Briefs from the last day...

1. Today's N&R reports attendance on yesterday's last day was fewer than 69% versus 94% on an average day.

N&R:

GREENSBORO — Monday was the official last day for Guilford County students, but it seems Friday was the unofficial last day.

Fewer than 69 percent of elementary and middle school students showed up Monday. About 94 percent attend on an average school day.

School was scheduled to end June 10 but was extended by the school board because of classes canceled in late winter.

Haley Miller, a spokeswoman with Guilford County Schools, said teachers weren’t surprised by the turnout.

“A lot of parents had already planned vacation starting this week and a lot of schools anticipated that,” she said.

Monday was an exam makeup day for high school students. Seniors completed graduation ceremonies a week ago.

What a waste...

2. Someone on this blog wrote in and informs us of a report of a fire in the gym and a malfunction in the air conditioning system yesterday at Jesse Wharton Elementary (thanks for the report).

3. Went by Pilot Elementary School yesterday...unconfirmed report surfaces of at least six teachers leaving Pilot in the fall due to budget cutbacks, almost all were first year or lateral entry teachers. Increased class sizes are expected in the fall.

Wow...

E.C. :)

Long meetings

This was not really news, and I'm unsure if it warranted a front page story on yesterday's News & Record...this being the fact that GCS Board meetings run WAY into the night, some as long as 2am.

Tell us something we don't know...such as WHY they run so late?

N&R:

Five of the last six school board meetings have gone past midnight.

Recent meetings’ agendas shed some light on why the meetings are running so long:

-- Updates on a regularly shifting budget crisis the likes of which hasn’t been seen in 30 years.

-- Mystery illnesses reported by students and staff at Oak Ridge.

-- A controversial proposal to donate, then sell a dilapidated former school.

-- An investigation into the athletics programs at Northern Guilford High School.

That said, some, including board members, question how effective the school board and administrators can be when attempting to tackle complicated issues during marathon meetings.

What are the answers? Daytime meetings? Smaller agendas? A new chairman? A smaller, leaner school board?

Talk to me...

E.C. :)

Bored at School?

...many children have been bored during these last few days/weeks...since EOG/EOCs/AP testing is now complete and since no one downtown knows how to properly make a school calendar, our children suffer.

Hence, this story in today's N&R...and the fierce comments that follow!

N&R:

According to the central office, the extra days are the same as any other.

“These are going to be regular school days, especially for the elementary and middle school students, and the same expectations of learning and instruction happening would apply this day as it does any other day,” said Haley Miller, a school spokeswoman.

The educational value of the extra days has been debated, though.

School board Chairman Alan Duncan has said holding the days after exams and tests was not helpful. He and others have said educational goals would be better served by holding the makeup days earlier.

E.C. :)

Letter writer says her students are her priority

Charles Davenport's recent column in the News & Record continues to prompt LTTEs.

This one, from local teacher Gail Williams:

After reading Charles Davenport’s column, “Teachers should quit whining about pay” (May 31), I must address some of his points. As an educator who loves my career, I know firsthand how off base he is about what teachers do in the classroom.
We may get paid for only 38 weeks, but we spend evenings, weekends, holidays and summers grading papers, attending workshops, creating lesson plans and calling parents. I don’t recall ever being paid overtime.

I worked in the private sector before entering the classroom and was free to grab coffee with a friend or run errands. I am not complaining about my teaching, but there is never any down time. When I enter the door, I hit the floor running until long after the kids have left at 3:40 p.m.

As for home-schooled students being smarter than public school ones, please. I could perform miracles if I only taught one child. Try close to 100 each semester. Let’s be realistic when making a point. Home schoolers are usually highly motivated, work on a computer and are free to attend outside activities that enhance their education. I teach kids from broken homes and some from no homes at all. I am counselor, policeman, disciplinarian and even parent.

Teachers are not “whining” because of a pay cut. We are now being hit with job losses, meaning more students in classes and lack of educational supply money.

Mr. Davenport stated that NCAE’s priority is not students. All I can do is speak for myself. My students are my priority. That is why I teach.

According to him, anyone could teach effectively. Consider this from “To Kill a Mockingbird”: “You never understand anyone until you walk in his shoes.”

Mr. Davenport, walk in my shoes, and I feel sure you will retract your “whining” comment.

The writer lives in Greensboro and teaches at Southeast High School.

**************************

E.C. :)

Dr. Bill Harrison on House Budget Proposal

For immediate release
June 11, 2009

Statement by State Board of Education Chairman and CEO
Dr. Bill Harrison on House Budget Proposal

I appreciate the leaders in North Carolina's House for their continued support for public schools. The economic situation in our state and nation is unprecedented for most of us, and we know that public schools must do their share to help trim the state's budget. Public schools still face significant cuts; nonetheless, the House's willingness to develop a new revenue package will allow us to maintain current efforts in some key areas.

Because of the House of Representatives' proposed revenue package, North Carolina public schools will

* maintain class sizes in kindergarten through third grade;
* save 2,586 teacher positions;
* retain 274 assistant principal positions and 357 instructional support positions; and
* continue low wealth and at-risk funds that help vulnerable schools and students.

My top goal is to protect the classroom - especially in the earliest grades where children build the foundation they need for further learning and success. I urge our state's leaders to support public schools as a top priority and as an investment in North Carolina's future.
******************************

...all at the expense of tax increases? I guess Raleigh doesn't even want to entertain the discussion of a new funding formula for public education. Sad.

E.C. ;)

The "fake" Newsweek Rankings for 2009

These rankings are so bogus, it is not worth the bandwidth to waste my writing talents on.

So I won't. I'll just provide the link to the N&R story.

E.C. :)

Discipline problems highlighted

Kudos to my friends over at YES! Weekly for a great piece on discipline problems plaguing our area middle and high schools.

Check it out.

E.C. :)

Testing may be curtailed next year

It was only a matter of time...so-called standardized testing may be curtailed next year in schools statewide, if Bevvie has her way.

Raleigh News & Observer:

In her budget, Gov. Beverly Perdue proposed dumping tests not required for high school graduation or by federal law.

The Senate took up the theme, and gave detailed list of tests to eliminate. Five high school subject tests would go -- algebra II, geometry, chemistry, physics, and physical science -- along with a computer skills tests given in the eighth grade; so would tests for high school students who enter ninth grade without scores on previous tests that show they can read and do math at grade level.

Stay tuned...

E.C. :)

Teachers form last ditch effort to save jobs

In a board meeting this week, GCS educators crammed the Central Office Board Room to protest ongoing job cuts. N&R has more on this.

N&R:

Critics questioned the proposal to cut teachers based on employment status and not performance.

“We just don’t understand why teachers whose classes are scoring ones on exams aren’t being cut while interim teachers with classes making threes and fours are,” said Crystal Taylor, a Western Guilford High teacher.

Taylor said programs aimed at students who refuse to learn should be cut as well.

School board members called on their staff to find other areas to trim and to make saving teachers’ jobs the priority. “We’re not looking hard enough,” board member Darlene Garrett said.

Garrett said the board should consider cutting tests not required by the state and busing for magnet school programs.
“I can tell you we’re having those difficult conversations,” Green said.

Separately, your school board decided not to unload a formerly-used school building in the Lindley Park neighborhood.

So...this building is just going to sit there...wow.

E.C. :)

Circus time

Maybe the Guilford County Board of Commissioners (and even some on the School Board) will quit acting like a**holes and start behaving themselves. This, while more layoffs are looming. This does NO ONE any good. Can't anyone in this county see what this is doing to our children and to the morale of those teaching our children?

N&R:

Wednesday’s meeting also seemed to confirm communication problems between the commissioners and school board members.

One example: Commissioners chastised school board members and staff for not presenting what the commissioners wanted — a ranked list of projects that schools expect to tackle with county funds.

Instead, schools offered a list with about $20 million in needed projects in no particular order.

Commissioners said they had been asking for the information for months, but Wednesday’s meeting was only announced this week.

Another example: More than once, Commissioner Bruce Davis confused the name of school board member Kris Cooke with that of another school board member as tensions ran high in the meeting.

Commissioners also complained that the maintenance information they received was too late.

But schools Superintendent Maurice “Mo” Green had a few parting words.

“We have been available for whenever this joint committee wanted to meet,” Green said. “This meeting could have been held weeks or months ago.”

To think these people are elected is insanity.

E.C. :)

Welcome to the newly-gutted Guilford County Schools

Today's News & Record politely tells both the School Board and the County Board to behave themselves and act their age in an editorial.

This while more layoffs across the District are planned, from interim contract teachers to foreign language teachers (more from N&R here).

Is it any wonder why local private school enrollment in Guilford County is the third highest in the state, despite a local dip?

Is it also any wonder why our local graduates continue to be unprepared for college?

Welcome to the newly-gutted Guilford County Schools.

E.C. ;)

Davenport rattles feathers

Area columnist Charles Davenport rattled some feathers this past weekend with a column in yesterday's News & Record saying teachers should "quit whining about their pay." And it has caused a rift among area bloggers.

Ed Cone was critical of Davenport's column this morning, saying "it meandered into union-bashing, thinktank-quoting, and flat-out trashing of teachers. Feels to me like he's trolling for angry letters more than offering insight on public education."

John Locke's Terry Stoops education policy analyst chimed in also.

But then resident lawyer and blogger Sam Spagnola had an interesting back-and-forth on the subject this morning, forcing Cone to ban Spag from his site altogether. Spag has his version of what happened here.

Your turn to chime in on all of this.

My thoughts?

I don't teach anymore, I no longer have a dog in the fight, I sell plane tickets over the phone at a far less salary than what I was making as a teacher.

And I blog and write.

I'm blessed and appreciative to be employed though. But I did teach, And I knew I wasn't going to get rich doing it. I was genuinely concerned about my kids, the politics in the schools, the grave amount of testing harming our children this time of year and if my kids were going to make it to class everyday, safe and sound.

Your turn.

E.C. ;)