City School Board Member, Parents Turn Up Heat
Division needs change in order to no longer "lag behind" the rest of the state, Board member says.
By Adele Uphaus
MANAGING EDITOR AND CORRESPONDENT
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Patience with the division’s lack of achievement may be running out among some members of Fredericksburg’s School Board.
At its regularly scheduled meeting Monday night, recently elected School Board member Andrew Wolfenbarger (Ward 1) said that the school system needs “immediate decisive change to get us moving in the right direction.”
“We stand at a critical juncture,” he continued. “If any objective educator were to rank FCPS … today, we would undoubtedly rank a 10, dead last.”
Wolfenbarger, who is an educator working in Loudoun County schools, shared his “personal and professional” observations on the school division after three months in office.
He said Fredericksburg continues to “lag behind” other school divisions across the state, according to test results released by the Virginia Department of Education.
“According to the VDOE, Fredericksburg is ranked between 1 to 11 from the bottom across all tested subjects statewide out of 131 school divisions,” Wolfenbarger said. The division is “below state average in every category, with the gap in history particularly staggering—26 points behind the state average.”
Even in the division’s strongest category, English reading, Fredericksburg is 15 points below the state average, he said.
Wolfenbarger said that division superintendent Marci Catlett has shared with him in meetings that FCPS was once a well-rated school division, but that it “went off track” because of COVID-19, the failed implementation of the International Baccalaureate program, and student demographics.
However, “the pandemic and the IB failures are now in the rearview mirror,” Wolfenbarger said.
He spoke during “Good of the Order” at the end of the meeting and stressed that his comments do not represent the School Board as a whole, but Ward 2 representative Annie Langdon said that she agreed with everything Wolfenbarger said.
Catlett Points to Overcrowding, Demographics
Catlett responded to Wolfenbarger’s comments, saying she “agrees with everything that’s been stated here.”
“The instructional program is near and dear to me,” she said. “I would not have even applied for this work if I had not had hopes to be able to make a change and improve the quality of instruction that’s being provided to our students.”
Catlett continued, “It’s been an extremely heavy lift. We’ve had to take care of overcrowded elementary schools, changing instructional delivery programs, and the demographic shift that we celebrate.”
“I charge our team to make major changes in terms of educating students at the level that they deserve, so thank for your support in all of that,” she concluded.
Public Comments Surfaces Troubling Data
Board members were not alone in expressing alarm.
During the public comments portion of Monday’s meeting, Caitie Finlayson, a geography professor and parent of students in city schools, presented the results of an analysis she conducted of the division’s test scores, based on data collected and reported by the VDOE, both across time and accounting for demographic factors such as economic disadvantage and English learner status.
“What’s disheartening is that even accounting for these factors, we still are in the bottom 10% for math and the bottom 20% for science,” Finlayson said. “In fact, when you model where we would be expected to score on [standards of learning, or SOL, tests] given these challenges, you find that our pass rate is 12% lower than predicted in math, 6% lower than predicted in science, and slightly lower in reading.”
Finlayson shared her data and analysis with the Advance. She said she used the statistical software SPSS to conduct the analysis, using publicly available information. She created a regression model for each of the SOL test results based on each school division’s percent of English language learners and economically disadvantaged students, and then compared where scores should be, based on the model, to where they are.
“As a geographer, what this tells me is that something other than student demographics are contributing to these outcomes,” Finlayson said. “SOL scores certainly don’t tell us everything but they do tell us something meaningful about students’ academic readiness, especially when we compare performance to similar districts or over time.
‘Professional Services’ Spending Up
Also at Monday’s meeting, the board received the monthly financial update from Amber Obeng, the division’s new chief financial officer. Obeng discussed budget expenditures three quarters through the current fiscal year, which ends June 30, and noted that spending in the category of “human capital” is “slightly below” expected levels.
“This is reflective of staffing timing, vacancies, and hiring cycles,” Obeng said.
A little over 56% of the $55.1 million budgeted for staff salaries has been spent, with about two months left in the fiscal year, according to the report.
As a result of staff vacancies, Obeng said, spending in the category of “professional services” is “temporarily elevated.” Almost 77% of the $3.2 million budgeted for this category has been spent, according to the report.
“As we continue to [hire more] staff over future periods, we expect to see the reliance on professional services decline, resulting in expenses for both categories coming in line with the budget,” Obeng said.
The Advance asked for the number of vacancies experienced by the division this year and for more detail about spending in the “professional services” category and had not heard back by press time.
Superintendent’s Evaluation
Board members on Monday also discussed establishing a process for superintendent evaluations.
Vice Chair and At Large representative Molly McFadden said it “came to my attention that in the past few years, we haven’t performed [these evaluations] on cycle” and that the evaluations have not included a self-evaluation for the superintendent to complete, or a stakeholder survey.
Both of these methods, and model documents, are included in the Virginia Board of Education’s Guidelines for Uniform Performance Standards and Evaluation Criteria for Superintendents, which McFadden shared with Board members and with the Advance.
McFadden said she would like to include the self-evaluation and stakeholder survey this year, and the rest of the board agreed by consensus.
In an email to the Advance on Tuesday, McFadden said that she plans to meet with Catlett on Monday, April 20, and the goal is to publish the stakeholder survey in the next two weeks.
“After my conversation with her, I intend to formalize the timeline and document this process with hopes that we can establish and implement a regular evaluation cycle protocol and policy,” McFadden said.
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