SchoolMatters Blog

cvillepedia - a community wiki inspired by educators

One of the greatest benefits of my school board service is exposure to really smart people, both inside and outside of our schools.  There have been countless ideas that I have borrowed from our school leadership, from classroom teachers, or from education conferences that I have been able to apply in my job running Charlottesville Tomorrow.  Ideas for management.  Ideas for education.  Ideas for community engagement. 

One recent example is being highlighted by The Daily Progress in a story today about my organization's launch of cvillepedia, a hyper-local community wiki that anyone can edit with content about Charlottesville and Albemarle County.  A lot of my confidence in launching this initiative with my colleague Sean Tubbs came from our amazing educators.

Last year I attended, with our Superintendent Dr. Pam Moran, the Virginia Association of School Superintendents (VASS) Conference.  There I saw Alan November speak to almost all the Superintendents of Virginia giving a presentation on "21st Century Learning."  While I am not a fan of that term, I am a big believer in using state-of-the-art technology and resources to engage learners, and the larger community. 

Three things really struck me about Alan's presentation:

• He was very smart about explaining the importance of the "grammar of the Internet."  How to use tools like Wikipedia and Google most effectively.  I think Internet literacy is as important today as media literacy.
• He was a firm believer in the educational benefits of Wikipedia and the ability to use wikis as tools to connect kids around the world to content.  He said, "We should teach kids to publish responsively in Wikipedia."
• The vast majority of Superintendents in the room seemed shocked, terrified, and/or incredulous.

Like Virginia's school superintendents, I have gotten similar reactions from close colleagues when they have heard about the cvillepedia project.  It makes me think back to 2005 when they were equally skeptical about my blogging about community issues and allowing people to comment on those posts. 

The Albemarle County School Board held a recent work sessions about the use of these tools in our classrooms.  I have seen our principals and teachers advocate for the ability to use blogs, Twitter, Facebook, and wikis.  They have convinced me.

Thus, I am putting my money on our community, which I think is going to pour a lot of talent, energy, and knowledge into this local wiki and make it a very powerful educational tool.  I also hope some local students will help lead the way. I am thankful their teachers put ME on the right path.

Brian Wheeler

Turf field ground breaking at Monticello High School

This week I participated in my first ever ground breaking ceremony as we kicked off the artificial turf field project at Monticello High School. 

Many thanks go to Athletic Director Fitz Barnes and MHS Principal Billy Haun for their leadership on this this project, and to the Monticello boosters who raised a lot of money to ensure the field could be paid for entirely with private funds.  In the ceremony, I thanked all of these folks, as well as the very generous anonymous donor, that worked together to ensure Monticello's vision for world class athletic facilities will be a reality next school year.  Thank you!

The Monticello community has led the way for the entire school division and I'm looking forward to similar ceremonies in the near future at both Western and Albemarle High Schools.

In this photo, I am holding one of the six golden shovels with School Board Vice Chairman Ron Price (right) and newly appointed Monticello High School Principal Dr. Catherine Worley (left).

Brian Wheeler

[Photos by Jim Asher]

Our school board retreat and 21st century learning

The Albemarle County School Board will hold its annual retreat tomorrow from Noon to 5PM.  The meeting is at VSBA's headquarters on Pantops and is open to the public and media (BTW - I think it is important for government retreats to be held where people can easily come and observe).

In our preparation materials, I found these three readings the most interesting:

• How to Get Started with Project Based Learning by David Andrade
• Framework for 21st Century Learning
  
• Weymouth High School curriculum redesign project

On the last item for Weymouth HS, I was really impressed with the video put together by the faculty. 

While their wiki appears to be in its early stages, I am impressed by their objectives (below) and it's a site I will be checking on in the future.

Design 21 is a faculty run redesign of the Weymouth High School curriculum. Our goal is to embed core 21st century skills across the curriculum to prepare students for post‐secondary education, career, and active citizenship. This site exists to create complete transparency in the process and maximize input for every stakeholder. At WHSDeisgn21.wikispaces.com you will be able to view the minutes from every Design Team meeting, check the calendar for upcoming meetings, and publicly post your feedback. The site is faculty run and operated to allow for timely updates and a full democratization of the redesign.

Brian Wheeler

Schools host teleforum meeting on operation of small elementary schools

I moderated our fourth "teleforum" last night with the community.  We have done three of these in the past on budget matters, but this was the first on one specific topic--the operation of small elementary schools. Albemarle County Public Schools is considering whether to close three very small elementary schools (< 200 students) and build one new school near the existing Walton Middle School.  No decision has been made, and this was the next step in soliciting input from the community.  Superintendent Pam Moran will make a recommendation to the School Board this summer.

Our telephone forum vendor, Broadnet, called our list of about 28,000 households (community members, parents, and staff).  At the peak of the call we had about 325 people on the line participating.  This was a smaller participation rate than our budget forums, but school consolidation is a topic that I recognize will only be of interest to a smaller group.

We broke the 90 minute call into four segments related to small schools: background information; achievement; community; and operational matters.

A podcast of the call will be posted later today and you can learn all about the school division's master planning process on our website.  Thanks to everyone that participated!

Brian Wheeler

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5/19/09 * Daily Progress [full story]

Town hall participants tepid on closing 3 county schools

Hundreds of Albemarle County residents took part in a telephone town hall Monday night that weighed the fate of three small elementary schools, with the vast majority of callers opposed to the possibility of the schools’ closure.

“The small schools are very important to our community,” said a caller identifying himself as Michael. “They’re important to our fabric and I think we should keep them.”

Take our survey for parents and community members

A survey has been put online for all community members and parents. The purpose of this survey is to determine how well our schools are meeting Albemarle County students' needs for quality education. Your assistance in completing this survey is deeply appreciated as the data we receive will be used to help Albemarle County Schools continue to improve.

We're asking for your feedback through short customer surveys.  There are two surveys, one for Community Members who do NOT have children in our school system, and one for parents of students in Albemarle County Public Schools. 

Brian Wheeler

Monticello HS has funds for our first synthetic turf athletic field

The Albemarle County School Board will receive donations totaling about $604,000 this evening to be applied to the Monticello High School synthetic turf athletic field.  This completes the fundraising required for our first high school to get a turf field. 

The gifts include a very generous $325,000 payment from an anonymous donor who has pledged to make a similar gift to Albemarle HS, Western Albemarle HS, and Charlottesville HS ($1.3 million in total).  The Monticello HS Athletic Boosters are contributing $201,281. 

Our original estimate was that the fields would cost about $800,000 each.  No funds from the school board budget are being spent on these turf field projects.

THANK YOU to all the donors that helped make this happen for our community.

Brian Wheeler

School Board work session on strategic planning and budget

The Albemarle County School Board will be having its monthly work session tonight.  You can review the agenda and materials here: http://esb.k12albemarle.org/

STRATEGIC PLAN

Between April and October 2009, the School Board, staff and community will be updating the school division's strategic plan (last adopted in 2005).  Staff and the School Board will spend about one hour at the meeting reviewing the proposed process and timeline.  Our board packet includes important summaries from discussions at past work sessions.

FY2010 BUDGET

This will be the final School Board budget work session before the budget is adopted at a special meeting on April 27, 2009.  Following the adoption of a $0.742 tax rate by the Board of Supervisors on April 8, the local revenue stream is now known. Additionally some information will be presented regarding the federal stimulus funding available to the school division. Staff will be bringing forward proposals which address the use of these funds within the guidelines as known.

Brian Wheeler

C-Ville Weekly: Is it time to consolidate city, county schools?

C-Ville Weekly's Will Goldsmith has a story in today's issue that has me blogging again.  I must admit it has been hard to blog at work all day and then do it again at home on school matters, particularly when serving as Chairman of the Albemarle County School Board during 2008-09.  I learned last year that it requires you to got to a LOT more meetings and events.  But that's a topic for another day.

Goldsmith's story focuses on the recent completion of the Charlottesville City Schools efficiency study.  He called me seeking comments on the public reaction to Albemarle's 2007 Resource Utilization Study. At the end of the interview, he asked me about the prospect of consolidating City and County schools.  I said, "Will, are you really going to write that story?"  He did, and I was happy to go on the record with some of my thoughts on the subject, speaking only for myself as one member of the Albemarle County School Board. 

But with Governor Tim Kaine proposing $700 million in K-12 school cuts over the next two years, is it time to consider the most radical efficiency proposal out there—consolidating city and county schools? It’s something that has been on Wheeler’s mind “given the cooperation between the schools and the economic challenges we both face.”

“It’s going to require a lot of interest by city residents to really see that as a positive way to operate our public schools,” says Wheeler. “But we’ve got two localities that are very similar. The demographics are different in the city, but that doesn’t scare me at all. What is the same is the passion and the leadership wanting all of our students to be successful.”  [full story]

It's not just me.  School consolidation was a topic raised by two questioners in our November 2008 Telephone Town Hall meeting.  I expect it will come up again tomorrow evening when we hold our next town hall meeting.  In fact, a lot of people in both the City and County ask me if a change like this could ever happen.

In the C-Ville Weekly article you can see the response from two current members of the Charlottesville School Board.  I was encouraged by Kathy Galvin's willingness to entertain at least a discussion of consolidation.  A lot has changed since the community last discussed reversion of the City into a town in Albemarle County.  We now have an elected City School Board, we have two school division's that have a lot in common (including great Superintendents), and we both face tremendous economic challenges.  Plus, merging one department of local government is a lot different from merging ALL of local government.

Maybe it's 'time for change' in Charlottesville-Albemarle too.  I hope the public will provide us with feedback on the possibility.  It's a discussion I'd like to have in the community.

Brian Wheeler

Albemarle school board weighs in on disinfection debate

The Hook's Laura Hoffman recently did a follow-up story on the School Board's consideration of safer chemical management procedures.  I think she covered it well.  Since there was no direction from the School Board to change course, staff will continue to routinely disinfect restrooms and nurses stations (aka Option A) following the recommendations of the Safer Chemical Committee and the School Board's Health Advisory Committee. 

We will also continue with the implementation of the Integrated Pest Management program (which has significantly reduced the use of pesticides).  We will also continue to switch to "greener" cleaning products and grounds keeping approaches as recommended by staff.  Staff will present updated information on the financial impacts of the new approach at our August 14, 2008 meeting. 

Brian Wheeler

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7/21/2008 * The Hook [full story]

“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

That was the mantra of the Albemarle County school board July 10, as members voiced their support for continuing routine disinfection in schools with traditional synthetic chemicals. By backing disinfection, the school board countered a vote of the Board of Supervisors, who last month unanimously decided to switch to sanitizing– cleaning with greener products or simply soap and water– in all county buildings.

While following recommendations from both its health advisory panel and a joint school and local government committee, the school board’s position did not sit well with the Sierra Club, including Toxics Committee member Jackie Lombardo.

“We’re disappointed,” says Lombardo, whose group has pushed for a switch to non-toxic green cleaners. They’ve cited various studies that show that even very low exposure to pesticides– disinfectants are classified as pesticides– over time has been linked to learning disabilities, cancer, and asthma in children.

Safer Chemical Management in our schools

At our meeting this Thursday, July 10, 2008, the Albemarle County School Board will receive for information a report on how schools can adopt safer chemical management procedures.  The chemicals in question are those used for cleaning, pest control, and weed control.  The public can provide input during the meeting in our regular public comment opportunity which is scheduled to start at 6:50 PM.  Citizens can also e-mail the School Board at SchoolBoard @ k12albemarle.org. 

The staff report is available here:
http://www.wheeleronboard.com/docs/20080710SaferChemicalMgmt.pdf

Also, here is a separate update to the School Board on our Integrated Pest Management (IPM) program which has almost eliminated the use of pesticides in our schools. http://www.wheeleronboard.com/docs/20080515-IPM-Safer.pdf

The IPM update notes the following: "It is also important to note that after transitioning from scheduled monthly crack and crevice treatments at each school approximately 8 months ago, ACPS has only had five pesticide treatments since the monthly treatments have ceased....Including all schools, the change from scheduled monthly treatments to IPM has resulted in approximately 200 less pesticide treatments over the course of 8 months."  [i.e. with IPM, in 8 months we went from 205 routine pesticide applications to 5 spot treatments after other measures failed]

You may also be interested in the School Division's Environmental Management website:
http://schoolcenter.k12albemarle.org/education/dept/dept.php?sectionid=4146

My assessment is that School staff over the past year have successfully taken on the challenge of making our approach to chemicals both "greener" and safer for our students and employees.  Citizens have played a direct role in creating the proposed safer chemical procedures as the School Board's Health Advisory Committee has been directly involved and provided oversight in this effort.

The School Board will have the opportunity to hear from the public on this matter and ask questions of staff about the details of the procedure and the budgetary impacts.  Given that any "green" approach to chemical management will likely require new funding, the School Board may ask that this initiative come back to the Board at a future meeting for funding approval and/or that it be included as an initiative in the FY 2010 budget.

Here is the key summary in the staff report of the recommended procedures:

"In summary, the Procedure stipulates: 1) custodial products be certified by Green Seal™, Green Guard™ or Environmental Choice™ (See Attachment B), or meet outlined criteria; 2) high-touch surface areas (e.g. bathrooms, kitchens) be routinely sanitized or disinfected as deemed appropriate by the manager overseeing custodial operations, and that disinfection occur as soon as practicable in response to a blood-borne pathogen event or viral outbreak, or as directed by the Department of Health; 3) chemical usage be eliminated when practicable and feasible in grounds management; if chemicals must be used, then organic or biological-based alternatives be used, with 5 outlined exceptions; and 4) the County implement a formal integrated pest management (IPM) program by August 2008 for the management of indoor pests (See Attachment C). Additionally, sections 3(F) and 3(G) of the Procedure provide a waiver process for situations requiring the use of a product that does not meet the specifications and criteria of the Procedure, or for emergency situations. Lastly, the Procedure requires an annual audit to be conducted by the Environmental Compliance Managers, with a report of the annual audit being provided to the School Board for their review and information."

Brian Wheeler