Superintendent Selection a Secret

Published by Waldo Jaquith on January 27, 2006 in Education and Politics. 3 Comments

Today I got the latest Virginia Coalition for Open Government newsletter in the mail, and it piqued my interest on the matter of the school board. Sarah Berry reported in the Daily Progress last week that there are now just three candidates for Charlottesville superintendent, but they’re a secret. Search firm Hazard, Young, Attea and Associates recommended found 61 candidates earlier this month, and planned to recommend a half dozen to the board. The board has rounded it down to three, and will presumably select one from there. All members of the selection committee have to sign confidentiality agreements. No information about any of the candidates has been made public.

I have to wonder if this is a good idea. One lesson from the Scottie Griffin saga was that a lack of sunshine leads to uninformed hiring decisions; Bob Gibson was able to expose Griffin’s background even though the school board didn’t discover a single one of her rich history of scandals in the hiring process. I imagine that there are benefits to the secrecy, but with a school board seen to be unresponsive and clubby, is this going to help?

(For more background, see A Brief History of C’ville Superintendents.)

Lovingston Building Designed by Jefferson

Published by Waldo Jaquith on January 26, 2006 in General News. 1 Comment

The good news: Lovingston has discovered that their sheriff’s office was designed by Thomas Jefferson.
The bad news: It’s pretty ugly.

Dave McNair’s got the story in this week’s Hook.

Cav. Daily Investigates Reproductive Counselors

Published by Waldo Jaquith on January 26, 2006 in General News. 2 Comments

In Wednesday’s Cavalier Daily, Leah Nylen had an excellent investigative piece into Planned Parenthood and The Pregnancy Center of Charlottesville, a result of her going to each organization, saying that she thought she might be pregnant, telling them about herself, and asking for advice. Planned Parenthood provided her with a dispassionate, fact-based counseling session in which all information provided was verifiably accurate.

The Pregnancy Center, on the other hand, turns out to be strongly anti-abortion, a fact that they don’t advertise when promoting themselves as an advisor to unwillingly-pregnant women. The literature that they provide is simply wrong, claiming that the birth control pill can cause cervical cancer, breast cancer, increased risk of AIDS, and infertility; that emergency contraception causes an abortion, rather than preventing conception; and that abortifacient RU-486 causes heart attacks, birth defects, and infertility.

Great work on the part of the Cavalier Daily. It’s always great to see investigative journalism being done in Charlottesville.

Parking Rates Going Up

Published by Waldo Jaquith on January 26, 2006 in Business and Transportation. 1 Comment

Downtown businesses are about to pay more for their free-parking stamps, John Yellig wrote in the Progress a few days ago. The Charlottesville Parking Corporation is increasing the amount that they charge participating merchants to be able to stamp customers tickets for downtown garages, though the increase will vary since each merchant negotiates their own rate. Here’s hoping this doesn’t worsen the downtown parking situation.

Central VA Not Recycling

Published by Waldo Jaquith on January 26, 2006 in General News. 7 Comments

The Department of Environmental Quality has issued a report of recycling rates around Virginia (PDF) for 2004, finding that the state’s 29.8% trash recycling rate is above the mandated 25% minimum, but Central Virginia’s rate is way behind. Orange recycles just 3.5% of theirs, and Nelson 7%. Charlottesville is at 25.3%, just over the minimum but below the average, and Albemarle is at 28.9%. Shouldn’t this liberal oasis be at, like, 50%? Though the trend is for rural areas to do more badly than urban areas, Buckingham is up at 25.3%. Maybe they should share their secret.

Jessica Kitchin has the story in today’s Daily Progress.

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