{"id":9985,"date":"2014-08-21T15:24:55","date_gmt":"2014-08-21T19:24:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/?p=9985"},"modified":"2014-08-31T22:36:04","modified_gmt":"2014-09-01T02:36:04","slug":"danville-school-board-live-8212014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/2014\/08\/21\/danville-school-board-live-8212014\/","title":{"rendered":"Danville School Board – LIVE! (8\/21\/2014)"},"content":{"rendered":"

We’re going to be at tonight’s Danville School Board work session that starts at 5:30 PM. Tonight’s meeting will be at the George Washington High School cafeteria and SouthsideCentral will be there LIVE! Be sure to refresh this page for the latest happenings, photos and commentary.<\/p>\n

We’ll clean the article up and add bonus coverage and photos when we get home. Let’s get started!<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

5:00 PM – We’re starting our coverage now. Seating for 400 tonight.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Perfectly arranged seating! Too bad over 70% of it wasn’t used.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"

There is where you signed up if you wanted to be first to speak. We’ve also got packets on how the job search can be conducted and comment forms if you didn’t want to speak. It looked like around 15 comment forms were filled out by the end of the night.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"

Here’s tonight’s dais. And here’s Mona Whittle!<\/p><\/div>\n

I just asked Kathy Osborne if she had interest in the superintendent job. She said she has nine years of working with the children and is interested in the job. All righty, she’s in the game… that answers that question. Philip Campbell is out of town for a school related meeting.<\/p>\n

About 100 people here, much less than I expected.<\/p>\n

Ed Polhamus explains the 180 day deadline to hire a superintendent. He also talks about how it can be done. Hire someone directly, conduct the job search themselves, use the Virginia School Boards Association (VSBA) search services or hiring a professional job search company are the options. He says the school board hasn’t chosen the method yet. Steven Gould asks Polhamus to explain what methods were used for the past searches. He was the only board member that spoke up. Nice.<\/p>\n

Mike Adkins, director of transportation, will speak first in the public comment section.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

He says we need a superintendent who already knows Danville Public Schools. He supports Kathy Osborne. Says he has over 500 signatures of support. I spoke to Mike Adkins before the meeting started and asked him how the new bus policy was working. He told me that the school system has no bus discipline problems so far and that everything was going smoothly.<\/p>\n

Catherine Lassiter, Forest Hills principal, is next.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

She says the focus must be on children. She supports Kathy Osborne for the superintendent job.<\/p>\n

Terry Francisco speaks next.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

He supports Kathy Osborne. He says he’s worked with Osborne as a business owner. Sherri Francisco, hello!<\/p>\n

Elizabeth Leggett, GW Latin teacher is next. She suggests getting an extension of the 180 day rule while keeping Osborne as interim superintendent for the rest of the school year. Polhamus says within the last 48 hours, he’s learned that is a possibility. Leggett was so fast to speak and gone that I was unable to get a photo.<\/p>\n

Greg Hairston is next. He’s representing “Citizens for Excellence in Education”. No idea who that group consists of yet<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

He’s supporting a national search with a job search agency. He disparages the petition idea and says educators and citizens should be in the final decision process. Um. No. We elected the school board to make that decision. Overall, he made a good positive speech. I may disagree with a lot of Hairston’s positions, but I respect the man greatly.<\/p>\n

Now to people who didn’t sign up in advance. Terri Brinkley is next.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"

Terri Brinkley, hello!<\/p><\/div>\n

She wants a superintendent strong on discipline.<\/p>\n

Mae Crews, former guidance counselor is next.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

She is questioning an issue with Galileo’s #2 student last year not being recognized.<\/p>\n

Grant Poole, music teacher, is next.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Interesting point. He said to hire a superintendent that lets the principal run their own school.<\/p>\n

David Wilson speaks next.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Good speech, saying the focus should be on the children.<\/p>\n

Beverly Abbot, GW science teacher is next.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

She says new superintendent should know the socioeconomic conditions in Danville.<\/p>\n

That ends the public comment section and now to planning more forums for citizens’ input. We’ll have next Wednesday at Bonner & Gibson, and Sept. 2nd at Johnson & Langston. Board members are saying they can’t make certain days. The plan passes anyway.<\/p>\n

We’re back after a recess. Mona Whittle presents the personnel recommendations.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Steven Gould asks how the coaching staff are paid extra as a supplement. Whittle says it’s based on years of coaching experience. Gould notices a $120 exception. Cheryl Bryant notices the difference is between a male and a female. Whittle says she’ll have to research that and get back to the school board on it.<\/p>\n

One teacher had “quit without proper notice” and had 25 years experience. Interesting. Kathy Osborne said teacher had been contacted. Dones asks for more information but Osborne says she can’t say anything in open session. Sharon Dones gets that one pulled from the list and they’ll discuss that in closed session. The other personnel actions pass. Jackie Rochford now talks about mandatory advisory councils.<\/p>\n

Most of the audience left during the recess. Special thoughts go out to Juliet Jennings who had to miss tonight’s meeting due to family matters. We still heart her.<\/p>\n

School crisis plans will be online for the public to see. On to additional school system personnel needs. Two English class periods are needed, three elective periods. Four physical education periods and 1 teacher. Five GW classes still have class sizes over 40. This money will come out of the system’s contingency fund.<\/p>\n

Steven Gould notes this is the second time where more teachers have been needed just in this August. He asks if more may be needed. There were 82 more students than expected at GW. Three additional teachers have been hired at the K-3 level, paid through federal funds.<\/p>\n

Daddy Polhamus explains to the newcomers on the board that families move often in Danville to the new members and things like this happen all of the time. Thank you, Daddy P.<\/p>\n

Kathy Osborne reports on the first nine days of school. She says everything is positive. She almost seems like she’s promoting herself. Heh. She recaps some of the donations that have came from the community.<\/p>\n

Unbelievably, the school system has no credit card for purchasing and travel except in the name of the superintendent. Steven Gould wisely catches that this isn’t on the official agenda. Gould’s on fire because he’s right again. Heh. Heh.<\/p>\n

I’m the last media person here. Hell, I’m the only non-school person here. We’re done, closed session for personnel and discipline next.<\/p>\n

We’ll add some bonus photos tomorrow!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We’re going to be at tonight’s Danville School Board work session that starts at 5:30 PM. Tonight’s meeting will be at the George Washington High School cafeteria and SouthsideCentral will be there LIVE! Be sure to refresh this page for the latest happenings, photos and commentary.<\/p>\n

We’ll clean the article up and add bonus coverage […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5,13,20,22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9985","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-educationcentral","category-livecentral","category-newscentral","category-opinioncentral","odd"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pwqFk-2B3","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":11840,"url":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/2015\/01\/22\/danville-school-board-live-1222015\/","url_meta":{"origin":9985,"position":0},"title":"Danville School Board – LIVE! (1\/22\/2015)","author":"SouthsideCentral","date":"January 22, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"SouthsideCentral will be at tonight's Danville School Board meeting and we've got the only LIVE! coverage on it. Be sure to refresh this page often for the latest happenings, comments and photos. We'll clean the article up in the editing process and add bonus coverage once we're home. Tonight's meeting\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Danville"","block_context":{"text":"Danville","link":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/category\/locations\/danville\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.imgur.com\/zQtb7iC.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.imgur.com\/zQtb7iC.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.imgur.com\/zQtb7iC.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.imgur.com\/zQtb7iC.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":13403,"url":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/2015\/07\/16\/danville-school-board-live-71615\/","url_meta":{"origin":9985,"position":1},"title":"Danville School Board – LIVE! (7\/16\/15)","author":"SouthsideCentral","date":"July 16, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Editor's Note: This article is now complete up to the point where I had to leave the meeting. Once I get the recap of what else happened, I'll add that to this article. \u00a0 We're LIVE! at tonight's Danville School Board meeting. Because Danville United has also scheduled a meeting\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Danville"","block_context":{"text":"Danville","link":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/category\/locations\/danville\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.imgur.com\/x6ZAy0d.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.imgur.com\/x6ZAy0d.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.imgur.com\/x6ZAy0d.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.imgur.com\/x6ZAy0d.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":9247,"url":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/2014\/07\/08\/danville-school-board-live-7814\/","url_meta":{"origin":9985,"position":2},"title":"Danville School Board LIVE! (7\/8\/14)","author":"SouthsideCentral","date":"July 8, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"And we're done. This article is complete. Thanks for making this another terrific SouthsideCentral day! \u00a0 That's right, folks! SouthsideCentral is going to start covering meetings of the Danville School Board, and we'll be doing it LIVE! Tonight's meeting starts at 7 PM and we'll start our LIVE! coverage around\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "EducationCentral"","block_context":{"text":"EducationCentral","link":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/category\/educationcentral\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.imgur.com\/7sfp5zj.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.imgur.com\/7sfp5zj.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.imgur.com\/7sfp5zj.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":12587,"url":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/2015\/05\/07\/whos-retiring-from-danville-public-schools\/","url_meta":{"origin":9985,"position":3},"title":"Who’s retiring from Danville Public Schools?","author":"SouthsideCentral","date":"May 7, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"SouthsideCentral will be LIVE! at tonight's Danville School board meeting, and this year's group of retirees will be recognized by the board. 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