parent power  By Dr. Jo Lynne DeMary 

Budgets are on the Table Now

Q I am pleased with my daughter’s educational program, but the school building itself is in real need of major renovation or replacement. I have expressed my concerns about the condition of the facility on numerous occasions, especially when I see new schools being built in other communities, but the response is always the same—“money is tight.”

A Money is tight, and buildings are expensive. The cost of modernizing an aging school building is in the millions of dollars.
First and foremost, you want your child’s school to be clean and safe. That can be controlled for the most part at the school level. Monitor the division’s budget to make sure that the school maintenance budget is not being cut to pay for other priorities. It’s important to maintain aging building well if you can’t afford to replace it.
If you want to get involved in advocating for a renovation or replacement, you need to become familiar with the district’s capital improvement plan. This is a long- term project, and you need to be prepared to do your homework.
I live in Chesterfield, where each Board of Supervisors member has constituent meetings in February and March, in which the county administrator’s Proposed Financial Plan and Capital Improvement Program are presented. A public hearing is held in late March to obtain citizen input.
The constituent meetings are a good place to start as the attendance is small, and your voice is more likely to be heard.

Q When my son describes what he does in school each day, I am growing concerned that his teachers are spending more time on test-taking skills than they are teaching the actual content. I want him to pass his SOL tests, but I want him to learn something too.

A The Standards of Learning are content standards. Students cannot pass the tests without knowing the content embedded in those standards regardless of how adept they are at taking tests.
However, students can know the content and not demonstrate that knowledge as well as they could because they are not test-savvy. So it’s important to sprinkle some test-taking strategies throughout the curriculum to make sure students maximize their performance.
You need to address your concern with the teachers. We’re preparing your young person to be a life-long learner, not just a test-taker.

Jo Lynne DeMary was superintendent of public instruction for Virginia and is currently director of the Center for School Improvement at VCU. She believes that parents empowered by knowledge are the best partners in their children’s education.

Archives