to accept or reject. All voted in favor. The third vote was to place Mr. Winkler as interim superintendent. I was the only dissenting vote, with the public comment that I was voting no only because having just learned this information, I didn’t feel I’d had enough time to give a considered opinion on such an important decision.
Wait, wait, don’t leave….we had another unusual event that night. Three people came forward to speak to the Board during time for public comments. I can think of a grand total of only three speakers in the entire 11 months I’ve been on the Board. All were teachers who spoke eloquently about money for salaries, and other concerns, for the 2018 budget. When that budget discussion came around a little while later, I acknowledged the teachers’ comments and requested that we ask them (and all staff) for suggestions on where we can cut costs to better support the priorities they addressed. I’m sure they have good ideas!
All that’s left is old news, the School Board self-evaluation and protocols. I asked (again) that we include consideration of the staff survey results in our evaluation. I asked (again again) that we don’t change our School Board protocols to require administrative oversight of informal school visits by Board members. Changes have been proposed (Mr. Rittenhouse asked who wrote them) that require Board members to give at least 24 hours’ notice to administration before visiting a school, and further require Board members to reschedule their visit if no administrative designee is available to walk them around. I read aloud a section of a handbook provided by the Virginia School Boards Association (we pay them a considerable amount of money for their opinion on our policies) which said, ‘From time to time the superintendent may be asked to arrange for the school board to visit schools and see a program in operation….This does not preclude unannounced visits by board members to the schools or prevent them from talking with school personnel at the schools visited. On the contrary, board members should visit the schools as much as possible.’ I’ve been invited to submit my own version of this protocol in December. I think VSBA said it best.
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This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me. The views expressed in this blog are purely my own and do not represent the Fluvanna County School Board, the school superintendent, or anyone else. Comments added by others are not necessarily my opinions and I am not responsible for their content.
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