What is the role of a Board? In a word, accountability.

If you have ever worked for an organization that reports to a Board, you know how daunting it can be. An effective Board asks tough questions of an organization’s management and demands accountability. 

In a corporation, a Board acts on behalf of its shareholders. School Board members are stewards of something even more precious: our children. When we elect representatives to the Albemarle County School Board, we entrust them with the education of our children. On behalf of our county’s children, their role is to supervise and oversee the administration of the county school division. The more rigorously they do so, the better they serve our children.

The importance of this role is clear from imagining a school administration with no Board oversight. Without a Board, there would be no check on performance. If people of the county became concerned that the administration was not serving children well, they would have no recourse. The administration could do as it wishes, unchecked.

Unfortunately, that’s often been the situation in Albemarle County in recent years. If you’ve observed School Board meetings, you’ve seen the infrequency of members asking tough questions or holding the administration accountable. The Board is often a rubber stamp of the administration, rather than providing a check on it.

The results of no oversight have been predictable. Children’s learning has plummeted, with test scores that have rarely been lower. The achievement gap for Black children has nearly tripled since the Superintendent joined the administration. Safety concerns are surging. Families are fleeing county schools in record numbers. Spending has soared to more than $18K per student. And, many children still don’t have a bus to school.

Learning cuts have often been deliberate, part of the administration’s mission of social reform. Such measures have included unleveling classes, cutting academic time in high schools, no longer teaching math every day in middle school, removing incentives to take advanced classes, ending gifted programs, dismantling the district’s advanced academies, and restricting advanced class enrollment in high schools.  

The lack of Board oversight has left no recourse for constituents concerned about what the administration is doing to our schools. When county residents have asked the Board to serve as a check on the administration’s anti-learning measures, the Board has refused, even when shown evidence of the harm. 

Dereliction of Duty

The Board's dereliction of the duty it owes children reached a new low this month when it unanimously extended the contract of the Superintendent who has overseen the decline of our county's schools. By every metric, county schools have declined during his time at the administration, but the most telling may be progress towards what he considers his most important goal: closing the achievement gap. In the time since Superintendent Haas joined the administration, the achievement gap for the county's Black children on state Writing tests has more than tripled.

Haas says the achievement gap for Black children is a result of "structures we have in place in our schools." If so, when he joined the administration in 2010, those structures yielded a gap on the state Writing test that was relatively modest. 82.6% of Black children passed the test, compared to 92.8% of all children, a gap of 10.2. Today, that gap is 36.1. The pass rate for Black children is 36.6%, compared to 72.7% of all children. If Haas is correct that school structures cause the achievement gap, what structures during his time at the administration have tripled the achievement gap? And, why would a Board reward such results? 

A rubber stamp cannot protect our children. As schools decline, our children need help. They need a voice.

- We are county residents who want what's best for the county's children. Feel free to share this with others who may feel the same.

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