Achieving results
Thank you for your continued coverage of the controversies in our city school system [“Fall into the gap,” 7 Days, May 3]. Many people are shocked by how heated and polarized the debate over the achievement gap has become. I think this polarization is a natural consequence of the personalities of those who ended up in leadership roles at this particular time. The superintendent, the School Board and a few vocal activists all came to the table with their minds made up, self-assured of the rightness of their cause and determined to defend the rights of their chosen constituencies. The logical outcome was a train wreck.
Now that Dr. Scottie Griffin has stepped down, maybe we can see this as a new beginning. I hope a true community dialogue can begin that actually listens to the suggestions of all participants. Especially the ideas of teachers, students, principals, parents and tax payers. No attempt
at reform will succeed unless it has the buy-in of all the stakeholders. This can only happen if all are truly listened to,
not just those who are the loudest and most stubborn.
The skills we should expect from our new superintendent and School Board members are those of facilitators and consensus builders. For an entire school year, Charlottesville has heard from the competing ideologues who wish to impose their visions. Now it is time for the rest of us to be heard and the public will to be discerned. Let’s get back to work.
Gene Fifer
Charlottesville
Chalk outline
Isn’t it just like those pointy-headed “intellectuals” to think that the underclass has the dire need to express its lack of erudition, and can only do so by scribbling drivel on a wall? [GetOutNow, May 3] Gee, I had hoped that the new amphitheater would swallow that stupid, foolish, insulting eyesore known as the community blackboard project. But NO! It’s baaaack! Now, here comes the “public” fundraising phase for it; apparently grant-writing and private efforts have been quietly successful.
What these unfortunate people really need are intensive reading programs. What they need are full-court-press efforts to inspire unstimulated little children to yearn to learn. Take them to the UVA campus to see one of Dr. Louis Bloomfield’s fantastic physics presentations. Take them to a science museum; let a child touch an electrified ball and laugh in wonder as her hair stands on end, or stand in awe under a dinosaur skeleton.
How about creating a $300,000 fund guaranteeing a free college education for every child in the entire kindergarten class at Clark School who keeps up his grades throughout his school career?
All that brainpower at Robert O’Neil’s Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Speech and all those financial efforts can be better expended. Step up to the plate and help children work toward success. Help them learn what being articulate can achieve, and write a cohesive paragraph (dare we hope for a full page?).
We do not need urban graffiti. We do not need this kind of opportunity to “express” ourselves—be it spewing anger, or wafting poetic, or doodling happy faces. We have many newspapers, the Internet, many radio stations, city and county governmental meetings, neighborhood forums, etc. The chalkboard is being offered as a less civil, less polite, less thoughtful, less educated means for those who lurk on the Mall to vent and rant.
Free expression? Each week everything on the 84-foot board (both sides of 42 feet) will be erased no matter the subject. Who’s doing that? Who’s maintaining this blot on the landscape? Who’s paying his salary? It’s NOT free. Is Albemarle County paying “its share” via revenue sharing?
You, Thomas Jefferson Center, are not smarter than the rest of us. You are not protecting our free speech. Stop looking down your nose on us from atop Peter Jefferson Place. We are not fools.
This embarrassing blemish is such
an affront. Stupid, silly, ridiculous. And yet—typical.
Linda McRaven
Free Union
A river runs through it
Thanks for the informative article on our area’s water needs this week [“Trickle down theory,” May 3]. One thing you touched on, but I believe needs expanding upon, is the issue of water usage rights from the James River. Everyone knows the headaches, hassles and lawsuits going on right now with Colorado and California over their shared river. Since no one can own the river, paying $50 million to use it is folly. It sets us down a path to water management that we can never have full control over as we would a local watershed-based solution like Ragged Mountain.
Picture several municipalities 50 years down the road all drawing off the same source. Picture a three-year drought like we just had. Picture how short-sighted we will be if we allow the fate of our water supply to be tied up with so many factors beyond our control and so much development based on the use and availability of it. The additional $10 million seems like a cheap insurance policy that will pay dividends over the next five decades. And that doesn’t even begin to take into account the additional cost of cleaning up the more polluted James River water.
David Robinson
Charlottesville
Avenue “A”
On behalf of the organizations who make up the Monticello Avenue Community Network, my staff and I want to thank you for the “Think global, click local” article [The Week, May 3]. We are proud of the work we do in the Charlottesville/ Albemarle community and Harry Terris did a commendable job portraying Monticello Avenue. Please pass on my appreciation to Mr. Terris.
Stella Pool
Coordinator, Monticello Avenue
Charlottesville
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