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Vol. 1 No. 16 | Richmond Suburban News | October 21, 2015
School Board proposes budget goals By Jim Ridolphi for The Hanover Local
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SHLAND — For the next three months, Hanover County Public Schools school administrators teamed with Hanover County School Board members will comb through stacks of figures considering requests and tweaking resources to compile a budget for the upcoming school year. Although the board has identified goals it hopes to achieve with the upcoming budget, the real nuts and bolts of the process began in earnest this month. Assistant superintendent David Myers told board members that budget packets were mailed to the various departments last week. It also was the first opportunity for the public to comment on the proposed budget goals. Patrick Henry High School teacher Bill Callahan took advantage of the public comment period to offer initial responses to this year’s process by one of the county’s education associations. Callahan said he was speaking on the
Jim Ridolphi for The Hanover Local
Hanover County School Board member John Axselle, Beaverdam District, attended his first meeting since illness sidelined him months ago.
2016-2017 goals on behalf of Hanover Professional Educators. He addressed a persistent issue regarding Hanover’s 6x8 scheduling, a departure from traditional five class models. Callahan said the extra classes and additional students are requiring teachers
to work more hours and leaves little time for planning. When the plan was first introduced two years ago, teachers were told they would be teaching six small classes, according to Callahan. “That simply has not been the case,” he said. “Class sizes have been large and, accruing to the reports we have been given, are getting even larger, resulting in routine teacher loads of 150-plus students,” Callahan continued. While the county has made strides with its gifted program, providing two new positions for the current school year, needs in the program still exist. Through efficiency, the department converted that into four positions. Workloads are still on the increase, according to one member of the gifted advisory committee, because math remediation classes are taking valuable time, hours that could be better spent in the classroom with gifted students. “They are pulled away from other situsee SCHOOL pg. 11
It’s Spooktacular time in Ashland
Businesses and residents are joining in the frightening fun, mixing the amusing with the scary to support Ashland’s first October Spooktacular. The welcome mat is out for those who live in the town as well as the surrounding localities to check out the various Halloweenthemed decorations.
Meredith Rigsby for The Hanover Local
Hanover County Board of supervisors meetings now streaming live By Jim Ridolphi for The Hanover Local
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ANOVER — It was the beginning of an era at last Wednesday’s meeting of the Hanover County Board of Supervisors. In another matter, it was announced that a new superintendent of Hanover County Public Schools will
be announced at the Nov. 10 regular meeting. For the first time, the meeting was streamed live to county viewers online, allowing anyone interested in county business to view the session. Deputy county administrator John Budesky oversaw the project, and while the Oct. 14 stream had a few technical glitches, he said he was pleased with the results. “We are pleased to have the sys-
tem upgraded and ready for citizens to view,” Budesky said. “It’s a work in progress, but we hope to have the Planning Commission online next month as long as we work out all the technical issues.” There was a brief period at the beginning of the stream when there was video, but no sound. “We did have a slight hiccup today with the audio,” Budesky said.
“We solved that. We are still working through the implementation but other than that, we are pleased with the overall production.” Four cameras in the meeting room capture all angles of action, and Budesky said the system would increase access for citizens. The stream will be available for rebroadcast one day after the meeting, and residents can access the program-
ming through a link on the county’s home page. Budesky said the potential of the project is almost endless. “Not only are we going to stream meetings, but we are going to film trainings and future public service announcements and those kinds of things now that we have the system in place,” he said. see HANOVER, pg. 9