Certain groups of Montgomery county residents became upset (bitter in some cases) about a tax increase, now many of those same people are upset (bitter in most cases) that there are consequences for the lack of the requested tax increase.
The Auburn strand wanted (and will receive) a new high and middle school next door to their new elementary school but now that do not want to pay any of the needed consequences. Yet they scream the Blacksburg strand gets everything. It appears that the Blacksburg and Christiansburg strands (the largest two in the county) seem to be in line behind the Auburn and Shawsville strands. I would like someone to make a factual list of the things that Blacksburg gets over the rest of the strands.
Mr. Kroeger, the fix for the old BHS would be around, if not more, than half the cost of a new school. To invest that amount of money on an inadequate building was deemed to be a waste of our tax dollars. None of that matters at this point, the new school is started and to stop would cost us millions of wasted dollars plus the millions to break contracts that have already been signed, all of this adds more to the renovation costs.
Mr. Johnson, as much as some want us to return to the ole educational days, schools today offer variety of courses (something a business and a church do not have to do) and these courses by state standards must be in classrooms built to state standards. Many students will not go to a 4 year colleges and need vocational courses to meet their educational goals. If I recall there were some that did not want the new BHS to have an auto shop. Looking over the building plans the new BHS will much smaller per student than the new AHS, yet everyone seems to be only pointing fingers at Blacksburg. Schools need modern technologies that were not around when I went to school, just as my schools had modern technologies that my grandparents did not have . BTW, The small children in the child care program are not children of students from the school and for you to imply that high school students are being baby-sat reflects a lack of understanding of what is going on in schools. If you know of teachers that are merely babysitting students then please bring it to the attention of the school principal, tax payers should not be on the hook for high priced sitting services and children should be receiving the best education possible.
We, the citizens, built an oversized high school in Shawsville, that should be filled with SMS students. We are building an oversized high school in Auburn, that should be filled with AMS students. This will save us the money of renovating a middle school building. We built an oversized Prices Fork elementary school and it should be filled with the students from HAE or BES, or both. The school system asked for a large tax increase for new schools and therefore should close some old schools: SMS, AMS, HAE and BES. Once closed the properties will be transferred to the county then should be immediately sold.
I WONDER WHAT IF ANY GOOD AT ALL PUBLIC SCHOOLS DO FOR SOCIETY ANYMORE WHEN MOST PEOPLE DO NOT ATTAIN GRADE LEVEL PERFORMANCE AND REMEDIAL EDUCATION IS A NORM AT UNIVERSITIES ALL OVER AMERICA.
HOME SCHOOLERS AND THOSE WHO CAN GET PRIVATE TUTORS TO TEACH THEIR CHILDREN BLOW PUBLIC EDUCATION AWAY AT PREPARING CHILDREN FOR HIGHER LEARNING.
WITH ALL THE OVER HEAD COSTS TEACHER PAY BUILDING UPKEEP AND NEW CONSTRUCTION CONSTANTLY BREAKING THE BANKS OF MANY COMMUNITIES IT SEEM TO ME THE COSTS ARET TOO HIGH AND SOCIETY CANNOT AFFORD TO TEACH AND HOUSE EVERYONES CHILDREN.
WHY NOT DO AWAY WITH THEE FAILING INSTITUTIONS AND DEMAND THAT PEOPLE WHO HAVE CHILDREN PAY NOT ONLY TO HOUSE AND FEED THEM BUT EDUCATE THEM AS WELL?
IF PEOPLE WERE FORCED TO TAKE THE RESPONSABILITY FOR THEIR OWN CHILDREN WE WOULD BE BETTER OFF THAN WE ARE NOW DUMPINMG THEM ON A SYSTEM THAT DOES NOT WORK AND WAS NEVER INTENDED TO BE A BABY SITTING SERVICE FOR JUVENILE DELINQUENTS AND ILLMANORED BRATS COMING FROM SO MANY GODLESS HOMES.
I SHOULD NOT HAVE TO PAY INTO A SYSTEM THAT MAKES MATTERS WORSE TEACHING FOR TESTS AND NOT REAL CRITICAL THINKING OR THE NEEDED BASIC EDUCATION AND LEARNING.
Merge Auburn and Christiansburg High Schools? Really Mr. Hampton? There are students that attend Auburn High School that already have a 30 minute commute (coming from Plum Creek and near the Floyd County lines), do you really want to add an extra 30 minutes? An hour commute to school both ways? When calculating commutes you have to remember how far that area stretches and that most of the students live off of back roads that can only be traveled around 25mph (at most.) And what happens to those kids who want to play sports and be in the school play. Can we really expect their parents to drive an hour each way to pick them up? I say this as a former AHS student…combining the two schools is a horrible idea and would result in the destruction of the Riner Community.
@gstlab3– I believe you are making the case for the need for quality education with your lack of punctuation, weak arguments, and general poor level of communication. Have you not learned what the CapsLock button on your keyboard is for? If you expect to be taken seriously you should develop some professionalism.
Everyone made some good points here and Ken should NOT make personal attacks on another.
Public Education, stinks, at least for the past 40 years. It is not difficult to determine why, but what can we do about it? I don’t have a clue. This problem is as bad as our economic failure. Seems to be “snow balling”. Parents should take more responsibility, pay for their childrens needs, after the “Fun” of making babies is gone, the hard work begins. Lots of kids get a very good education from public schools because they have parents that are “engaged” , interested and probably educated. We have students that graduate and go on to college and do very well, the same graduating high school class will have students that can not read their Diploma! Why??????
Certain groups of Montgomery county residents became upset (bitter in some cases) about a tax increase, now many of those same people are upset (bitter in most cases) that there are consequences for the lack of the requested tax increase.
The Auburn strand wanted (and will receive) a new high and middle school next door to their new elementary school but now that do not want to pay any of the needed consequences. Yet they scream the Blacksburg strand gets everything. It appears that the Blacksburg and Christiansburg strands (the largest two in the county) seem to be in line behind the Auburn and Shawsville strands. I would like someone to make a factual list of the things that Blacksburg gets over the rest of the strands.
Mr. Kroeger, the fix for the old BHS would be around, if not more, than half the cost of a new school. To invest that amount of money on an inadequate building was deemed to be a waste of our tax dollars. None of that matters at this point, the new school is started and to stop would cost us millions of wasted dollars plus the millions to break contracts that have already been signed, all of this adds more to the renovation costs.
Mr. Johnson, as much as some want us to return to the ole educational days, schools today offer variety of courses (something a business and a church do not have to do) and these courses by state standards must be in classrooms built to state standards. Many students will not go to a 4 year colleges and need vocational courses to meet their educational goals. If I recall there were some that did not want the new BHS to have an auto shop. Looking over the building plans the new BHS will much smaller per student than the new AHS, yet everyone seems to be only pointing fingers at Blacksburg. Schools need modern technologies that were not around when I went to school, just as my schools had modern technologies that my grandparents did not have . BTW, The small children in the child care program are not children of students from the school and for you to imply that high school students are being baby-sat reflects a lack of understanding of what is going on in schools. If you know of teachers that are merely babysitting students then please bring it to the attention of the school principal, tax payers should not be on the hook for high priced sitting services and children should be receiving the best education possible.
We, the citizens, built an oversized high school in Shawsville, that should be filled with SMS students. We are building an oversized high school in Auburn, that should be filled with AMS students. This will save us the money of renovating a middle school building. We built an oversized Prices Fork elementary school and it should be filled with the students from HAE or BES, or both. The school system asked for a large tax increase for new schools and therefore should close some old schools: SMS, AMS, HAE and BES. Once closed the properties will be transferred to the county then should be immediately sold.
Comment by Mutt — May 6, 2012 @ 10:15 am
I WONDER WHAT IF ANY GOOD AT ALL PUBLIC SCHOOLS DO FOR SOCIETY ANYMORE WHEN MOST PEOPLE DO NOT ATTAIN GRADE LEVEL PERFORMANCE AND REMEDIAL EDUCATION IS A NORM AT UNIVERSITIES ALL OVER AMERICA.
HOME SCHOOLERS AND THOSE WHO CAN GET PRIVATE TUTORS TO TEACH THEIR CHILDREN BLOW PUBLIC EDUCATION AWAY AT PREPARING CHILDREN FOR HIGHER LEARNING.
WITH ALL THE OVER HEAD COSTS TEACHER PAY BUILDING UPKEEP AND NEW CONSTRUCTION CONSTANTLY BREAKING THE BANKS OF MANY COMMUNITIES IT SEEM TO ME THE COSTS ARET TOO HIGH AND SOCIETY CANNOT AFFORD TO TEACH AND HOUSE EVERYONES CHILDREN.
WHY NOT DO AWAY WITH THEE FAILING INSTITUTIONS AND DEMAND THAT PEOPLE WHO HAVE CHILDREN PAY NOT ONLY TO HOUSE AND FEED THEM BUT EDUCATE THEM AS WELL?
IF PEOPLE WERE FORCED TO TAKE THE RESPONSABILITY FOR THEIR OWN CHILDREN WE WOULD BE BETTER OFF THAN WE ARE NOW DUMPINMG THEM ON A SYSTEM THAT DOES NOT WORK AND WAS NEVER INTENDED TO BE A BABY SITTING SERVICE FOR JUVENILE DELINQUENTS AND ILLMANORED BRATS COMING FROM SO MANY GODLESS HOMES.
I SHOULD NOT HAVE TO PAY INTO A SYSTEM THAT MAKES MATTERS WORSE TEACHING FOR TESTS AND NOT REAL CRITICAL THINKING OR THE NEEDED BASIC EDUCATION AND LEARNING.
Comment by gstlab3 — May 7, 2012 @ 8:09 pm
Reduce, reuse, recycle, except where government and taxes are involved.
Comment by Jon — May 8, 2012 @ 8:57 am
Merge Auburn and Christiansburg High Schools? Really Mr. Hampton? There are students that attend Auburn High School that already have a 30 minute commute (coming from Plum Creek and near the Floyd County lines), do you really want to add an extra 30 minutes? An hour commute to school both ways? When calculating commutes you have to remember how far that area stretches and that most of the students live off of back roads that can only be traveled around 25mph (at most.) And what happens to those kids who want to play sports and be in the school play. Can we really expect their parents to drive an hour each way to pick them up? I say this as a former AHS student…combining the two schools is a horrible idea and would result in the destruction of the Riner Community.
Comment by Chris Wilson — May 9, 2012 @ 5:01 pm
@gstlab3– I believe you are making the case for the need for quality education with your lack of punctuation, weak arguments, and general poor level of communication. Have you not learned what the CapsLock button on your keyboard is for? If you expect to be taken seriously you should develop some professionalism.
Comment by Ken — May 10, 2012 @ 6:49 pm
^^^^ Ad Hominem ^^^^
Comment by Jon — May 11, 2012 @ 7:39 pm
Professionalism or not….He got the point across !
Comment by Jeff Doto — May 13, 2012 @ 8:41 am
What point is that? That the First Amendment protects the right to incoherent rants? Well, OK, point proved…
Comment by E William — May 13, 2012 @ 9:10 am
Everyone made some good points here and Ken should NOT make personal attacks on another.
Public Education, stinks, at least for the past 40 years. It is not difficult to determine why, but what can we do about it? I don’t have a clue. This problem is as bad as our economic failure. Seems to be “snow balling”. Parents should take more responsibility, pay for their childrens needs, after the “Fun” of making babies is gone, the hard work begins. Lots of kids get a very good education from public schools because they have parents that are “engaged” , interested and probably educated. We have students that graduate and go on to college and do very well, the same graduating high school class will have students that can not read their Diploma! Why??????
Comment by Jim Overfelt — May 27, 2012 @ 10:39 am