Mo doesn't want 'mo money

GCS Supt. Mo Green told a stunned school board last night not to give him any more money. He rejected any discussion of a pay raise, noting "the troubled economy would make his raise a hardship for the schools system," according to today's News & Record.

N&R:

“I don’t believe I should be eligible for that given this point,” Green said.

The school board unanimously approved his request.

Green got thank yous from several board members, including Darlene Garrett who voted for another candidate for the superintendent position last year.

“I obviously voted for the wrong person,” Garrett said.

Speechless...is the reaction I have. For too long, GCS has had to deal with the status quo. But even though Green is still earning my trust (and has a little ways to go), he's making a good deal of strides in the right direction.

This is a move in the right direction.

E.C. :)

Melee at Mendenhall...involving teachers?

In the News of the Weird category...two GCS teachers at Mendenhall Middle School have been suspended without pay from the district pending an investigation following a female teacher-on female teacher fight that occurred inside a school classroom Tuesday morning. One of the two was charged with simple assault.

News & Record:

Catherine Hazelton, 40, of Greensboro, is accused of slapping another teacher in the face and telling the other teacher that she was going to stab her, according to arrest warrants on file at the Guilford County Courthouse.

According to police, the fight happened in a classroom before the school day began and other school employees stepped in to stop the fight. No students were in the classroom when the women were fighting, said Sgt. J. Heard, supervisor of the Greensboro Police Department's school resource officers.

The women were friends and the fight started over a conflict over a family member of one of the women, Heard said.

The other woman involved in the fight, Calandra McCullers Lewis of Greensboro, had noticeable bruises and lacerations on her face, according to court documents. No police officers witnessed the fight, so Lewis went to a magistrate and took out the warrants charging Hazelton, Heard said.

E.C. :)

GCS Board meeting agenda for 2/26/09

Click here for the agenda for this evening's meeting. Outside of a budget and construction update, a rather standard agenda.

E.C. :)

Progress...and progressing

When things get quiet down on Eugene Street, it must mean things are going well.

Case in point, preliminary Fall EOC test scores show improvement in some areas, strong growth in others.

But, as I tell my 3rd grade daughter, we still need to work on that math! Algebra I proficiency is down. It needs addressing.

See the data dump from GCS here.

Nice work, children.

E.C. :)

Budget Time...oh my

Time for the annual budget dance between GCS, our school board and the Guilford County Board of Commissioners. But will it be the Texas-two-step or the dosey-doe?

Parties close to this year's planned budget met yesterday, and County Commissioner chairman Skip Alston already has put the school system on high notice:

"My concern is to look at so-called 'fat’ in the budget."

Complete coverage from the N&R.

Excerpt:

Alston acknowledged that there would be unknowns. But a committee could start looking at information the board does have now, he said.

Commissioner Bruce Davis, who is leading that committee, agreed.

“We can’t wait until all your hard numbers come in to get to work,” he said.

He met with Kris Cooke, a school board member and part of the budget committee, after Monday’s meeting. They plan to convene the budget committee

Thursday to give members a chance to get to know each other and to start working on questions about the school budget.

The committee will include community members, a point of contention between the two boards.

Duncan and Cooke said that, historically, the committee has been composed only of commissioners and school board members. Both added that they’re fine with public input.

Davis and Alston said they want “fresh eyes” looking at the issue.

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Why would this be a point of contention? I've always supported the fact that there should be citizens advisory committees involved in our school system.

E.C. :)

Eastern Guilford prepares opening

As Eastern Guilford H.S. prepares to open its brand new campus, there still remain no arrests made in the burning of its old campus.

The News & Record reports police are still looking for those responsible for the November, 2006 blaze.

Following Spring Break, EGHS students will move into a new building somewhere around April 20. The new building, worth about $61 million, is 270,000 square feet, with an approximate capacity for 1,200 students.

E.C. :)

Hands-up High Point

From GCS:

Do you want to make a difference in your community? Do you want to help our schools? If you have one hour a week, “Hands Up High Point” is the place for you.

“Hands Up High Point” will connect adult volunteers with second-grade teachers in High Point from March through May to help children improve reading skills.

This new community initiative was developed in response to the goals and objectives identified in High Point’s Workforce Development Strategic Plan and the goals in Guilford County Schools’ (GCS) strategic plan. “Hands Up High Point” is an opportunity to invest in children by improving learning readiness and establishing a culture of life-long learning throughout the community.

Through this initiative, children will achieve academic excellence by improving third-grade reading proficiency.

Volunteer tutors will attend a two-hour orientation session prior to scheduling time to work with students. The orientation session will include training that will prepare the volunteers to work one-on-one with second-grade students.

Training sessions will be on the following days: • Feb. 18, 4 p.m. to 6 p.m., High Point Chamber of Commerce, 1634 N. Main St., High Point • Feb. 25, 4 p.m. to 6 p.m., Johnson Street Global Studies, 1601 Johnson St., High Point • March 4, 4 p.m. to 6 p.m., High Point Chamber of Commerce, 1634 N. Main St., High Point • March 11, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., High Point YWCA, 112 Gatewood Ave., High Point

The “Hands Up High Point” collaboration includes the following community partners: GCS, City of High Point, Communities in Schools High Point, Guilford Education Alliance, High Point Alliance for Workforce Preparedness, High Point Chamber of Commerce, High Point Community Foundation, Senior Resources of Guilford, United Way of Greater High Point, and YWCA High Point. For more information or to sign up for a training session, contact Michael Prioleau at 336-882-5000 ext 233 or mprioleau@highpointchamber.org.

Mo needs 'yo' input

Supt. Mo Green wants the ball to get rolling on the recently-unveiled District Strategic Plan. Yet, many have reservations about its size, the growth challenges it presents, and its cost.

Green is asking county citizens to voice their opinions on an online link regarding regional reorganization. Click here to go to it.

Let's hear your opinions here too.

E.C. :)

CLT to lay off teachers

Today's Charlotte Observer reports that city's school district may lay off 1,200 workers, including 350 teaching positions.

And consider this quote:

Mary McCray, president of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Association of Educators, said she was dismayed by talk of pay cuts. Teachers already struggle to make 10 months' pay cover a year of expenses, she said. But she supports the effort to protect jobs.

“There are no jobs out there,” she said. “You're caught between a rock and a hard place.”

What other districts will be next?

E.C. :)

Special Ed-West hits the ground

Board members last night approved spending $389,000 to begin building Special-Ed West, which will be housed in Jamestown, next to Jamestown Middle School. The funding comes from bonds that were approved earlier last year (see N&R blurb).

We'll follow the progress.

E.C. :)

Behavior takes center stage during last night's meeting

(source, Rhino Times)

It's good to see student behavior becoming more and more of a focus during these school board meetings. Last night was no exception.

This time around, many board members wanted to know if ISS (in-school suspension) teachers were really doing anything to teach behavior modification, or simply being there to babysit.

We've covered this in the past here on GSW.

GSW, April 6, 2007:

...Board member Dot Kearns wants to know why in-school suspension (ISS) cannot work. I’ll tell why it doesn’t work, Dorothy. ISS is not a deterrent. It is not punishment enough for the behaviorally-challenged child. For many of them, it is a vacation destination; many of them WANT to be in ISS. Find a punishment that sticks and has some teeth and maybe ISS will become a real deterrent. What we have now certainly isn’t working.
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But last night's dispute centered specifically on 15 behavior improvement teacher reportedly being used as ISS teachers, a problem Board member Jeff Belton wants answers about.

N&R:

"I don't recall us creating an ISS position," board member Jeff Belton said. He argued the position was meant to be proactive with student behavior problems. "That's what I recall us creating, someone who's out there during the day building these relationships."

High Point Enterprise:

"If they're sitting in an ISS classroom, I don't know who's doing this," he [Belton] said. "The ISS classroom is reactive. It's not proactive. I thought we were creating a proactive position."

I still stand by what I said both in 2007, and all along. ISS doesn't work, it drastically needs changed.

E.C. :)

Mandate for Change

I received this release in my e-mail a few days ago; click through, download, read, tell me what you think:

NATIONAL THOUGHT LEADERS URGE OBAMA
ADMINISTRATION TO ADDRESS EDUCATION CRISIS

New report prescribes five-part cure

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today the Center for Education Reform is distributing to every federal and state lawmaker in the country a monograph of recommendations that the national group is confident can help guide government leaders to improve our nation's schools.

Such recommendations suggest a new role for the U.S. Department of Justice in policing school choice, a national imperative to have student level data on a daily basis for every child, a rejection of the appalling performance of too many teachers and a call for every school to abandon their central districts and to behave like charter schools.

While others propose that the global economic crisis and a matrix of threats to our national security must lead the Obama Administration's long list of priorities, this brief but commanding booklet argues that fixing public education is hands down the most leveraged domestic policy opportunity of our time.

Utterly refreshing in its approach, Mandate for Change does not spend a lot of time diagnosing the causes of our current afflictions. Instead, it moves immediately to prescribe a five-part cure made all the more compelling by the star power of its authors and their basic insights into the key issues at hand:

Juan Williams - Federal Accountability
Honorable John M. Engler - Transparency
Honorable Kevin P. Chavous - Charter Schools
Jeanne Allen - School Choice
Richard Whitmire - Teacher Quality

Each of these five themes is taken up in a separate essay that aims to simply and succinctly present uncommon solutions outlining what we need to do and what we need to avoid. As the editor writes in the introduction, "the challenge at hand - as we have accepted it in these pages - is to focus on what matters most and to provide actionable recommendations that leaders in government can move today to implement."

Download copies of the complete text and monitor the ongoing discussion at the Center for Education Reform's dedicated website, mandate.edreform.com

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E.C. :)

Education will be prime focus in this year's legislative agenda

A Priori Concepts had this yesterday:

The following is a press release form the Republican Joint Legislative Caucus:

Aggressive Agenda Planned

Senate Republican Leader Phil Berger (R-Rockingham) and House Republican Leader Paul Stam (R-Wake) today announced plans to pursue an aggressive education agenda in the current legislative session. Republican Leaders along with Representative Fred Steen (R-Rowan) pointed to the Report Card on American Education from the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) as a wake-up call for fundamental changes to improve the quality of educational opportunities for North Carolina students.

The ALEC report, released today, ranked North Carolina 30th in the nation based on fourth- and eighth-grade mathematics and reading scores as well as SAT and ACT scores. It was noted that despite public spending increases over the years, measured results remain disappointing.

Specific initiatives supported by these Republican lawmakers include:

* Require the use of national normed testing to provide consistency in measuring academic progress
* Reward our best teachers with merit and differential pay rather than the current system of pay based on longevity and credentials
* Enhance career, technical and vocation programs in high schools
* Eliminate the current cap on charter schools to allow families to exercise greater educational options for their children

Rep. Steen discussed the significance of findings in the ALEC “Report Card” to North Carolina’s educational challenges. He emphasized that extensive data from 1987-88 to 2007-08 indicates there is no direct correlation between public funding and achievement.

“In this time of shrinking financial resources we must seize the opportunity to bring critically needed change to our education system. The initiatives we advocate will not increase education funding, but will significantly improve student achievement as well as provide much needed options for the diverse group of students we serve,” said Stam.

“North Carolina’s graduation rate is abysmal,” said Senator Berger. “When one-in-three students are failing to graduate on time from our public schools, the future economic viability of North Carolina is at risk. This survey confirms that despite huge public expenditures, North Carolina’s schools and North Carolina’s elected leaders are failing our parents and students. Sadly, until we embark on a new direction in public education, we will continue to see the numbers stagnate.”

“As legislators, we should be more accountable to students, parents and taxpayers with education dollars and strive to make education reforms work for North Carolina,” said Rep. Fred Steen II. “The investment in knowledge is the best economic stimulus and that investment must not be wasted.”

These Republican lawmakers will introduce their initiatives over the next few weeks. They reported grass roots support from all across the state is expected to provide an increased sense of urgency for swift enactment.

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I do not disagree.

If anything, I'm wondering where our old friend Judge Howard (Leandro case) Manning has been hiding. You remember him...he was a cheerleader of attempting to turnaround the state's most failing schools.

I wonder what he would say about this...and about this column from Terry Stoops of the John Locke Foundation, in which he calls for the immediate closing of failing schools and their immediate conversion to charter schools.

It'll be worth watching.

E.C. :)

Skip to my...Mo

Mo, meet skip...Skip, meet Mo.

And the two did meet last night, along with other Guilford County Commissioners, as the GCS Supt. took his Strategic Plan road show...on the road.

The Inside Scoop reports there was only one thing on Skip's mind...money.

"I've read your plan and I've heard about it several times, but I want a price tag as soon as you can get it," Alston said.

Reread my post on this from yesterday. Skip holds the purse strings locally. And something tells me the local budget will be lean this year from Skip, which means the district will have to be creative if it plans to proceed with Mo's initiatives.

By the way, from speaking to some teachers and principals out in the field, they seem to have high praise for the plan.

E.C. :)

State dropout rate decreases, Guilford's rate rises

Can you say "oops?"

News & Record reports the county's dropout rate rose year over year to 3.31 percent, or about 680 students. That's up from 2.99 in 2006-07. The article also says the statewide average figure decreased from 5.24 percent during 2006-07 to 4.97 percent during the 2007-08 school year; an estimated 22,434 students dropped out last year, according to state figures.

Figures from DPI found here.

What's cringing is that this can have a profound effect on Supt. Mo Green's strategic plan. It can provide a resounding stimulus to this initiative, using this data to plug this plan and get it moving as soon as possible.

It can also be a big negative. Remember, ole' Uncle Skip now holds the purse strings in the Peoples Republic of Guilford County. A number of these initiatives in this plan require money, and Skip may look at these dropout numbers and laugh in Mo's face.

I hope that doesn't happen. But this is Guilford County.

Stay tuned...

E.C. :)

Teachers wanted...

Apparently, it's very busy down at the GCS HR office. Yesterday's News & Record reports the number of applications for lateral-entry teachers has skyrocketed, more than 11,000 recently applied. The article also say about 40 percent of them do not have any teaching certification.

You've got a couple of situations going on here:

1. Things like this get headlines because of the current economic situation and the sheer number...more than 11,000 apply for teaching jobs. And yet, you have teachers with credentials...out of work, some of whom have been clamoring to get jobs with GCS, only to get the runaround downtown. My sister-in-law, who's fully math-certified, continues (to the day) to get the runaround, despite her file being squeaky clean. She has been even told to apply for jobs in other counties.

2. Many of these applicants have no idea what they're in for. I should know...not long ago, I was a lateral-entry teacher...until the sheer reality of No Child Left Behind crept in. Can't get the kids to pass the test? Can't get enough of them to pass the test? There's the door...

I'm hopeful that things have gotten better since I've been out of the classroom full-time for a couple of years now, but I wasn't given that much support at all. And these later-entry folks need every bit of support they can get. Trust and believe.

3. Some out there, who went to school to be a teacher, may raise an eyebrow or two about this. See this N&R comment from Brian Ewing's story from "ncf88":

I feel that this lateral entry program is a bit unfair to those of us who have chosen teaching as our profession. I am in college now to be an Elementary school teacher, and when I graduate, I am going to have to contend with these lateral entry candidates who have far more job experience than I do. Beside my love of children and education, I chose to be a teacher because North Carolina has traditionally had a teacher shortage. I felt that I would have job security in this field, but now I am not so certain of that. With all these lateral entry candidates being hired, there will be no jobs for those of us who are coming fresh out of college with our teaching credentials. Luckily, I am not on a NC teaching scholarship, but many of my fellow education majors who are may have difficulty fulfilling their obligation to teach in a NC school after graduation.

The numbers are impressive, but I'd say lets pick some applicants out of the pool, follow them, and see where they are in six months to a year.

E.C. :)

Will it work?

By now, we have had time to digest the mega, ambitious plan Mo Green wants to launch, and now he has the full blessing of the School Board.

But will it work?

If simply comparing apples to apples, yes; if it can work in Charlotte, then it can work here...or can it?

See, this is not Charlotte, and this area has all but lost its relevance (see an editorial on this on my sister blog, GreensboroMetro).

You have senior staff already mentioning teacher layoffs amid stinging budget cuts. The state is broke. You have Guilford County Board of Commissioners chair Skip Alston demanding lean budgets from county departments this year (despite the creation of a county/school 'communication committee' which is nothing more than a cock-and-bull, dog-and-pony show of its own)...

I think the plan has a lot going for it, but in the end, it will require a great deal of money, and I think it is going to be a tough sell downtown in the County Board chambers.

In fact, since Skip hold the purse strings locally, I think anything having to do with schools will have a tough sell with Skip.

And our children continue to suffer.

Prove me wrong or prove me right.

E.C. :)