Littany of Ills

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Sitting in the waiting room at WFU MRI Center and it’s 10 P.M. Some guy is telling everyone that will listen about his 200+ kidney stones. I quote:  "The ones you pass are different than the others. The ones that set will make me draw double like a guy having a heart attack."

We’ve also heard about the belts he’s had custom made since his size is hard to find. Oh, and he’s been a furr-fighter, oh wait, a firefighter. I was worried there for a second

The TV is tuned to NBC. Worst reality show ever is on now (Democratic Convention) and the second worst just ended…some show that had normal people pretending they were on Deadliest Catch. 

Now the guy is talking about Michael Moore’s health care movie (I believe that would be Sicko). Said it made a lot of sense

He says he’s been here for two hours. His wife girlfriend just got called back and set him loose on the rest of us

Now we’re hearing about the ills of health insurance. I’m with him there.

People are leaving and I might end up alone with him.

I’m trying to hide

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

More on Textbooks

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Update: 8/26/08 – I received a follow up email to further clarify what they’d told me and you can see those updates highlighted in the bullet points below. It ends up that this will be discussed at tonight’s Board of Ed meeting.

Last week I wrote about learning that in some of my son’s middle school classes they don’t have textbooks for everyone, rather they have textbooks in the classroom, "classroom sets", and if students need to access them for homework they can do so online.  As I wrote in my post this troubled me, so I emailed the powers that be in the school system and heard back from them late last week.  Before I go on I’d like to say that they replied during what has to be a very busy time for them, it being the week before school starts and all.  They told me they’re going to dig into the details and send them to me, but in the meantime they gave me the rough version:

  • Not enough funding from the state for textbooks for everyone
  • They chipped in local funds but it still wasn’t enough
  • They had to choose between using old textbooks for everyone or buying new textbooks, using classroom sets augmented by online access for some –Update 8/26/08– I received a follow up email that corrected this (I reported correctly, it was a miscommunication on their end): "we apparently still have the option to return to last year’s textbooks and use them one more year."
  • Textbook purchasing is system wide so this isn’t peculiar to Meadowlark
  • Some middle school classes have classroom sets, and then arrangements with the publishers to access the text online — Update 8/26/08 — I received a follow up email that corrected this (I reported correctly, it was a miscommunication on their end): "we have a CD of the book for every book that we purchased, but a sales rep told our folks that the on-line version could be purchased for a fairly small fee."
  • Students are able to check books out overnight if they need to
  • Those students without at-home internet can use any of the over 40 Winston Net stations located in libraries, rec centers and churches throughout Forsyth County

They also said that they will review this policy at the end of the school year and if it caused problems they’ll determine what changes need to be made.

Like I said this is just the rough version and I’ll wait and see what the specifics turn out to be, but I’d say that in general it’s a good explanation. Those who don’t like this particular prioritization might want to speak up at future board of education meetings. I’ll let you know as soon as I get the details.

links for 2008-08-25

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Now That’s a Toll Road

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I read this article in the Washington Post with great interest.  It’s about HOT lanes being built on the Capital Beltway in Northern Virginia that will have fluctuating tolls depending on such factors as the average speed on the road, the number of users at a particular time, etc.  According to studies done for the HOT project the average rush hour cost would be about $1.54 per mile an the lanes will run 14 miles from Springfield (home of the infamous "Mixing Bowl" where the Beltway, I-95 and I-395 all converge) to the Dulles Toll Road.  So that comes to an average toll of about $21.56 to use the full 14 miles, but if the traffic is really and the traffic is threatening to overwhelm the HOT lanes the toll operators can raise the price to price out people who don’t really need to get where they’re going that fast.

The article gives average time savings for the HOT lanes as well, and they don’t sound that impressive, but again that’s average.  At peak times I have a feeling that you’ll have people paying a lot of money to save significant amounts of time.  I used to use that route regularly when I lived in NoVa and I can tell you that that stretch of road at the height of rush hour can literally take you hours to get through, especially if it’s raining.  Since I haven’t lived there for four years and I know how much worse the traffic gets year by year I can only imagine how bad it is now.

If I still lived in NoVa I could easily imagine paying the toll on an irregular basis in times that I needed to make one of the kids’ school events or had a meeting I could not miss.  Unfortunately I could easily imagine paying that toll, whizzing through that 9 mile corridor and finding myself stuck in a traffic jam on the other end.  Thus you understand one of the motivations we had for moving the hell away from NoVa.  That ain’t a way to live.

links for 2008-08-22

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That Explains the Sirens and The Lost Guy With the Boat

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Earlier today a bunch of fire trucks went roaring by our house and at one point a guy towing a boat stopped and asked my son if he knew where a certain street was.  The roads around here get kind of screwy with Styers Ferry becoming Concord Church and then turning back into Styers Ferry as just one example, so we’re used to the emergency personnel making multiple passes to try and find what they’re looking for.  Anyway a body was found floating in a pond a mile or two from here and now the deputies are looking into it.

The article on the Journal site mentions an interview with a teenager who says that people use that pond to party and swim.  He also says that he often hears gunfire.  I can back up that last sentence since we often hear gunfire in the distance, but we never knew where it was coming from until now.

Here’s a Google map showing the pond with the satellite view.

View Larger Map

links for 2008-08-21

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Digging into the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools Budget

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Okay, per my post yesterday about textbooks in the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County schools I’ve contacted the school system and am waiting to hear back from them.  In the meantime I’ve decided to do some research and on the school system’s website I found the Proposed Budget for 08-09.  From their line item explanations I found this:

23. 2007-08 was the one year out of five
when state textbook funds are almost sufficient to purchase all new
textbooks needed.  Social Studies adoptions occur in 2008-09, and to
purchase new books for each student will require increases of
$1,372,337.

24. We centrally budget for curriculum and
instruction supplies, materials, small equipment, etc, for system-wide
instructional needs, including basic non-consumable supplies for new
classrooms to house the 555 projected new students, calculators
required for use with math textbooks, replenishment of larger cost
non-consumables such as maps and globes, plus a new $50,000 commitment
in 2008-09 to help bring the supplies and small equipment in
kindergarten classrooms up to the standards of newer school
classrooms.  The overall increase needed is $283,130.

Item 23 is interesting because it says that due to Social Studies adoptions in order to purchase new books for each student will require $1,372,337 in addition to whatever was appropriated before.  I need to clarify what "Social Studies adoptions" means, and are they implying that in subject areas that aren’t "adopted" they don’t need each student to have books?

I can’t find an actual budget on the website so I’ve gone to the county website to find their budget.  The main budget page is here, and here’s a link to the PDF version of the breakout for the county’s education segment of the budget.  In a nutshell here’s what I found:

  • The school system asked for just under $122 million and the county appropriated just under $111 million from the general fund.
  • Of that $111 million the school spending is broken down into these major categories:
    • Instructional Programs – just under $71 million
    • Support services – just over $31 million
    • Charter Contingency – about $6.5 million
    • Capital Program – $2.4 million
  • They also break out their personnel spending and it’s a little confusing because you go from looking at millions or thousands of dollars to non-financial numbers.  I’m assuming that the numbers represent thousands of dollars.  Whatever, here’s the change in spending on their people from 07-08 to 08-09 for all funds:
    • Administrative staff – 275.9 to 285.5 (+9.6)
    • Instructional staff – 4,267.4 to 4,047.8 (-219.6)
    • Clerical staff – 2,042.1 to 1,941.5 (-100.6)
    • Hourly staff – 766.1 to 660.0 (-106.1)

So go figure, the only increase in payroll expenditures came in administration.  Huh.

I’m still trying to find out if there’s a break out on the website of how the school system spends their dollars on such things as books, computers, etc. I can’t find it yet and I may have to get it directly from the school system, but once I do get it I’ll cover it here.