Waynesboro needs to tell its School Board, at the public hearing at Waynesboro High School next week, that we won’t accept promoting from within to fill our soon-to-be-open superintendent’s job.
Our school system is failing, and that’s not just me saying that – the Virginia Department of Education evaluates K-12 schools in the Commonwealth using a four-tier system that assesses student mastery, academic growth, readiness and graduation rates, and the VDOE numbers tell us that our school system is failing.
VDOE uses this four-tier system to assign schools one of the following ratings:
- Distinguished: Exceeds expectations
- On Track: Meets expectations
- Off Track: Does not meet expectations
- Needs Intensive Support: Significantly below expectations
The bad news for Waynesboro:
- Westwood Hills Elementary and Kate Collins Middle School rate as Needs Intensive Support.
- Our other schools – Berkeley Glenn Elementary, Wenonah Elementary, William Perry Elementary, and then Waynesboro High School, are all Off Track.
Relative to our neighbors:
- Augusta County: Four of the county’s five high schools are Distinguished, the other is On Track; three of the five middle schools are On Track, the other two are Off Track; one of the nine elementary schools is On Track, with five Off Track and three Needs Intensive Support.
- Staunton: The high school and McSwain Elementary are Distinguished; Bessie Weller Elementary is On Track; Ware Elementary is Off Track; the middle school Needs Intensive Support.
Speaker after speaker after speaker needs to cite these inconvenient truths to our School Board at next week’s public hearing – Tuesday, Aug. 18, 6 p.m.
Nothing personal against the current superintendent, Jeffrey Cassell, who announced last month that he will retire at the end of the calendar year.
And nothing personal against anybody on his team.
We just need to start from scratch.
ICYMI
- Waynesboro Schools superintendent confirms retirement
- Waynesboro School Board lays out its plan for a rush job superintendent search
As obvious as that seems, it sure feels like the School Board is trying to do a rush job to get the job filled. Earlier this month, the board laid out a schedule that has the body naming a new superintendent by late October or early November, which, not coincidentally, would fill the job before the Nov. 3 elections for two open seats on the five-member public body.
The background to this is, state law only requires the School Board to have a new superintendent in place within 180 days, so, six months, of the job becoming open.
The clock, thus, doesn’t start ticking until Jan. 1, 2027 – the current superintendent, Jeffrey Cassell, announced last month his intention to retire effective Dec. 31, so, the end of the calendar year.
We don’t need to have a new superintendent on the job until June 30, 2027, which also happens to be the end of the 2026-2027 fiscal year – perfect timing, right?
Not to the current School Board, which wants to expedite the process, for some reason.
We all know the some reason: there’s a growing sense from within the school system that the School Board wants to hire from within, which we absolutely cannot allow to happen, given the state of the school system.
You actually have two ways you can weigh in – the public hearing on Aug. 18, and this survey that the School Board has put online to get feedback.
The survey is open through Friday, Aug. 21.
Fill out the survey, which we can doubt they’ll pay attention to, pack the School Board public hearing, which we can doubt they’ll pay heed to, and that at least gets the community on the record – that we’re not OK with continuing to pay for failing schools that are failing our kids.
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Chris Graham
