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Date published: 10/23/2007
Don Holmes has been a steady leader for Spotsylvania's schools
The differences between the two candidates for Spotsylvania School Board's Salem District seem clear. Don Holmes provided courageous service to his country as a Marine Corps officer. He's been a steady, thoughtful leader on the board for more than three years. His children attended Spotsylvania Schools. During his tenure, Spotsylvania schools have improved in virtually all performance The challenger, Eric Martin, appears to be new to thinking about making public education work. Amazingly, he proposes to increase spending on teacher salaries, pay higher incentives for teachers, fix the sports fields, and put more money into classrooms--all while giving schools less funding. Given that human resource costs in our schools make up 80 percent of the school division budget, Mr. Martin's math just does not work! It looks to be a recipe for disaster in a No Child Left Behind environment. Mr. Martin states that the school division has asked These inaccuracies and his flawed budget discussion lead one to assume Mr. Martin does not want to know the real facts about the schools' budget. He's armed only with politically motivated, negative rhetoric aimed to discredit our public schools. Please vote for Don Holmes for School Board. George "Pat" Hannifin Spotsylvania
It's obvious you have no military experience and little if any respect for the heroes who have fought and continue to fight for our county! I'm not sure what your definition of courageous is (which BTW you can't spell), but Mr. Holmes is a retired Marine officer with more than 20 years of service, most of it in fighter jets. He has defended freedom across the globe, including flying numerous missions in the Gulf War. He has the integrity and conviction to run for public office. What have you done?
School budget REQUESTS are always 10-20% more than what they actually get. Just this past year- Spotsy school budget request was 23% more than the year before NOT COUNTING capital improvement costs as you ellude. Using the same website you quote, on the resources page, I found a report that in Region III Spotsy schools had much higher crime rates than ALL surrounding counties including violence, theft, and especially bullying. Do your homework Pat before parroting Jerry Hill's spin.
All my info came from a website by the candidate... and my talking to him at the filmfest in Spotsylvania this summer.
he states that the school division has asked for 10%-20% budget increases over the past ten years, which is NOT the case. The true range is 7%-16%, with the higher percentage being associated with the opening of new schools.
I concur all Virginia schools are having issues with AYP... but to say the SAT scores are down is NOT true. To say crime is up is NOT true. same with drop-outs.
You must be kidding that the schools haven't asked for 10-20% more money each and eveyr year?? Clearly you don't know a thing about our public school budget requests and how Jerry Hill tries every year to leverage his tainted-Koolaid drinking followers against the supervisors. We DO have a rising crime problem in schools and our scores ARE slipping on most fronts. IGNORING the problem is what the problem is- it seems to me that the whole board needs to go!
Where has Martin said that he wants to give schools less funding?? This from Pat Hanifin, a man who -tonight- is asking the BOS to appoint HIM to the budget committee of the county. He actually thinks that the school budget requests have not been up to 20% per year (approved an average of 9%)?? No rising crime in schools? I guess we don't need to fill that request for MORE police in schools then- they're perfectly safe now! GREAT news- according to Pat "I lost my election so I'm going to pick on someone else today" Hanifin: SAT scores are up so those schools that don't even meet AYP are just a figment of my imagination- kids are learning "good"- whew! Holmes did a fine job doing what Hill told him to like a good little soldier, but let's not paint him out to be a corageous war hero- the man is an analyst not a bronze star winner, and he hasn't proposed any new ideas since he's been there. So- Pat, I'd say 'you're wrong'
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