Tag: <span>Joanne Walton</span>

Virginia Education Funding Coalition – Your Need to Know

(Feb. 7, 2018)

Catherine Read met with Joanne Walton and Tony Bennett Shivers, co-founders of the Virginia Education Funding Coalition (VEFC), a unified non-partisan voice advocating for fully funding public education in Virginia. The mission of the VEFC is to ensure that the commonwealth of Virginia adequately invests in its public education system, so that all students have access to a high quality education with well-paid and well-trained teachers.

Currently, Virginia is ranked 38^th in the nation in per pupil state funding and ranked 29^th overall for average salary for K-12 teachers. The state is also facing a deficit of 1000 teachers. As baby boomers retire, Virginia will continue to face a shortage of teachers, and as a commonwealth we will be facing a crisis situation. The best indicator of student success is having effective teachers in the classroom. VEFC advocates for stronger recruiting, support and training of our teacher workforce, and strives to bring people together across the commonwealth to advocate for stronger support for public education.

Walton notes that VEFC aims to build a coalition of teachers, parents, businesses and community leaders who are understand the critical relationship between well-educated children, strong local communities and the future workforce. The goal of VEFC is to create a platform for everyone to come together to advocate before the Virginia General Assembly to improve the LCI (Local Composite Index) so that all Virginia counties and school districts receive adequate funding based on their enrollment needs. Additionally, VEFC supports passage of legislation giving Virginia counties and school districts the authority to diversify and raise revenue on a local basis.

Shivers cites a study by the Georgetown University Center for Education Workforce that indicates there will be 55 million job openings by 2020, 34 million of those will be new jobs and 31 million will be posts vacated by retiring baby boomers. He believes it is imperative for Virginia to adequately invest in educating our children today for the workforce of the future. It is estimated that 65% of the jobs by 2020 will require post secondary training. He shared that learning in the 21^st century needs to be individualized and personal, where we can teach children to think critically and problem solve so they can be prepared to step into jobs that do not even exist today. In order to do this, we need to adequately fund our schools and invest in our children and teachers.

Shivers and Walton invite all who are passionate about improving education in Virginia to join their coalition. They currently have an online petition asking Governor Ralph Northam and the Virginia General Assembly to increase funding for public education, which has not been increased in 10 years. You can follow them on Facebook and Twitter (@VAEdFunding) and by using the hashtag #FundVaSchools.

by Catherine Read

Fairfax County Special Education PTA – Your Need to Know

(Sept. 6, 2017) Catherine Read talks with Diane Cooper Gould, President of the Fairfax County Special Education Parent Teacher Association (SEPTA), and Joanne Walton who is a SEPTA Delegate to the Fairfax County Council of PTAs (FCCPTA) and also a founding member of SEPTA. The Fairfax County SEPTA launched in April of 2017 and is an additional support organization for existing PTAs throughout the county.

Diane Cooper Gould is the parent of two special needs children. A conversation with someone from the Arlington SEPTA inspired her to start a similar organization for Fairfax County. Joanne Walton, also the parent of a special needs student, joined this start-up effort to better support both parents and teachers. Fairfax County is the 10th largest school district in the nation and over 25,000 students currently have an Individualized Education Plan (IEP), others have 504 plans, and some students have not yet been identified as having special needs. The goal is to assist the families of special needs children from their infant-toddler years right through to their high school graduation.

A key focus of SEPTA is recognizing the importance of the “T” for Teacher. They welcome greater teacher input on what is needed in schools and classrooms. Advocacy at school board budget hearings for necessary funds is also a key focus since teacher retention is a challenge. Special Education teachers in Fairfax County stay for an average of 3 years. Better funding and raising teacher pay is needed to support the special needs community in the county. There are teacher shortages in general in Fairfax County schools, and there continues to be unfilled special education teacher positions as the new school year begins.

The collaborative aspect of SEPTA includes offering support to parents through awareness of other organizations offering support within the disability community – such as Parents of Autistic Children (POAC), Decoding Dyslexia Virginia, the Arc of Northern Virginia and programs through the Jewish Community Center of Northern Virginia. There is a page on the SEPTA website specifically for support groups and that list continues to grow. As the 2017-18 school year begins, the Fairfax County SEPTA will be focused on raising awareness of their organization and how parents and teachers can find the resources they need through this new organization.

SEPTA has a Facebook page and their website can be found at www.FairfaxCountySEPTA.org

by Catherine Read

Collect for Kids – School Supply Drive in Northern Virginia

(June 27 2017) Catherine Read talks with several members of the Collect for Kids initiative, which is a collaborative effort of 15+ organizations that collect and distribute school supplies to students eligible for free and reduced lunches. In Fairfax County, over 50,000 students meet those eligibility requirements. The Collect for Kids organizations include some for-profit companies like Walmart and Apple Federal Credit Union, non-profits such as FACETS and NVFS, and agencies such as Fairfax County’s Office of Public-Private Partnerships (OP3) working together in a decentralized effort to collect and distribute these supplies efficiently.

In the first segment Susan Ungerer, a retired teacher, talks about how she started the all volunteer non-profit Kids R First which is now part of this larger Collect for Kids collaboration. It began in her garage and quickly outgrew the space. Sherry Noud, a school social worker with the Fairfax County Public Schools Office of Business and Community Partnerships, talks about the system of referrals that identifies the students who need school supplies. The Office of Social Work Services is instrumental in identifying students who need these supports. She also points out that school supplies are needed throughout the year and it’s not a need that is fully met in the first few weeks of the school year. Sherry also talks about the organizations that collect the backpacks for those school supplies and they include Cornerstones, Western Fairfax Christian Ministries and Britepaths.

In the second segment, Jay Garant, Program Director for the Fairfax County Public Schools Office of Business and Community Partnerships, talks about the growth of the program from 2011 when they served 16,000 FCPS students to 2016 when they distributed supplies to over 37,000 students. Joanne Walton, Seasonal Programs Manager for Britepaths outlines the efforts they make to maximize buying power through bulk purchases of school supplies. One dollar donated through www.CollectforKids.org or one of their partner organizations results in $3 worth of school supplies because of quantity purchasing. Jay Garant estimates that $6 to $10 donated will outfit a student with a backpack of necessary school supplies to start the school year.

The Collect for Kids School Supply Drive kicks off July 1st. In August, the supplies will be sorted and distributed prior to the first day of school on August 28th. The supply drive will continue after the start of the school year outside retailers such as Walmart as the program continues to acquire the school supplies that will be needed by these students later in the school year. If your business, faith community or service organization would like to set up a school supplies drive, visit www.CollectforKids.org for more information on how to get involved.