Thursday April 27, 2023
ANALYSIS: Mark Taylor's missteps are mounting | Savannah Dunn joins F2S
ANALYSIS: Mark Taylor’s missteps are mounting
by Martin Davis
Since coming to head the Spotsylvania County Public Schools, Mark Taylor has had plenty to say about how poorly he felt the previous administration had presented and managed the school budget. And he has continuously brought attention to his years of experience in local government leadership as a way to sidestep questions about his complete lack of experience in education.
But shifting blame and papering over his lack of educational experience can’t hide the mounting number of mistakes Taylor has made, and continues to make, on the job.
Taylor’s suggestion that the school district should close libraries to cover a budget shortfall was not only politically ill-advised, but it clearly violated state law that requires Virginia public schools to maintain school librarians.
Last week as we previously wrote, Taylor blatantly misrepresented Virginia students’ performance on NAEP to make an argument that our state is dead last in the nation in NAEP performance. To make such a blatant false statement raises serious questions about whether Taylor ever even bothered to look at the numbers, or just regurgitate talking points from someone - possibly Jon Russell?
His efforts to remove library books from the public school system received a stern reprimand from the American Civil Liberties Union and could be challenged in court.
After years of serving as Spotsylvania County administrator, where Taylor continually level-funded the school budget because he believed the school system was wasting money, he has tried to lay the blame for this current shortfall on the current Board of Supervisors. He has failing to admit his own significant role in the school system’s budget issues.
As poorly as Taylor is performing in his current role, it seems he was also having troubles in his last job.
In a Wednesday story published in the Greene Journal, editor Chuck Jackson reports that the Board of Supervisors had to approve a 7-cent tax increase to cover a near-$1,000,000 shortfall in the FY24 budget because of a major error by Taylor in the FY23 budget. Per the Greene Journal:
Last year, Sheriff Steve Smith came to Taylor with the idea his office could fill county coffers via traffic stops, speeding tickets, and the like if the supervisors granted him three new deputy slots.
Taylor added $945,000 on the revenue side of the budget but when supervisors opted not to fill the slots, Taylor didn’t remove the money because, doing so, would mean there wouldn’t be a balanced budget.
And this isn’t the only significant error he committed. In December Jackson reported that Taylor had failed to carry out any employee performance evaluations during his tenure.
This string of errors is more than disturbing. It suggests that Taylor is a leader who pays too little attention to details.. Whether those details be test scores, employee performance, budgets, or understanding the limits of his power.
Taylor’s lack of attention to Greene County’s budget is costing taxpayers almost a million dollars in additional property taxes. A steep amount for any county, but especially one as poor as Greene County.
It remains to be seen what errors, if any, will emerge from Taylor’s first budget in Spotsylvania County Schools. But from the budget just passed on Monday night - about which we’ll have more to say - his lack of education experience shone brightly. His cuts target the classroom. From Adele Uphaus-Connor’s story in the Free Lance-Star:
The approved budget cuts five elementary school paraeducator positions, academic and athletic stipends, four new school support positions (psychologists and social workers) and three new custodial positions.
It also freezes 16 positions that are vacant, meaning there will be no attempt to fill those positions next year.
The budget also cuts out the purchase of updates to AP textbooks, new literacy materials and new middle school science and English curricula; and it eliminates an increase in student-based allocations to individual schools.
The mark of true leadership is a person who is unafraid to answer questions from the media and the public about his or her actions, who communicates effectively and regularly with constituents, and most importantly, owns up to errors when he or she makes them.
Mark Taylor has shown no capacity for doing any of these. If he wants to be a leader, he could go a long way toward earning people’s respect by admitting when he’s wrong.
That doesn’t seem to be something his is interested in doing. And Spotsylvania’s taxpayers and children will be paying a high price for Taylor’s hubris for years to come.
SAVANNAH DUNN: F2S’ new local news reporter
F2S is proud to welcome Savannah Dunn to our staff. She’ll be covering Fredericksburg City Counsel and other reporting assignments as needed. We asked her to introduce herself. Please take a moment to welcome her to the F2S team.
Hello F2S readers! My name is Savannah Dunn and I am a rising junior at Christopher Newport University. Journalism has been a passion of mine for the past six years and has become a large part of my life. While a student at Brooke Point High School I was Editor-in-Chief of the yearbook and was part of a team that created two yearbooks almost entirely virtually during the COVID-19 pandemic.
At Christopher Newport University, I am on staff at The Captain’s Log, school’s paper. My freshman year I served as the Arts and Entertainment editor. My sophomore year, which I’m now completing, has been spent working as the Life Style and Photography editor. In the fall I will serve as News Editor
A little bit about me other than journalism: I am a photography lover, and an entrepreneur. I own Sugar Coated by Savannah, a decorative cookie company that serves the Stafford/Fredericksburg area (@sugarcoatedbysavannah on Instagram). I started my business during the lockdown of 2020 and have been working on it as much as I can when I have breaks from school.
On campus, I am a communication studies major with minors in digital humanities and journalism. In addition to my work with the paper, I’m a student ambassador and founder of the Captain’s Closet. This is a place where students who are unable to afford business professional clothing can obtain them for free. The Captain's Closet also helps educate students, especially freshmen and sophomores, what professional dress looks like and when it is appropriate to wear.
Over the summer I will be working with F2S on covering school board meetings in Fredericksburg as well as anything else he needs assistance with. I am looking to grow my experience in the field and am very excited about this opportunity.
Thank you for the summary of a few of Mark Taylor’s, umm, weaknesses, shall we say. I would add that he responds to emails with an automatic reply saying that he has so much to do that he can’t possibly read them all so they are all farmed out to the appropriate people. Having never received a response from an “appropriate” person or indeed any person, I am beginning to wonder if residents’ emails are relegated to file 13.
On a different note, I believe that Adele Uphaus deserves a very long and loud round of applause for her reporting on the disaster parading as the Spotsy School Board’s majority. Even when I attend board meetings from the comfort of my home, I rely on Adele to explain to me exactly what decisions were made – or even if any decisions were made. She is a dedicated journalist of the highest caliber. I hope the Free Lance-Star appreciates her and recognizes the important contribution she makes to our community.