Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post
Newsgroups: americast.wpost
From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com
Organization: American Cybercasting
Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com
Subject: A Superintendent's Performance=
Date: Tue, 3 Nov 92 04:45:22 EST
Message-ID: <5.1992Nov3.044522@AmeriCast.com>

A Superintendent's Performance=

 WHAT KIND kind of job has Robert R.  Spillane done in running
the Fairfax County public schools over the past year, and recent-
ly in particular? The following provides a clue. Seven of the
school system's top administrators have either resigned or re-
tired in recent months.  That makes it difficult to maintain a
regular work pace, much less hasten it.  But for all of the talk
of tired leadership and a loss of morale in the Fairfax schools,
Mr. Spillane and his staff have already cranked out their fiscal
year 1994 school budget three months ahead of schedule and ear-
lier than any in the Washington area.

 In so doing, Mr. Spillane has given everyone three extra months
to chew on a budget that meets $29 million in projected short-
falls but leaves another $21 million in anticipated deficits
unaddressed.  Time enough, in effect, to allow support to build
for some kind of revenue increase to avoid further austerity, and
enough to consider further cuts if no such support arises. That's
the kind of shrewd and measured approach that has come to be ex-
pected of the Fairfax County schools chief. It certainly ought to
have been one of the primary reasons why the county Board of Edu-
cation finally regained its senses by giving Mr. Spillane a two-
year extension on his employment contract.

 What's still unclear at this point, however, is why the board
was deadlocked as recently as June over whether to give Mr. Spil-
lane an extension before his contract was due to expire next
year. Simply put, it made no sense in terms of the times - which
are dismal from a fiscal standpoint - or in terms of a record in
which academic prowess has either been maintained or improved in
a number of areas.

 Under Mr. Spillane, the percentage of non-school-based employees
has continued to shrink, even as enrollment has grown. More than
nine out of every 10 students go on to post-secondary education,
up from 79 percent prior to his arrival. More than 70 percent of
those students are going on to four-year institutions, also an
increase. Eighty-eight percent of all seniors, including 98 per-
cent of all minority students, are taking college entrance exams.
Those are rates that more than double the national average. En-
rollment in advanced placement classes has also quadrupled. At-
tendance rates are up, while dropout rates are at all-time lows,
including a more than 35 percent decline among black students.

 We could go on here, but perhaps you have already gotten the
point. Mr. Spillane deserved something of a ringing endorsement
very early on for helping guide the school system through its
present fiscal difficulties.  Our question for the school board
members is simple: What took you so long?02:05 11-03C9999-----

Copyright 1992, The Washington Post.  This story is from the
Washington Post's Capitol Edition On-Line and is not to be ar-
chived or redistributed.

For more information, send-email to American Cybercasting Cor-
poration (usa@AmeriCast.COM)