Ashland-Hanover Local – 03/28/18

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EDUCATION LMS student Blake Jenkins takes part in Regional Spelling Bee PAGE

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RECREATION Summer guide available from Hanover County Parks & Rec; registration underway today

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Vol. 3 No. 32 | Richmond Suburban News | March 28, 2018

Tiger Trot

Will of the community seems to lead in name changing issue By Jim Ridolphi for The Hanover Local

Nick Liberante for The Local

The 11th Annual Tiger Trot was held Saturday in Ashland, featuring a 5K run and a 1 mile and 1/2 mile kids’ fun runs, to support the PTAs at Henry Clay and Gandy Elementary Schools. Monies are provided to purchase classroom materials outside of the regular budgets, as well as special events for students, teachers and staff.

ASHLAND — Although no formal vote was taken at a Hanover County School Board workshop early last week, a clear consensus did evolve during a Friday afternoon session regarding the issue of changing or keeping the names of two county schools. At least four of the seven school board members clearly indicated their intention to follow what they described as the will of the community clearly expressed in a public survey conducted by school officials last month and a fifth member indicated he also was leaning in that direction. More than three-fourths of those respondents favored no change in either the names or the mascots of Lee-Davis High School or Stonewall Jackson Middle School. Cold Harbor District board member Norm Sulser, whose district voted overwhelmingly not to change the names of the schools or mascots, endorsed the survey. “It was an excellent technique to get input from everyone who wanted to weigh in on this,” Sulser said. “These people sat down and took the time to communicate to us how they felt.”

Jim Ridolphi for The Hanover Local

Marla Coleman, Henry District representative on the Hanover County School Board, said she did some reading to obtain facts surrounding minority education in Hanover County.

The second term representative left no confusion as to how he planned to vote. “I represent the citizens of the Cold Harbor District. I’m going to be responsible to those citizens. If we were not going to listen to them, we shouldn’t have done the survey,” Sulser said, declaring he would vote for no change in the names or the mascots. Assistant superintendent for Instructional Leadership Jennifer Greif, managed the survey and said staff took measures to prevent abuse of the process. Electronic entries were matched with IP addresses to confirm multiple entries were not being sent from one suspicious location. There also were

more than 400 paper entries and their verification was less precise, but those responses were required to adhere to the same criteria as the electronic entries in order to be included. Board chair Sue Dibble, South Anna District, suggested the board collect information on how much the name or mascot changes would cost, but it became obvious that additional information would not be necessary. “It seems to me that we are not facing the basic question by asking about the cost first,” Henry District representative Marla Coleman said. “I think we need to define as a board what the answer is to the fundamental question. We need

clarity as a board as to what our philosophy is and what we stand for.” John Axselle, Beaverdam District, also said it was time for the board to come to a decision. “We turned to the community and said give us your thoughts. That implies that we are going to do something with that input. We seem to be staying away from the decision,” he said. Axselle said he received a clear message from the survey responses. “I think the community has spoken very loud and very clear. Now they are looking to us to see if we agree with them. How do you disagree with the community? The community has said leave it alone, move on, concentrate on the education of our children not just the politics of the day,” he added. Ashland representative Ola Hawkins urged the board to consider inclusiveness when making their decisions. “How do we include the minority?” she asked. “I ask this board to look at the entire community, not just the majority and see how we include each and every person.” Coleman pointed out that sometimes history and tradition are intermixed or even see SCHOOL, pg. 12 


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