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You are Here: Fairfax County Public Schools > Departments, Clusters > Superintendent's Office > Superintendent's Community Advisory Council > SCAC Minutes October 16, 2001
Superintendent's Community Advisory Council
Dick Reed asked the Superintendent to update the council.
Superintendent Domenech discussed efforts to change the admissions procedures for TJHSST. He said this issue would be resolved in the next few weeks. Inequities in the process need to be resolved; the question is how to resolve them.
Suzanne Levy asked why "TJ-type" courses could not be offered in other schools. Domenech replied that the curriculum is fine in all schools and that the "challenge index" developed by Washington Post reporter, Jay Matthews, shows that our schools compare extremely favorably with other schools around the nation in offering high level (AP and IB) coursework to all students.
Boyce Williams said she applauded the Superintendent for "biting the bullet" with his proposal. This shows he is committed to remedying inequities.
Nell Hurley said she understands that the Superintendent's proposal is not designed to remedy racial or ethnic inequities. Domenech said that is true.
Reed said he discussed the Superintendent's proposal with seven School Board members' four supported it, one opposed it, and two would not take a position.
Kevin Deckard made a presentation on activities to increase state support of schools, especially the role of Virginia CARES (i.e., Virginia Consortium for Adequate Resources for Education).
Hurley asked if the consortium's proposals on capital funding would cover new construction. Deckard said that they did not do so explicitly, since the criterion for funding was the established base of permanent square feet of instructional space. He said they might not but that keeping the consortium together required a balance between the interests of all jurisdictions and that many other Virginia school systems were less concerned than FCPS about constructing new schools. Deckard added, however, that over time, as new schools were built, Fairfax's base of permanent square footage would grow accordingly, so the annual funding would grow and provide delayed compensation for the new construction. Hurley noted that the consortium's recommendations indicated that lowering class size is not a priority. Deckard said that, again, other school systems do not necessarily want to lower class size without more space to put the extra classes. If the State were to agree to provide funding for the capital costs of acquiring the new space, then Virginia CARES would be supportive of class size reduction.
Domenech pointed out that FCPS would benefit little even if the Virginia CARES proposals were implemented, because of equity formulas in state funding that would continue even if the recommendations were implemented.
Reed asked why, in that case, FCPS is supporting the proposals when we could do better by raising the money ourselves.
Kathleen Katz said we need to convince the state to provide additional money for educating limited English proficient students. Deckard responded by pointing out that Virginia CARES recommends that ESL programs in stand alone fashion, similar to the way special education funding is determined. Deckard added that many states try to deal with special needs students through use of a weighting system, so that students with certain characteristics such as limited English proficiency or poverty would generate more state aid than regular students. He said some Virginia legislators found such a weighting approach appealing, but others are sick of what they see as "whining" from educators about the difficulties of educating some groups of students: these legislators believe that it is inappropriate to assume that certain classes of techniques would be preferable to additional resource allocations as a means of boosting such students' academic achievement. Because of the large numbers of persons on both sides of this argument, it does not appear likely that a weighting proposal will be seen as a proper cultural fit for Virginia in the foreseeable future.
Judy Singleton discussed the legislative scene in Richmond. She said that in 1991, FCPS lost several million dollars in SOQ funding, and could lose more this year if the SOQ is not fully funded.
Singleton noted that the School Board's draft 2002 legislative program is on the FCPS website. The report of the JLARC study of SOQ funding will appear in December, and the Board may - perhaps in concert with the Board of Supervisors - - add one or more items to their legislative program at that point in light of the report.
Singleton said support for the local sales tax increase, half of which would be spent on school construction, is now incorporated into the legislative program, as is a proposal to move the 2004 date for all graduates to meet SOL requirements back to 2007, when schools may first lose accreditation based on SOL scores.
She mentioned that initiatives (actual bills introduced into the legislature) are not always under our control. The election of a new governor is important, because the new governor will make important education-related appointments. There will be a very large group of freshman legislators this year.
The game plan is to establish a "beachhead" (with issues such as with the SOQ study and the sales tax referendum) to show that we are serious, to play good defense to avoid passage of harmful bills, and to make new friends.
Todd Rowley asked whether we build coalitions with business interests. Singleton said we do and that we built many last year.
Domenech said that right now businesses are thinking that a referendum on a sales tax for transportation alone is the way to go, but that, if this were passed, the schools would have missed a great opportunity and would have much greater difficulty getting more funding for school construction.
Singleton said that we need to convince legislators that bricks and mortar for schools is a state issue.
Reed noted that the higher education lobby is much better focused. Singelton noted that that lobby only needs to get 17 or so people - the college presidents - together.
Reed introduced members' issues.
Jamie Bradshaw said she enjoyed the Post article on the Superintendent. She then asked if there was a limit on the number of substitute teachers available on any one day. Domenech said that last year FCPS implemented a policy to limit the number of days teachers were taken out of school for staff development by limiting the number of substitutes available to 200, but that it should not interfere with field trips planned in advance.
Tom Donlan asked for the level of school-related indebtedness still extant.
Domenech said that FCPS needs to sell $210 million per year in bond sales to meet its actual needs. There is currently $1.2 billion dollars currently in bonds and literary loans.
Janet Oleszek asked about policies on student possession of cell phones and the 250-mile limit on field trips. Domenech said that FCPS is considering changes in regulations to allow cell phone possession in high schools and that the 250-mile limit is still in force but that individual requests to go beyond 250 miles are being considered.
Reed noted that the next meeting - on November 27 - would discuss high school guidance issues.