Gloucester, VA Why Teachers Are Not Getting Raises?

The above school board vehicle was at Hardee's restaurant this morning, August 27th, 2014 at 8:24 AM.  Vehicle number was badly damaged and we could only make out 27 as in vehicle number two hundred and seventy something.  No rare state plate was visible on the vehicle at all.  The two guys inside were waving to us as we took their pictures.

The above pictured vehicle was seen yesterday at 7-Eleven across from Hardee's restaurant in the Courthouse Area.  This vehicle is registered to Dave Miller and the person in charge of this vehicle?  Dave Miller.  This van is seen all the time stopping everywhere.  We have more pictures of this van than any other county vehicle.  It belongs to the school board of course.

  No other county vehicles were seen at restaurants, stores or other quick market stores recently.  This would seem like one of many reasons teachers in Gloucester County Public Schools do not seem to get well deserved raises.  School board admin and support staff like to waste money.  Over the years, the school board has convinced the teachers that it's the Board of Supervisors who are responsible for teachers not getting raises and the school board each year marches a host of teachers and students before the board of supervisors to complain about not having enough money.

  What a scam in our view.  Let's look at some basic facts, the school board has been getting steady increases every year while student enrollment has been falling.  The school board has increased it's administrative staff to an enormous size, wasted millions of untold taxpayer dollars on renovating an old school for their own facilities that is way to large for their needs, but to small for all their wants, wasted even more millions building a new school that simply was not needed, all so certain people could get fatter checks all the while ignoring the basic needs of the teachers and hence, the students.  More typical hypocrisy from the top here in Gloucester County.  Waste at so many levels and we are fed a mantra that it's all for the children.  No it's not.  It's all for the few and screw you.  Buy their hype and BS all you want, it's not about the children no matter how many times they try and sell you that song.

  The waste must stop.  So we will keep digging and posting all that we find.  It's time for the teachers of Gloucester County to hold the school board accountable and stop buying the garbage they want to sell you.

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What The Gloucester Mathews Gazette Journal Didn't Tell You, July 10th, 2014

New Superintendent Lays Out "Plan of Entry" is the title of the one article in the paper pictured above.  We are not going to reprint the article by any means.  If you have already read the article, then there is no sense is rehashing it.  If you have not read the article, then you can always go to the newspaper's website.

  What we have a problem with here and everywhere else we have looked including the Gloucester School Board website is who the stakeholders are claimed to be and mainly, who is left out.  And what is the most disturbing is exactly who has been left out.  No reason to delay who has been left out, it's the taxpayers.  The taxpayers, those of us who pay for the entire system are not even considered stakeholders in education.  But don't take our word for it, look at the plan for yourself.  Exactly how do the folks at the local newspaper manage to miss the obvious right in front of them and not ask the questions as to why the taxpayers are not considered stakeholders?

Gloucester, VA School Board Sup Plan of Entry July 2014 from Chuck Thompson

Now one has to ask, does the local school board think that little of the taxpayers?  It would appear to be since they are wasting your tax dollars as fast as they possibly can.  We continue to see the waste each week.

 Vehicle number 273, Driver, D Miller, School Board, Department, Facilities Services, Reports to Dave Miller, July 21st, 2014 time, 7:21 AM.  Location spotted, Hardees Restaurant.  This is a very clear pattern of behavior for this driver.

The above vehicle we still can not get the number on but again, the vehicle belongs to the Public School system.  July 21st, at 8:33AM.

Vehicle number 284, Public Schools, July 21st, 2014.  Time, 9:17 AM.  Went inside McDonald's to have breakfast.  This was not even a drive through quick order.  This is Dave Miller the person in charge of Facilities Services.  No wonder his employees are all over the place.  They are only doing what their boss is doing but not as bad as he does.

  Maybe the Board of Supervisors should take away one hundred thousand dollars of funding per school board vehicle seen in local stores, restaurants and banks where the employees are using government vehicles for personal use, per incident.  We highly recommend the county seriously consider installing GPS tracking in all county vehicles.  This way, if a county employee is seen being someplace they do not belong, the county can actually shut down the vehicle on the employee.  This way the county also always knows where all the employees are and what they should be doing.

Now another area where this gets even worse in our view is with the new contract between the superintendent and the school board.  If you have not read that contract, maybe you should.  See section V on page 3.  The school board is allowing the new superintendent to use a government vehicle for personal use.  Never mind that this appears to be prohibited at the local level, state level and federal level as well.

Walter R. Clemons 3 Year Contract (7-1-2014-6-30-2017) Gloucester, VA from Chuck Thompson

We have filed a complaint with the IRS over the above contract as it appears to be very much in violation with IRS codes as well as Federal, State and local laws, codes and or ordinances.  Maybe we can stop this madness and send a message to the school board that we will not tolerate their complete disregard for the taxpayers and their continuous waste of our money.  We have also included the personal use of government vehicles in the complaint as this needs to end.

Gloucester, VA School Board's Continued Waste of Taxpayer Money

Driver, Mike May.  Gloucester County School Board.  Department.  Facilities Services.  Contact Person.  Dave Miller.  Date and Time.  July 7th, 2014.  7:01 Am.  Vehicle number 226.  Location, 7-Eleven.

Driver, Ed Barry.  Department, Facilities Services.  Contact Person, Dave Miller.  Location. Coming out of Wal Mart.  Date.  July 7th, 2014.  Time 7:10 AM.

Driver, D Miller.  School Board.  Contact Person.  Dave Miller, Department, Facilities Services.  Location, Hardee's Restaurant.  Date, July 7th, 2014, Time, 7:37 AM.

Driver:  Unknown.  Department:  Unknown, School Board?  Vehicle number, unknown.  Back of car says Sheriff's Department.  County insignia on side of vehicle however.  Date:  July 14th, 2014.  Time, 7:19 AM.  Location, Hardee's Restaurant.

Driver, D Miller.  School Board.  Department.  Facilities Services.  Contact, Dave Miller.  Vehicle Number 273.  Date, July 14th, 2014, Time, 7:26 AM, Location.  Hardee's Restaurant.

Driver, Ed Barry.  Department, Facilities Services.  Contact, Dave Miller,  Date, July, 14th, 2014.  Location, Tractor Supply.  Time, 8:50 AM.

And these are the people we were able to get pictures of.  If we do not get the cameras out in time, then they get lucky.  We caught plenty of others but did not have the camera ready.  This is only a sampling.  For over a year we have been covering this and the pattern right now is very clear.  The school board has no concern about your tax money.  It's part of the reason why the keep wanting more of it.  They waste it so fast it's not even funny.  But the folks at the school board keep telling us that it's for the children.  Anyone see where these people above are helping the children?

Gloucester, VA County Employees Continue To Shop On Your Tax Dollars

Monday, May 12th, 2014, we saw this county government vehicle pull into the parking lot and the employee go into Dollar General at about 10:30 AM.  The employee was in the store for about 15 minutes.  Why are county employees going shopping when they are supposed to be working and again as we continue to point out, in violation of county employment policies no less.  If they had to buy supplies, for one, this is not the way the county should be spending money, they have catalogs where they can order whatever goods they need and spend less money and pay no taxes than buying from national retailers.  Which also brings up the next question, if they are buying supplies in this way, are they paying taxes using money we paid in taxes for them to waste like this adding extra burdens on us all?

  If this was personal shopping, why are we paying them to shop and drive all over the county to do so?  It does not look like this issue will ever be solved.  The county government thinks your pockets are so deep that they can spend all your money any way they see fit?  This after the Board of Supervisors spent a great deal of energy holding the line to prevent taxes from going up?  Something has to give and it may just be your wallet in the next round come 2015.

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Gloucester, VA A Letter From The Kiser, School Board Superintendant

I am in receipt of your complaint alleging a violation of policy regarding an employee driving a School Board-owned vehicle. The School Board Policy reads “Employees are prohibited from utilizing school property for personal use or gain.” School Board owned vehicles are provided to employees to use during the work day to accomplish tasks throughout the county at 8 different schools. Most of our vehicles are used vehicles with high mileage and the availability of these vehicles, for employee use, actually saves the county money and time. This resource also creates efficiency with our technicians moving from site to site.



Our Director of Facilities manages our technicians, their schedule, and the use of vehicles. He continually has conversations with them about how they use the vehicles to ensure that taxpayer money is not abused. We do not consider a technician occasionally stopping at a convenience store between sites or at a fast-food restaurant between sites as abuse or a violation of the School Board Policy.



Our technicians begin their days early and work hard to ensure that schools are safe and orderly for children and staff. We take our stewardship responsibility of public monies seriously and your pictures have been shared with our Facilities Director.



Ben Kiser, Division Superintendent

Gloucester County Public Schools

This was sent to us and it speaks for itself.  We had no idea that a straightforward law was open to such broad interpretations.  VDOT does not seem to share these sentiments from what we have learned.  Neither does the county from emails we have gathered.  Yet the schools consider themselves exempt from having to follow what everyone else in the state has to follow in state government?  Wow, that is simply amazing.  

  Guess the Kiser failed to factor in the potential insurance consequences should an employee cause an accident in an area where he was not designated to be and conducting personal business?  From what we understand, no insurance company would be obligated to pay anything on a claim because of the above.  Instead, the county would get stuck with the bill which means that you, the taxpayer pays the claim through taxes.  That is not abuse?  That is not fraud?  We do not discount that the employees work hard.  We are sure they do.  But that should exempt them from state laws how?  

We take our stewardship responsibility of public monies seriously .

Can you then please explain to us the Page Middle School issues then?  We simply do not see this statement as factual and we keep uncovering still many more issues that will soon be coming forward.  For that matter, can you explain the issues with the TC Walker school?  At least the Kiser sent this response through his county assigned email address.  Yeah, we are watching.

Oh, and here is the string he copied his response to;  More personal email addresses in here.  

 Randy Burak georgeburak@cox.net
 Kevin's Phone kevinsmith914@gmail.com
 Anita Parker Anita.Parker@gc.k12.va.us
 Kimberly Hensley kimberlyehensley@gmail.com
 Carla Hook hookc@cox.net
 Troy Andersen troyandersengp@cox.net
 Charles Records <crecords@zandler-dev.com
 Dave Miller Dave.Miller@gc.k12.va.us
 John Hutchinson hutch@gc.k12.va.us

Clear evidence that county officials have no problems with conducting county business using personal email addresses.  Evidence is right in front of everyone.  So what are they hiding?  You really have to wonder.

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Gloucester, VA County Truck Number 67 At McDonald's Again

Parks and Recreation truck number 67 was seen again at McDonald's this past morning, Monday, December 16th, 2013 at about 8:15 AM.  This is the same truck that was here last week on Monday.  Below is the county employment code from the county's own website.  Chapter 13 of the employment code.

Section 13-27: Use of County Vehicles

County vehicles are provided for the use of employees and authorized
volunteers in conducting official business of the County. Personal use of County
vehicles is prohibited. Certain employees are required or allowed to take a County
vehicle home at night, as they are required to respond to the needs of the County
outside of normal business hours. Take home vehicles must be approved by the
County Administrator who shall maintain a current record of all authorized take home vehicles.

Operators of County vehicles should practice “defensive driving” and
anticipate and observe the actions of other drivers and control their own vehicle in
such a manner so as to avoid an accident. Operators of County vehicles and all
passengers therein shall properly use seat belts at all times. Injury resulting from a failure to wear seat belts may constitute gross negligence on the part of the individual and upon case review may jeopardize an employee’s eligibility for relief normally provided under the worker’s compensation or disability claims.

http://www.co.gloucester.va.us/HumanResources/PersonnelPoliciesandProcedures/tabid/1112/Default.aspx  

Above is the link to the information so everyone can verify this for themselves.  We don't make this stuff up.  For 8 months we have been reporting this abuse.  For 8 months the abuse continues with nothing being done about it.  It would seem fair to say that Brenda Garton, county administrator and Ted Wilmot, County Attorney are not doing their jobs but are instead failing to do their jobs in protecting the county, the taxpayers and the Board of Supervisors from waste, fraud and abuse as well as increased costs and expenses as well as increased liabilities.  We have filed a complaint form with human resources about this employee who is very clearly in violation of the above policy.

  Since it is clear that neither the county administrator nor the county attorney are capable of doing their jobs, they should be termed for cause without any further form of compensation whatsoever.  One also has to question the department heads as to why they are unable to properly communicate to their own employees what the policy states and then make sure that the employees maintain this agreement.  The above employee driving truck 67 has already been reported and nothing has been done about it.  Employees continue to use county vehicles for their own personal use all the time with no regard for employment policies and the county officials are letting them?

Gloucester County Sheriff's Deputy at the drive through of Hardee's courthouse area at about 7:15 AM this past Monday, December 16th, 2013.  Catching breakfast just after getting on the clock?

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