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This blog was maintained by Brian Wheeler while serving as At-Large Member of the Albemarle County School Board (2004-2010).

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'City, county, get together': Daily Progress calls for talks about consolidation of schools

Speaking as one school board member, I would support joint discussions about consolidating Charlottesville and Albemarle public schools.  I think the time is right to get that conversation going.

Brian Wheeler

2/24/10 * Daily Progress EDITORIAL [full story]

....

[I]t is cooperation that has the best chance of addressing the two localities’ financial problems.

....

County and city leaders need to stop saying they believe in cooperation and start practicing more of it. A joint meeting moderated by an impartial third party, perhaps a trained mediator, is a necessary first step.

City and county have traditionally found fault with the idea of a consolidated school district, but with the intense financial pressures facing both districts — with or without the disputed $2.8 million — this might be the time to take that idea more seriously.

....

Right now, Charlottesville and Albemarle must start talking together about cooperation, not independently. They must cooperate more, not less.

Posted on February 24, 2010 in Budget, City-County Cooperation | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Daily Progress Editorial: Revenue fight hurts region

2/7/10 * Daily Progress EDITORIAL [full story]

....

All this at a time when cooperation — not competition — should be part of the solution for both localities’ budget woes. Greater cooperation — even consolidation of services, such as schools — could save money by eliminating overhead and duplication and creating economies of scale neither could achieve singly.

But some leaders are hinting at reduced cooperation. Whether that’s a deliberate, if veiled, threat or simply an inexorable consequence of the standoff, the result still is likely to be reduced services to the community as a whole or increased costs for those services.

City and county should be coming together, not taking stands that divide.

....

Posted on February 07, 2010 in Budget, City-County Cooperation | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

City, county in clash over cash

2/6/10 * Daily Progress [full story]

The clash over money between Charlottesville and Albemarle County is turning into a political civil war, with warnings that each step from here will undermine collaborations that would cut expenses and instead possibly cost taxpayers big bucks down the road.


What started as a budget amendment in the General Assembly to account for the two localities’ revenue-sharing agreement, introduced by Del. Rob Bell, R-Albemarle County, has now transformed into a tit-for-tat battle between the City Council and the Board of Supervisors, with each elected body looking to get even.

Following the Albemarle County School Board, Albemarle supervisors last week passed a resolution in support of stripping $2.6 million from Charlottesville school funding in fiscal 2012 and directing that money to county schools.

Posted on February 07, 2010 in Budget, City-County Cooperation | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Bell moves to shake up funding of area schools

12/19/09 * Daily Progress [full story]

Del. Rob Bell, R-Albemarle, said Friday that he is moving ahead with legislation that would strip Charlottesville of nearly $3 million in school funding, kicking off what could be an ugly battle between the city and Albemarle County.

If passed, Bell’s legislation would change the state’s school funding formula to account for Charlottesville and Albemarle’s revenue-sharing agreement, granting Albemarle schools an estimated $2.9 million more in state funding next fiscal year. That would mean $2.9 million less for Charlottesville schools. Some Albemarle school officials say the revenue-sharing agreement cheats county schools out of the money, wrongfully giving it to Charlottesville schools instead.

Posted on December 19, 2009 in Budget, City-County Cooperation, General Assembly | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Bell's budget amendment and city-county relations

The Albemarle County School Board took action at its meeting Thursday and authorized Delegate Rob Bell (R-58th) to submit a budget amendment in the 2010 General Assembly session that would modify the state funding formula for education.  The amendment would have the state budget factor in the County's revenue sharing agreement with the City of Charlottesville and increase Albemarle's state funding by about $2.6 million. 

The current state funding formulas have the effect of giving Albemarle a greater "ability to pay" because it does not recognize the $18 million that will be paid next year to Charlottesville in revenue sharing.  Delegate Bell's budget amendment, if approved in both the house and senate, would take the $2.6 million from the City's state funding allocation for schools.

I voted against the proposal for the following reasons:

  • Three members of the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors encouraged me not to take this approach.  The Supervisors on Thursday suggested that a better legislative strategy would be to have the state's composite index take land use taxation into account for all localities.  Currently, Albemarle's "ability to pay" is based on the full assessed value of property, and not the reduced value for property in the land use program.
  • Once the Albemarle County School Board decided to investigate this issue (which I fully supported), I had very positive conversations with both city councilors and city school board members.  They expressed a strong interest in improved cooperation and in efforts to jointly find ways to lower the cost of education for both localities.  Thus, I thought the fact we had raised the possibility of pursuing the budget amendment had already had a positive result and further action would cause the city to withdraw.
  • I believed the $2.6 million, while certainly helpful for our schools in the face of a $8 to $10 million budget gap for FY2011, might actually cost Albemarle taxpayers more if the city responded by raising costs in other joint services to off-set the loss of education funding.

The budget amendment received the support of the school board by a 4-3 vote.  It was a tough decision and I changed my mind on this issue in the days leading up to our meeting.  Members in the majority emphasized that this was about fairness in the state funding formulas and not about Charlottesville's funding per se.  They said pursuing the amendment might result in greater opportunities for co-operation and negotiations about things like the 1982 revenue sharing agreement.

This is an important public policy issue and it was covered in both a Daily Progress article and editorial.  Below are links to those articles and a podcast of the School Board's 1-hour discussion. 

Brian Wheeler

Podcast produced by Albemarle County Public Schools * Player by Odeo

Listen using player above or download the podcast: Download 20091210-ACPS


City, county need to talk

12/13/2009 * Daily Progress Editorial [full story]

When money gets really tight, the gloves come off. They’re almost off between Albemarle County and Charlottesville.

County School Board members on Thursday voted 4-3 to ask the General Assembly to change the formula that determines how much the two local school divisions receive from the state to pay for educational programs. The “composite index” takes into account various factors, including population and local wealth to determine what share of local school funding a locality should foot, with the state paying the rest.

The county School Board vote reflects a belief that adjusting the index formula to better account for the money Albemarle gives the city every year via revenue-sharing will mean more state education money for Albemarle. The county is scheduled to give the city $18 million in the next fiscal year.


Albemarle wants funds from city for schools

12/11/2009 * Daily Progress [full story]

By Brandon Shulleeta

The Albemarle County School Board took up a fight Thursday — with some reluctance — for an estimated $2.6 million that board members believe the state unfairly plans to give Charlottesville schools.

The state uses a formula to determine how much money to give localities for education, based on population and finances, but some Albemarle officials believe the formula cheats Albemarle and gives the money to Charlottesville.

“They have our money,” School Board member Jon Stokes said. “We need money.”

Albemarle owes Charlottesville about $18 million next fiscal year as part of a revenue-sharing agreement reached years ago to prevent the city from annexing land in the county. The state’s “composite index” counts that money toward Albemarle’s revenue wealth — but some Albemarle officials say it should be counted against Charlottesville, because Charlottesville has access to that money, not Albemarle.

A representative for Del. Rob Bell, R-Albemarle, said that she’d report to Bell today that the School Board voted in favor of requesting state legislation that would adjust the composite index formula in favor of Albemarle and to the detriment of Charlottesville.

Posted on December 13, 2009 in Budget, City-County Cooperation | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

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

Posted on January 20, 2009 in City-County Cooperation | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

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