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Frederick supervisors reject preschool grant funds

By JOSH JANNEY | The Winchester Star

Oct 12, 2017 Updated Oct 12, 2017

WINCHESTER — The Frederick County Board of Supervisors threw a wrench in the school division’s plans to expand its preschool program Wednesday night as it voted 5-2 to not appropriate the $502,499 needed for the expansion.

The money would not have come from local dollars, but from a recent Virginia Preschool Initiative-plus (VPI+) Preschool Grant.

Robert E. Aylor Middle School teacher Shannon Trout, who is running for the Shawnee Magisterial District Seat on the Board of Supervisors in the November election, condemned the board’s decision.

“That money is coming from the taxpayers already,” she told the supervisors at the meeting. “It is federal funds, so why isn’t it being put to use in our own county here? Preschool programs benefit a child in ways that we cannot even imagine. There’s more growth that happens for a child in their fundamental early years than at any other time in their life — socially, academically, physically, motor skills. And so to deny that to the future of our children in this county is despicable and very disappointing.”

Frederick County Public Schools started the preschool program this fall. The program is targeted for 4-year-olds who are considered at-risk. According to VPI+ grant guidelines, the maximum family income for program participants is 200 percent of the federal poverty rate.

Superintendent David Sovine previously told The Star that children in the school division have benefited from full-day kindergarten implemented three years ago and that he believed offering a preschool program would yield similar results.

The school division had received an initial VPI+ grant of $280,825 to establish the pilot program for the Apple Pie Ridge, Redbud Run and Stonewall elementary school attendance zones during the 2017-18 school year. This grant, which the Board of Supervisors had approved, was designed to fund two preschool classes, with one at Apple Pie Ridge Elementary School and the other at the Senseny Road School. Each class would have 18 spaces for children. The grant provided funding for the 2017-18 school year.

In June, the school division received additional funding from the Virginia Department of Education to expand the program. The $502,499 VPI+ grant would fund the program not only for the 2017-18 school year, but also for the 2018-19 school year. Furthermore, the grant also allowed the school division to expand the program to include the Indian Hollow and Gainesboro elementary attendance zones.

Classes for the preschool program started on Aug. 16, with 54 students attending Apple Pie Ridge and Senseny Road and Gainesboro elementary schools. (Gainesboro was added as part of the expansion.)

All of the supervisors — with the exception of Bob Wells and Chairman Charles DeHaven Jr. — voted against appropriating the grant money for the preschool expansion.

Back Creek District Supervisor Gary Lofton opposed appropriating the money because he believed the program would not be terminated once the grant expired and that the school division would try to get the county to pay more than $500,000 a year.

“Once a federal program is started, it’s rarely ever stopped,” Lofton said.

Supervisor Bill Ewing questioned the value of a preschool program because of the young age of the children. He said “it won’t be long until we are adopting kids right from birth and babysitting them ...”

Red Bud District Supervisor Blaine Dunn said he thinks the program is “inappropriate” for 4-year-olds.

“There are parents who have an obligation to take care of their children,” Dunn said. “There are private daycare, private school facilities that are available as options. I just don’t think this is a good use of public money going into a pre-kindergarten situation.”

Steve Edwards, coordinator of public relations and policy for the school division, told The Star in a phone interview after the meeting that he was unsure how the board’s decision would affect the existing preschool program. He declined to comment on whether it will result in the cancellation of some of the preschool classes, and said he needs to receive more information.

Trout said she asked the school division’s Executive Director of Finance Patty Camery, who also was at the meeting, what the board’s decision means.

“She said, ‘I don’t know, this has never happened before.’ The program is already in place and we don’t have the funds to continue it,” Trout said.

“It’s not a babysitting service in any way, shape or form,” Trout said. “It’s a tool for them to learn and grow. So the fact that that was just denied to our county’s children — I’m just so disappointed.”

♦

Attending the meeting at the Frederick County Administration Building at 107 N. Kent St. were Chairman Charles DeHaven Jr. and supervisors Blaine Dunn, Gary Lofton, Judith McCann-Slaughter, Bob Wells, Bill Ewing and Gene Fisher.

— Contact Josh Janney at jjanney@winchesterstar.com

View the full article here.

Candidate breakfast a chance to share ideas

By JOSH JANNEY | The Winchester Star

Oct 4, 2017 Updated Oct 5, 2017

WINCHESTER — Candidates for the Frederick County Board of Supervisors talked about their vision for the county at a breakfast hosted by the Top of Virginia Building Association on Tuesday at The George Washington Hotel.

Four seats on the Board of Supervisors are up for election on Nov. 7.

Board members who are not up for election — Chairman Charles DeHaven Jr., Gary Lofton, Bob Wells and Gene Fisher — also attended the breakfast and shared their views.

The board’s only contested race is in the Shawnee Magisterial District. Independent candidate Shannon Trout and Republican candidate Kevin Callanan are vying for the Shawnee seat, which is being vacated by Republican Gene Fisher, who is not seeking re-election to another four-year term. Trout is an eighth-grade civics and economics teacher at Robert E. Aylor Middle School. Callanan is the executive director of the Winchester Medical Center Foundation.

If elected, Trout said she would like to work with state and federal agencies to improve the county’s roads and transportation systems. She also wants to improve the county’s parks and green spaces and invest in the county’s school system and youth.

She advocates fiscal responsibility, but also said the county needs to meet the needs of a growing community.

“I think we need to just be sensible about our growth and proactive about it, especially when it comes to roads and schooling,” Trout told The Star.

Callanan said he doesn’t want the county to be a “no-growth community.” He wants it to be a “controlled-growth” community. He said the county is a safe environment with good health care.

“You don’t want to lose those things,” Callanan said. “Uncontrolled growth would lose those. At the same time, we also have to reinvest in our infrastructure. It’s not always about building new. We need to reinvest in our schools, our health care system and everything in our community has to maintain a certain level of health and wellness.”

If elected, Trout pledged to “examine each and every issue placed before me.”

“I will always be available to discuss concerns with constituents, because I believe that open communication and transparency are critical factors to effective government,” Trout said.

She added that she is “truly a moderate” and believes that “political party affiliations often cause polarization, and they are a barrier to progress and success. I want Frederick County to continue to grow and thrive without being limited by that system so I’m able to work as an independent for people on both sides.”

Callanan said he would try to ensure that the governance of the Board of Supervisors is “business and community centric.” He also said “minimum government is the best government.”

“The biggest danger to government is that we constantly make rules that hurt people unintentionally,” Callanan said.

He also said he would talk with the area’s state legislators “and try to help the state not make dumb rules.”

Republican Red Bud District Supervisor Blaine Dunn, owner and president of Dunn Financial Advisors LLC, is running unopposed. As a business owner, he said he believes in capitalism and profits.

Fiscal issues — particularly reducing the county debt — are a major priority for him. He cited the board’s decision earlier this year to not fund the construction of a fourth high school and other stuff, and how much money it saved taxpayers.

At a Dec. 14 meeting, school officials asked the supervisors to approve a school construction budget adjustment of $123.8 million to build a fourth high school ($85.4 million), renovate Armel Elementary School ($7.5 million) and build a 12th elementary school ($30.9 million).

The supervisors did not approve the request. In April, the board said it was unwilling to fund the fourth high school or the Armel renovations. Instead, it voted unanimously in favor of a motion that it would consider giving the school division up to $9.2 million to create an additional 400 permanent classroom seats in its existing three high schools.

Trout told The Star after the breakfast that there are several Frederick County schools — Aylor included — that need renovations to meet the needs of the students.

“In general, we are doing well, but we are going to need more schools as this growth happens,” Trout said. “So we need our fourth high school. Sherando’s overcrowded right now, so if we could get the fourth high school in there, that would alleviate that.”

Dunn said he would like to have conversations with home builders and developers about mitigation fees to offset the impact of development.

“I would like to have a discussion on how that process can be worked to mitigate that fee to the taxpayer,” he told the crowd, “and still give you the opportunity to make good profit on what you do.”

Incumbent Stonewall District Supervisor Judith McCann-Slaughter and Gainesboro District Candidate J. Douglas McCarthy did not attend the breakfast. Both are running unopposed.

View the full article here.

School teacher enters race for Frederick County Board of Supervisors

By ONOFRIO CASTIGLIA | The Winchester Star

Aug 2, 2017

WINCHESTER — A 29-year-old middle school teacher is running for the Frederick County Board of Supervisors.

Shannon Trout filed with the Frederick County Registrar in June to run for the Shawnee Magisterial District Seat as an Independent. She will appear on the ballot on Nov. 7, having collected about 200 signatures from going door-to-door this summer, she said on Wednesday.

Four seats on the Frederick County Board of Supervisors will be up for election this November. The Shawnee seat is being vacated by Republican Gene Fisher, who has said he will not seek re-election to another four-year term.

Stephens City resident Kevin Callanan, the 61-year-old executive director of the Winchester Medical Center Foundation, filed for the Shawnee District’s seat with the Frederick County Republican Committee in the spring. Until Trout’s announcement he had been running unopposed.

“I decided to run for office to serve my community in a more tangible way. As a transplant from Maryland, I have made this county my home,” Trout said in an announcement on Saturday via social media and email. “I absolutely love the area and want to do anything in my power to make it the best possible place for our residents to work and live.”

Trout is an eighth-grade civics and economics teacher at Robert E. Aylor Middle School, where she has been for seven years. She also teaches yoga at Shine Yoga,

“I’m truly moderate,” Trout said on Wednesday, describing herself as “a social liberal and fiscal conservative.”

Trout said she is concerned the county is not keeping up with the needs of a growing population, which is going to need allocations for more policing and education. “We haven’t been restoring the funding [we cut] during the recession,” she said, adding that she will work closely with the sheriff and School Board.

Trout is also, “pro-environment” and wants to bolster the county’s recycling program, which has been subject to cuts recently. She said she’s interested in looking for better ways to save money.

“If elected, I pledge to examine each and every issue placed in front of the board and make the best decision possible for the people of Shawnee and the people of Frederick County,” Trout said in her announcement.

Besides Shawnee, the Stonewall, Gainesboro and Red Bud district seats are also up for election this November. Doug McCarthy, a local attorney, and Blaine Dunn, an incumbent, are the GOP nominees for the Gainesboro and Red Bud seats, respectively. They are each thus far running unopposed, having won their nominations in a GOP primary in May.

No one has yet challenged incumbent Stonewall District representative Judith McCann-Slaughter, a Republican.

Supervisors serve four-year terms and receive an annual salary of $9,000. The chairman earns $10,800 and the vice chairman $10,200.

View the full article here.

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