Breaking...

Tuberculosis reported at Freedom High School. TB screenings to commence Monday.

Was the once-over on the vaccination record not thorough?

Was the student even innoculated at all?

Are illegal aliens to blame?

Stay tuned...

Busted! (Again)

The Prince William County Schools current superintendent is certainly a gift that keeps on giving... the position is a topic of online news articles that still originate from New York:

The Eldredge, Fox & Porretti audit followed a scathing state Comptroller's Office audit of the school system that found numerous instances of waste, fraud and abuse of taxpayer monies within the district. In August 2008, the Board of Education hired EFP to scrutinize the $119.5 million capital improvements project, and to probe expense reimbursements and financial transactions involving former Superintendent Steven L. Walts and his employee cabinet.

Regarding Walts, auditors determined that while he may have had high cell phone bills during the months he was preparing for a new job in Virginia, the Greece school district was obligated to pay those bills under his employment contract. Auditors did criticize him and other former district officials for "excessive" travel expenses, including out-of-town hotel stays with room costs of $350 per night and up and a California trip that cost the district $2,100 in airfare.

Auditors also found Walts made several trips to Virginia between March and July 2005 and did not record those days as vacation days, something auditors called "a consistent pattern of activity" that cost the district nearly $10,000. Auditors said Walts "essentially spent the last week of his (Greece Central School District) employment conducting personal business."

and subsequently get picked up by InsideNoVA:

During Walts' seven-year stint as superintendent of the Greece (N.Y.) Central School District, over-charging by contractors on projects related to a 2001 Capital Improvement Plan budget were in excess of $200,000. In examining the CIP, the third-party auditors confirmed insufficient documentation, change order issues and inconsistent labor rates charged by contractors.

"Quotes for work were often presented as a lump sum amount without any breakdown of labor, materials, or overhead and profit amounts," the document states. It also mentions that on many occa-sions, contractor invoices were found lacking in detail, in some cases just listing the amount due."

The audit for the Greece Central School District can be read here.

It's interesting reading like these gems that make me wonder why the superintendent's contract was renewed over the summer. When stories like these pop up, we can begin to point the fingers at those who had voted "yea" to renewal. Had I been on the school board two summers ago, I would have gladly voted for a severance package, and we would have been rid of this character, and perhaps have been able to find a far better, less shady, less soiled person to lead this school system. But no. The taxpayers ultimately pay the price.

I must wonder how well this will go down with the voters come 2011.

Or maybe not...

Response to previous post:

Julie Lucas said:
Chairman Johns removed this item for now because we are going to discuss this issue during our budget work session. Please help spread the word that this issue will be discussed. Thanks for keeping people informed.
January 27, 2009 1:00 AM

So noted and posted, Ms. Lucas :) Again, thank you for the info.

OOPS! Did we just misplace an action item?

I was checking the agenda for the Prince William County School Board Meeting on February 4th. The 26th item originally read (notice missing info):

That the Prince William County School Board direct the Superintendent that the textbook series "Investigations in Number, Data and Space" shall not be used as the primary textbook for 5th Grade instruction, but materials in the series may be used to supplement the currently approved 5th Grade textbook.

And may it live long and prosperous on the Internets that this is what the 26th item used to read.

Now it says:

That the Prince William County School Board discuss combining the virtual high school with the night high school program.

HMMMMMM, considering that the previous version of the action item dealt with a pretty hot topic in the school system, one must wonder why this action item has suddenly donned an invisibility cloak. If it must be moved to another date for some reason, at least put a note on the agenda! I find it strange that the Traditional Math proponents were the ones to sound the alarm. Where are the investigations folks? It appears as if they are trying to keep quiet about its disappearance. That fishy smell has become quite strong. What the heck is going on?

More news to follow...

Show Time!

A critical milestone has been reached in favour of the Traditional Math proponents. At tonight's school board meeting, a small yet significant item on this evening's agenda will be deliberated and voted on. This item proposes having an opt-in option for traditional math. Months of e-mails, faxes, citizen comments, letters to the editor, and a solid math forum have come to this. Join the ranks of citizens at the Edward L. Kelly Leadership Center. Those at home can still catch the action on channel 18 (Comcast), channel 36 (Verizon), or watch the meeting live on the Web.

Go Team! :)

::UPDATE::
I watched some of the meeting online last night. The beginning portion was heavily in favour of investigations. I don't recall hearing all too much out of the MI crew before, but here they were with plenty of comments to spare. Hmmm. I wonder where they came from.
From reading the responses on the Yahoo! Math Forum, it appears as if there was no vote taken. The discussion afterwards, however, is something else. Numerous reports erupted that a couple school board members spewed vitriol during the board's comment time. A poster at the Forum wrote:

Apparently PWCS staff are spreading misinformation. I'd like to clarify that I was at the meeting and there were no chairs thrown and there was no swearing as parents left the board room during Lattin's comments. The only word that was said was, "Rude."

Man! Now I wish I'd attended the meeting in-person. Relive all 5 hours and 37 minutes, if you so desire. Fast forward to the last 20 minutes for the best parts.

::UPDATE::
Interesting Action item on the February 4th agenda. It states:

That the Prince William County School Board direct the Superintendent that the textbook series "Investigations in Number, Data and Space" shall not be used as the primary textbook for 5th Grade instruction, but materials in the series may be used to supplement the currently approved 5th Grade textbook.

Hopefully, this item will go forward at the next meeting. Traditional math has been waiting a long time for this.

The new PWC schools chief?

¿Adiós?

Okaaaay, I REALLY don't know what to make of the whispers and rumours and whatnot that's been spreading like fire on spilt gasoline in Prince William County and Greece, NY. It began last Friday, July 18 with an e-mail I received from someone stating that Steven Walts was resigning. I was out of town during that time, and when I returned home, my father had more information. As early as last month, the school board had apparently offered a buy-out for Walts. The amount wasn't quite what he was looking for. But then word comes around that he was resigning. The reasons spanned from being "caught en flagrante with a male math teacher" to suspicions that "one of the employees he brought from New York was his mistress and the wife found out. " A friend of my father's had called asking for confirmation. I would think that something this big would be reported in the Potomac News and/or Washington Post, but when I checked, there was nothing. However, underneath the hum of rush-hour traffic there is a palpable electricity, especially up in Greece.

It began with a post on the Smarter CATS in the Greece Central School District blog titled ALL POINTS BULLETIN?

PWC Resident said...
There's word out that Waltsie and possibly his boys are going to waltz out of Prince William County Public Schools.
Keep a sharp eye out for these hoodlums. Do NOT give the bad guys any reason to return to your system. 7/18/2008 7:12 PM

This post sparked a furor. These comments give reason for pause:

Anonymous said...
Impeccable sources close to PWC report that Walts resigned yesterday (Friday) rather than be fired for cause. It is alleged that Walts was caught with an employee engaged in behavior that would be considered cause for dismissal . The cheering in PWC has just begun!!
Are their people on our board that are sick enough to want to bring him back?
Stay tuned for breaking news!
Oh, he allegedly overspent the budget on the new admin bldg. by $15 million. And the Board of Education members are profoundly embarrassed by this turn of events. Of course they were warned about Walts' behaviors three years ago, and again and again. 7/19/2008 2:39 PM

Anonymous said:
If the story about Walts resigning is true, then some hard questions need to be asked.
Was the employee wishing to be given a raise by Walts?
Was the employee seeking to get ahead at work?
Did Walts overplay his hand?
Was there bad-mouthing of or by either party?
Clearly a subordinate employee can be compromised by a powerful superior. It is called sexual harrassment!
Can Walts' lifetime health care paid by Greece residents be stopped immediately for actions that warranted dismissal by the current employer?
Or will Boily and puppets want to ignore yet another smoking gun!!! 7/19/2008 3:52 PM

A further post allowed for discussion of the former comment: OOPS!! HE DID IT AGAIN?? In the following discussion, an anonymous post that seemed to originate from PWC offers more:

The rumor started here in Prince William early in the week that he was going to resign. It spread among the principals and teachers in summer school like wildfire. When people called the admin office, it was denied. But then on Friday, the talk expanded and it was coming from people who worked on the Hill in or close to the super's office. They said they saw what was happening Friday morning and that he definitely was resigning or going to resign. He was taking things out of his office clearing it out. By Friday afternoon, it was all over the county, although not officially reported anywhere. At my school we never heard any rumors as to why or any allegations about Dr. Walts, just that he was leaving. But there have been wild rumors for weeks that Kisha left because of sexual harassment and misconduct. We're just as baffled as everyone else is.

We have rumors like any school system but I can't remember any rumor being this talked about and not true. I'm not saying it is true but the people it was coming from are people who have never spread rumors like this in the past. They seemed fearful of losing their own jobs with a new administration so I think they were being honest about what they saw and thought was happening on Friday. 7/20/2008 3:51 PM

And here's my comment:

At this point, I'm getting told two different stories left and right. For all the announcements our school board makes, it would be VERY helpful to hear one verifying or busting this rumour. >:( I am astounded that SCATS appears to have more info on this than our own papers. ><

For those wondering about blog coverage, there is at least one. BLACK VELVET BRUCE LI July 20: "No, PWCPS Superintendent Walts is not resigning/been fired or whatever, despite rumors to that effect. Some folks have confused the resignation of the State Superintendent with Dr. Walts. For beter [sic] or worse, Dr. Walts is still with us."

Hopefully, more info will come to light in the coming days. 7/21/2008 4:32 AM

I know, Wikipedia isn't the best source =)

Personally, there is nothing I'd like better than to see a certain someone walking out of Independent Hill with his tail tucked between his legs. I can only hope that all school systems have been warned of this character and will keep their doors shut to him and his associates.

Sell Out the Bad Stock

I've received intel this afternoon that the Prince William County School Board has been looking into buying-out the current superintendent, sort-of like a "we'll-pay-you-to-skip-town" thing. Funny, but this is coming from the same group of people who released a statement back in February saying:

"Dr. Walts continues to have the confidence of the ... board. The Prince William County community can rest assured that the School Board has long-standing and transparent policies and audit procedures assuring integrity and effectiveness of all division operations."

Good job! This is certainly worthy of a medal. The Citizens are presented with a front that denies any and all wrongdoings of their star employees, yet at the same time, a hand or two sneaks underneath the table to bid a completely different errand.

Unfortunately, the likelihood that the position will be vacated due to a buyout (and the school board members getting their heads out of each other's rear ends) is, sadly, quite unlikely. When offended parties win their lawsuits and student performance continues to spiral downward in the Math department, we may very well have eight school board representatives walking the plank. And those sharks are getting mighty hungry...

Rumours have been going around that Freedom High School may see new leadership within the next academic year or so. I'll be keeping an eye out on the job posting.

Storm Watch

Here we go again ... taxes and budget time! Last year was a bit of an eye-opener. This year looks to be about the same. There may be less bickering, there might be more. It's the manager's choice. I read a very interesting point in the PotomacNews regarding the school budget. Actually, I never thought about it this way, but it made a whole lotta sense:

Supervisor Wally Covington, R- Brentsville, questioned why Prince William administrative salaries seemed to rise at a much higher rate than teachers, according to research he said he conducted using state Department of Education statistics.

Why not move the $1.3 mil raises that the "Top 10" are reported to receive for 2009, and give it to the teachers? Goodie Lord, it wasn't until 2007 that I've read so much beef regarding the school budget. Prior to that, nada. It's still in the air at this point, so the numbers will change. I guess we'll just hold our breath.

And another thing: I'm not extactly thrilled that there is a near-constant PWC vs. Fairfax comparison made. (They're probably not too happy about it, either.) Physical proximity does not always guarantee similar populations. Both counties have specific needs that make it almost impractical to cross-compare each other, especially when the issues become more complex.

In any case, perhaps there will come a time when we will all get along...

Or never.

New Trade Winds

Hey, Stevie Wonder! How's the weather in New York? It's a bit cold, isn't it. And it's not because you travelled a few degrees higher in latitude... it's the cold look your old system is giving you. And what's that smell? Oh, it's the Stink Eye. Your reign of tyranny is coming to an end. Pretty soon, no school board/board of education will be folly enough to accept you as its school's chief. So let's take a look at your oh-so-stupendously colourful background:

1. EEOC discrimination charges (Age is the trademark, Retaliation almost always accompanies it)
   
   
2. Mainstreaming schools out of their special education programs just to save a few bucks. Note: few students come with success stories
   
   
3. MATH INVESTIGATIONS. $2.4 million down the crapper thus far WITH MORE TO GO. It doesn't take two eyes and a pair of ears to see the number of concerned and pissed-off parents flooding school board meetings
   
   
4. Questionable prior fiscal activity. Wow, the draft audit from my lemonade stand looked better than the one coming from Greece

Holy smokes...

And if you haven't already heard, the school board sent its opinions to Richmond. I wonder why they thought House Joint Resolution 245 was "detestable." Just to give a quick rundown, the PotomacNews says:

The measure would amend the Virginia Constitution so that schools could be supervised by "a local governing body and locality’s chief administrative officer," if the General Assembly enacted legislation toward that effect, according to the bill. In other words, laws could be passed giving the county supervisors and executive, say, authority to run the schools in place of the School Board and superintendent.

OOPS, I guess this came at a bad time for the school board; with all the fire they've been under recently, it's almost implying that someone else could do the Board's job better... which might not be too far from the truth.

Right now, please make like the school board and take both hands and place them on each buttock cheek. There, you've just made a sorry attempt to cover your derriere. That's what happens when you try to support a bad employee. And when something comes out of this, you'll go right down the drain with him because you didn't disassociate yourself from his actions.

Anyways, it's the weekend, a time to recharge and recover from the workweek's blows and near-misses. We will return in not-quite full form for another 8 days of this blogger life.

School Board Meeting6.20.07

In debt and NOT surprised -_-()

HARDY-HAR-HAR ... ROTFLMAO ... LOL ... TEE HEE HEE ...
The PWC School Board is in the RED - excuse me - "suffering shortfalls in the budget" ... which is a nicer way to say it. -_-()
So we're in debt!!! What else is new??? As far as I know, the System was headed for collapse as soon as I was informed that case XYZ was sure-hit for a lawsuit. *COUGH COUGH*
But anyways, that is off topic ...
I know the Members are probably regretting the vote taken for the administration building back in November. It was a no-friggin'-brainer. Sure, your employers need new digs, but I thought this was a "for the students" society. Why couldn't they wait until ALL the school trailers were gotten rid of first before voting on something that was for them???
Again, off topic.
ANYWAYS, that's an awful lotta money that's just sitting there. Hmmm ... tempting isn't it??? But, hey, votes can be reversed, right? $36.9 million is a nice cushion, wouldn't you think???
Then again, they never listen to their constituents, and plow through with a vote and a subsequent decision that does not reflect "the best interests of the students".

Fortunately, the so-called "constituents" are voters and angry citizens in disguise ...

REMEMBER THE NOVEMBER!!!