School Board Elections

We are down to the wire before tomorrow's elections and both of my e-mail accounts are full of pleas to support particular candidates. Here's my take after 13 years as a parent of LCPS students living first in Ashburn Farm, and now in Lansdowne. I was one a very small group of voters who attended the public forum at Belmont Ridge MS.

The issues:
Dr Hatrick - If our superintendent should continue to be our superintendent is an ongoing debate that, it seems to me, is fueled by the loud voices of those who want him replaced for every possible reason. Is the silent majority in the middle? Most of us moved here because of the good schools; we visited Fairfax schools and Loudoun schools before we bought our house here in Loudoun. If the schools were awful, the superintendent would have been replaced long ago. But since the schools are very good can we not give Dr. Hatrick some credit? I think so. What would I like to see improved? There are too many layers of communication between the parents and Dr. Hatrick. This was most obvious to me at the recent Special Ed Advisory Comm. (SEAC) meeting where Dr. Hatrick spoke to the membership: no one asked him a single question during the Q&A time. We know that we have to start with our case manager and assistant principal, working our way up to Mary Kearney, and through Dr. Kealy to get to Dr. Hatrick.

HS-8 - If we need HS-8 is not really an issue, but where it goes and when it opens is a big enough issue to deserve it's own post. The boundary will eventually be an issue also.

Technology Plan - Millions of dollars to put tablets in the hands of every student from the 4th through 12th grade requires more consideration. What happens to that 12th grader when they go to college and have to downgrade to a laptop? There are two computers in the classrooms at Belmont Ridge MS and one of them is used to run the whiteboard, leaving ONE computer for classroom use. Is there a middle step here that should be considered?

At-Large
Currently, both Bob Ohneiser and Tom Reed represent me. I have spoken before the school board on boundary and special education issues. Bob Ohneiser knows who I am, but Tom Reed doesn't. Both of them want to see a larger commercial tax base, which is needed, but I don't see how the school board can accomplish this goal. I would like to see the winner of this seat improve communication with the parents/voters of the county.

Jay Bose - I was happy to hear him in person, but don't agree that LCPS and/or it's students are mediocre. Diversity is good, but not the first reason to ask for my vote.
Tom Reed - I watch most of the school board meetings and it concerns me to have someone represent me who seems to treat the other members as less than his equal. He promptly answers e-mails with self centered answers instead of parent/voter centered answers. If he wins he needs to communicate through his blog regularly not once or twice a year.
Bob Ohneiser - I like the questions that he asks and his persistence in seeking answers. Regarding the technology plan, he wants to know what problem we are solving; is this a solution to an undefined problem? He has searched out answers to specific questions that I have had regarding the budget and special education. He has sought out my input on special education ideas. Bob has my vote. I hope he starts a newsletter or some other regular means of communicating with the parents/voters of the county.

Ashburn District
Two of the candidates live in Lansdowne, one in Belmont CC and two in Ashburn Farm. Until this weekend, when my husband and I were out of town, no one has come to my door and asked for my support. I have met some of the candidates at various meetings and have not been shy about calling those that I wanted more information from.

Debbie Piland - I think Debbie has been running the longest, and I have watched her grow as a candidate. She has an interesting background and I like her. She doesn't have the first qualification for my vote though - a personal knowledge of the classrooms in the district.
John Ryan - My first opportunity to hear John Ryan was at the candidate forum. I'm glad I got to hear him and he seems to be a pleasant man with a sense of humor. But like Debbie, he has no first hand knowledge on the current state of the classrooms in the district.
Chris Souther - He wants the superintendent replaced and fully supports the implementation of the technology plan. And in an earlier post on one of the newspapers didn't seem to know that elementary "resource teachers" means special education. Sorry.
John Andrews - John Andrews' previous school board experience began shortly after we moved to the county. I like him and was part of a group several years ago that asked for his input on boundary issues. But he has school-aged children that attend private school.
Eric Hornberger - As a member of Ashburn Farm Parents United, Eric and I have been on opposite sides of boundary issues. So, if he didn't know who I was, I knew what position he represented! But the Stone Bridge issue, as presented by the planning dept., was moving Lansdowne students out TEMPORARILY, and then moving them back to SBHS. When our family moved to Lansdowne, in the fall of 2004, we had a kindergarten student at Seldens Landing, and a freshman and senior at Stone Bridge. Our older son was part of the Harper Park Annex at Stone Bridge for 8th grade, the year Stone Bridge opened. In six years, our older kids went to 5 different middle schools, including our daughter moving to Belmont Ridge the year it opened as an 8th grader. I am relieved that the three school solution was developed for the Ashburn area. With all of the growth that we have seen, sending our youngest to Stone Bridge was not a priority, but having a school for him to attend still is imperative. Eric is a parent and has knowledge of the Ashburn schools at all three levels. Eric has my vote.

Algonkian District
John Stevens has been an active supporter of special education students and their parents. He has worked directly with the Special Education Advisory Comm. board and has encouraged the membership to be active and involved. I can't vote for John, but have supported him financially and encourage the voters in his district to return him to board.

Deaf and Hard of Hearing, Part 2

Have you kept up with the article and comments in LTM on the former LCPS Deaf and Hard of Hearing teacher? I mentioned this topic in a blog after I attended the last Special Ed Town Hall Mtg in May of 2009.

I find the whole story disturbing, but many of the comments really made me wonder about language and communication. Are deaf/hoh students eligible to receive services through the preschool program to learn ASL/ESL? How do hearing parents communicate with non-hearing children if they don't all learn to sign? Who helps parents decide if their child's first language is ASL or not? With all of the charts that are available for middle and high school students and their families to choose a diploma track, is there a similar chart available for deaf and hard of hearing students and their families to help them choose an academic future?

And aren't all students required to take the writing SOL? With all of the technology we use, the poor written communication skills of some of the posters was very surprising to me.

Do the music, art & PE teachers at this elementary school include these students? What is the least restrictive environment if none of the general education students in the school can communicate the most basic information to their peers?

It will be interesting to see if there are more comments at the next Special Ed Town Hall Mtg this coming April.

Know Your Audience

I got testy at the Special Ed Advisory Committee meeting last night.

First of all, the topic changed at the last minute from Before and After School Activities to Adequate Yearly Progress. I've been all over AYP, including watching the school board meeting where the results were discussed and noting the comment that Students with Disabilities "only" need to improve from a 76% to a 79% pass rate in reading next year to achieve safe harbor and make AYP for the district. The reading target last year for all students was 81%, and the reading target next year for all students is 89%.

Now I really like attending the SEAC meetings; I've learned an awful lot on a variety of topics including Precision Teaching, Differentiation of Instruction and Behavior Intervention Plans. It makes me a better parent and a better IEP team member. It also helped me to be a more effective SEAC PTA representative last year. But did someone expect me to forgot all of that and sit there and play nice?

Last night's presenter was Dr. Stephan Knobloch, Director of Research. I have no doubt that he knows these numbers inside and out. But when you are making a presentation to the parents of the lowest achieving subgroup in the district, you need to modify your remarks from what you would say to the school board. No child left behind is specifically our child - our son or daughter.

To me, when you have a 76% pass rate in reading, that means that almost 25% of students with disabilities are unable to demonstrate that they can read on grade level. Every other subgroup, including those with limited English and the disadvantaged, hit the target of a 81% pass rate. What is going on? And how, specifically, are you going to improve the performance of these students? I've learned how you can do this, but when are you actually going to do it? Or does it not matter unless and until we don't hit our mile marker? We have about 6,000 students with disabilities and a little over half of them took a reading SOL last year - that means that there are about 800 disabled students who failed the reading SOL. Most of these 800 students live with a parent who can read and with at least one sibling who can read.

Teach all of our children to read! You know, use precision teaching, differentiation, Stetson and a well formulated and implemented IEP. You have the tools, and you have gone to pains to let us know that you have the tools - use them!

Belmont What?

As if we don't have enough confusion in the county right now with the proposed conversion of Belmont Ridge middle school to a possible high school, The Washington Post added an new dimension with the front page article on The Loudoun Extra about a teacher from ... Belmont Ridge Elementary school.

They have changed the online article to read Belmont Station elementary, but here's a link to the picture that still says Belmont ridge.

Congratulations to Sean Griffin!

Read a local article here.

Before We Move On...AYP Results

The Loudoun County School Board has a very full plate this school year, but I don't want to forget what the Commonwealth of Virginia expects of LCPS this year. Here are the Annual Yearly Progress charts that were recently presented to the board:

AYP Progress Safe Harbor

The reading scores are for all students in grades 3 - 8 and grade 11.
The math scores are for all students in grades 3 - 11 or until they have taken 3 high school level math courses (they could be in 9th or 10th grade - tests end with Algebra II).

The students who were in 3rd grade in 2004/05, were in 8th grade in 2009/10.

The reading scores are pretty easy to understand, but without more information it is difficult to interpret the math scores. Clearly math scores went down in all groups in 2005/06 and did not completely rebound until 2007/08.

On the reading chart:

• Black and Hispanic students started out at the same level (71%) in 2004/05, took different paths, but ended up at the same level (85%) five years later.

• Black students have demonstrated no improvement for three years.

• Limited English students and Students with Disabilities started very close together, but Students with Disabilities are now lagging behind all other groups and are still scoring in the 70's. This is disheartening as disabled students who cannot perform at the grade level of their peers have had alternative tests available to indicate their improvement.

To put it another way, 24% of disabled students who are expected to read at grade level are unable to indicate that they can do so.

There is a whole lot of information not available from these charts. There are two questions that are uppermost in my mind:

• How many children fall into more than one of the non-white subgroups; specifically how many disabled students are in each of the other groups?

• How are disabled students performing by disability group; is there a particular disability that is either over or under-performing?

The gaps between non-white sub-groups have narrowed, as have the gaps between white students and all of the other sub-groups.

I'm wondering if this chart makes the case for the legitimacy of No Child Left Behind. Would school districts have made a concerted effort to raise the reading scores of poor, minority and disabled students by 15 to 20 percentage points if it hadn't been mandated by law?

We Get an Answer Tonight!

From the Agenda under Information Items:

The School Board and the Board of Supervisors agreed to fund engineering and design studies to explore locations for an elementary school (ES-22), a middle school (MS-6), and a high school (HS-8). Staff was tasked with the following assignments:

1. Locate an elementary school on the County-owned Farmwell property;
2. Construct a middle school on the Newton-Lee Elementary School site (with and without the additional five acres of land from Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority, NVRPA);
3. Convert Belmont Ridge Middle School to a high school.

Professional architectural and engineering consultants have prepared a comprehensive report on the aforementioned tasks that will be shared with the public at the meeting.

Put a High School Here!

Remember the boundary war over Stone Bridge High School that ended with Freshman in Lansdowne going to Tuscarora until a new high school could be located and built? Remember how the Board of Supervisors is funding studies to see where schools in the north Ashburn area might go. Remember how these studies require outside consultants to tell us what, in some cases, is obvious - like the feasibility of turning Belmont Ridge Middle School into a high school is nil?

Put a high school here: One Loudoun!
The following articles each report that the One Loudoun property is in foreclosure and going to auction.

http://www.leesburg2day.com/articles/2010/09/16/news/9534toneloudoun091610.txt

http://www.loudountimes.com/index.php/news/article/one_loudoun_facing_foreclosure999/

Maybe we (the taxpayers) could get a deal!

Thoughts on the LCPS Budget

I have kept myself informed on this year's budget process as it has bounced back and forth between the Loudoun County School Board and the Board of Supervisors. I have either watched the proceedings live or on the webcast and have read the local papers and many of the local blogs. In my opinion, this article in Leesburg Today is the best summary of the most recent School Board meeting.

And here are my thoughts, in no particular order, on what has and hasn't happened:

FLES (Foreign Language in Elementary School) - Little Dude is finishing the fifth grade, so he has had the opportunity to experience the entirety of this enrichment program throughout his time in elementary school. And I'm glad that he has had this opportunity. Is the program perfect? No, it's not. I don't like not having the chance to meet his teacher or to have access to the syllabus; I don't know if they are learning the language and culture of Spain (a total waste) or of Mexico and Central America (a more practical application). But he denies that it has been the same every year: "We learned about insects this year." He came home with a test that none of us knows if it was a real test or a practice test and only got one answer incorrect. But the picture of the little girl holding a dog gave away the answer to one of the questions. I do wonder about the attention of the children, but it doesn't sound like they are misbehaving. He knows more of a second language at eleven years old than either of our older kids knew at fourteen. Fix it and keep it.

JV Lacrosse: If there is a varsity program, there should be a JV program.

Freshman sports: When did this become more important than high school summer school? If there is a choice between the two, the SB picked the wrong one, but I'll get to summer school in a few minutes. Am I the only one who sees that the natural compromise is to have freshman sports WITHIN THE COUNTY? Aren't we going to have 11 high schools this fall? Can't we keep the games in the county and eliminate all the transportation costs by having the players report to the various fields at specific times? Chairman Stevens may see this as micromanaging, but I see it as compromise.

Gifted and Talented and Special Education: I am sooooo relieved that these parents were not pitted against each other, especially since there are children who are in both. THANK YOU!

Shared Principals at the 4 smallest schools: It sounds like there are two principals who are retiring, so this might work out without some weird arrangement.

Reading Specialists: Now come on, how can anyone reasonably say that we are all about educating the county's children and then propose to cut reading specialists. Reading is the single most fundamental skill that our children are taught. Glad that common sense prevailed.

SAT Prep classes: Ms Giggles took this class, probably when she was a junior and the writing part of the SAT was new. It stunk! Half of getting an above average score is understanding how the test itself is scored and this information was never relayed to the students - you can't guess on this test as you are scored down for wrong answers. If you can't have a class that truly addresses the strategy of successfully taking this test then you have no business offering it AT ALL! You are only raising the hopes of students and parents to offer any class to any student that is only about content. Charging for this is sinful. DUMP IT!

Subsidizing School Lunch Costs: I am not talking about low income students who get free or reduced price lunches, every child needs a minimum level of calories to learn. But why are we reducing the cost of these high fat meals for students who can pay full price? OUR CHILDREN WOULD BE HEALTHIER IF THEY BROUGHT A BAG LUNCH!

Larger Class Sizes: There are particular schools and/or specific grades in even the crowded schools that this will not effect due to the numbers of students per grade. But at Seldens Landing, currently the largest elementary school in the county, this will be awful for some grade levels. Unless and until the decision makers have visited all of the classrooms that currently have 28 students, they should not be allowed to increase it to 29 students. Funny, I haven't seen ANY school board members at Seldens this year! THIS IS THE WORSE DECISION OF THE YEAR!

Assistant Athletic Trainers: Unfunding this was way overdue!

Summer School: First of all, let's get one thing straight - Extended School Year for special education students IS NOT SUMMER SCHOOL. ESY is legally required for specific individual students who will have very serious set backs with a twelve week break, or for that matter, it may even be the two weeks of winter break. I do not feel that it is required of me to give examples of the students who require these services as this is a very personal, confidential and necessary decision for the families involved. Little Dude has a learning disability and our team spent less than a minute deciding that he did not require this level of support. The majority of special ed students do not participate in ESY.

But that does not mean that there are not elementary students who are below grade level in a specific academic area (reading or math) that require extra academic assistance to enter the upcoming year on par with their peers. The elimination of the early back program will affect the reading and math scores of dozens of students in each elementary school. Or more students will be repeating grades than have in the past. Thanks for nothing.

Middle School Summer School: Well it was torturous how we finally got funding for this necessary program, but as the night wore on, it became clear that somehow it was going to be funded. Thank Heavens! But it shouldn't have been so hard.

High School Summer School: And the first citizens that need to enroll are sitting on the dais! Not funding and providing for high school summer school will affect our on time graduation rate, drop out rate and eventually our status among college admissions offices. How do you propose a student who fails a math or science or English class makes that up? If they have failed math or science as a sophomore they can't take both the 10th grade and the 11th grade levels the next year - they didn't learn enough the first time through to be successful taking both the following year! This requires another compromise: provide actual summer school classes for students who made D's or F's in their (non-elective) classes. Students who are taking classes for enrichment purposes can take them online.

I have more to add, but it's too late to do it tonight.

School Board Boundary Policy

I attended the School Board meeting this week and spoke about the boundary changes. Then I went next door to hear a wonderful presentation on bullying at the Special Education Advisory Committee. When the presentation was complete, I went back to hear the discussion on the boundary policy.

It seems to me that this topic is becoming extremely difficult and time consuming, but I for one don't think it's better - just different.

So, I came home and wrote my own policy. And I'm posting it here. This is a link to board docs and the policy that is under consideration.

FYI - Blue text is my two cents!

§2-32 School Attendance Zones: Policy and Process

A. Authority

The Loudoun County Public Schools is vested with the authority to “provide for the consolidation of schools or redistricting of school boundaries or adopt pupil assignment plans whenever such procedure will contribute to the efficiency or the school division.” [Code of Virginia: Section §22.1-79 (4)]

B. Definitions

Permanent Attendance Zones – LCPS does not provide permanent attendance zones.

Stable Attendance Zones – The School Board strives to provide stable attendance zones for all of the students of LCPS. Stable attendance zones are those that are deemed unlikely to require revision for 5 years.

Temporary Attendance Zones – It may be necessary for the School Board to engage in attendance zone changes that are deemed temporary. This is likely due to the health, safety and instructional needs of students during a period of expanding attendance.

Cluster/Feeder System – LCPS utilizes the feeder system to promote cohesive operational clusters in which students remain with their educational cohorts and staff coordinate and communicate within the cluster. Generally, several elementary schools feed into one middle school, and the middle school feeds directly to the high school. Clusters are identified by the high school in the feed.

Split Feed – Any school that sends students, upon completion of the highest grade level, to more than one cluster or any school that receives students from more than one cluster is considered to have a split feed. All split feed attendance zones are considered to be temporary attendance zones.

Staggered Enrollment/Phasing – The School Board may decide to stagger an attendance zone change through the phasing of incoming classes.

C. Reasons for Considering Attendance Zone Adjustments

The School Board may change an attendance zone in order to maintain or improve operating efficiency and/or in order to maximize instructional effectiveness. In general, adjustments may relieve facility crowding, better utilize existing space, avoid underutilized facilities, mitigate the impact to schools created by demographic imbalances, and better allocate program resources, and/or reduce operating costs.

D. Attendance Zone Change Process

At least annually, the Superintendent will recommend to the School Board options for the transformation of all temporary attendance zones to stable attendance zones. In addition, the Superintendent will evaluate whether or not additional attendance zone changes are to be considered. Typically, the evaluation will take place within the context of the Capital Improvements Program process, but changes may also be recommended at any time to address safety, overcrowding or other concerns. Attendance zone changes may also be initiated at the direction of the School Board. When conditions exist for school attendance zone changes, the Superintendent will recommend to the School Board that options for change be developed. These options will identify schools potentially affected by the attendance zone changes, the means by which the public will be involved in the attendance zone change process and a calendar for the attendance zone change process. The School Board will seek to encourage public participation throughout this process and will hold at least one public hearing prior to the adoption of any attendance zone change recommendation. The School Board will act on the Superintendent’s recommendation, but may modify that recommendation. Finally, if an attendance zone is deemed to be a temporary attendance zone the time frame of the change and the means to transformation to a stable attendance zone will be determined at the time of the change.

E. Factors Considered in Attendance Zone Changes

When changing school attendance zones, the School Board and the Superintendent will consider, but not be limited to, the following criteria whenever possible (alphabetical order):

Demographic characteristics of the student population

Equitable distribution of programs and resources

Minimize future capital and operational budget costs

Minimize long-term use of mobile or modular classrooms

School capacities, new facilities and/or renovations to existing school facilities

School location

Stability

Student enrollment projections

Transportation

The School Board may will consider each of these factors in making an attendance zone change. In the exercise of its authority, the School Board recognizes that it may not be reasonably practicable to reconcile each and every factor in any attendance zone change, but any attendance zone plan adopted by the School Board should be based on the above factors to the greatest extent possible.

School Board 2, My Comments

This post is a continuation of my post from early this morning on last night's School Board meeting. It is also, however, an interruption of the topic of that post. I will return to that topic shortly, but wanted to post here, now, the comments that I prepared to read last night. This is in it's entirety as I was unable to finish my comments due to both the time constraint of two minutes AND the fact that I lost my place while I was reading and had to repeat part of a sentence. I am leaving out the salutation and identification info at the beginning.

It does not please me to be here tonight.

You have heard many of my neighbors give details on how tonight’s Action Item is the result of inappropriate and unprofessional behavior by members of this board. This information is available as a result of a Freedom of Information Act request. It is shocking that citizens in this school district must file FOIA requests to have the facts about their schools. It is especially disgraceful in light of the fact that this board revised it’s Code of Conduct for School Board Members in August.

A4 of that policy begins: That my fellow board members and I should take the initiative in helping the people of this community to have the facts about their schools…

It is offensive that these words have been so quickly forgotten and replaced with behavior intended to spread disinformation. As a special ed parent, I cannot communicate with the members of this board or administration about any educational issue that my child may have if FOIA is the new preferred method of disseminating information; I will not participate in violating my child’s rights.

And where does a communication process that requires the use of FOIA as a starting point proceed to? I’m afraid to imagine what the next steps may be. I am personally trying to avoid a due process hearing for my fifth grader by working my up the chain of responsibility within the special ed department. But when elected representatives don’t represent and communication is at a standstill, what is the equivalent of due process for an entire neighborhood?

Meanwhile, I have heard new, good options for the students of Dulles North that you may never hear if this process continues to intentionally pit neighborhood against neighborhood. Stop now and do it correctly and openly.

I will end where I started, it does not please me to be here tonight. I should be in room 105, engaged in the presentation by the Parent Resource Center on transitioning to middle school with IEP.

In hindsight, I should have gone to the presentation!

To the School Board: YOU DON'T GET IT!

For almost a year, Dulles North parents have been dealing with boundary issues. And tonight the process lost at the expense of the children in Lansdowne. Adding insult to injury, Bob Ohneiser - the duly elected school board member of the affected children - LECTURED Lansdowne parents from his cushy chair behind the dais.

I got involved in this last year when Little Dude was a fourth grader and the boundaries for all levels of schools were affected - elementary, middle and high school. I didn't think at the time that he would be moved for 5th grade or that our neighborhood would be moved for middle school, although here is a link to a plan that everyone denies has ever been promoted to take part of Lansdowne out of Belmont Ridge Middle School. I worked with others who were interested and self-selected myself to work on maps. Having been through many boundary changes with our older two children, I was familiar with the process - including when Stone Bridge High School opened. As a group, we pretty much determined that Seldens Landing would be over capacity, but moving one section of students to another elementary school to overcrowd them by the same amount was silly - a neighborhood elementary school should be overcrowded with it's own students, not with a handful of students from another neighborhood.

The staff and the school board apparently agreed and there were no boundary changes for our elementary school students. Middle school was more difficult, from a map perspective, but after many options by parents all over the Central and Dulles districts and, of course, the staff, it became clear that in one, two, or three years they would all be over capacity. So the same reasoning must have prevailed and the middle school boundaries were not changed.

But then we have the Almighty Stone Bridge High School!

Our family moved to Ashburn Farm (planning zone DN28) when Ms Giggles was in 3rd grade and Floggy was in 6th grade; I was pregnant with Little Dude; we moved from Ashburn Farm when Little Dude was starting kindergarten, and Ms Giggles was a Freshman and Floggy was a Senior at the Almighty High School. I never anticipated that Little Dude would go to the Almighty SBHS. And I am not alone among my neighbors with elementary only children, hence the poor turnout at neighborhood and school board meetings by parents of elementary aged students. Frankly, I think they trusted their neighbors with older children to represent the best interests of the community when it came to high school planning.

There were a number of different priorities that members of the community had. Teens at the Almighty Stone Bridge, naturally wanted to stay there. Younger sibs in middle school naturally wanted to not only follow their older brother(s) or sister(s) to the Almighty SBHS, but wanted to maintain the friendships that they had developed in middle school.

As a community we learned about the academic and social benefits of the feeder system, and liked what we learned. Everyone agreed that this was a common priority. We agreed that we wanted our children to have not just a stable neighborhood, but a stable school community. As a neighborhood, we will never be big enough to need a 1600 student capacity high school. Even with the largest elementary school in the district, we will not ever have 400 students in a grade, although we are over half way there with current second grade.

SO WE WANT TO BE IN A SCHOOL COMMUNITY WITH OTHER NEIGHBORHOODS THAT BORDER OUR NEIGHBORHOOD!

Our children attended Seldens Landing with the children from neighboring University Center until a new elementary school was built near One Loudoun and University Center was moved just over a year ago. Our middle school aged children have attended Belmont Ridge with children from Belmont Country Club, Belmont Green and part of Ashburn Farm.

BUT WHERE ARE OUR NEIGHBORS IN THIS PLAN?

Before I get into the particulars on tonight's meeting, I think we need to remind ourselves of the terminology that different groups use to describe our children. The Board of Supervisors refers to our children as seats; the School Board refers to our children as students; I have personally birthed three children that I call by name or refer to as my/our (older or younger) son and my/our daughter.

So who did what that was outrageous tonight?

I am compelled to start with Dr Hatrick because I hope that I can be as persuasive as he tried to be tonight.
Dr. Hatrick, nice try, but frankly, I don't believe you. It is futile to say you weren't steamrolled when: 1)members of the community have copies of the actual e-mails that were sent; or to use your experience on the job as justification for being able to hold your own when : 2)you clearly lost the grade weighting for honors classes debate; and most importantly: 3)I have never seen you have so little regard for the children that we have entrusted to your care. If you truly believe that it is in the best interests of the children who live in Lansdowne to become an academic and social island in your school system then I have been trusting you for way too long. We might all agree that it is the politically expedient thing to do, but I am not talking about seats, I am talking about the best interest of the teenage children that you have just agreed to isolate. There is a better process and there are better options. And I believe that you have the education and experience as both an educator and an administrator to know that this isolation is not necessary. I understand that the increased high school enrollment figures, especially for Briar Woods HS, were a surprise and that the original staff recommendation from last spring is no longer an option. But for a person who gives a great speech on the world that you are preparing our children to enter, this lacked any notion of the innovation that I hoped that you would model for those children.

And now the gloves come off.

Bob Ohneiser. I sit here trying to come up with one word that appropriately describes my impression. But maybe I should just describe the behavior and let the rest of you decide! You are the school board representative for the majority of the Lansdowne neighborhood, and at this exact moment I am jealous, for the first time, of my neighbors who happen to live in West Goose Creek. Clearly, you did not represent us tonight, and it seems that you have spent quite some time preparing to not represent us. And you have not communicated with us, in any manner, not only what your position is about where our teenagers should go to high school, but that you were going to throw us under the bus! You have also not solicited any input from us as to what we would consider reasonable, would be willing to accept, or what our priorities are. And on top of that, you had the gall to lecture us DURING A SCHOOL BOARD MEETING! Why didn't you meet with us sometime in the past two weeks? Is your precious phasing more important than our children. We think not, but it seems you disagree. And the whole hat demonstration was ridiculous. But not nearly as laughable as presenting it to the principal of Tuscarora HS. For anyone who was there or watched it on TV, maybe the word "Wegman's" is all that we will ever need to remind ourselves of your spectacle tonight.
There were plenty of comments from my neighbors about your phasing plan: What happens if you have a current 8th grader and a current 9th grader? How is it beneficial to a family to have two children, especially two children only one year apart, going to different high schools? How do we get out of Tuscarora? If you have a freshman when the next boundary adjustment is made and our children can go to school with children in nearby neighborhoods closer to home are we stuck at Tuscarora? Yeah, it's a nice new school - FULL OF STRANGERS! And you did not have our permission to trade 130 of our children for your pet project.
Do you realize that we do not want to drive our children to Lucketts or Point of Rocks to visit their new friends or work on a project. And we have no interest in having our children with drivers licenses making that trek up and down Rt 15.
You need to come here and meet with us, in person.


And it's almost 3:30am and I need to get some rest. More tomorrow. After the PTA meeting, but before the IEP meeting hopefully.

Are We Just a Bunch of Whiners?

While I prepare to update what's going on in the special education part of our lives, here's one more link to an article by an emergency room doctor that was published in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Enjoy!

Ruling deals a blow to denials of autism treatment -- latimes.com

Ruling deals a blow to denials of autism treatment -- latimes.com

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Autism Benefits from Health Reform Bill

From the AutismVotes.org website:

News Center

Senate Finance Committee Passes Health Insurance Reform Bill Containing Menendez Amendment for Autism Insurance Reform

Washington, DC (October 13, 2009) -- Autism Speaks, the nation's largest autism science and advocacy organization, today applauds the members of the U.S. Senate Finance Committee for their 14 to 9 passage of a health care reform bill, the America’s Health Future Act, containing an amendment for autism insurance reform.

The amendment, introduced in September by Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and passed by the Committee with the support of Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT), will prohibit discrimination in benefits against people with autism by including behavioral health treatments as part of the essential benefits package.

“We are grateful to Senators Menendez, Baucus, and their Committee colleagues for passing this health care reform bill. The legislation will ensure that families dealing with autism will be a part of larger health care reform,” said Bob Wright, co-founder of Autism Speaks. “Short of finding a cure for autism, there is nothing that can have a more significant impact on the lives of people with autism and those who love them than putting an end to insurance discrimination.”

“I am proud to have included a number of my amendments in the legislation, which will help lower health insurance costs, protect consumers and expand access to health coverage,” said Senator Menendez in a press release. “My amendment to guarantee the coverage of behavioral health treatments will help bring economic security and peace of mind to many families dealing with autism or other behavioral health conditions.”

The next step is for the Finance Committee bill to be merged with the Senate HELP Committee bill passed earlier this year. The combined bill will then head to the Senate floor for a vote. Once the Senate and House have passed their respective bills, they must go through a conference committee before reaching the President's desk to be signed into law. Please visit autismvotes.org for updates on health care reform and the elimination of insurance discrimination related to autism.

The Freedom to Speak...or Not

I have been intentionally silent here for quite a number of weeks. The health care debate continues to take place and I continue to wonder if we will have health care reform, health insurance reform, or just change with no real reform. We each have an opinion or idea and I'm not interested in participating in a battling of the blogs. But I have had the opportunity to hear Mr Wendell Potter, the former VP of Communications for Cigna, speak on various programs and I find his opinion to be well informed and worth posting for review. Here he is speaking before the House Democratic Steering and Policy Comm.

It's possible that the venue of a House Democratic committee is not your idea of fair and balanced, so is a a 37 minute interview on Bill Moyers Journal that I found to be very informative and even handed:

If you're interested, here is a link to Wendell Potter's blog .

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• Wendell Potter: Health-Care Exec Turns Whistle-Blower (time.com)

And in case anyone has forgotten that Medicare is a well run and popular government program that seniors might want to share with their younger citizens, I offer this final video:

Correction

Near the end of "Health Care I," I put up a link to Politifact.org. That link wasn't working so I am re-posting another link here for PolitiFact.org

Hopefully this one will work!

Blogging

I have to say that I enjoy having a blog and the process of blogging! But it is still a learning process. Clearly, my blogs about special ed issues are the easiest to produce as they are personal and, during the school year, they affect my day to day and week to week life. I recently added a tool that when I write something, it will give me other sites that I can link to, but I've found that all of the sites that it recommends are other opinion sites; usually I am look for fact sites, so I haven't found it to be very helpful. I have been trying to find a counter tool as I have talked to numerous people who follow my blog, but aren't willing to sign up as a follower...even an anonymous follower! I had something on earlier, but it tracked where people signed on from - "Leesburg, Facebook; Timbuktoo, Google" and the like. I'm not interested in where people live, and even less interested in having it actually show up in live time on my blog, so I've removed it and am still looking for something that will give an idea of how many folks check out the blog on a regular basis. So if you see weird things appear and then disappear, don't be intimidated. I'm just trying to find tools that will help me to do this better.

I pretty much consider myself to be politically moderate as I can split a ticket with the best of them, so I follow a variety of blogs - especially local blogs. There is an advantage to listening to what all sides have to say on specific issues, so I may put up a box with the blogs that I follow. You might be surprised at what I check out most days! If you have suggestions of blogs that might be interesting, feel free TO MAKE AN ANONYMOUS COMMENT and let me know (hint, hint on the comments thing...I'd rather have a dialogue than post a journal).

Thanks to Ms Giggles for helping me to post the You Tube video in the previous post. I only hope she can do something with my actual, outdated sewing website tomorrow before she leaves on Friday to go back to school.

Will give an update on my beloved kids soon.

When is Bipartisan Reform, not Bipartisan?

Well, I haven't tried this before, but this piece of video from the Rachel Maddow show last night pretty much sums up where we are on bipartisan health care reform. Let's see if I can actually post it here.

Health Care IV

continued from Health Care III, below

If I don't make better progress on this, I'm going to have to ask my teacher friends to help me with the roman numerals, lol!

Next statement:
Page 42: The "Health Choices Commissioner" will decide health benefits for you. You will have no choice. None.

My Response: The commissioner will establish plan standards, along with other duties including establishing and operating the health insurance exchange. I think the second one is more important than the first, but.... If your employer offers you a choice, there will be different insurance companies offering plans at three different levels as was stated before, essential, enhanced and premium. If you have Medicare now, you do not have a choice now. This accusation is misleading.

Page 50: All non-US citizens, illegal or not, will be provided with free healthcare services.

My response: THERE IS NO MENTION OF ILLEGAL ALIENS AT ALL! This statement is a lie.

From FactCheck.org:

False: Illegal Immigrants Will Be Covered

One Republican congressman issued a press release claiming that "5,600,000 Illegal Aliens May Be Covered Under Obamacare," and we’ve been peppered with queries about similar claims. They’re not true. In fact, the House bill (the only bill to be formally introduced in its entirety) specifically says that no federal money would be spent on giving illegal immigrants health coverage:

H.R. 3200: Sec 246 — NO FEDERAL PAYMENT FOR UNDOCUMENTED ALIENS

Nothing in this subtitle shall allow Federal payments for affordability credits on behalf of individuals who are not lawfully present in the United States.

Also, under current law, those in the country illegally don’t qualify for federal health programs. Of interest: About half of illegal immigrants have health insurance now, according to the nonpartisan Pew Hispanic Center, which says those who lack insurance do so principally because their employers don’t offer it.

"Misleading GOP Health Care Claims" July 23

– by Brooks Jackson, Viveca Novak, Lori Robertson and Jess Henig

Page 58: Every person will be issued a National ID Health card.

My response: This section is a listing of goals for financial and administrative transactions. The real change noted here about health plan beneficiary ID cards is that they may be machine readable for accuracy. It is not a National ID Health card; if you have Medicare, you will have a Medicare card; if you have Blue Cross/Blue Shield, you will have a BC/BS card; if you have Aetna, you will have an Aetna card. This statement is incorrect and misses the point of the paragraph.

Page 59: The federal government will have direct, real-time access to all individual bank accounts for electronic funds transfer.

My response: This section allows for electronic funds transfers so that the entire billing process can be automated. In other words, when your health care provider submits an electronic bill, they can now be paid electronically. This has nothing to do with health care consumers. This statement is incorrect.

Page 65: Taxpayers will subsidize all union retiree and community organizer health plans (read: SEIU, UAW and ACORN)

My response: OMG, while researching this question I ran across this entire list of "highlights" on this paper posted by Liberty Counsel. It is adapted from this blog post from Peter Fleckenstein. And is also posted on FreeRepublic.com.

Here is the beginning of what is posted on FreeRepublic:

Health Care Bill Summary From Peter Fleckenstein’s Twitter Account: http://twitter.com/fleckman
Peter Fleckenstein’s Twitter Account ^ | July 24, 2009 | Peter Fleckenstein

Posted on Friday, July 24, 2009 12:45:47 PM by COUNTrecount

CONGRESSMAN____________________________________

If you aren’t going to read the entire HealthCare bill, here is a summary:

PG 22 MANDATES the Government will audit books of ALL EMPLOYERS that self insure!!

PG 24 Line 116 Government effectively sets prices for ALL private health plans.

PG 30 Line 123 THERE WILL BE A Government COMMITTEE that decides what treatments/benefits you get.

PG 37 Line 132 The Government will be reviewing grievances about themselves and will decide on appeals for rejected claims.

PG 29 Line 4-16 YOUR HEALTHCARE IS RATIONED!!! Additionally you can reference PG 15 Line 19-25.

PG 42 The Health Choices Commissioner will choose your HealthCare Benefits for you. You have no choice!

PG 50 Line 152 HealthCare will be provided to ALL non US citizens, illegal or otherwise.

PG 58 Government will have real-time access to individuals’ finances & a National ID HealthCare Card will be issued!

PG 59 Line 21-24 Government will have direct access to your banks accounts for electronic funds transfer!

I think I need to take a little break and compose myself. But before I do I want to remind you of how I started this series of postings:

Wayne Lauten is a good friend of mine and if he says he has read the first 500 pages of the “health bill” then he has.

Guess Wayne Lauten isn't such a good or honest friend of Dad-in-law. Sad, just sad.

Health Care III

Happy Sunday!

As a reminder, I am responding to an e-mail that my father-in-law forwarded to me from someone who supposes to be highlighting the negative effects of the first 500 pages of H.R. 3200, the house bill on health care reform. I posted the entire e-mail in Health Care I and began discussing the comments that Dad-in-law made. In Health Care II, I continued and also included descriptions of some of the terms being thrown around. I am now going to start addressing the actual e-mail highlights.

Again, here is a link to H.R. 3200 so you can look up these pages for yourself.

The e-mail begins:

Subject: A few highlights from the first 500 pages of the Healthcare bill in...

A very frightening prospect, but this is what some idiots have voted for.

Contact your Representatives and let them know how you feel about this. We, as a country, cannot afford another 1000 page bill to go through congress without being read. Another 500 pages to go. I have highlighted a few of the items that are downright unconstitutional.

My response: No one has voted on anything yet; will let you decide if this is "unconstitutional."

• Page 22: Mandates audits of all employers that self-insure!

My response: Pages 21 & 22 mandates a study of the insured and self-insured employee health care markets. Studies are done to gather information or test a hypothesis; audits are done on data after something is done. This is incorrect.

• Page 29: Admission: your health care will be rationed!

My response: This entire section speaks to the cost-sharing of insurance. Cost-sharing is the paying of deductibles, coinsurance and co-payments (not premiums). This limits the cost-sharing to $5000 for an individual and $10,000 for a family. This is not rationing of health care, but specific dollar limits placed on the out of pocket expenses of consumers. This is incorrect.

• Page 30: A government committee will decide what treatments and benefits you get (and, unlike an insurer, there will be no appeals process)

My response: This section establishes a Health Benefits Advisory Committee. The committee will recommend covered benefits and the elements of three types of plans: essential, enhanced, and premium. In other words, someone has to decide what is in the "essential" or basic plan so that consumers and businesses can compare apples to apples. This is to aid in implementation of contents of the bill, this is not addressing any coverage issues a consumer may have after they have purchased their insurance. This is incorrect.

Sorry, but I have a party to attend, so I'll let you chew on these few and be back later. Enjoy your afternoon!