A little bit of this and a little bit of that

I hope you are all enjoying the unseasonably warm weather.  I know some students (and parents) are still rooting for at least one snow day. 

If you are not busy tonight (Tuesday), stop by Osbourn High School (OHS) to watch the boys basketball team host a Regional Tournament game.  The Boys are the Cedar District Regular Season and tournament champions.  Congratulations to Boys on an excellent season thus far.

Congratulations as well to the OHS girls team for reaching the Regional Tournament and for a great effort in their first-round loss to Stafford on Saturday.  I did not make it out to any Hockey games, but I have followed their travails on another Blog, and I commend them and all the other Winter Sports teams on their seasons.  And reaching all the way back to the Fall, Chris Boteler (1^st Team) and Cedric Delaney (2^nd Team), were recently named to the Virginia High School Coaches Association AAA All-State Team.

There is a lot to celebrate in the classroom, too.  Mark Johnson of OHS was recently honored for his performance in an annual speed contest sponsored by the Rotary Club of Manassas.  As mentioned in the Patch this weekend, Gregory Toms of OHS recently won the prestigious Senator Harry F. Byrd, Jr. Leadership Award for 2012.  Within the last month many MCPS students have participated in spelling bees at School.  This Friday, OHS will host its 22^nd Annual Talent Show, and on Thursday, OHS will host its Annual African American Read in as part of its Black History Month Celebration.  As noted in the Patch, OHS also held an African Americans in the Workforce Day earlier this month.

Manassas City Public Schools (MCPS) recently announced that OHS Graduation will take place on June, 11, 2012 at 7:30 p.m. at Jiffy Lube Live.

There is currently a lot of activity in the General Assembly that will have a direct impact on Education.  The final State Budget will determine how much money localities and schools receive from the State, and will also determine the extent of some local outlays (such as Virginia Retirement System payments) that need to be made.  The Virginia Legislature is also wrestling with the “Kings Dominion” law, a law passed in 1986 which prevents Virginia School Districts from starting school before Labor Day.  Currently, over half of Virginia School Districts have a waiver from the law, and thus are able to start school before Labor Day.  The House of Delegates approved a bill to eliminate the law, and now the ball is in the Senate’s court.  Stay tuned.

In other news, the MCPS School Board has started its budget process, with at least one meeting scheduled each week until the scheduled School Board approval of the budget on March 27.  The Prince William County (PWCS) School Board recently intimated that it may not offer teacher raises until 2015, which set off a spate of protests.  MCPS and PWCS are obviously separate entities, but there are many staff members who work in one jurisdiction and live or have children who attend school in the other jurisdiction, so it's folly to think that what happens in PWCS occurs in a vacuum unrelated to MCPS.  I am happy to see all members of the PWCS community engaged in the budget process.  I wish the PWCS School Board and its staff well in its budget process and I hope that we in MCPS do a good job for the community in our process.

I can’t end this column without asking if you have caught “Linsanity.”  If you don’t know what I am talking about, do some research on Jeremy Lin (New York Knicks), and come back next week to check out my thoughts on the phenomenon.  Finally, I caught part of the Whitney Houston funeral and was moved by the passion of the service, the expressions of faith, and the caution to young women (which applies to young men as well) to guard their bodies.  Her life, which reached the highest peaks and the lowest lows, is instructive.   In her honor, I will end with this quote from a song she made famous “The Greatest Love of All”:

“I believe the Children are our future, teach them well and let them lead the way, show them all the beauty they possess inside.”