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Council Battle Continues

Published by Waldo Jaquith on November 24, 2005 in Education and Politics. 2 Comments

The simmering dispute between Republican Rob Schilling and Democrats on City Council is continuing in the wake of Monday’s meltdown, John Yellig writes in today’s Progress. Check out this MP3 for the abridged, one and a half minute version of the dispute, which features Schilling speaking out of turn, Kendra Hamilton disagreeing with him, and Mayor David Brown trying to get control of the meeting.

The disagreement is partially over whether the school board should be elected by ward, partially partisan, and partially race-based — essentially a continuation of everything that made the Scottie Griffin saga so sordid, apparently unresolved by the removal of Griffin.

L’affair Ward started with Schilling’s e-mail to supporters accusing Democrats of holding a forum on whether to move to a ward-based election while having already sent a letter to the Department of Justice seeking permission to move to an at-large election system. Hamilton is upset that Schilling didn’t point out that the letter mentioned that the city would provide a post-hearing addendum, though she seems even more upset at Schilling’s portrayal of himself as a champion of the black community. Hamilton, as the only black member of council (and whose academic studies and career have been devoted to African-American history and culture), sees herself as the representative of what she terms “my people.”

The ward discussion may well continue at the next Council meeting. This is going to end in tears.

City Schools ISO Geeks

Published by Waldo Jaquith on October 24, 2005 in Business and Education. 4 Comments

The Charlottesville School Board has OKd two new technology positions, WINA reports, which is the kind of thing that gets me excited. They want one person to maintain CHS and BMS student records and another — this is the cool one — to run the city schools’ website. So, local geeks looking for work, consider applying for this gig.

Picture this: city school blogs. Get the new superintendent, a couple of principals, and a handful of teachers blogging. Aggregate all of those and put them on the front page of the city schools’ website, and I’ll include them in the Charlottesville blog aggregator, of course. Whoever the new supe turns out to be, a blog is going to make them seem a whole lot more accessible to the people of C’ville. That’s something Scottie Griffin would have benefitted from.

Elected School Board on Ballot

Published by Waldo Jaquith on August 9, 2005 in Education and Politics. 17 Comments

The question of whether the Charlottesville School Board should be elected will be on the November ballot. A press release issued today by the folks who have spearheaded the movement says that the Charlottesville registrar, Sheri Iachetta, certified that 10% of registered voters had signed the petition, validating its place on the ballot. Virginia referenda generally pass, so this is likely the first major step towards moving to an elected school board.

The concept of an elected school board is one that started among Republicans a few years ago. They were unable to get any traction until the Scottie Griffin saga, which left many community members unhappy with the school board. From there, the floodgates opened.

Coincidentally, it was just this week that the news emerged that Portsmouth is looking to move back to an appointed school board, in an effort to repair the combative, racially divided board. The board has recently been caught up in a legal battle over their choice of superintendent. If they succeed, they’d be the first Virginia municipality to revert to an appointed school board since elected school boards became an option in 1992.

(Via Rick Sincere)

08/10 Update: James Fernald has a story in today’s Daily Progress.

Council Appoints School Board Members

Published by Waldo Jaquith on June 24, 2005 in Education and Politics. 13 Comments

Surprising nobody, Charlottesville City Council appointed Rev. Alvin Edwards and re-appointed Peggy Van Yahres to the school board on Thursday evening. The wildcard didn’t go to Karen Waters as some (myself included) assumed, but instead to the Legal Aid Justice Center‘s Louis Bogard. The appointments come after two nights of public interviews of the 13 candidates. The big task facing the new members will be finding a replacement for banished superintendent Scottie Griffin. This may be a particularly tricky task for the good Reverend, since he liked Scottie Griffin just fine.

Venton Blandin has the story for WCAV. They probably have some nice video, too, but WCAV requires Windows to view their video. For a station with, like, 12 viewers, they could double their ratings by letting us Mac users watch.

Superintendent Castner to Retire

Published by Waldo Jaquith on June 15, 2005 in Education. 2 Comments

Albemarle Superintendent Kevin Castner has announced that he will retire from his position on December 31, WINA reports. Castner has held the position since 1994. Albemarle is now in the same unenviable position as Charlottesville — they’ve got to find a new superintendent. Hey, I hear Scottie Griffin is looking for a job.

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