In the Schools, Calm in the Face Of the Storm

By Erica Garman
Sunday, June 8, 2008

Living in LoCo is Erica Garman's blog devoted to all things interesting in Loudoun County. You can find it athttp://www.loudounextra.com. This column of highlights from the blog appears in this space every Sunday.

Most parents I heard from reacted positively to the Loudoun school system's decision to keep elementary school children past normal dismissal times and in tornado-drill mode as Wednesday's severe storm raged through the county, downing trees and blocking roadways.

One parent in Leesburg who has a child at John W. Tolbert Jr. Elementary e-mailed me: "You should write about what a great job the LCPS did just now keeping our kids safe as that storm blew through right at dismissal time. They get beat up plenty, but that was a fantastic and potentially life-saving decision."

Nicholas Graham has a child at Newton-Lee Elementary in Ashburn. He e-mailed: "Major kudos to the teachers, parents, the principal and all other administrators at Newton-Lee for taking care of our children, watching over them during a harrowing event, and being great human beings and professionals throughout. They did everything they could to make a scary event bearable for us parents and our kids."

Wayde Byard, spokesman for Loudoun County Public Schools, told me about the use of a new alert system, Connect Ed, to disseminate news of the late dismissal to parents.

He explained in an e-mail Wednesday: "We sent out the alert as soon as we went into the tornado drill; not a lockdown. (That's for intruders or crimes in the community.) As we were sending, a power outage took out our computers and we had to reboot and re-send. We also sent a Loudoun Alert message to make sure we got through.

"The problem we're having now is that people aren't taking the time to check their messages. They just see the number and hit re-dial. We've had about 1,000 call-backs from people who dial before they listen."

Good to know for future emergencies -- listen to your message!

Another systemwide call stated that middle and high school dismissals would be running late because of road closures and bus delays.

Connect Ed calls the numbers that parents have given to the school. It is for emergencies like Wednesday's, although principals also have used it for event and test reminders, Byard said.

The school district sent out 64,462 phone calls during the storm. Of those, 50,889 (78.9 percent) were live contacts, 10,557 (16.4 percent) were answering machines and 3,016 (4.7 percent) were invalid numbers.

A Milestone for Students In Club 2012

Broadcaster and former Washington Redskin Rick "Doc" Walker was the keynote speaker at Wednesday night's end-of-the-year awards ceremony for Club 2012, an academic club set up by parents to help guide their African American sons toward success.

"I feel cheated as a parent that my 14-year-old son didn't get exposed to a program like this," Walker said in his address to the 20 eighth-graders, their families and teachers.

Club 2012 was the brainchild of LCPS guidance counselor Gabrielle Carpenter. As an educator and parent, Carpenter was concerned with the lagging standardized test scores that black males historically received, even in affluent Ashburn. She approached math teacher and parent Tom Carter with the idea of organizing Club 2012.

The club started three years ago at Eagle Ridge Middle School when the boys were in sixth grade. When nearby Stone Hill Middle School opened, the program was introduced there as well. On Wednesday night, the teens celebrated their last year in middle school and the success they've achieved since the club's inception.

From the start, parents set high expectations for these kids. Since sixth grade, there have been twice-weekly homework clubs, PSAT prep work, educational speakers and etiquette training. Field trips have included visits to Howard University, one of the nation's oldest historically black colleges, and Harvard University's school of medicine.

The group also takes an active role in giving back to the community. It helped out with the Darryl Green Youth Life Foundation and recently canvassed as "Club 2012 Ambassadors for Obama."

"We grow stronger and smarter every year," said parent volunteer and Eagle Ridge staff member Roxana Cromwell, who emphasized that the main goal of Club 2012 is to create positive peer pressure for these kids. "We want them to graduate from high school in 2012 in excellence and with options."

Rodney Moore, principal at Stone Hill, said his experience with Club 2012 has been positive. "These kids are solid and steady role models, really good guys. They are leaders in the school."

Plans for Club 2012 include more PSAT and SAT prep, college and university field trips and continued exposure to different career choices. The club's dream goal is to visit Africa in 2012. "They need to realize there's a bigger world out there -- not the little bubble of Ashburn," said Cromwell.

The club founders also have set up a nonprofit group called Excellent Options to help other concerned parents organize similar clubs in schools across the country.

All the presenters at the awards ceremony cautioned that the next four years of high school are going to be tough. "If peer pressure hasn't gotten you yet, it will tempt you in high school," said Walker, "but you've gotten an excellent foundation from your parents and from Club 2012."

Fuel Prices Squeezing Loudoun Schools

Think you've got it tough at the pump? How about gassing up 740 school buses, each with a 100-gallon tank?

Loudoun County Public Schools has got it bad. Diesel fuel, on which most of the school system's buses run, has increased $2 a gallon in the past 12 months -- from $2.30 per gallon in May 2007 to $4.28 today.

"If fuel stays at the current price, we'll be operating over budget next year," said J. Michael Lunsford, transportation director for LCPS. The school system's fiscal 2009 budget estimates the price of diesel fuel at $3.75 a gallon.

Each year, the system transports 38,000 students over some 8 million miles. That, if diesel averages $3.75 a gallon, works out to be about $5 million.

Lunsford said one thing on their side is the presidential election. "In previous election years, fuel prices have gone down about 7 percent," he said.

Let's hope that tradition prevails.

From an efficiency standpoint, the school system is doing all it can to decrease fuel costs. The transportation department has initiated a strict no-idling policy, and bus routes have been streamlined to minimize mileage.

There are hybrid buses on the market, but they cost $200,000 each, whereas a new diesel bus is $100,000. "There's just not the return on investment that we need to justify the cost at this point," Lunsford said.