Comments on: School Board public forum on “New Direction”

By: Greater Fulton News » last night’s conversation on our schools - Richmond, Virginia

Wed, 05 Dec 2007 11:53:31 +0000

[...] Present were Wade Elligood president of the REA, Tichi Pinkney-Epps (President of Richmond Council of PTAs), 7th District School Board Representaitve Keith West, Torey Edmonds, Reggie Malone, and citizens from Church Hill, Oakwood, Fairmount, and particularly strong representation from Fulton. The evening was framed as a conversation about the facilities plan, with the additional question of “Do we just talk about buildings; should the conversation also speak to what other priorities do we want to be considered when planning for our schools?” (a direct referenct to the School Boards’s “New Direction” plan). [...]

By: Church Hill People’s News » last night’s conversation on our schools - Richmond, Virginia

Wed, 05 Dec 2007 11:49:27 +0000

[...] Present were Wade Elligood president of the REA, Tichi Pinkney-Epps (President of Richmond Council of PTAs), 7th District School Board Representaitve Keith West, Torey Edmonds, Reggie Malone, and citizens from Church Hill, Oakwood, Fairmount, and particularly strong representation from Fulton. The evening was framed as a conversation about the facilities plan, with the additional question of “Do we just talk about buildings; should the conversation also speak to what other priorities do we want to be considered when planning for our schools?” (adirect referenct to the School Boards’s “New Direction” plan). [...]

By: tiny

tiny — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 18:10:15 +0000

Richmond Parks and Recreation has numerous programs at schools throughout the city â€“ not just in Church Hill. In all cases, the programs are offered for free or and a low cost, which allows all segments of the community to participate. Of course, more funding would always help, but I have found those employed at these programs to be professional and caring. Some statistics:

– Free Before and/or After School Programs are offered 20 Elementary Schools
- Parks and Recreation offers many youth league (and a few adult league) sports, including baseball, basketball, cheerleading, soccer, and football. Most of these teams are associated with a community center or school in the area.
- More than 35 community area youth (ages 7-15) football teams compete city-wide.
- There are 23 Community Centers are dispersed through out the city, many of them housed at the school, offering programs to residents of all ages

By: RPS Teacher

RPS Teacher — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 15:47:15 +0000

The School Board should concentrate on improving current issues now, the “new direction” won’t get us anywhere if we can’t address the most simplistic issues now. What are they trying to achieve? The last I checked, it was standardized ed we were going for, SOL scores, every child takes the same SOL test and every child must receive a minimum score. That’s standardized not individualized. We have overcrowded classrooms (classes with 35 plus students, not everyone has a desk), teachers with no computers, bathrooms with no running water and a rampant lack of accountability (except for SOL scores), our new direction should be obvious…

By: bill

bill — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 20:08:28 +0000

your school board rep may or may not be able to show you the rps-park&rec coop agreement.

based on what i know of bellevue & chimborazo i understand why you are pleased.

good luck in the future

By: tiny

tiny — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 18:15:41 +0000

Bill,
What do you mean “non-existent cooperative agreement with parks and rec for after school physical activities”? My kids attend a Parks and Rec based afterschool program at school. By the way, it is an excellent program with very skilled teachers. And, they play sports (football, basketball and this they have recently added baseball).

Furthermore, both of my kids take advantage of the Community Center set up by Parks and Rec at Chimborazo. That program is incredible popular and many kids, even older teenagers, spend their evenings there until the gym closes.

By the way, they are also receiving a fantastic education at Bellevue. I am not sure what your experience has been with RPS, but I do not believe they are being cheated out of a good education.

My only reservation is safety. As my oldest enters middle school, I am more and more concerned. But I do not believe the school is educationally deficient at all.

By: bill

bill — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 14:13:22 +0000

“mental, physical, and ethical capabilities necessary to succeed after graduation”

ethics??? the school board has been cheating students out of a good education for years, so who will teach ethics, tom sheeran?? jewell sherman??

physical?? so what is happening with physical education? it is reflected in the won-loss record for school teams and in the non-existent cooperative agreement with parks and rec for after school physical activities.

sounds like a plan to expand administration.

just more bs reaction to the failing system

By: john_m

john_m — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 11:29:59 +0000

Looking at the sample PEP, the accommodations & goals (as they were) were much more broad than those in an IEP. It was stuff like preferential seating, and getting kids to read a certain number of minutes per night at home. West said that they would look at shifting the teacher workload so that this was not an extra task & mentioned future intentions to work with the REA towards implementation.

It actually sounds like this more for the parents and students, rather than for the teachers. The PEP looks like a tool for offering structure for how parents and students approach getting an education.

I went into the *very skeptical*, but see how this could benefit a certain percentage of the students.

By: BGW

BGW — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 03:01:42 +0000

As good as the PEP idea sounds in theory, I don’t give it much chance of succeeding until class sizes drop significantly. Accommodating IEPs for mainstreamed kids is challenging enough; the notion that a teacher can work on such an individual level with 120+ kids is laughable.