Billy K. Cannaday, Jr., Superintendent of Public Instruction for Virginia, has declared tomorrow Tornado Preparedness Day.

Schools statewide will practice a tornado drill tomorrow at 9:45 a.m. (if there should be a true emergency the drill will be postponed until Wednesday the 19th.)
Schools may choose an alternate time, but it is a requirement to have at least one drill per year. Personally, I know I’ll be warning my kids to be ready for the drill, and remind them, it is just for practice.

In Virginia, tornadoes can occur throughout the state, any time of year, with little or no warning. Recent years have brought record-breaking numbers of tornadoes to the Commonwealth. Tornado preparedness is more important than ever.

Click here for more info on tornado preparedness and local emergencies.

Kudos to Henrico County Public Schools for incorporating heart rate monitors into physical education classes to help better educate students about how exercising affects their body — all in an effort to fight childhood obesity.
And kudos to state legislators, the Richmond Sports Backers, and Henrico Schools for finding new ways to fight children’s obesity and making it a priority.

The students love it, said Bonnie Conner-Gray, an educational specialist for health, physical and driver education for Henrico County Public Schools, describing the program to members of a legislative panel studying ways to reduce childhood obesity.

What works to reduce childhood obesity is getting the attention of Virginia legislators and others.

The study panel that Conner-Gray testified before this year is expected to propose several policy changes, including one that would require schoolchildren to get 150 minutes of physical education per week.

Childhood obesity is also the focus of a Tuesday conference coordinated by Richmond Sports Backers, the group that organizes popular races such as the SunTrust Richmond Marathon.

“I don’t think anything is more important than the physical activity,” said Del. John M. O’Bannon III, R-Henrico, who chaired the study panel that will submit recommendations to the General Assembly.

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In Richmond City Schools, my daughter gets P.E. once a week. This is not enough — 150 minutes a week sounds more like it. Thank goodness her teacher knows how important exercise can be to learning and just overall health in a child. She has her students run or run-walk the gravel track at the school about 4 days a week.

Just when all seemed to be looking up, the Mayor and City Council continues to feud over the Mayor’s suspected (by City Council) withholding of school funds as reported by the Times-Dispatch:

Council members accused Black, the mayor’s top finance officer, of defying the law by continuing to withhold money appropriated for schools, despite budget provisions that make the action a misdemeanor offense…

…Further, the audit found that the school system does little to manage its cash flow. As a result, the school administration wastes the opportunity to earn interest on its money by waiting to pay bills until they are due, it said. In one case, the city earned about $3,000 in interest by waiting to pay a bill 11 days longer than the school system had planned.

I like this paragraph, especially since it was mentioned by our 1st District Councilman Bruce Tyler:

Initially, council members urged Black to sit down and talk to school finance officials to resolve the dispute. The Finance Committee promised to schedule a special meeting to settle the dispute. “I would like to see a meeting of the minds on this,” said Councilman Bruce W. Tyler, 1st District.

Only question I have is, after all of this idiotic immaturity, are there any “minds” left for an effective meeting?

In addition, WTVR has more info.

Perhaps all with the School Board is back on track…for now. Various options were offered by consultants at the meeting yesterday. Interestingly enough there is no deadline for the school board to take action on these options. Could the meeting have been all for naught?

Renovate some North Side schools; replace some in South Side.

Focus on elementary and middle schools now; high schools later.

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We have a lot happening at Munford! Please take time to look over the following announcements:

PLAYGROUND CLEAN UP DAY & EXTERIOR BEAUTIFICATION
Join us Saturday, October 6th from 8:00-noon for PLAYGROUND CLEAN UP DAY. If you’ve got an hour (or more) this Saturday morning, you can really help improve the school’s appearance for the remainder of the year. Please contact Robert and Katie Baughan at flyingsquirrel1@verizon.net if you have any questions.

Read more >

Richmond.com is conducting a poll on where should the city school offices be located.

So far, it looks like the consensus things they should move out of City Hall. Can’t imagine why.

As if the school systems, particularly the City’s, don’t have enough to worry about, NBC12 released an article about the lower-than-anticipated student numbers throughout the region. This could mean budget cuts for the various school systems due to lower state support.

Henrico predicted 1,000 and only got 600. Hanover thought 158 and got less than 100. Richmond ended up losing more than 400 students. Chesterfield predicted 1,100 new students but only ended up with around 500.

The Virginia Department of Education released the statewide SOL accreditation statistics yesterday. The entire statewide profile may be downloaded here: Statewide Accreditation 2007 Info (PDF file)

Here’s how our schools did: