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Buildings, Equipment and Transportation Committee Power Point Presentation

The Power Point presentation - It is a large file!
Download An Overview of King George County 2008 Rev 2 97

Middle School Curriculum and Instructional Programs Committee Report

Committee Members:

Danna Yowler – Chairperson
Terri Bard

Introduction

The Middle School Evaluation Committee was established “for the purpose of independently reviewing and evaluating the curriculum and instructional program of the middle school to identify the level of funding required to provide a high level of quality for the county public schools”. In our efforts to achieve this goal in the time frame provided, we consulted the middle school principal (Ms. Ashshaheed), several educators, school staff, and county School Board administrators. We also interviewed parents and researched state standards.

Click here to download the report in pdf format
Download KGMS Curriculum and Instructional Programs Findings - Final

Student Support Services Committee Report

Click below to download the report as a .mov file
Download Student Services - King George

Download the report as a pdf file
Download Student Services - King George

Report on Guidance Services in .mov format
Download Guidance Services

Download the report on Guidance Services as a pdf file
Download Guidance Services

Operations of the School Board Committee Report

Download the report of the Operations of the School Board Committee in .mov format
Download SBO FINAL PRESENTATION

Download the report of the Operations of the School Board Committee in pdf format
Download SBO FINAL PRESENTATION

Buildings, Equipment and Transportation Committee Summary of Findings

General
•    Preventive Maintenance is the key.
•    The infrastructure is really crumbling at the older schools and unfortunately lots of money is needed to repair the damage.
•    There is evidence of serious animal intrusion in our older schools. (Potomac birds in eves, current KGHS mice and rats.)  Professional cleaning of the ventilation systems needs to be done on a rotating maintenance schedule.
•    Expected to see mismanagement, abuse and general waste and disregard and found out both Ray and Don are devoted to their jobs and do what they can with the little that is provided them.
•    More efficient process is needed for getting rid of excess materials.  Example is the trash at Ralph Bunche that has to have county approval to throw away old papers in the classrooms, old out of date textbooks and rusty desks and chairs.  When the materials that can be auctioned are sold by the county, does the money come back to the schools to buy newer items?
•    The current KGMS and KGHS need a through investigation before a contract is given to renovate the facilities.  Why have a company bid before you know what is needed.  It needs to be done well and not just cheaply with just lipstick on a pig, renovations.  Dressing up and making look good, but the cancer is still there.  (Potomac of the 1990’s section add on.)

Buildings, Equipment and Transportation Committee Executive Summary

Ms. Cathy Binder and Mr. Scott Such inspected the School Board Office property, Ralph Bunche, Potomac Elementary, current High School, current Middle School and Bus Garage with Mr. Don Hall, Supervisor of Facilities, and Mr. Ray Newton, Supervisor of Transportation. Due to the requirements of the FOIA, both members of the committee were required in attendance to constitute a quorum.  This, combined with a three day meeting notification requirement, presented difficult scheduling logistics that inhibited progress on occasion. The newer schools were not visited, however problems evident in the older schools are an indication of what will happen to the newer schools if we do not change our attitude toward building maintenance.

Davis case makes Lawyers Blog

The ongoing case against the King George School Board is getting some attention in other places than The Journal. The Virginia Lawyers Weekly blog site  has two posts regarding the suit. One refers to the court challenge. The other refers to The Journal's article on legal bills from the School Board's attorney and raises the question whether "local government attorneys will now make it a point to request vaguely-worded
descriptions of legal work from outside counsel, to avoid a public parsing of the bills to speculate on what advice was given when by lawyers."

Skip Davis weighs in on Paulsen's response

Skip Davis responds to the email exhange between Heath and Nancy Taylor and School Board Chairman Dennis Paulsen:

Heath and Nancy,

Let's put what the Chairman is saying into context. Paulsen claims the underlying reason for the litigation is accountability. He’s right. Accountability by the School Board and its administrators is nonexistent.
Paulsen claims the newly implemented Discipline committee was created with Virginia State School Boards Association guidelines, using other regional school models. He knows the other school models he was given and told to present were not current. Where did he get that data? Was it a trusted source? Did he know it was outdated when he presented it to the board? Does he still have complete confidence in the competence of his source?

Paulsen states their new discipline committee did nothing wrong. Huh? No School Board members were present at the committee hearing and they claim they have not reviewed the recording. How is he able to determine the committee followed procedure and did nothing wrong when a fourth grader can point out the policy violations on the available documents? Has Mr. Paulsen actually read SB policy or is he just repeating what he has been instructed to say?

Paulsen goes on to say how these policies were developed to bring a sense of order and stability to the school campus. Please!  If he was so concerned about stability or safety, he would have helped to adopt a policy that would reduce the number of fights in our schools. Check out YouTube. Our kids are able to have sex in the halls and bathrooms. Check out Myspace, Facebook, YouTube or just ask your kids.

What about the fact classrooms have been left unattended for entire blocks? I assume this is a safety hazard. Even when a class has a substitute, some students end up sending a kid to the hospital for stitches because instead of being taught, they are allowed to throw office supplies around the room until a child’s face is slashed?  I think that kid had to wake the sub to get a pass to the nurse. I wonder when she let them type her “statement” about what happened so they could get rid of the kid who threw the tape. Actually they could do the typing while she was at the hospital getting her face stitched up. They don’t need her to sign it. I guess she’s lucky the administration didn’t find her wandering the halls bleeding profusely without a hall pass, or they would have to type up another statement. Oh goodness.

Does Mr Paulsen know, at any time during a school day, anyone can walk into the school unnoticed?   Students are able to come and go as they please, and the administration can't figure out who is in school, who is not in school or who was late. Drive by anytime of the day and you will see kids wandering around in the parking lot, sitting in their cars or walking down the street. These are not bad kids, they are unsupervised kids.

Note: 2 of the administrators at KGHS have a Masters Degree in Supervision. We should be able to have some confidence in their ability to supervise. Thankfully Mr. Paulsen has complete confidence so we can all relax.

FYI Chairman Paulsen

The judge did not rule on the legality of the committee, he commented on the legality of it, and he also granted the injunction saving the other rulings for the case when it could be heard in full on its merits. He stated the injunction ruling by definition could very well determine the outcome of the entire case. Interesting how the pertinent information is always left out when the School Board makes public comments.

Newsflash:

The School board is not made up of 5 volunteers as Chairman Paulsen states. THEY ARE ELECTED OFFICIALS. They are accountable to the taxpayers.  The Administrators are not volunteers either, we pay them.

The School Board is supposed to supervise their administrators; it is what we elected them to do.

Simply put, the School Board is the boss and the Administration answers to them, not the other way around. The School Board needs to define and lay out their expectations for the Administration, then inspect what they expect. If the Administration fails to meet or exceed expectations, they should be removed and replaced. They have plenty of policies in place to throw out our kids. Surely they have a Code of Conduct for their employees. I would think misleading the board, not producing requested documents, violating school board policy, mismanaging money or presenting flawed illegal policies for approval would be referenced in this code. Maybe the citizens could form a 3 member committee, type up some statements, hold a hearing and clean house.

Finally Mr. Paulsen,  if you are going to keep repeating yourself, making statements to the press, copying your opinions in writing to Phyllis Cook and the Board of Supervisors regurgitating someone else’s excuses, please check your spelling. You are setting a bad example for our students and I’m sure the people directing your words would be embarrassed to see all their words mangled and misspelled. The rest of us just aren’t buying it.

Regards,
Skip Davis

Subject: Re: Return to reason and due process

The following is an email from Heath and Nancy Taylor to School Board Chairman Dennis Paulsen and his response:

Dennis,

As Chairman, you have the responsibility to move this board forward in
a positive direction.

One of the most important attributes of a functional organization is
to hold itself accountable for its actions, acknowledge mistakes,
learn from them, and move forward.  To move forward, the organization
must make those impacted by these actions whole to the maximum extent
possible.  In this case, the organization is an elected body and must
address those concerns of the citizens of King George,  who have
entrusted the board with governing and guiding education in King
George.

The Special Meeting of the School Board tonight provides the
opportunity for the King George County Schools to move in a positive
direction, rather than continue in this quagmire of a closed process
and arbitrary actions, where avoiding openness, covering mistakes,
omissions of fact, partial truths, accountability to no one, are the
norm, have a return to a transparency in all dealings and clarity of
purpose.

So Dennis, please consider the opportunity that one of the paths you
choose to take tonight holds for the future of our county schools in
setting a new direction.

Regards,

Nancy and Heath Taylor

Subject: Re: Return to reason and due process

Heath and Nancy,

I apologize for taking so long to get back to you, I have been out of town
on business for the past two weeks. The current litigation is still ongoing,
so I can't openly discuss the case specifics at this point.

I appreciated your input on the recent turn of events involving the
litigation against the Superintendant and School Board. It is interesting
that you brought up accountability, because I feel accountability is the
very underlying reason that we are in this litigation now. I can assure you
that this School Board's integrity and accountability is firmly intact and I
feel that we are addressing the concerns of all citizens of this county.
Everyone should be held accountable for one's actions. When a student is
found to violate the Student Code of Conduct, then the student has to be
held accountable and receive the appropriate punishment for that violation.
They read and sign the Code of Conduct at the beginning of each year,
holding themselves accountable to follow the rules and regualtions of that
Code or face the penalties for violation. That Code was developed to bring a
sense of order and stability to the school campus, and provide for a safe
environment for all of our children. If we were not to hold the students
accountable for their actions in accordance with the Code, then we would
have kaos in our schools.

The recent court injunction decision was based on the interruptation of
Virginia Law with regards to how the newly implemented Discipline Committee
was created, and was not decided by their execution of our policies and
procedures or whether due process was violated. The Discipline Committe was
created to the Virgina State School Boards Association guidelines and using
other regional school models. The Discipline Committe did nothing wrong in
executing the policies and procedures established by the School Board. As
with any new process or procedure, there is always room for improvement and
this School Board will continue to improve upon all of our policies and
procedures on a regular basis, as we have done for all of the years that I
have served the community as a member of the King George County School
Board.

Closed sessions, especially when dealing with litigation, are a necessary
part of the School Board meeting process and not a way to avoid openness. We
also meet in closed session to address personnel issues for the protection
of personal privacy. We follow the Virginai State School Law rules and
regulations of closed meetings to the letter. I take exception to your
statement that we are responsible for arbitrary actions, covering mistakes,
and ommisions of fact. Telling me that we are providing partial truths is
the same as saying we are all lying to the community. I would like to know
why you perceive the Board to be operating in this manner?

As I said before, we hold ourselves accountable to all the people King
George County. This board is made up of five King George citizens who have
volunteered their time to serve their community. There are no hidden agendas
on this team of professionals. This is a very positive and dynamic school
board, with a diverse range of opinions, thoughts and ideas. We treat each
other with respect and professional courtesy. I am very excited to be a part
of this team because i really feel that we will be able to make many
positive contributions to our county schools. Make no mistake, our purpose
as a board is crystal clear.

Thannks again for your input and don't hesitate to call me if have any
questions or concerns. Please know that my above comments are reflecting my
own opinions and thoughts and I am not speaking for the King George Count
School Board.

R,
Dennis Paulsen

Cody Davis responds to Mr. Thompson

Up until now, The Journal has not omitted the name of Linda and Skip Davis's son because he is a minor. We are sure many people know his name, King George being a small community. But we have left his name out of our coverage anyway.
Now Cody Davis has responded to David Thompson's letter referring to him as a "pothead."

Regarding a recent letter in the Freelance Star by Mr David Thompson

Mr. Thompson must be feeling a little bent about a couple of students being able to march across the stage at their senior graduation because of alleged bad judgment, even though they earned the right to do so.

Mr Thompson said “the potheads will still be on their mama’s couch playing video games while the rest of the class goes to college.” He called us potheads and numbskulls? Apparently Mr Thompson (a former K.G. school board member) can quote a Cheech and Chong movie but I wonder if he can quote the United States Constitution. Let’s refresh, shall we? The Fourteenth Amendment is one of the post-Civil War amendments, (known as the Reconstruction Amendments). It includes the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses, among others. It was proposed on June 13, 1866, and was ratified on July 9, 1868. It is perhaps the most significant structural change to the Constitution since the passage of the United States Bill of Rights. (The 1st 10 Amendments: Freedom of the press, religion, the right to bear arms, etc).

Under the fourteenth amendment all U.S citizens are afforded the right to Due Process (this includes high school students).

– Due process of law
The regular administration of the law, according to which no citizen may be denied his or her legal rights and all laws must conform to fundamental, accepted legal principles, as the right of the accused to confront his or her accusers.

Furthermore calling someone a “pothead” or “numbskull” is defamation, and is actionable. Google it Dude!

Cody Davis

Student A

2008 graduate, KGHS

Editor's Note: It has been awhile since I worked as a lawyer, but when I read Mr. Thompson's letter I was stunned that he would refer to the students as "potheads." Besides the fact that getting "caught in a car with marijuana" [Thompson's letter] does not necessarily make one a "pothead", we are still talking about a teenager, a minor. There has been no criminal conviction in Mr. Davis's case and The Journal has already pointed out the flaws in the process that the School Board Discipline Committee followed.

Mr. Davis may have a point when he calls the statement actionable. Public figures and elected officials choose to be high profile. The standard for defamation or libel for public figures and officials is that the statement must be not only untrue but must involve actual malice.

For private figures, and presumably for underage high school students, the standard is that the statement is untrue and that there has been negligence in making the statement.

Once again, the issue is not what the students were charged with. The issue is that the School Board's new policy establishing a Discipline Committee of school administrators does not appear to comply with state law. Regardless of the offense, the students are entitled to due process, and in our opinion, summoning students before a discipline committee that did not even exist when the summonses were mailed and then allowing unsigned statements from unnamed witnesses does not constitute due process.

I guess Cody Davis is learning early about the law and due process.

By the way, Mr. Thompson you are griping that the presence of these students at graduation sullied the event. Who allowed these students to graduate? That would be the very school administrators you thank in your letter.