The following is an email I sent to the members of the Gloucester Board of Supervisors and School Board. If you agree or disagree please write a comment and forward to the board members. Pass this along to as many others within the County as possible. Thanks for caring about our community. Kenny Hogge, Sr. How well the Gloucester County public school system is educating Gloucester County’s children and what public school administrators are doing with Gloucester County’s money are two issues that are currently causing serious concern to many residents of Gloucester County. Of equal concern is what Gloucester County is getting in return for the substantial salary and benefits paid to its Superintendent of Public Schools and other hired school system administration employees. As a parent of a child currently enrolled in a gifted program and other children who are currently in accelerated learning programs in another school system, I clearly see the value of such programs within public school systems. The very few unfortunate aspects of this educational need are the pressures it puts on school system administrators to do their jobs completely, on unqualified teachers who are selected to teach the advanced curriculums and on those who are qualified, but do not have the appropriate and necessary support from their school system administrators. What seems to be occurring within an ever decreasing number of public school systems is the administrators decide to ignore this statistically validated need of certain students as a way to manipulate overall school system achievement records and reports. They attempt to eliminate as much possibility for failure or low scores as they deem necessary to keep their careers on track with no positive regard for what is best for the students. Over the past few years is has become clear that Ben Kiser is only interested in what is best for Ben Kiser. The same applies to Charles Wagner who, while Principle of Jamestown High School in James City County, supported the notion of eliminating troubled and or under privileged children from the public school system rolls as a way to make his and the James City County public school system’s statistics appear better than what they truly were. Mr. Wagner participated in making illegitimate decisions which have negatively affected the future of numerous children that were in his charge. Mr. Wagner disregarded and manipulated numerous Commonwealth guidelines, statutes and James City County school system guidelines and requirements in doing so. Also during Mr. Wagner’s tenure at Jamestown High as long as a student was present for third period they were counted as present for the day in the official master daily attendance record. That allowed students to miss two full classes without being counted absent or tardy for the day. It allowed an additional three classes that could be skipped after third period without the parents finding out until report cards came home. It also allowed the school to report the students as present for the day in official records and reports even if that student was only present for third period. James City County’s school attendance policies were ultimately changed due to the efforts of some very concerned parents. This tactic, like ignoring advanced capable learners, is just another of the numerous ways school administrators like Mr. Kiser and Mr. Wagner manipulate official records for their own career achievement. What good do these types of tactics do the children they are responsible to educate? None. Now Gloucester County finds itself back to the issue of funding for the rebuilding of Page Middle School and for extensive repairs to other school houses. There has been a heck of a lot of money wasted on the Page “rebuilding” issue due to Mr. Kiser’s manipulation of the whole process. There has also been significant degradation of Gloucester’s public school houses due to Ben Kiser’s lack of concern for building inspections and maintenance. Even if some of the degradation began before Mr. Kiser was hired there is no excuse for how long it took to identify the damage exasperated by non-maintenance at T.C. Walker School. It is well known and understood that many residents of Gloucester County do appreciate the efforts and sacrifices many of the members of the School Board and Board of Supervisor have made on behalf of educating Gloucester’s children and protecting the County’s resources. It is further known and understood that most board members have acted in good faith based on information and guidance received from school system administrators and others led and directed by Ben Kiser or directly from Ben Kiser himself. Not many months ago a petition calling for the firing of Ben Kiser was circulated and was signed by many Gloucester County residents. The effort was ceased when it was discovered that the petition had no legal standing against a hired employee of the school system. In other words; if the School Board hires an employee they are the only ones who can discharge that employee. It is for the reasons mentioned herein and several other unmentioned reasons that many residents of Gloucester County are of the opinion that Ben Kiser should be removed from the position of Superintendent of Gloucester County Public Schools before any further funding is allocated to or approved for use by the Gloucester County public school system. Kenneth E. Hogge, Sr.
Posted on: Tue, 23 Jul 2013 20:49:33 +0000
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