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Johnson makes debut as superintendent; school board grilled
The Culpeper County School Board's forum Monday at Eastern View High School served as Bobbi Johnson's first public appearance since being named superintendent on April 6.
But it was the school board members who were in the firing line from the get-go.
Eight of the nine board members, including chairman George T. Dasher (Stevensburg), were in attendance for the forum, and while Johnson preceded the public questioning with a five-minute speech of her own, the focus soon turned to the entire board, thanks to R. Russell Houck, the principal at Sycamore Park Elementary.
"I'm here as a parent and a citizen, not a principal," said Houck. "Several years ago, this board set a goal to be the top-performing school district in our region...Where are we now after six or seven years and what evidence do you have to support it?"
Board member Robert F. Beard (East Fairfax) responded: "You're not going to like my answer, but one of my problems with that goal we had never really focused on what that meant. By any standard, I don't think we are the top-performing district...We don't have as high a percentage of graduating seniors going on to college as other school systems do. Is that what we mean when we talk about top-performing..."
Houck interjected to emphasize his point. "So where are we if we're not the top- performing?"
Beard responded by saying that the board had to redefine their vision statement and that tonight was the first "baby step" in that process.
Culpeper resident Chuck Gyory then took the baton. "You can have goals," he said, "but if you don't have metrics, you'll never know if you achieved them."
To which school board member Elizabeth S. Hutchins (Cedar Mountain) replied: "Those goals have to be broad and they have to be many." Currently, the board's one-page vision statement lists six goals, including the maintaining of accreditations and the establishment of "high quality and timely communication."
With Hutchins' response, the talk of goals was left to the hockey announcers calling that night's playoff games and the questioners moved on to different topics, like standardized testing, expanding the teacher recruiting process to target more minorities, and recent changes to the school system's curriculum.
On the latter topic, Dasher stressed that although the Latin and strings teaching positions have been eliminated due to budget concerns, the afterschool strings program will continue and that students will be able to take Latin as part of the Virginia Virtual Advanced Placement School online instructional program.
"We have to find ways to creative with our budget," said Dasher.
Johnson's main participation in the proceedings came in her opening remarks. "My plan for the first few months is to get to know the system and how it works and its strengths and the areas we need to work on...We want our students to leave us with a firm foundation and ready to move on to higher education."
The school board's next forum is scheduled for October. Johnson starts her position July 1.
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