The King George Board of Supervisors and the School Board touched on only a few of the 20 questions forwarded in advance from both boards to which answers were sought at last week’s joint meeting.
All members of the Board of Supervisors were present on April 6, including Chairman Dale Sisson and Supervisors Cedell Brooks Jr., Joe Grzeika, John LoBuglio and James Mullen.  
Four of the School Board members came to the joint session, including Chairman Lynn Pardee and members Renee Parker, Dennis Paulsen and Mike Rose.  
Member Rick Randall missed the joint meeting, which lasted from 4–5:35 p.m., instead showing up after it was over and telling The Journal he thought it was at 6 p.m.
The main idea on which both boards agreed is they need more and better communication.
After wrangling over some budget issues, the two boards agreed to Sisson’s suggestion that they meet together once a quarter.
“I think we can all agree that we need to work harder at working together,” Parker noted.

The King George Board of Supervisors last week, on April 6, voted to advertise a possible tax increase for real estate and mobile homes from the current 45 cents to 53 cents per $100 valuation. No other tax rates are proposed to be changed.
Supervisor Cedell Brooks Jr. pushed supervisors to authorize advertisement of 53 cents instead of the equalized rate of 50 cents, as recommended by County Administrator Travis Quesenberry.
Due to new real estate assessments that went into effect Jan. 1, the total assessed value of property in the county was reduced by 6 percent from the previous year.
In order to offset that decrease, a real estate tax rate of 50 cents would be necessary to levy the same amount of real estate tax as last year.  

March has gone out like a lion and April finds us busy as bees! As we zip along toward opening day on May 1, we’ve no shortage of things to do in this blessed spring!

Movie night
Thursday, April 22, 6:45 p.m. at Smoot Library the third film in our series: The True Cost of Food, a Sierra Club production. This short cartoon brings to light the many hidden costs industrial agriculture imposes on our bodies, communities and environment. The film will be followed by a panel of speakers who work to create local food systems in our region:
Matt Benson, Community Viability Specialist with Virginia Extension; Elizabeth Borst, USDA Farmers Market Incentive Program Coordinator Gordon Road Farmers Market (Spotsylvania County);  and Tanikka Cunningham, founder of Healthy Solutions Group, Washington DC, an organization dedicated to getting fresh food into city neighborhoods, nutrition education, and fighting childhood obesity. It will be a very informative evening. There is no charge for the event, although we will accept donations to help cover our costs.

Supervisors and School Board both want budget answers

The King George Board of Supervisors and the School Board both want answers to several budget questions they each submitted in advance of a joint meeting scheduled for this week.
The questions are listed below.
The joint meeting is on April 6 (following our press time), with questions distributed in advance, so each board might get a better understanding of the budgeting process on the other side.   
The suggestion to provide advance questions was made by Supervisor Cedell Brooks Jr. at a budget work session on March 23.
Board members also agreed they wanted the School Board to likewise provide its questions for supervisors in advance.
The biggest question from supervisors is also the issue from which many of the rest of the questions stem.
Supervisor Chairman Dale Sisson said he wanted the School Board to provide “actual” figures for expenditures in the same format as its itemized budget request.
Superintendent Candace Brown only provides the School Board with “budgeted” numbers.  Her budget request detail adopted by the School Board contains no “actual” figures for expenditures, but only “budgeted” numbers.
Budgeted numbers are obsolete at this point, since Brown turned back an unspent surplus of more than $1 million at the end of the last school year.  Also, the “budgeted” numbers for the current year were amended earlier this year to match significantly lower state revenue amounts.
In addition, Deputy County Administrator/Director of Finance Donita Harper’s monthly financial reports indicate that Brown is currently executing a budget that is about $2 million less than originally budgeted, at a current $32.79 million for 2009-10.

The King George School Board last week approved a school calendar for next year, 2010-11.
The action took place at a meeting on March 22.  
King George Education Association (KGEA) co-chairman Urzetta Lewis and division Coordinator of Testing & Instructional Support Jennifer Collins had developed and presented several calendar versions to the School Board in February with the assistance of a committee.
The calendar version that was most popular with staff members was presented in February from five that had been the subject of online and paper surveys distributed to school staff.
At the Feb. 22 meeting, the School Board agreed to a request from Mike Rose to have snow days built into the recommended calendar version.  
Last week, Lewis and Collins were back, this time with two versions.  Following discussion of the merits of the two calendar drafts, the School Board voted 3-1 for the approved calendar detailed below. Four members of the School Board were present at the meeting, with Lynn Pardee absent.  Rick Randall voted against the motion.

A plan to redraw the attendance lines for King George’s three elementary schools is drawing criticism from an increasing group of parents.
If the School Board approves redistricting as planned by Superintendent Candace Brown, it will result in switching schools for about 225 elementary students beginning this September 2010.
Brown’s recommendation is to redraw boundary lines for attendance that would move an estimated 75 students from Sealston Elementary School (SES) to King George Elementary School (KGES). and would also switch an estimated 150 other students from KGES to Potomac Elementary School (PES).  
That attendance change would take place beginning this fall with the opening of the new school year.
The King George School Board held a public forum on March 8 and heard from only four parents, with three opposed to the plan to change attendance lines for students in the division’s three elementary schools next school year.  

King George County Fire Rescue & Emergency Services hosted a Farm Machinery Safety Education Course. The class was held March 4-6 at Hasting’s Farm and Carr’s Farm.
The fire department received training about responding to accidents involving silos, grain elevators, silage pits, hay balers, augers, rakes, combines, tractors, manure pits and learned about the various chemicals found on farms.
Agriculture is one of the most dangerous industries in America, according to a report from McNeil & Company, the National Farmedic Training Program. In 2009, it was estimated that approximately 710 agricultural employees died while on the job in the United States and there are three permanent injuries for every fatality, according to the article “Agriculture Injuries and Fatalities,” by Joseph Devine. These accidents usually occur in the harvest months. The second most common time is during planting season, Devine wrote.

Ready to clean out that closet? Want to be a fairy godmother?

Please drop off gently used prom dress, shoes, handbags or jewelry — or gift cards for gas, hair styling, manicures or pedicures — to KGHS guidance office. For more information call the guidance office at (540) 775-3535 ext. 3201, or reach Maggie Journigan at (540) 775-3535 ext. 3208.

The Princess for a Day event is on Thursday, April 1, so items should be dropped off  no later than March 31.