The conservative majority on the school board along with interim Superintendent Kelly Guempel are getting the job done with regards to hiring staff for the upcoming school year in the Spotsylvania County school division. The number of openings was much higher 1 to 2 months ago. Guempel provided updated staffing statistics at the July 26th special meeting. Below is the video and a summary of those stats.
- Every class in every school is covered right now
- 127 staff openings remain right now. Last year at this time there was 67 openings but that does not include the additional 60 positions that came with the new budget
- 79 classified openings right now. Last year at this time there was 30 openings but that does not include the additional 45 positions that came with the new budget
- 300,000 teachers left the profession across the nation so there is a national teacher shortage
- Virginia is number 8 in the nation in teacher shortages
Despite this good news, many on the far left portray this news as the sky is falling without any context. Virginia is number 8 in the nation in teacher shortages. There was over a 10 percent reduction in education majors compared to 4 years ago. The teacher shortage problem is not unique to Spotsylvania County.
Towards the end of the school board meeting, it appeared that school board member Dawn Shelley was cleaning her nails and not fully paying attention to the stats Guempel provided. Does Shameful Shelley not care about the staff hiring success? Does Shameful Shelley have a political agenda? Why doesn’t Shameful Shelley compliment Guempel instead of complaining about the start time of the meeting?
Guempel is working, and doing the job to the best of his ability. He deserves credit, not repudiation and disrespect from a half educated dimwit who is more concerned with using an emery board to do her nails. Let’s not forget that board member’s penchant for reminding everyone on the planet “It’s DOCTOR…”. Hilarious. Her degree is suspect for several reasons. First, she attended a “lesser” university. That is to say she did not have the requisite GRE or MAT scores to attend a Level One Research University in a resident program; essentially she’s not that bright. Second, she feels the need to remind everyone of her education; proving that being unable to stand on her own merit, or the strength of her arguments, she simply repeats her credentials in a vain attempt to cow others into submission. Third, she quite literally uses elementary school logic when arguing any point; watch any school board meeting to verify this inane and childlike activity. Lastly, she lacks any semblance of common sense. I could point readers to any SCPS Board meeting, but it would be akin to torture. Please read what passed as a dissertation for this person…it is a focused picture of what is wrong in education, and would have never passed muster at an actual university. Her ignorance, entitled attitude, and lack of understanding of basic educational issues is, simply put, appalling. As Virginians are wont to do, a simple “Bless her heart” says it all.