Chesterfield schools could lose 525 jobs

Public vs Private schools is an issue that should be covered in a separate thread. The issue here is the gross mismanagement by the Chesterfield School Board in allowing Mr. Newsome and the administration get into a position that requires severe impact on classroom teachers and students. Mr. Newsome wants to cut the educational opportunities for students while at all costs protect the bureaucratic empire of the school administrators where the top 150 employees make more than $75,000 per year not counting benefits.

The Chesterfield school system for years has sucked up more and more tax money only more and more students are housed in trailers to show for it. Yes they have built several new schools like Cosby built like a resort costing untold millions more than needed for the affluent population in the area while starving the older parts of the county.

The current Chairman of the school board is Marshall Trammell who has made a career out of being on the board. It’s time for term limits as Mr. Trammell and the other board members have in my opinion failed in overseeing the school system. When a board elected by citizens refuses to act in the public interest instead of their own interests and agendas then it’s time for citizens to make corrections.

“I find my sympathy for people who are wealthy enough to send their kids to private schools while demonizing the public is very limited. Boo-hoo. You spend alot (sic) of money on it and your kid didn’t get into UVA. Cry me a river.” (12step revenge)

Tommyrot! She wasn’t admitted to UVA because of Virginia’s public school method of teaching to SOLs. Private school students, whose parents are seeking a better education for their children than that offered in the public school system, suffer on the SATs because they have not been taught to the SOLs, the educrats’ notion of an “education.” I’m not crying because she was admitted to Stanford, Northwestern, and Princeton. Credit is due to admissions officers at these institutions for seemingly recognizing the inanity of the “teaching to the SOL approach in Virginia.” And as difficult as it may be for you public school educrats to comprehend, her self esteem is in tact!

What you are neglecting to bring up in the private school vs public school debate is that yes private schools are working with less dollars, less staff, less whatever, but they are also working with LESS STUDENTS.  The biggest downfall here with these cuts is going to be the increase in class size.  Differentiation is hard with 20 kids, but 35 is nearly impossible. 

Just think back to the comparison between listening to a lecture when you were in college to the study group you had with a TA.  No matter how you want to argue about it, the smaller the teacher to student ratio, the more attention each student will receive and the better the classroom will be. 

Sure private schools do better, but private schools can also keep enrollment low and perhaps more importantly they can eliminate problem students.  We have to take ALL kinds in public schools and find a way to help them learn, so the mean result is always going to be lower than that of private institutions, who can kick a kid out after he punches a teacher in the face, when in a public school, the kid would get 10 days and be right back in the classroom.  I know it sounds dramatic, but these are the realities public schools face.

Your very welcome admin.  I am an adult and a social worker, thank you so much for asking.  It was really polite of you.  I’m also curious to know if you are an actual admin?  If you aren’t I really hope you can be one day.

I’m so sorry that I have an opinion and I feel like expressing it and engaging people who I don’t agree with.  The only way issues in this world get solved is to get into it with one another sometimes. If we had happy go lucky, aww shucks debates, how would you decide which side to choose?  Well, she was a much nicer person, I think I’ll pick her even though she didn’t say anything that made sense.

I’ll try not to be such a meanie pants.  As for extending respect… more than enough people have posted plenty of rude responses directed at me, so I don’t see a lot of respect coming my way.  I’m sorry that you see me disagreeing disrespectful, but we can’t all smile, look pretty, and be seen and not heard all the time.

... and just where do you get that I have an uncaring attitude towards student achievement? I give every bit of myself every day at school. I care very much about the achievement of my students. However, with the population I serve, that’s not always something you can find in the Standards of Learning Curriculum, so please forgive my lack of regard for “rigorous standards in education” that so many applauded. I find my sympathy for people who are wealthy enough to send their kids to private schools while demonizing the public is very limited. Boo-hoo. You spend alot of money on it and your kid didn’t get into UVA. Cry me a river.

Having worked in the city schools for a number of years (including what had to be the most dismal school in existence, Whitcomb Court Elementary… I’m glad it was shut down, if only to get those kids out of that neighborhood for awhile), I know what the worst of the worst of public school can be. Would any parent who had the means send their child to that school? Certainly not! But what do you think the solution is? Vouchers? Those kids will be stuck in the same old project’s school because they can’t afford to make up the difference in cost between the share the government will provide and the cost of a private school. Those who had that kind of money moved out of the neighborhood as soon as they possibly could. What you’d be left with is poor kids in an even poorer school. I see that already benefitting people of means and kicking those who are already down (yeah, yeah… my bleeding liberal heart, et cetera).

What else? Are we going to shut down those schools and bus them to the suburbs? Oh, I bet you wouldn’t like that one either. It’s easy to take a kid out of the ghetto, it’s a little harder to take the ghetto out of the kid when they go back home to the same old street corner. Perish the thought of all of the suburban kids rubbing elbows with the kids from the undesirable neighborhoods. Parents’ heads would explode.

In all seriousness, I’d like to hear how you’d like to see “school choice” pan out.