Manassas Park School Officials Tell State Lawmakers What They Really Want

Virginia lawmakers went back to Richmond this month with a list of priorities and positions from Manassas Park City Schools educators.

 Virginia’s longest-serving senator, Charles J. Colgan (D) and delegate-turned-Republican U.S Senate candidate Bob Marshall, received the list from Manassas Park City Schools administrators just before the holidays.

The Virginia State General Assembly session began on Jan. 11.

 Both men represent Manassas Park and parts of Manassas.

Here is a summary of Manassas Park School officials’ stand on certain education matters, as told to Marshall and  Colgan.

I.     Manassas Park schools oppose any changes in the Standards of Quality (SOQ)  Funding Formula that would reduce any funds to local school divisions, particularly BASIC Aid funding.

II.   Manassas Park Schools oppose the inclusion of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) Funds in the federal deduct calculations.

III. School officials support full funding for revisions to Virginia Standards of Quality that carry additional cost implications for local school divisions, such as those that require increased hours of physical education.   If a school system is required to provide more resources to students, then the state should provide more funding, school officials wrote.

IV.  The school division also supports the plan to fully fund the Virginia Retirement System without reducing Standards of Quality funding through a multi-year plan.  Officials wrote that money spent on Standards of Quality shouldn’t be reallocated to pay for increases in retirement but rather, the support for SOQ should be increased.  School officials are also in favor of small, incremental changes to the amount of money school systems are required to contribute to the retirement system.

V.    Officials are also in support of giving local school divisions the maximum flexibility in the use of funding for education, but opposes any mandate that would require 65 percent or any other percentage being allocated to instructional spending.

VI.  The division is in favor of having termed contracts for teachers and administrators as well as lengthening the probationary period for teachers. The probationary period would increase from three to five years for new teachers and from one to two years for teachers who have earned continuing contract status in one school division and are switching to a new school division.

VII.  School officials wrote that they agree with a Joint Legistlaive Audit and Review Commission (JLARC) study that recommended the discontinuation of third-grade Standards of Learning science and social studies tests. In addition to other things, school officials feel the tests cause a disruption in learning for students who aren’t being tested. Not administrating SOL tests on these subjects would free up technology resources, as all tests are taken on through a computer, school officials said.

VIII.   The school division also opposes the use of any one measure  to determine whether a student is career and college ready.  School division officials said they oppose recognizing a “Pass Advance” score on an Algebra II test as proof that a student is “college ready," simply because  there several factors  that determine if a student is college ready or not—not just a single score on a single test.