Local resident warns School Board; extra special ed teacher approved

FRONT ROYAL — Local resident James Harper asked Warren County School Board members during their December 4 meeting to reconsider policy that prohibits them from responding to citizens who make public comments at regular meetings.

Warren County resident James Harper. Photos and video by Mark Williams, Royal Examiner.

“Miss Bower,” said Harper, referring to School Board Chairwoman Catherine Bower, “it is my hope that you’ll change your opening statement and have a dialogue or discussion with folks who take the time to appear instead of saying, ‘Members will not comment.’”

Prior to each community participation portion of every School Board meeting, the chair reads a statement that says: “Community Participation is a time intended for the public to give input on relevant school issues and not intended to be a question and answer period as this may be the first time the Board has heard this information. Please do not expect individual responses or any comment by the Board at this time but be assured that any concerns will be reviewed. Please print your name on the sheet at the podium, state your name and address, and limit your comments to three minutes.”

Following that longstanding criteria, the School Board members did not respond to Harper’s request.

Nevertheless, the Rockland Road resident continued with a few more comments.

For example, Harper said he plans to ask the Warren County Board of Supervisors to take control of spending for Warren County Public Schools (WCPS) or to, at the least, sign off on it.

“In my opinion, your spending needs oversight,” Harper told School Board members. “I’m still flabbergasted that this board paid someone a $12,000 cost-of-living raise and paid this person for another six months when he resigns.”

Harper was referring to outgoing WCPS Superintendent Greg Drescher, who resigned in September citing his wife’s illness as part of the reason for deciding to leave early.

In October, the School Board placed Drescher, who pulls down a six-figure salary at WCPS, on paid administrative leave following a now-rescinded indictment related to the Front Royal-Warren County Economic Development Authority (EDA) financial scandal. Drescher had served on the EDA Board of Directors for 12 years — five while also serving as superintendent of schools — and resigned in August 2018 as the EDA board’s chairman.

Since the School Board’s October decision, the paid-administrative-leave designation has allowed Drescher to collect his regular paychecks until year’s end despite not having to conduct WCPS superintendent duties.

“I challenge you to find one other person in Warren County who got that deal,” Harper said.

Also in October, the School Board approved additional funds totaling $3,250 a month in extra stipends to cover the superintendent position Drescher vacated. The stipends will be paid to three WCPS employees until a new superintendent is hired next year.

Harper, who is not a stranger to School Board members and regularly comments during community participation segments of their meetings, also questioned Drescher’s compensation, which is set by the School Board.

It’s a question that Harper also asked earlier this year of Bower when he wondered why Drescher’s salary wasn’t comparable with those of other superintendents in the area. Bower had responded that the School Board didn’t collect such data.

“I was shocked and wondered how you decide how much to pay someone,” Harper recalled on Wednesday.

“Just so you know,” he added, “Warren County paid Greg Drescher $45,000 more than the superintendent of Shenandoah County schools,” which Harper said has more schools, a larger student population, and where the superintendent has a PhD.

The School Board must have thought it was a good idea to give Drescher a $12,000 cost-of-living raise coupled with approval for paid administrative leave “at taxpayers’ expense” after he resigned, said Harper, noting that the board “must think this County has unlimited money to spend.”

Harper also suggested that if the School Board instead had used both the $12,000 and the $45,000, it could have given $1,000 raises to some 40 WCPS teachers. “That’s just a thought off the top of my head,” he said.

Another community participant who spoke at the School Board’s December 4 meeting was Phillip Hong, the sexual assault prevention specialist for the Winchester, Va.-based Laurel Center, who presented an opportunity to work cooperatively with WCPS on prevention programming to reduce violence and empower youth resilience.

Phillip Hong, sexual assault prevention specialist for the Winchester, Va.-based Laurel Center.

Hong cited a report showing an uptick in Warren County sexual assault reporting during this year. “Any number, regardless of what it is, is something we hope to reduce,” he said.

The Laurel Center provides numerous free workshops and classes, including Teenage Prevention Programming that is school- and group-based, said Hong.

Likewise, the center’s Sexual Violence Prevention Program is free and confidential for residents in Warren County, Frederick County, Winchester City, and Clarke County, and includes multiple school-based prevention programs designed for middle and high school students.

In other presentations — including resolutions recognizing the service of retiring School Board members Donna McEathron and C. Douglas Rosen, as well as Drescher — the board also heard from Warren County Administrator Doug Stanley, who as president of the Warren County Educational Endowment announced the group’s award of 10 grants totaling $44,411.74 to several local projects throughout the WCPS system.

Additionally, the School Board voted on several items during its action agenda portion of the meeting.

For instance, board members unanimously approved an additional Early Childhood Special Education (ECSE) teacher for the current school year at an estimated cost of $65,423 in salary and benefits.

“As our preschool programs … increase in numbers, the need for an additional ECSE is evident,” WCPS Director of Special Services Michael Hirsch told School Board members. “This additional resource will also allow our Family Engagement coordinator to lighten her caseload and expand family engagement activities.”

According to a report that Hirsch also submitted to the board, the additional teacher will be utilized as a resource teacher to students with disabilities in both classroom and community settings throughout the ECSE programs during morning hours and will provide classroom-based services to newly eligible students in the afternoon in the preschool classroom at Skyline High School.

The high school’s classroom does not currently have students there in the afternoon, so utilizing that space will alleviate the addition of a new physical classroom, according to Hirsch’s report.

Warren County School Board members present and voting at the December 4 meeting included Chairwoman Catherine Bower; Vice Chairman C. Douglas Rosen; and members Donna McEathron, James Wells, and Arnold Williams Jr.

Watch the entire Warren County School Board meeting in the exclusive Royal Examiner video:

Retiring superintendent, school board members receive formal send-off