Page Middle School Now Open With More Issues

It's an interesting building that there is no question about.  Some issues experienced yesterday with the new school include problems with the phone lines as well as problems with the Internet.  Not a big deal especially being a new school and not having much time to work out all the bugs.

  One area that begs to question is why isn't the cafeteria not yet functional?  And why did the school board order pizza's for the school children instead of having the food made at other area schools and bringing it into this school?  It would seem logical to have gone that route as opposed to ordering pizza.  What an order some business received over this.

We did a bit more checking and the rail on the second floor is probably 40 inches high as it should be.  A number of readers think that nothing will ever get thrown over that rail for any reason and that to think so otherwise is foolish.  It is their belief that every child is raised by parents who are very diligent in teaching their children between right and wrong.  I hope they are correct but a walk through any store suggests otherwise.  To think that every child, preteen, and teenager has been brought up to the highest standards of society is rather foolish.

  I have no wish for seeing any form of even mild mischief to take place yet to think it will not happen and that teachers will surely prevent such at every moment of everyday again is wishful thinking at best.  It is not only my opinion but also the opinion of others that designs throughout this structure are considered potentially dangerous.

How many teachers are out in this hall all day to make sure there are no issues and how is that cost effective when it comes to staffing?

Now a question about open design.  People are complaining that I would even complain about the waste of space this open design creates.  I am not the only one saying this.  This is also coming from an engineer as well as people that have been involved in constructing schools.  It's a heating and cooling nightmare for one.  Those claiming that open design is not an issue have not had to deal with the problems of heating and cooling such a structure.

So the above picture that shows two stories of open window space is needed for educational purposes?  I have no issues with the windows for each floor being the way they are, but how many classes could have been built in here that are now wasted?

Now the classrooms are nice looking.  What I have to wonder about is the windows as large as they are affecting the learning process.  The reason for the question is that anyone walking through the hall could very well be a distraction to the class or some in a class.

  The reason you have not seen these types of designs in schools in the past is because designers knew and understood these issues.  Today though it has become very unfashionable to ever question those in charge.  We should just accept what those in charge do.  If there is an issue then you blame the parents for not teaching their children, kids, preteens, teenagers, or whatever anyone wants to call their offspring these days, for not teaching them how to maintain the highest standards of society.

The lunchroom or cafeteria from another angle.  Open floor plan.  

The cafeteria food serving section is nice looking.  Hope it's up and running soon.  If you are just looking at the aesthetics of the overall design it is nice looking.  Modern, simple, and clean.  If you are looking at it from a liability standpoint, it is fraught with a host of "potential" issues.  Potential is the key word here.  Most people are not looking at the potential issues.  Those that are have been fast to discredit our initial post about this school and it's overall design because of the liability issues being faced.  The rail height on the second floor as seen in the above picture were brought up during construction but were blown off.  If something heavy gets thrown off that area or falls by some weird accident anyone below could be seriously hurt.  This is why schools in the past were not designed like this.  

  

     A number of people do not consider the fencing around the back of the building to be an issue.  Will the children, preteens, teenagers, or your offspring not try and climb these fences?  The design is against climbing them.  If you are foolish enough to try and climb over one you will probably get hurt.  It is designed to keep people out that have no business being there.  The fences meet construction standards and are upper end fences.  No question.  But again you have to be foolish enough to think that every child, preteen, teenager, offspring, have all been brought up in households where the highest standards of society have been instilled in them and that they all follow those standards to the hilt at all times with no question.

     We have invited Charles Records to write a letter to dispel the posts here.  He has invited members of the public to tour the school so that he could dispel what has been posted.  We await his reply and will bring that to you if he does respond.

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When Public Officials Use Private Emails

Gloucester, Virginia Officials Using Personal email Addresses from Chuck Thompson

Its been all over the news about Hilary Clinton and her use of private email addresses to conduct public business.  We have had it here as well about how local officials use private email addresses for public business and the types of problems that this can cause.

  So what we are going to show you is exactly how much of a problem it really is as we got our hands on a number of private email addresses from Public officials and how they use them for so called conducting public business.  You may want to read through these but please be advised, public officials won't like it.  There is some very embarrassing content in here.  But you go through it and decide for yourself.  

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Dr Walter R Clemens On School Board Issues, May, 2015

Greetings Dr. Clemons,

 

Let me start off by welcoming you to Gloucester County. Granted it is a bit late for such a gesture, but due to circumstances that manifest well before your arrival; many of us have become mistrustful of anything or anyone associated with our school administration and School Board. My intent is not to ridicule, but rather to share insight from another perspective. Since your arrival here; I have heard you remind everyone numerous times that you have no control over that which happened in Gloucester before your were hired. I agree with you 100%, however replaying that statement does little to mitigate the problem of mistrust. During the May 5^th Board of Supervisors meeting you said the BOS needs to trust you and the School Board. I absolutely believe the BOS should be able to trust the Superintendent of our school system and the School Board. More importantly the people and citizens of Gloucester County should be able to have trust in our school system. Unfortunately, and due to circumstances that predate your arrival here, we do not have the pleasure of such trust at this time. You have likely received a large helping of stories about what occurred in the past and my story is way too large and detailed to get into here. Therefore, I will only offer a few suggestions that may help you get the bridge of cooperation built.

 

During the last two budget processes, the County has taken great steps towards enhancing transparency. Among other things the BOS required just about every entity requesting money to appear before them to justify their requests. We asked that the budget work sessions be televised and they were. On the other hand; when you folks do your budget, it is all done in secrecy. There are limited documents associated with the school budget, but most importantly, none of us know or understand where any of the money is going or what we are getting for it. Mr. Bazzani’s question pertaining to floating teachers is a good example of something that should be vetted in public during the school system budget process. Conducting the people and citizens business this way will provide clarity and enhance our faith and trust.

 

Another way to help restore trust would be for all school administration and School Board email communications to occur utilizing only school system email accounts. Attempts in the past to obtain school system email information under FOIA from School Board members’ and school system employees’ private email accounts have had negative results. We all have a constitutional right to know what is going on in our school system and local government. Likewise, our elected officials and employees have a responsibility to ensure accountability of government communications/documents and to ensure our unfettered access to such information authorized by FOIA.

 

I have submitted numerous FOIA requests to the school system and have been charged considerable fees for information. In fact I was informed that it would cost me in excess of $800 to obtain activities funds accounting information. I could not afford that one. I have also requested considerable information from the County and have been charged very little if any. In the eyes of the people and citizens; the excessive fees charged by the school system are viewed as retaliation and as a deterrent mechanism. Facilitating and welcoming other insight on what is going on in the school system would certainly help to establish trust.

 

The ineffective and community splitting relationship between the School Board and BOS continues to cast a negative shadow over Gloucester County as a whole. Some people say it is the BOS fault while others say fault lies with the School Board and school administration. The finger pointing and blaming should stop immediately and be replaced with consolidated and focused efforts to ensure the academic success of Gloucester’s children above all else. Such cannot be accomplished by merely throwing money at it, causing negative media attention and splitting the community. It will take everyone working together without distracters like power struggles, politics and secrecy being included in the equation. Potentials for consolidating services with the County and other potential cost saving measures should be thoroughly investigated and vetted. Committees that include members of the community could be formed to gather and format various types of data the two Boards will need in order to make informed decisions.

 

To sum it all up; the number one thing we all want is transparency. We want to see and hear discussions on where all of the money is utilized. We want to hear and see. It appears most of the BOS does too.

 

Thank you for your efforts since becoming a member of the Gloucester Community. I firmly believe after observing you over the past several months that with your expertise, our school district can achieve many great things. That is if the County, school system and community start working transparently together.

 

Respectfully,

Kenneth E. Hogge, Sr.

And the response?

Dear Mr. Hogge:

Thanks for the email and welcome. I greatly appreciate it. Also, thanks for the suggestions. I look forward to continuously working with the School Board, Board of Supervisors and the entire community in building relationships that foster trust and collaboration. That is why we started the process this year on developing a Comprehensive Plan that sought community input. I definitely want the community to be aware of what direction the school division is taking, what it needs and how we can work together to accomplish those goals. It will be an ongoing process and I welcome your participation. As far as the budget is concerned, I believe we have expressed our needs appropriately to the Board of Supervisors regarding our current request as this information has been previously shared (since my arrival) that dates back to September of 2014. I also know that the School Board had discussion with the BOS about the operating costs of reinstituting two middle schools before my arrival. In addition, I have also had conversations with the BOS about our needs and why we need the items requested. However, with that being said, we will be looking at revamping and refining our process next year for greater clarity. Specifically, our final budgets (2014-15 final is online on our homepage/2015-16 will be forthcoming later this spring) are much more detailed than what is initially shared with the BOS as they see the line items by categories without detailed explanation. This is the way that it has been done by GCPS over a number of years and I did not change that process this year. Next year we will provide a detailed version at the beginning instead of afterwards as we all want the process to be as transparent as possible. Please know that we will make every effort to be good stewards of all money that is appropriated to us. In closing, thanks so much for your time and have a great weekend!

Sincerely,
Walter R. Clemons, Ph.D.
Division Superintendent

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Gloucester Schools Want More Funding For Page Middle School

Here we go.  This point has already been put up before the Board of Supervisors already and the Board pretty much said no.  So what do the propagandists do?  They start the media campaign in an effort to publicly  embarrass the Board of Supervisors in an expectation that the School Board will get its way.

  This is not a new trick.  Its a very old trick and it works very well.  Especially when you can get any area of the media to run the story such as channel 13 news.  The school board is bloated with way too many administrative staff and spent a fortune on a refurbishing an entire school building for themselves all at the same time knowing that they had to fund Page.  But hey, its your money so who cares how much they spend?

  We have a solution to all of this.  Raise the tax rates on every registered democrat in Gloucester County by 3 times the present rate.  For the democrats hiding in the republican party raise their rates by the same amount.  Raise the rates on the socialists by 10 times the present amount.  They are free to complain but no one will care.  Anyone else who just feels bad about it all can pony up and donate all the money they want until it hurts.  Get another mortgage on your house and donate that money to the school board so they can continue their bloat at your expense.  This should allow them to add all new levels of bloat as well.

  We told everyone years ago before construction even started this would happen.  Yes we are saying we told you so.  What is even worse?  None of these folks feel the least bit bad about this crap.  In fact if you want to talk to any of them they will be more than happy to justify their claim and talk you out of more of your money.  Make it simple, just hand them all the money in your pocket before you even start to think about speaking to any of them.

One last thought.  If the school board can not afford to open this school they can always turn it into a homeless shelter that the area desperately needs anyway.

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Gloucester County, Va. vs. the ACLU

The ACLU is trying to tell Gloucester County that its public school students must be allowed to share restrooms without considering biological make up. When the School Board recently enacted fair and reasonable restroom use policies the ACLU filed complaints with federal agencies with an argument designed to jeopardize federal education money entitlements.

Their complaint refers to news reports as supporting evidence. Many news reports on such stories are typically one sided, lack evidence and are sensationalized just like most of the reports surrounding this issue. This tactic is used to inflame their arguments. The ACLU’s complaint is full of inaccuracies and speculative assertions. Their complaint contains descriptions of words and comments inconsistent with the context intended by the People who spoke the comments.

Why didn’t the ACLU include the videos of School Board meetings in their complaint? If they referred to the videos they would not be able to put their desired spin on their argument. They would not be able to twist the facts like they have. The word “freak”, spoken publicly by one of the People, is mentioned in negative context multiple times in the complaint. When the speaker used the word he was interrupted by the School Board Chairperson before he could complete what he was saying. Had the Chairperson truly been listening to what the person was saying and allowed him to complete his words instead of being more concerned about how much time the speaker had remaining, he would have realized the speaker was not personally attacking anyone. Maybe the Chairperson and the ACLU should learn the definition of the word “freak” (a sudden and odd or seemingly pointless idea or turn of the mind; the product of freakish thought or action; an irregular or abnormal product of some process, or, specifically, of the laws of nature.) and watch the School Board meeting videos.

The complaint suggests students did not express concerns to school personnel during the month the school Principle allowed the transgender student to use opposite sex restrooms. During the last School Board meeting several male students spoke against and expressed their discomfort with the idea of sharing their restroom with a biological female. One student specifically mentioned a fear of reprisals from the school system for addressing his discomfort at the public hearing and another even apologized for expressing his feelings and opinion. How many other students are in such fear of dealing with the “government” of their school system as to be afraid to express themselves freely in public? When students have a problem with certain issues about school they generally talk with their parents about it. It is the parents’ role to represent them to the government like many parents did. The ACLU asserts that adults are the ones most vocal against such restroom sharing. This is a fact and rightfully so. We as adults are the legal decision makers for all children under the age of 18. We are the children’s parents, mentors, teachers, neighbors and more. The ACLU has no standing in our places as adult People, Citizens and taxpayers of Gloucester County. They are not stakeholders by any means. The use of education money as leverage in situations such as this amounts to nothing short of blackmailing the People with their own money and at the expense of public education. The People and Citizens of Gloucester, through our elected School Board, have enacted well balanced rules on restroom use in our public schools without the assistance of the ACLU and the federal government. Their involvement is not necessary or desired. Gloucester’s newly established rules should be the model for all public schools as they offer every student a place to use the restroom while maintaining the moral biological separation desired by the overwhelming majority of adults and youth in the community.

Kenneth E. Hogge, Sr.
Gloucester Point

(Our Notes:  We have filed multiple counter claims to the ACLU's complaints with the federal civil liberties court.  You can too.  A link below to the story where we did this has a form you can copy and make slight modifications to and then send to the address on the form.)

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Gloucester, VA Public Schools: ACLU Counter Complaint Filings

How many people are just sick to death of reading and hearing about the Gavin Grimm story?  The girl who claims to be a boy?  Sorry, the girl is a girl.  We don't care what medical excuses the parents and so called medical profession or the sickos at the ACLU want to call it.  Gavin Grimm is a biological female.

  This is nothing more than a plant for creating a very sick and perverted societal change that infringes on the inherent rights of the people.  We could care less about the civil rights claims of this girl as they hold no weight against the unalienable rights of the people and because of this we are in the process of filing multiple counter claims against the ACLU complaint already filed.

  At present we have 6 signed  counter complaints now going to the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division with mandates from the people to have the ACLU complaint thrown out as well as have Gloucester County Public Schools not even supply any form of alternative bathroom for this girl.  If she needs to use a bathroom, she will just have to use the girls room, like it or not.

  Otherwise she can just hold it.  We do not care.  If you would like to file a counter complaint, we have already created the document for you.  All you have to do is copy what we post below and make a few changes to the document below.  Just paste the following into any word processor software on your computer.  If you do not have one, download a free version of open office.  It's excellent.
                                                                                                                                  


(Your Name Here): In Propria Persona
One of the People of Gloucester, Virginia
(Your Address Here)
(Your Area),Virginia (23062)



December 25th, 2014

Educational Opportunities Section

U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division

950 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.

Educational Opportunities Section, PHB

Washington, D.C. 20530

To Whom It May Concern;




   I, (Your Name Here) , am one of the people of Gloucester County, Virginia and come before you In Propria Persona, and am filing a counter complaint to the recent ACLU complaint filed with this office on December 18th, 2014 to which the ACLU creates it's opening complaint as follows:

“a complaint against Gloucester County Public Schools (“GCPS”) on behalf of Gavin Grimm. On December 9, 2014, the Gloucester County Public School
Board (the “School Board”) adopted a policy stating that the use of boys’ and girls’ restroom and locker rooms “shall be limited to the corresponding biological genders, and students with sincere gender identity issues shall be provided an alternative private facility.” Gavin, who is a tenth-grade student at Gloucester High School and a transgender boy, had been using the boys’ restroom facilities at school without any complaints from peers, prior to the adoption of this policy. GCPS adopted its “biological gender” policy in direct response to Gavin in order to prevent him from continuing to use boys’ facilities. The “biological gender” policy on its face and as applied to Gavin discriminates against Gavin on the basis of his sex in violation of Title DC of the Educational Amendments of 1972, 20 U.S.C. § 168 1(a) (“Title IX”).”

My response to the above is that the ACLU has no grounds for argument here as any argument they present are in violation of the inherent rights of the people of Gloucester, Virginia. The inherent rights of the people supersede any civil rights complaints at every level and the people mandate that we do not consent to these complaints. Under the Constitution of the United States and the State of Virginia, it is the people who are the power and authority of government and that it is we who make the laws. As such we mandate that this agency before us throw out the entire complaint of the ACLU as having no weight against the wishes of the people.

We further mandate that the Gloucester County, Virginia Public Schools do not even create a segregated bathroom for the said person above and that the said person, being one Gavin Grimm, born of female persuasion, only be permitted to use a bathroom fitting her gender, being that of the female.


                                                                                                                               
SEAL: (Your Name Here)                                              Notary Public:
In Propria Persona


                                                                                                                                  

Do not change the wording on any part of the document or you could mess up the meaning of it.  There are certain legal words used in here that are used by design to mean a very specific purpose.  For instance, In Propria Persona means that you are flesh and blood, not a fictitious entity and that you stand in the proper person.  That makes you one of the people.  Keep the zip code in ( ) as it separates a legal definition for federal zone.

  If you have no problems with what the ACLU is doing, then do nothing.  Let the ACLU handle the situation for you.  In the mean time, the rest of us are going to knock the ACLU out of the ball park and bury them.  Each suit they file in this matter will result in multiple counter suits filed against them.  

  We are not doing this for county officials, they messed all of this up big time.  We are doing it because it is a violation of our inherent rights and we will not tolerate such.  We will not tolerate the sick vulgar perverts at the ACLU that think it's just fine for girls to use the boys bathroom at their pleasure. 

Again, please feel free to copy the counter complaint above and send it to the address listed.  Each counter complaint lets the ACLU know that we will not tolerate abuses to our inherent rights.  No one else will tell you how to fight this.  But we will show you exactly how it is done and invite you to help.  You can make a difference.  Do Not Bury Your Head In The Sand!

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