Badger-Fi

Tag: Madison County

  • Madison Pride; Voices of Madison County

    The following text is what I read at the school board meeting on 02/13/2023. The portion in red is very important but I ran out time, so it didn’t get read publicly.

    We’ve seen it all over town on bumper stickers, we hear it in our community, and we especially hear and see it at Madison sporting events. Madison Pride. We have many reasons to be proud of our community. We have many students that excel scholastically and athletically. The pride for our young people should be shouted from our nearby mountain tops but can we be absolutely confident that we are taking pride in ALL aspects of our school system? Madison Pride should also represent the needs of the people and infrastructure that support our students academically and athletically, too, right? There have been strides in recent years, but there are still many questions that need to be answered.

    • What are we doing to retain/incentivize/recruit teaching staff that want to commit to MCPS long term?
    • What are we doing to get staff licensed that are provisional?
    • What are we doing to retain/incentivize/recruit support staff, such as custodians, bus drivers, cafeteria staff, and information technology?
    • What are we doing to obtain/maximize grant money?
    • What are we doing to keep salaries competitive?
    • What are we doing to improve employee health insurance costs?
    • What are we doing to catch up salaries of all staff that have remained loyal through frozen budget years?
    • What are we doing to solve substitute staff shortages?
    • What are we doing about rising class sizes?
    • What are we doing to get teaching assistants in classrooms to support our neediest students?
    • What are we doing to solve the problem with our students not taking care of their Chromebooks which is preventing them from taking them home for their studies?
    • What are we doing to ensure time for extension/enrichment content for gifted students?
    • What are we doing to find and fill reading specialist positions at each school?
    • What are we doing to compensate custodians and non-licensed staff that are coming in on their own time?
    • What are we doing to make sure there is access to the same technology in all classrooms, and not just certain classrooms?
    • What are we doing to repair/improve our aging athletic facilities for all student athletes?
      • Field House
      • Wetsel Gym (bleachers, gym floor, scoreboard, entrance, trophy case)
      • Weight room
      • Improve grass surface inside track
      • Baseball infield and dugouts
    • What are we doing to prepare our student athletes for college athletics?
    • What are we doing to support our students that are looking to get into a trade directly after high school?
    • What are we doing to improve/maintain the working relationship with the BoS so we can address our needs?
    • What are we doing to hear our staff’s voices? SURVEYS ARE NOT THE ANSWER

    Some of these questions are referenced in the Capital Improvement Plan. The plan is over generalized and addresses, mostly, on the surface issues. Are we addressing issues that aren’t in plain sight?

    This isn’t to point the finger at any of the staff in our school system. I believe that all our staff, starting at the top with Ms. Graham, do a great job with the resources that they have. I know the easy excuse is to blame funding, and part of the problem may be just that, but what are we doing to fix the funding issue if there is one? We can’t receive a reason for a problem and throw our hands up and leave it. We need to find an answer. We might not get the answer that we want, and that is fine, but we can use that answer to find a solution and move forward.

    I do realize there are financial disparities between larger and smaller school districts but are we really doing the best we can to bridge the gap? Are we certain we are focused on fighting the battles that are directly in front of Madison County Public Schools?

    Are we truly in tune with the needs of our superintendent and school system right now? Do we know all the struggles that our administrators, support staff, and teachers face every day? Why do our teachers have to go home at night worried and stressed about the next day, instead of feeling a sense of accomplishment? Why do our teachers have to arrive in the morning and do extra cleaning because we can’t retain evening custodial staff?

    Until we get our administrators, support staff, and teachers the resources and support they need, can we really be Madison Proud?

  • The Madison County, Virginia, Rural Broadband Conundrum

    Let’s face it. One of the reasons we choose to live in Madison County is because of it being a beautiful rural community. We have also heard the tired excuse about growth and how that will damage what we love so much about Madison County. Investing in broadband infrastructure does not necessarily mean higher taxes or lost rural beauty. There are ways to make broadband work in Madison and all the old excuses are just that; OLD. We don’t have to give up all the things we love about rural living to invest in this community’s future. I’m not a native Madisonian, but I do love it here, and consider it my home.

    For many years now, people have wanted reliable internet in our rural community. We have had opportunities to fix it, but it always fell through the cracks. In many ways, it took a pandemic to make people realize that maybe we should have figured out a way to invest in rural broadband infrastructure before now. Internet isn’t just for nerds. Unless you have been living under a rock, our children need it to learn (especially now), our teachers need it to teach, and it is essential to communicate important information, among other things. Find one person who doesn’t know someone, have a grandchild, child, or friend who is struggling through virtual learning because of unreliable internet. This problem could have been addressed, or at least had a plan developed, long ago. Now we are paying the price.

    Our school district is doing a great job as they navigate through the same uncertainty we are navigating as parents, but they can only do so much. They did an excellent job getting equipment to students, as well as keeping us informed, but there are many things that are out of their control, such as unreliable residential internet in our county.

    Excuses about cost, etc, are stale and old. Greene and Orange counties are accelerating by us. It doesn’t have to be this way. It’s not about keeping up with surrounding counties, but it is about doing what is right for our residents right now.

    Yes, there are options out there for just about all of us. Some are less than reliable, slow, or both. We can throw names of services we are all aware of, used, and had horrible experiences with, but that isn’t the point. It is 2020, we shouldn’t have to pay a premium for a less than reliable, data capped, and/or outdated internet connections. There are good ideas out there on how to handle this problem, but it seems they fall on deaf ears.

    I’m actually one of the blessed 10-15% of Madison County residents who have reliable, fast internet, and still get to enjoy rural living. Many of my friends and family reach out to me for help getting reliable internet to their homes. I can help them get their home and business networks running great… No problem! Unfortunately, I cannot deliver internet service.

    I feel like one of the biggest stumbling blocks with providing reliable internet access in Madison County, is the lack of understanding. I know it is being talked about with county leadership, but I don’t think the right voices are being heard or there is a lack of voices in the know. How do we fix this? I haven’t been to meetings. Maybe I should start going. Maybe it will take a group of residents and business owners to get together to let county leadership know we are missing the boat. I’m not trying to condemn anyone, I’m here to help if needed. Just ask questions.

    This isn’t about politics. This may be about compromise. I think we can work together as a community to figure out how to fix this problem. We have lots of people, with different backgrounds, and good ideas. We are a hard working, proud community that can undertake a problem like this and move Madison County forward and be leaders in Central Virginia.