The Shadow
Concerns over a potential merger of the Alleghany County and Covington school systems continued to be the main topic of discussion during Monday’s meeting of the Covington City School Board.
Former Covington City School Board Chairman Eddy Clemons expressed his feelings and concerns to the school board Monday.
Clemons opened his comments by stating, “I still have a lot of feelings for the schools. I?think the importance of schools is absolutely incredible. The idea that’s being worked on now, with the consolidation, or as we said before the merger of the school systems was something I was instrumental in with beginning talks years ago.”
Clemons continued his address by stating to the school board that he was neither for or against, or to have arguments or debates.
Clemons stated that he had a chance to read documentation that covered the feasibility of a potential merger.
“There’s a tremendous amount of information there,” Clemons said of the documentation he read.
Clemons said of the information is that he wanted some things to be more in depth, but there was good information.
Clemons also said that he feels that while the information is a lot to process and understand, the public still needs to be made aware of the information that has been compiled thus far in the process.
“The public needed to be made aware of this, and not just they can go get a copy, but my feelings are with this whole plan is that it needs to be broadcast to the public. Everyone needs to buy into it,” Clemons said.
Clemons then went into a breakdown of some of the numbers that he read.
He went on to describe some of those numbers as “worrisome.”
Some of those numbers focused on student population.
“In grade 12 in Alleghany and Covington, there is a 110 student difference, I think it was last year,” Clemons said.
He continued, “But if we go down to grade 3, there is 49, which is a little scary when we talk about student growth.”
Clemons then discussed the idea of funding and how student population goes along with funding.
“For everyone who knows, and those who don’t, funding is based on ADM (average daily membership), so it’s a real important thing,” Clemons said.
Clemons then touched on local funding in relation to helping out the schools.
He emphasized that the situation regarding local resources is a tough one.
“The local participation that we are in, using round figures is 34 percent. The state average is 51 percent,” Clemons said of what percentage of local funding goes to the schools.
Clemons also said that it was hard to compare the Alleghany Highlands to other areas in the state due to unknown variables.
The next topic Clemons focused on during his address to the school board was that of jobs.
Clemons said while looking at the merger plan, potential attrition and job loss also caught his attention.
Clemons said that one of the first things he had seen in regard to job loss and attrition, was that 16 jobs would be lost.
“The first $1 million we save is by cutting 16 positions,” Clemons said.
Clemons was also concerned over information he saw in relation to $900,000 in money lost in the central offices.
Clemons stated that with the superintendent’s salary, estimated at $100,000, which is funded by the state, if that were to be removed with the other positions and $900,000 in salary, that would be another $1,000,000 lost.
“Basically the first $2 million that people say you’re saving is from losing 20-plus jobs,” Clemons said.
Clemons said that was a thing to be considered.
Clemons had a final point in his comments by stating, “This report is great, but we don’t need 20-30 people looking at it. The people that are looking at it need to understand it, and need to understand a lot of it.”
The following agenda items were approved during Monday’s meeting:
— Covington High School: All District Choir overnight trip to George Washington High School, Danville (Feb. 7-8);
— Covington City Public Schools Proposed 2020-2021 calendar (Aug. 6, start date and May 20, finish date).
The following announcements were made during Monday’s meeting:
— Current average daily membership (ADM) is set at 963 students for Covington City Public Schools;
— Covington City Public Schools Superintendent Melinda Snead-Johnson addressed concerns regarding chronic absenteeism and announced an initiative called, “Attendance Matters”;
— A division-wide meeting will be held Feb. 7, to address the chronic absenteeism;
— Kevin Hanna, representing the Covington Education Association, got approval from Snead-Johnson and the school board to take a professional day Feb. 27, to lobby in Richmond (11 educators are expected to attend);
— A budget work session regarding the 2020-2021 operating budget is set for Feb. 10, at 5:45 p.m., prior to the regular February meeting of the Covington City School Board.
