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April 10, 1998 Southeastern Virginia Jewish News 11
Schoolboard candidates
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 2
like to know more about them before
making final judgment.
Jerri Tata
1. Student discipline problems
should be addressed by removing a
student who disrupts the learning
process and placing him/her in an
alternative school where intense
behavior modification and
character/citizenship training can take
place. After re-evaluation of behavior
change, consideration be given to
placing the student back in the regular
,school setting, if warranted.
Employee morale is low. This major
problem should be addressed by the
foregoing, efforts to improve and
overcome discipline problems, and,
also, through positive reinforcement.
Teachers and administrators hear
many complaints and few
compliments. They need all the
positive help they can get.
2. Decency, dignity, respect, and
tolerance, e.g., can be taught in the
schools, K-12, without interfering
with First Amendment fights. I would
support great respect given the Pledge
of Allegiance and the Moment of
Silence, where student may pay
homage to their God.
3. I don't favor school vouchers
being used to pay a portion of private
school tuition as this takes away from
funding public education. I believe
Charter Schools could become a
reality; however, there have to be
strict guidelines established so all
students who wished to attend a
Charter School could do so. It is the
belief of some that we would need
additional financial support from the
state to promote this initiative.
Perhaps corporate sponsorship could
help underwrite the additional cost. I
would support one or two Charter
Schools in Virginia Beach on a trial
basis. If we don't try anything new,
we will never know whether or not it
would have helped our children.
Jane Brooks
1. Our greatest challenge is to
ensure we meet the needs of all of our
children. We must monitor the special
education program, the pilot program
for our gifted students and the new
Alternative Education Plan. We must
develop better methods to support the
majority of our children who don't fit
in those categories. We must offer
opportunities for children to take the
courses of study they desire while
abiding by and succeeding at the
SOLs. Every student needs to learn
about good citizenship, conflict
resolution, diversity awareness,
respecting others and goal setting.
Children and parents need more
assistance helping students reach their
potential. Our schools must be
adequate centers of learning. We must
reduce class size to afford more
opportunities for individual attention.
This translates into increasing the
number of classrooms and teachers. It
is our responsibility to have safe and
decent schools so our children have a
safe, optimal learning environment.
Our children are anxious to welcome
technology into their education. We
must provide the equipment and
teachers and make certain that there is
equity in all schools. Parent and
community involvement is vital to a
thriving school community. We must
find new ways to welcome everyone
into our schools. We need to provide
parenting programs and to seek
venues to reach all parents and
community members. Our school
system is developing evaluation
programs for all employees. We must
recognize our administrators',
teachers' and staff's dedication and
will continue to be an issue and we
must be frugal. We must make the
most with the funds available and
work with city council in seeking
other sources.
2. I believe all children need faith
in their lives which should be instilled
and nurtured by their parents and
places of worship. I feel it is the
responsibility of the schools to teach
good citizenship and to respect all
others.
3. I am leery of charter schools. I
have read and heard of successes and
failures in other states. Charter
schools may become a reality in
Virginia. Our school board would
have to carefully scrutinize any
proposal to ensure that it would prove
exceptional to what our schools have
in place and is truly accessible to all
children.
Dan Edwards
1. Biggest issues facing our
schools is the need to ensure all
students receive an academically
sound education while providing
challenging courses for the gifted and
remedial help for the at-risk.
Implementation of the new Standards
of Learning should help in this regard
and the need to ensure all schools
remain accredited will provide a
stimulus to balance the resources
available to the schools to address
those in need.
2. No, I do not think that the U.S.
Supreme Court has gone too far.
Morality and honesty can be included
in the curriculum without a religious
basis for it. It can best be taught, not
as a specific subject, but included in
the way the schools, activities, clubs
and teams are operated.
Administrators should ensure that
ethics are paramount in all these.
3. I do not support adoption of a
voucher system; this is well beyond
the authority of the School Board.
Charter schools are now within the
purview of the School Board and I am
hopeful that good proposals meeting
the state criteria will be received by
the Virginia Beach School Board.
Daniel J. Arris
1. The biggest challenge facing our
schools is improving academic
achievement. This means hiring the
best and brightest teachers, working to
improve marginal teachers, and
eliminating poor teachers. We must
develop a more comprehensive
parental involvement process.
2. I believe the Supreme Court has
gone too far, but these are the rules by
which we must currently abide. I
support a set-aside lime for personal
silent prayer. I also believe we must
strive to make Virginia Beach
curriculum, Principles of American
Citizenship, a meaningful offering
stressing character, community
involvement, and respect.
3. I'm opposed to school vouchers
and charter schools. I think they will
be a distraction to our Board effort.
The General Assembly has enacted.
Charter School legislation so I will do
my best to comply. I will scrutinize
applications very closely.
Robert Mandigo
1, We have come to rely on our
schools to assume many of
responsibilities that rightly belong to
parents; we must bring them back into
public education, Both our at,risk
student population and high school
dropout rates arc increasing. Other
challenges include achieving student
performance standards, school
accreditation, continuing shortage of
classrooms, and inadequate, obsolete
school buildings.
participation in religious activities in
our schools. Individual's rights end
when their speech or behavior
impinges on the rights of others. Our
students' parents must remain
responsible for providing religious
education to their own children.
Honor codes can promote the values
of honesty and citizenship. "I will not
lie, cheat, or steal, nor tolerate anyone
who does" is one time-tested example.
3. I believe in public education. I
oppose the use of vouchers for use as
tuition in private schools. I don't
know how we can fund this when we
are experiencing increases in our at-
risk student population, and have a
salary structure that is too low to
attract the best newly graduated
teachers. I am willing to try charter
schools under the pending legislation;
limiting each division to two, with
local school board responsibility and
approval, per capita funding at parity
with other division schools, and that
enrollment is open to all, based on
division demographics.
Robert C. Spadaccini, St'.
1. There are many challenges -
quality education, safe schools,
adequate funding and a nurturing
environment. Some of these, schools
can address, but others are the primary
responsibility of the family. On
quality education, students should
attain standards that are set through
the Standards of Accreditation.
Regarding the schools, administrators
should ensure that proper policies and
practices are in place and students
should be held accountable for their
actions and there must be support for
the educators in the classroom and
administration for discipline as
outlined in the School Board policy.
Adequate funding m me would mean
that you need to examine the needs of
the school system i.e. increases in
population, refurbishment of older
schools (as examples) and seek to
attain funding for these needs. Which
is being done through referendum for
technology issues in November, 1998.
Also as part of this, should there be
waste in duplicated services, they
should be combined where possible.
A nurturing environment in the school
system is one where students are safe
and there are opportunities to learn.
2. The first amendment as you
point out separates church and state;
the Supreme Court ruling is law as
you have noted. While I personally
believe in creationisra, the law states
that it is not a mandatory subject in a
public school system. I would
promom the values of religion through
opportunities such as voltmtm'y prayer
during the start of the day and
religious clubs in the school.
3. Vouchers for private schools or
a "home" public school would create
an imbalance in the funding for
education as a whole and am therefore
opposed to the possibility. Regarding
charter schools, I am not opposed
should there be adequate fimding. (I
would first begin on a trial basis with
the funding to see how this worked in
our area.)
AI Wallace
1. The biggest challenges are class
size, disruptive students and limited
financial resources. To reverse the
trend, Dr. Jermey has ini to save
money and mandate smaller classes.
Remove disruptive students to a
special program, i.e. expand CEL.
Pursue more partnerships with local
businesses and fund various gogams.
2. No. We still have silent pyer
giving the ty for students to
pray in their own de.
3, If public schools pexformanoe
would be less state and federal
mandates. Charter schools may give a
school division the needed flexibility
for troubled students. Public schools
should work together with private
schools on sharing buses. I'm not
quite in favor of vouchers for that is
money away from public schools.
t00,m¢ o. Qm,
1. Our biggest challenge is
meeting the needs of an increasingly
diverse student population that must
be taught an increasingly complex
curriculum to prepare them for the
world market. We have made
significant progress in the last two
years including the alignment of the
curriculum with the new state
Standards of Learning and Standards
of Accreditation, the new Alternative
Education plan for students that
cannot or will not succeed in a regular
classroom, and the new Technology
Plan which will fully integrate
computer literacy into our schools.
We need to fully implement all these
plans and hold the administration
accountable for their success. For the
past two years our principal challenge
has been restoring fiscal integrity and
addressing the many problems caused
by the loss of public trust. Having
dealt successfully with these
problems, we must focus relentlessly
on improving teaching and learning,
by improving teacher reenfitment and
staff development, and strengthening
our curriculum and making it
consistent throughout the division.
2. The Strategic Plan adopted last
year by the School Board calls for the
curriculum to be "undergirded by
principles of American citizenship."
Nine specific values were identified
by a broad based community:
Responsibility, Diligence, Respect,
Kindness, Fairness, Honesty,
Cooperation, Self-Control and
Trustworthiness. A plan has been
developed to implement a division-
wide program focusing on one value
each month starting if the fall of 1998.
The focus is on modeling and
acknowledging these values in both
students and employees, not teaching
them in a curricular sense. I fully
support implementation of the
"Principles of American Citizenship"
plan. On the board level, I have tried
and will continue to try to model my
personal behavior on these values as
well.
3. I oppose vouchers because I
believe they will weaken public
education, Charter schools legislation
passed the General Assembly this
year. l did oppose the legislation.
Fortunately the legislation did build in
some important limitations: charters
are limited to two a division, they
must be unrelated to racial, ethnic, or
religious criteria, they cannot be
existing private schools and control is
local. If the issue is raised in Virginia
Beach it will have to be addressed in
accordance with the law. It is not
something that I currently see a need
for in Virginia Beach.
I U.S. Military ready for Passover I
Jewish U.S. military personnel stationed throughout the world
will have the opportunity to celebrate Passover due to the efforts of
the JWB Jewish Chaplains Council, a division of Jewish Community
Centers Association of North America. The JWB Jewish Chaplains
Council shipped Solo Seder kits and various Passover staples,
including matzah- ball soup, matzahs, gefilte fish, tuna fish, and
macaroons to Jewish servicemen and women stationed abroad. The
Solo Sexier kits consist of a basic Passover meal and ritual supplies,
enabling individuals in locations who are unable to attend a sealer,
the ability to participate in Passover observam'e,
JWB Jewish Chaplains Council Chairman, Rab[ai Matthew H.
CONTINUED ON PAGE 23
The Board o[ Directors of
Beth %o/ore Home of Central Virginia
Beth %o/ore Home of Eastern Virginia
Beth Shoiom 00,Voocis
Beth Sholom Sands
cordially invite you to a Brunch in honor o[
f
Albert 5. Katz
F_xecute Vice Presi&nt
upon his retirement and the establishraent o[ the
Doris and Albert Katz Philanthropic Fund
[or the Jewish elderly
Sunday, April I9,
Eleven o'clock in the morning
Williamsburg Marriott Hotel
Williamsburg Virginia
hard work and assist them in their 2. The church and ,state should stay do not imlxove, then charter aclmois is Rcqld to (2NIT) 4a-
ssional growth. Funding is and separate..I oppose compulsory a likely option considering there , .....