Read (and Play!) Across America

It’s Here!  It’s Here!  
It’s Here!  You Hear?

It’s Read Across America Time of Year!

New Partners!  New Looks!  
Play Safely!  Read Books!

CEA is partnering with 

the Community Idea Stations (WCVE) 
and the Children’s Museum of Richmond (CMoR)  

to host a Day of Play and Reading

at CMoR’s Chesterfield location

6629 Lake Harbour Drive,

Midlothian, VA 23112

(Winterpock Crossing Shopping Center) 

on Saturday, March 2, 2013,

from 10:00am-4:00pm

with visits by the Cat in the Hat.

Come Read!  Come Play!

Come Make a Child’s Day!

CEA and WCVE are sponsoring a BOOK DRIVE for the Children’s Book Bank

In middle-income neighborhoods the ratio of books per child is 13 to 1; however, in low-income neighborhoods the ratio falls to a staggering
1 (age-appropriate) book for every 300 children.

Please Help!  Ask your colleagues, parents, students, friends, neighbors, everyone to donate a new or gently used children’s book.  It’s easy: just drop them in a box at your school library and bring them to CMoR when you come to read and play!  (If you can’t make it to CMoR, just get them to CEA and we’ll drop them off on your behalf.) 

School Board to Adopt Budget

The CCPS School Board will vote to adopt its FY2014 Financial Plan, which includes both the Operational and Capital Budgets.

Tuesday, February 26, 2013, at 6:30 PM
in the Public Meeting Room,
10001 Iron Bridge Road, Chesterfield, VA 23831.

Once approved, the budget will be forwarded to the Board of Supervisors for consideration.

The Superintendent will present the school budget to the Supervisors the following afternoon,

Wednesday, February 27, 2013, at 3:00 PM
also in the Public Meeting Room,
10001 Iron Bridge Road, Chesterfield, VA 23831.

At that meeting the Supervisors will vote to advertise the maximum real estate tax rate that can be used to fund County services, including the school budget.  Once advertised, the rate can still be lowered by the BoS at their official budget adoption and rate setting meeting on April 10, 2013, but after this Wednesday the rate cannot be raised, no matter how many people call, email, or attend the public hearing on March 20.

Please contact your Supervisor and ask him/her to support a higher ADVERTISED RATE so that the public can discuss the levels of service they wish to have in Chesterfield County.

CEA President Participates in Proffer Panel

Say it ten times fast.  Trust me, it's easier than understanding school funding in Virginia!

I am thankful for the opportunity and responsibility to learn new things that comes along with this job.

This morning I served on a panel discussion regarding the use of Cash Proffers--a de facto tax on housing developers that is passed through to the home buyer--to fund infrastructure improvements in Chesterfield County.  The forum was jointly sponsored by the Business Council and the Chamber of Commerce, and there were maybe a half dozen people in the room (of the over 100 who attended) who were not in some way connected to the housing industry (developers, builders, financiers, etc.).  Though there were a number of representatives from County Government present, I believe I was the only member of the school system there (at least I did not see any others I recognized).

With me on the panel were George Emerson (one of the biggest developers in the county), former Bermuda Supervisor Jack McHale (one of the early architects and long-time supporter of the proffer system in Chesterfield), Craig Toalson (Home Builders Association), and Ted Balsamo (Village Bank).  I had a hard time keeping the old Sesame Street skit, "One of these things is not like the others," out of my head.  While I felt like the swing vote on the panel, neither adamantly in favor of nor opposed to the proffer system, I saw my role as redirecting the focus toward the currently inconsistent, unfair funding model for public education, and how that model results in a lack of long-term planning and vision for many aspects of the school system.    

The discussion was good, but I was disappointed that the closing did not include action steps for expanding the conversation into the community.  We were just starting to talk about reform rather than elimination of the proffer system, as well as dedicated tax rate changes to offset revenue losses, and shared responsibility for public infrastructure, but time ran out.  To the plus, I had an important conversation with current Matoaca Supervisor Steve Elswick regarding advertising a real estate tax rate that allows for meaningful public comment.  Now he needs to hear from the rest of his CEA constituents.