SCAC Minutes
March 23, 2004

Eileen Kugler was not able to attend. Lynn Terhar opened the meeting and asked members to identify themselves. This was the first SCAC meeting for Interim Superintendent Brad Draeger. Terhar asked Draeger for updates.

Draeger discussed the meeting of a blue ribbon panel that had met recently and that will provide suggestions to the School Board on increasing the diversity of students who are admitted to TJHSST. The panel includes representatives of schools similar to TJHSST, representatives of university admissions departments, and others who bring expertise to the issue.

Draeger mentioned the discussions just beginning between FCPS and George Mason University to determine how they can increase mutually beneficial collaboration. These discussions are proceeding but are in the beginning stages. It was at the third meeting that GMU representatives toured TJHSST. There have been no substantive discussions yet of possibly moving TJHSST to a different location.

Ellen Oppenheim said that she is concerned not only with the academic advancement of TJHSST students but also with their social development. She does not want them thrown into a college environment too early. Draeger said that the panel has discussed this and that social development issues are definite concerns of the FCPS staff.

Oppenheim said that, before determining what does or does not need to be done to increase diversity, the term "diversity" needs to be defined. Other Council members said that they too were concerned that the term was not clearly defined and that some kinds of diversity already exist at TJHSST.

Jeanine Martin said she had heard a rumor that over 100 places at TJHSST will be used for geographic diversity for the TJHSST freshman class now being selected. Draeger said this is definitely not true and that this class will be selected exactly as the previous year's class was selected.

Lynn Dysart asked if there would be opportunity for community input on this issue before final recommendations are made. Draeger said there would be such opportunity between the panel's submission of its report and public hearings on the recommendations.

Nell Hurley noted, vis a vis the panel, that people from outside often do not understand local needs. She asked again what "diversity" means in this context. Draeger said that this word's meaning does vary to some extent from place to place. He told of a selective school in San Francisco in which ethnically Japanese and Chinese students vied for places.

Andrea Sobel suggested that socio-economic status, rather than ethnic background, may be the real diversity issue here. Perhaps schools should start in earlier grades to make up for the fact that some families of students from low-SES homes are able to provide fewer resources for their children.

Draeger noted that the panel had looked at the history of TJHSST, including its founding purpose as a science and technology school, and the differing standards for admissions over the years. The major issue is that some groups in the county are not represented in the TJHSST student body at nearly the percentages that they represent in the overall FCPS student population.

Ray Worley said that, in his experience, the distinctiveness of TJHSST students is that they badly want to study. He mentioned that originally it was supposed to be a technical high school and that all FCPS high schools should offer similar academic programs.

Terhar said many people have said that the science and technology purpose of TJHSST should be reconsidered.

Katie Lynch said that the high school academies also offer technical courses.

Dysart said that the admissions test has been tilted toward verbal ability to admit more girls. Draeger said that this was another type of diversity issue.

Mary Randolph noted that FCPS elementary schools already offer many programs to compensate for resources that may not be available in students' homes.



Terhar introduced Mike Molloy to discuss legislation.

Draeger reviewed the differences among the three different budget proposals then on offer-from the governor, from the House of Delegates, and from the State Senate. He noted that the current lack of any state budget tends to keep good teachers from wanting to work in FCPS. He cited an open letter that the Fairfax County School Board had sent to legislators discussing the damage that the budget impasse was already causing school systems.

Molloy said that all three of the budgets would put more state money into education. The governor's budget would give FCPS $26 million more, the Delegates', $30 million more, and the Senate's, $53 million more. The "re-benchmarking" of Standards of Quality (SOQ) funding to update state aid to local education calls for a $1.2 billion increase in funding. The governor's budget reduces this by subtracting locally and federally generated funds from what the state would provide.

Draeger said that all this harmed the climate for keeping and recruiting excellent employees. He said that constituents need to let their representatives know how important education is to them. The idea of a referendum on new taxes makes little sense. If people are asked whether they want higher taxes or not they will always vote against higher taxes.

Also this year, federal Title I funds for FCPS are being reduced 26 percent ($3 million) because the federal government has just this year begun using 2000 census data that reduce the overall poverty rate in Fairfax County. The parts of Title I funding that FCPS loses in this move are exactly those that have been increased under NCLB.

Besides the state and federal shortfalls, there is still a $35 million gap between the county's guidelines for its transfer of funds to FCPS and the amount budgeted for the transfer in the School Board's budget.

Elisabeth Freed asked if the effort to have all-day kindergarten at Bailey's was now on hold for budget reasons. Draeger said that it was possible it would not be implemented in this coming year.

Freed asked which people Council members should call to get action on the state and federal issues. Molloy suggested calling state legislators. Contact information on them is on the Office of Government Relations web site. Draeger had distributed a list of legislators' town meetings being held locally. Barbara Allen said she would provide information on other town meetings throughout the state [This was later e-mailed to SCAC members].
Draeger suggested contacting members of Congress on the Title I issue and emphasizing holding school systems harmless and phasing out funding rather than cutting so much in one year.

Jeanine Martin asked what the chances are of having a budget by July. Molloy said the biggest problem is that there is no sense of when there might be a budget.

Nell Hurley asked if school staffing could be held harmless rather than cutting staff in September for schools that do not receive as many students as projected. Draeger said this is done but that, for FCPS to run cost-effectively, there will be some cases in which schools lose or gain teachers after school begins, although the restaffing system is set up to reduce this as much as possible.

Worley asked what strategic points need to be made to state legislators. Draeger said the points are: stop the hubris and serve Virginia citizens.

Andrea Sobel said that the biggest NCLB costs are in Title I and asked if FCPS could not accept some funding from this source and then not be bound by the NCLB requirements. Molloy said that if a school system accepts any Title I money, it must meet all NCLB requirements. In addition, if FCPS fails to meet NCLB requirements, this would cause the state to be out of compliance, so the state would require FCPS to comply with all mandates.

Scott Martin said that legislators in Richmond believe they are representing their constituents, not that they are acting from hubris. When talking with them, advocates should refer to the effects of the budget impasse on schools in each legislator's district. Terhar suggested starting the conversation by saying, "I live in your district and I have a lot of neighbors who agree with me."

Tracy Pless noted that no one is talking about the positive effects of increased taxes (e.g., providing needed services while balancing the budget.)

Worley asked if there were a single portal to all senators and delegates. Molloy said each legislator's contact information is on his or her office's web site, and the legislators' e-mail addresses can be accessed from that web site.

MolIoy said, on another legislative matter, that the new Virginia charter school bill inserts the state into the process for considering charter school applications.

Molloy said that the U.S. Department of Education has provided some limited flexibility in a few areas. The flexibility in special education might affect 800 students in FCPS. The flexibility for limited-English-proficient students would exempt students in their first year after arrival in the U.S., which would do little to alleviate FCPS' problems with this population. The flexibility for declaring teachers "highly qualified" applies mainly to rural areas and substantially undermines the standards for science teachers in parts of the country in which this flexibility can be applied.

Draeger mentioned that each state determines what "highly qualified" means when it sets its teacher certification standards.

Hurley said she had noted that two terms-LEP (limited English proficient) and ESOL (English for speakers of other languages)--were used to identify the same population. She asked for a distinction between these two terms. Draeger said LEP refers to anyone who is not fully proficient in English; ESOL refers to an instructional program for students who are LEP.

Worley raised the issue of money taken in through the adult education program, which is being diverted to fund summer school.

Worley asked about a new policy that prevents retired teachers from coming back to teach full-time. Draeger said that the FCPS Department of Human Resources had looked into this issue and determined that a teacher who came back without a one-year break in service could put his or her tax-free retirement at risk by working. He said he would get information on this issue. (Please see Regulation 4774.4.)

Hurley asked about the new elementary school staffing guidelines that would replace most existing special staffing provisions with an overall weighting system in which extra staffing will follow children with special needs to whatever schools they are in. Draeger said the principle of this new policy is for staffing to follow children with the most need. Only the Excel School program and a few state programs for children with special needs will not be collapsed into the new system. Draeger said FCPS leadership had wanted to make this change for years and the Gibson report called for such a system; now principals have been consulted and it is ready to go.

Levy asked what FCPS was doing to increase participation in sports in high schools with high percentages of students receiving ESOL services. Draeger said he would get back to the group about it.

Dysart asked if FCPS would hold harmless schools that will lose staffing under the new elementary school staffing guidelines. Draeger said it is part of the plan that no school will lose all its extra staffing in any one year.

The meeting was adjourned.