Let's talk pandering

[minx]

fredericksburg.com/news/local/education/specialty-academies-could-be-coming-to-stafford-county-high-schools/article_a49fd9d2-5303-11ee-807b-03c7d07b7a57.html#tracking-source=home-the-latest

Ah yes, all talk is of the trades, so let's just throw some money into saying we 'value' them by creating some unproven programs implemented without proper planning!

I'm not against adding more classes that focus on trades or careers that don't require a college degree.  I think they are very valuable and should be offered at the HS level.  But they should be properly planned out with a clear curriculum and plans for how to transport students who are in one school district to the district that has the program if it won't be offered in all schools.  Because the way the Governor's School handles it is pure shit (kids either learn in a hybrid mode - half in person, half in a classroom watching remotely), or in the case of KG students are bussed after the check in at their home school, and then bussed back to the home school at lunchtime - all them have to pack a lunch and eat it on the bus back.

I know this is radical, but what about bringing back some of the trade programs in MS first?  And make them basic shit - you don't need to know how to make a metal ashtray for example, but knowing how to hang a picture, paint a wall, repair a hole in the carpet or drywall?  Those are real skills and valuable.  Same with making a grocery list, cooking a meal and sewing a loose button back onto a shirt.  It would also be helpful to know how to fix or set up a computer, check all the fluids in your car, replace air filters, check tire pressure and jump start another car.  All very doable with little start-up costs.


And for the love of Christ, make it easier for kids to try one of these new programs and switch out to a different one, or have a kid who wasn't interested in 8th grade change their minds and go into the program in 10th grade.  To this day it pisses me off that I wasn't allowed to take intro to auto repair because I was on a college-track program, not the vo-tech program, so I couldn't look into auto mechanics at all.

[Dave's Not Here Man]

Those are the types of programs I can get behind. It was all a part of school in both Alexandria and in Fairfax county. They were electives. You had to have so many credits for electives. In high school us Mount Vernon kids would jump on a bus that took us over to Thomas Edison for trades. Mt Vernon had industrial shop you know, where they made bowls for their weed, but we had to go to different schools for different trades. By my senior year I had met all the credits required for the book classes so I took two trades at Edison. Two great models these countries have as models. We don't have time to do it right but we can do it twice, at double the cost.

[minx]

My concern is that it doesn't appear like a whole lot of thought has been put into implementing this, along with letting parents and students know about it.

So will it be one of those things, where the powers that be throw it together and 'learn as they grow', or will it be planned out so that the first group thrown in are thrown to the wolves?

My fear is that they'll do a shitty implementation, then say that no one is interested in a year in a year or two to justify getting rid of the program.

[Dave's Not Here Man]

I understand your concerns and share them to the extent possible without having the as much of the full information (fb.com is paywalled so i cant read) as possible. It would surprise me that Stafford? doesn't already have a well oiled program of trades and other courses outside of standard curriculum, and you know, sports.

Over here in spotsylvania there's one technical center that I know of tied to Courtland HS because my kid took carpentry and HVAC while he was in HS and said he could continue as an adult at the tech place right in front of the school.

I doubt that it has a barber or cosmetology training, but it should. If they're going to offer adult courses in a coordinated way with the schools, then the full range of offerings should be available to both. That's my only stuffy for the program which otherwise helped a lot with getting my son introduced to a world without a college education.

[minx]

Well, they have small engine repair, auto mechanics, and cosmetology training from what I remember. And they've pretty much gutted the shop program and are discontinuing it - the instructor is retiring, and there's 'not enough interest'.

Mind you, that program was based out of the old Stafford HS. When they rebuilt the school, they eliminated the space for the auto shop itself. They were going to do some sort of program with Germanna, but clearly it didn't come through. But I have serious doubts about the whole 'lack on interest' deal.

I 100% want more trade education. And I 100% want every kid to be exposed to the basics of different trades. But I want it done in a semi-thought out manner too. I think that rolling the program out in the 2025-2026 school year won't change much in terms of timing, but will give everyone plenty of time to fine-tune and get the word out.

But it's an election year, so we need something shiny to throw out to the public.

[Dave's Not Here Man]

It goes to figure.

[minx]

Yuppers. They have a STEM program that started the year before the youngest graduated. Some of her younger classmates went into it and it was a total cluster because nothing had been planned well. It's doing fine now from what I can tell, but the first 1-3 groups were sold a total bill of goods about what they'd be getting.

[Dave's Not Here Man]

The spotsy school board is the biggest shit show you've ever seen with the county admin being the sole occupant of second place.

You'd think that a county that squarely rejected toasted cheese wouldn't have such an infiltration of far right assholes running for these offices. Ever heard the name Nick Ignacio? Running for county clerk.

[minx]

Isn't he the one that Harris and Jett are trying to boot off the ballot for collecting signatures too early?

I was downtown at Italian Station yesterday having a gelato. While I was eating, I flipped through Fredericksburg Parent magazine - back to school issue.
They had a rundown on local school districts with interviews from the superintendents. Mostly stuff like 'tell me about your schools', 'what are your overall goals for the schools' - fluff questions.
At the end of the interview, they had a set of statistics - how many students in the system, how many low-income (the amount in Stafford was a lot higher than I thought - 46%), how many certified teachers, provisionally certified, and how many vacancies.

Typical stuff that the publish every year. The box for Spotsy - nada. It noted that the district was in turmoil, the school board fired a very popular superintendent without explanation and hired someone who had close ties to the former chair. It then noted that it sent requests to the superintendent, and school board chair with their questions and they refused to respond. Very, very sad.

And I worked at the food pantry yesterday (they were extremely short-handed, so I took the afternoon off to help). One of the volunteers has a kid at Fredericksburg Academy. She said that the school is now at capacity due to all the parents transferring their kids from Spotsy schools.

[Dave's Not Here Man]

Yes. He's also the guy that has some very odd proclivities when it comes to his social media (think posing with dildos) and desperately seeking some sort of public office, seemingly any public office, for his ego. Same with that Freitas fucker, wherever he got off to with his batshit crazy act. Ignacio collected his signatures unlawfully, and has had his GOP endorsement pulled PLUS a cease and desist order for still claiming he's bonafide.

The School superintendent supposedly had no background in education and the ptb/bos over in the Holbert Building decided "sure, why not? I hear he's a good fella...." meanwhile even his own daughter was speaking out against him and how he was severely unqualified, unfit, and a very bad choice for the job. And then there's Roy Searles who is leader of the book burning club who shows up at every meeting to badger the members of the school board that aren't far right christian white male wing nut magats, and campaigns wildly against "wokism" both at the meetings and on various social media with his targets being anyone not of his ilk, from the board members to the mothers of children in the conversations.

[minx]

Don't forget that good ole Marky Mark has a guaranteed contract too. So if they fire him before it ends, they have to pay him.

All thanks to his buddy Kirk.

[Dave's Not Here Man]

Lol funny you refer to them by their first name. I guess you have kin LIVIN DOWN in that holler. OK OR been following the shit show closer than i. I know who's corrupt minx just not by full names sometimes LOL

[minx]

I AIN'T NO COME HERE!!!

Mr. Minx worked in the same building as Twigg. Said everyone knew he was an idiot. Fell asleep at his desk every single day - nice long nap. Younger co-worker had enough and took a short video of him snoring and went to the powers that be. Young'un got fired for using a camera in a prohibited area (which was not unjustified - they had strict security rules around pictures and the like). Twigg got told to stay awake during the day. I think Twigg obeyed for a week.

Hopefully every sane voter in Spotsy comes out in November to vote these assholes out.

[Dave's Not Here Man]

I think the district was enhanced whilst we were off on our 4 year adventure away from the four subdivisions we lived in for 26 some odd years. I've seen the name twiggy before but not on my previous ballots so....

I will be sure to do the minimal amount of homework necessary to vote against him. It's too bad so many offices go unchallenged in the county and beyond.

[minx]

Agreed. And too many people can't be bothered to even look at what these numbnuts are voting for until it affects them directly.

What? You rezoned the land next to my house for a data farm? When the hell did that happen?

Oh about three years ago when you couldn't be bothered to pay attention....

[Dave's Not Here Man]

As for me, there just hasn't been enough time for me to refocus on local politics in any kind of meaningful way. So in that regard current cast of characters make it quite a bit easier to go blue no matter who.

[k9krap]

Yep. Got my ballot today for the state election. Voting blue all the way.

[minx]

Definitely voting Blue.

And John is right - lots of these clowns got elected with vague promises of upholding 'parent's rights' or 'protecting property owners'

What they didn't say was that parent's rights = rights of radical Christian parents only or that protecting property rights were the rights of developers, not you.

[k9krap]

I opened the ballot early this morning and nearly all of the local (KG) seats are unopposed! Ugh. I know the sheriff running for re-election and remember him as a deputy and then sergeant patrolling (when I was able to listen to sheriff calls on the scanner). But I really hate not having a choice.

[minx]

For the first time in years we have opposition in my district for school board and board of supervisors. Glad it's happening, but also feels weird.

[Dave's Not Here Man]

I don't remember who or where I heard it from first but it was "anyone that WANTS to be in politics probably shouldn't be" or something to that effect. I know from first hand experience with local government that it's very rare to have someone get into it to make things better and come out unenriched or at least seeking further enrichment.......

Even as a little league official the people involved often had alterior motives. We had one lady (our treasurer) embezzle from us on my watch. Luckily my successor was able to catch it and her before any real problem arose from it. There were also guys who would get on the board with the intention of getting the league going and then pout because they couldn't tailor it in their image. and of course the usual lobbying and such from the parents of you know, their future HOFer children to coaches and staff to get their kids on the "good teams". If you can't run little league without rotten politics that shows you where we're at with people who wield actual impactful decision making.

Anyway, it's weird that any of those governing positions would go unopposed when there are so many people out there wanting a piece of the pie.

[minx]

OMG, sports parents! Especially in rec leagues. Smallest swam in the RSL from 6 years old till graduation. Starting in 8th grade, I wizened up and realized that if you wanted any semblance of shade, you needed to either be a scorer or do data entry/ribbon writing. And each meet, we had to tell parents to be patient and we would post scores for the last 5 events as soon as we had them entered and verified. Because you know that we were training the next Michael Phelps or Katie Ledecky here. The only thing to top that were the parents who complained because their kid didn't get the 'heat ribbon'

Everyone swam the 25m freestyle who was eligible - 10 and under. So on any even meet, there could be 4-5 heats in those events (8 and under, 8-10). Only the top three got a ribbon, so what they did was give every kid who finished first in their heat a ribbon - was more of an encouragement thing than anything else. And it was determined completely by the volunteer handing them out - they stood by the edge and watched. If it was so close that they couldn't tell, they gave both kids ribbons - after all, it didn't count for anything, right?

The amount of Karens and Kens who bitched because they thought THEIR little precious had touched first was out of this world. The kids loved getting a ribbon - they truly felt their hard work had been seen, and they practiced even harder to get either another one or a 'real' ribbon.

But because the parents complained so much, the RSL did away with them. And as with everything, it was the kids who paid for it.