Full-Day Kindergarten Snuck in Budget Without Advance Public Notice

[slpott]

Patricia: I do not know you so forgive me. I just want to ask this. Did you or your husband have a falling out with any school board or school members in the last year? You seem so adament about NO full day kindergarden and claim to be a teacher. Why do you feel so different than most teachers if that is the case?. I am just curious and it would be good to know all the facts. From my guick math I get we are talking less than $7.00 a year for this. Divide that by husband and wife and wala. Math is out of my box too so forgive me if I am not close.

[Counselor]

I am not a teacher, nor am I employed by BFA Fairfax. I am as my user name suggests a counselor who has opportunity to converse with teachers about their students and the state of education today. Were I a faculty member, I would be compelled to disclose that fact as posting here could be construed as a conflict of interest. Much the same as you did when you indicated your relationship with a current school board member.

I am, however, a contributing member of this democratic society, a Fairfax community member and a supporter of our schools and the employees therein.

[vtgoober]

Where am I coming from?  Why do I have such a strong opinion about full-day kindergarten?  How is it possible to be an educator and not support it?  Why should community members listen to my opinion?  These are all good questions, especially from community members like yourself who do not know me personally. 

First, let me say that I graduated from Vanderbilt University with degrees in math, early childhood education, and elementary education.  I hold an active teaching license and am certified from birth through grade 8.  While our family made the decision allowing me to be a stay-at-home mom since the birth of our second child, I have kept my teaching license current by continuing to take college courses.  I am an avid supporter of schools, teachers, and children.  I am an active volunteer at BFA-Fairfax.   With my oldest child, I volunteered in both his elementary and middle school classes.  With our second child, I ran the Small Wonders program in his preschool class, volunteered weekly in his kindergarten classroom and during special events, and continue to volunteer weekly in his current classroom.  I am very active in our school’s PTSA and have organized several teacher appreciation events.  I coordinate the RIF (Reading is Fundamental) program at our school, supplying students with free books three times a year.  I continue to coordinate the Hannaford Dollars program for the PTSA that I have done for several years to fund requests from teachers to provide additional opportunities to their students and activities to promote positive outcomes for our families and students.  I continue to coordinate the Price Chopper Tools for Schools program that I have done for several years that has funded the elementary recess materials for several years, a digital camera for the middle school, and much more.  As a Co-Liaison for our town’s Success By Six program, I have worked with the kindergarten teachers to help continue successful kindergarten transition activities for our incoming kindergarteners.  Within in our Success By Six activities, we work to help prepare our communities’ youngest citizens to be prepared for school and to smooth the transition to school for parents, teachers, and children.   As a Co-Liaison, I have also had the opportunity for the past few years to spend time monthly with every childcare provider in our community and have personally seen the dedication and devotion these educators bring to the children in their care while they work night and day to help mold our children as well.  I wholeheartedly support our school, our teachers, and educators across the board.

However, I do not support full-day kindergarten.  Being opposed to full-day kindergarten does not mean you do not support schools and teachers.  Being opposed to full-day kindergarten does not mean a person is not thinking in the best interest of children.  Being a teacher does not mean that you are automatically a supporter of full-day kindergarten. 
My opinion and opposition to full-day kindergarten has been consistent.  My opinion on these posts however has been adamant.  As someone who has been involved in kindergarten discussions for the past few years and attended board meetings whenever possible on this issue, I have become completely fed up with the constant contradictions, the lack of financial clarity, the lack of feasibility studies, …. The final blow for me was when the board at the administration’s behest snuck full-day kindergarten into the FY2012 budget without even notifying the public that it was being discussed after publicly stating it was not going to be included.  This level of public disrespect by our board and administration does not sit well with me.  My feelings on this have been present in every post, and I apologize if my tone has offended anyone. 

There are several factors I consider when casting a vote:  philosophical, financial, and ethical.  Even if something only costs $10, why buy it if you don’t want it?  Why buy it if you don’t believe it is in the best interests of the children?  Why buy it if it was acquired unethically and underhandedly?  Why buy it if you have a better use for that money?

For me, it is a combination of the three factors above.  I do not want to pay for something every year from here on out that I don’t believe in or support.  I also do not want to send a message to the board and administration that it is okay to treat the citizens of Fairfax with such disrespect.   

I do not have anything personal against any member of the school board or administration.  My husband is currently a member of the board and I consider other members of the board friends.  My problem in general is not with individuals of the board, but with the handling of this issue.  I cannot speak for any other teacher as to why they do or do not support full-day kindergarten.  I personally know teachers on both sides of the issue.  I am opposed to full-day kindergarten and do not believe it is in the best interests of our community. 

[slpott]

Patricia, thank you for your response. I can respect your position and that is the beauty of this forum. Sometimes our tones and attitudes can be misleading. We all have a right to our own opinions and I guess that is why we get the chance to vote. Your community efforts are great. I know we all have handled situations in the past without much thought so it will be interesting to see how it all is explained at town meeting. I just have a hard time in thinking this was a strategical plot to lie to the community. I choose to give them the benefit of the doubt. See you all at town meeting. Lets all remember our tones and we should be good to go. What a great community we live in.

[Counselor]

In the interest of continuing the open and fun discussion, I thought I would post some of the information from big yellow school district budget flier I received in the mail Thursday. There are a few things that I find interesting, though they may ring hollow for others.

Page 2 - Full Day Kindergarten is First on the list of “Highlights”. I Quote: “Expand Kindergarten program to full-day for ALL students.” I guess the board is not trying to hide this...

Page 2 - The district is funding the ACT for ALL BFA Juniors!  (If I may, I think this is great. many students do not take the college entrance exams because they do not believe they are smart enough or they cannot afford to.  This is aimed, I would imagine, at increasing the percentage of students who attend post-secondary school and this can only be a good thing!)

Page 2 - Re-introduce Spring One-Acts.  For anyone who has seen the last two productions this too is a win for so many students.

Page 2 - I hate to hear about staff reductions, but I do like to hear about schools reducing their use of paper and moving to more electronic media.

Middle Page (Page 3) - the estimated tax rate for FY 2012 is .02-ish lower this year than last year. This means that (according to their chart) homeowners will pay an average of $44 less towards the school budget this year. (There is a chart with the actual numbers by house site value, but I just took an average).

Page 4 - Special Education is nearly 15% of the overall budget with Direct Instruction costs accounting for 54.9%.

Last Page - Of all other local school budgets we have the LOWEST average cost per pupil at just under $10,500. The statewide average is over $12,000.

I can only think that the education our children receive for the overall cost is quite impressive.  Based on these numbers I think the board and administrators have presented us with a reasonable and fair budget. Voting for said budget is in my opinion, appropriate.

[rod anode]

then why will the tax bill keep going up?

[vtgoober]

Last night (2/14) the Fairfax School Board held a meeting.  During this meeting, there was a community budget presentation.  Unfortunately our community was not given notice of this presentation as it was not included on the yellow budget flyer that was mailed to many residents nor was it posted anywhere in our community, on the fwsu.org website, on the BFA-Fairfax website, or on the BFA-Fairfax School Board Wiki.  This type of disregard to public notification laws does not instill trust in our Board and Administration, especially following the actions taken during their January board meeting. 

As an aside:  the yellow budget flyer that was sent out did have one line stating that kindergarten would be expanded to full day for all students.  This flyer was done a month after the board and administration snuck a full-day kindergarten program into the FY2012 budget without advance public notice during its final budget meeting.  This program inclusion and subsequent late notification flyer were done after all methods of recourse by Fairfax citizens besides voting were gone.  Keep in mind, this one line is all the information that has been released and publicized by the board and administration.  This notification does not even notify voters that there will be a change from 4 kindergarten classes down to 3 classes.  This notification does not mention any details about what the full-day program would be or the financial impact of its inclusion.  While the flyer did note some of the school-wide reductions made in order to come up with the budget, many of the cuts in staffing and programming were not mentioned. 

Voting NO to this budget and behavior is, in my opinion, appropriate.

[slpott]

I think the horse is dead.

[rod anode]

not dead until the vote is cast and even then the vet will be there with the medicine to keep the horse alive

[ohhman]

I can't believe this budget presentation was NOT made public knowledge!!  So seems to me, they really do NOT want to hear what we, some public, have to say!!!  I will vote NO & will be sending out messages to friends as to what has been "slipped by" us yet again!! 

No way is "this horse dead";  people NEED to know what is going on & our board NEEDS to know how we feel!  Why was this piece of info NOT stated on the flyer??!!
 Thank you for passing this along & I will do so also!!

[ansbaker]

Voting NO to an entire school budget based upon one line item is NOT in the best interest of the entire school community.  I will be voting YES to this budget because I truly believe that the budget was crafted with only the best interest of the our students in mind.  I trust the Administration at BFA Fairfax and the School Board members that they are doing what is right for our community and our students.

Thank you for your tireless efforts in a thankless job.  I appreciate the work that has been done to construct this budget and the educational opportunities that are provided to my child through our school system.   I am a SUPPORTER and will rally others to support the budget and the students/teachers/administration in our community as well.

[kevin]

Is there anyone from the School Board who is on this forum that can reply to any of this conversation?  Hearing from a Board Member to support why the Board wants to add full-day kindergarten would be interesting.

[cedarman]

As far as the budget goes, I'm in support of the budget.  Comparing the quality and cost of education provided at Fairfax verses against state averages, the administration/teachers at Fairfax are doing a good job (that does NOT mean I think the board is doing a good job). 
The budget is NOT a vote on acceptance of the board members.  That is a separate issue for which we will have a separate opportunity to show who is really in charge, and that we will NOT tolerate underhanded actions to circumvent our input as citizens, tax payers, voters.

[NPM, LLC]

I am curious as to when, exactly, we the taxpayers, parents & concerned citizens of Fairfax will be able to hear answers to the questions posed in this forum.  I understand there is a budget presentation, but will there be adequate time for this barrage of questions?  I do not want to vote no to the budget, however if I do not get some concrete answers from the School Board (that horses mouth) I will be forced to vote No as I will not vote blindly Yes.    Members of the School Board, please hear our pleas for answers!

Also, 3 years ago, when my child was entering Kindergarten there was much discussion about a proposed Full-Day program (which I was against as my son required a lot of sleep at that time and would not have made it through a longer day).  I remember a question being posed as to whether or not parents may pick up their child at Noon if there was a full day program.  The answer at that time was YES as the core curriculum would be complete by that time.  At that time the proposed full day afternoon consisted of lunch, recess, a small rest (quiet) period and specials; therefore leaving at 1/2 day would not interfere w/ academics.  Is the proposed Full day (afternoon time) the same this time around?

[Henry]

Kevin,  There was a Budget Meeting held on February 14th.  The next Budget Meeting will be on Saturday, February 26th, I believe at 10 a.m., which will be an informational meeting.  I would expect they will answer questions there.  I don't know how large a crowd they had on the 14th, but I don't anticipate the school board will be responding to any questions on this forum.