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Nov. 1-15, 2010, News Archive
11/15/10 Wake holds first community meeting on 2011-12 assignment
"Wake County school system staff will address issues of possible overcrowding and changes to the traditional calendar during a community workshop at Millbrook Magnet High School on Monday evening."
11/15/10 Education Abolition
" Another entry in the category of "You can't make this stuff up". Wake School Board member John Tedesco thinks that abolition of the US Department of Education "would be great".
11/15/10 Parents get say on schools
"While Wake County school board members continue to debate the long-term student assignment plan, parents are focusing on where their children will attend classes next fall."
11/14/10 It wasn't ‘hiding'
"If there are any sinister motives at work, they are here: in gathering up low-performing students and putting them together in low-performing schools, we effectively create a racial quarantine and commit what Judge Howard Manning Jr. has called academic genocide."
11/14/10 Malone's arrogance
"As a person who voted Republican for the Wake County commissioners race, I can assure you that in no way did my vote mean that I was giving my stamp of approval for what the Republican side of the school board is doing, and I thought that was an incredibly arrogant statement."
11/14/10 Ahead for CMS: Building bridges
"Educators who've handled such mergers say CMS needs to plan and start fence-mending now, even though the changes won't come till fall."
11/13/10 Charter champions riding high
"Prominent on the punch list of the Republicans who soon will take charge of the General Assembly is declaring a hearty "Y'all come!" to the supporters and sponsors of charter schools."
11/13/10 In Charlotte, passion over schools
"In the wake of a bitterly divisive school board meeting, marked by split votes and shouted accusations of racism, there's one point of agreement: Public confidence in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools' leadership hangs in the balance."
11/13/10 'Summit' to address school suspensions
"Action for Children North Carolina says the state has the fourth-highest suspension rate in the country, and minor school-based behavior accounts for more than 40 percent of complaints filed against children in juvenile court."
11/13/10 Smart race
"Despite these discussions, the fact is that North Carolina needs more education investment. "Race to the Top" is a great way to get it and target it where it is most crucial."
11/12/10 Looking at the Nov. 16 board work session agenda
"Don't look for the Wake County school board to spend a lot of time on Tuesday going over board member Kevin Hill's consensus-building approach to developing a new student assignment plan."
11/12/10 Garner High to host community workshop on student assignment
"School administrators announced today that a workshop has been added for Nov. 22 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at Garner High School."
11/12/10 Daylong summit examines N.C. school suspensions
"North Carolina policymakers, parents and teachers are trying to figure what to do about the number of public school suspensions, while trying to keep students safe."
11/12/10 Factors for success
"Socioeconomic levels are directly related to academic success. As a society, we will all pay for these inadequacies."
11/11/10 Candor about schools, race
"The 15-year-old school-choice program that replaced forced busing in Forsyth County became an issue late in the school-board race."
11/11/10 John Tedesco and Stan Norwalk talk about teacher layoffs
"Wake County school board member John Tedesco and County Commissioner Stan Norwalk dealt with the possibility of mass teacher layoffs Wednesday on the Bill LuMaye Show on WPTF."
11/11/10 CMS vote highlights deep divide; accusations of racism
"Some spoke of healing and damage control. Others warned of lawsuits and escalated protest."
11/11/10 CMS must engage public, regain trust
"The Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board might have lost more than it gained with its vote Tuesday to make sweeping and dramatic changes to cut costs. Angry and dissatisfied, speaker after speaker at the meeting said the board's actions have spawned community discord and fostered a yawning racial divide."
11/11/10 Hiding, how?
"I don't understand this argument. Why hasn't the school board majority been challenged about this strange justification?"
11/11/10 Suggesting changes to the 2011-12 reassignment plan
"You've got two weeks to press you case to Growth Management to suggest changes to the 2011-12 student assignment plan before it's presented to the Wake County school board."
11/11/10 Wake schools' accreditation review likely next month
"Jennifer Oliver, a spokeswoman for the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, said the AdvancEd team is still finalizing dates for a two-day visit but that it appears that it will likely happen during the first half of December."
11/10/10 Board closes Waddell, saves Harding
"In a night marked by split votes, angry protests and accusations of racism, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board approved a sweeping plan to close 10 schools and make other dramatic changes."
11/10/10 Charlotte-Mecklenburg plans to close 10 schools
"The Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board has approved a plan to shutter 10 schools and make other major changes, drawing some accusations of racism."
11/10/10 Plan for Wake schools to take more time
"Poised either to slow down or ramp up the Wake County student reassignment process, school board members stepped back from the brink Tuesday, pushing a decision into next week."
11/10/10 Margiotta derides teacher layoffs remark
"During the board of commissioners meeting Monday, Norwalk warned that the school system might have to fire as many as 2,000 teachers to make up for more than $100million in expected cuts in state funding and the loss of federal stimulus funding it received for the current year."
11/10/10 Rev. William Barber on the meaning of last week's elections
"No election gives you a mandate to discriminate and resegregate our schools, harming our children," Barber adds. "No election gives you a mandate to do wrong and injustice."
11/9/10 Ron Margiotta accuses Stan Norwalk of using "scare tactics" on teacher layoffs
"Wake County school board chairman Ron Margiotta accused Commissioner Stan Norwalk today of using "scare tactics to frighten the community" by speculating that 2,000 teachers might need to be fired next year."
11/9/10 Proficiency of Black Students Is Found to Be Far Lower Than Expected
"An achievement gap separating black from white students has long been documented - a social divide extremely vexing to policy makers and the target of one blast of school reform after another."
11/9/10 Troubling Trend for Black Males
"Bill Whitaker reports on disturbing statistics across the nation, as young African American males face difficulty in obtaining an adequate education."
11/9/10 How board wants to work dominates Wake school action
"How to move ahead, more than where to take the state's largest school system, dominated the Wake County Board of Education's efforts Tuesday."
11/9/10 Historic vote on school closings, relocations is tonight
"On the eve of an historic vote to close, consolidate or relocate nearly two dozen schools, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education has come up with another proposal for consideration:"
11/9/10 Wake leaders will consider pace of student assignment changes
"Wake County school board members will try to determine today how fast a pace to follow for making major changes in the way student assignment is handled in the state's largest school district."
11/9/10 Risks to achievement
"Assignment plans that produce high concentrations of poverty and high degrees of racial isolation undermine achievement. This question is not credibly debatable."
11/8/10 NC: Wake's new commissioner says voters gave mandate for neighborhood schools
"Wake County's new county commissioner, Phil Matthews, campaigned as a stout supporter of neighborhood schools, and he reads his victory last week as a statement that most voters in the county agree with him."
11/8/10 Test plan splits Wake school board
"Wake County school board members are splitting along partisan lines on whether to use test scores to help decide where students would go to school."
11/8/10 Board member asks for delay of school vote
"Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education member Trent Merchant asked the board Sunday to pull part of the controversial school-closing plan and take no action on it when it meets Tuesday."
11/8/10 Burden is on board to show that ‘neighborhood schools' are created equal
"Before the election, the local NAACP passed out a flyer that probably was meant to make a strong point about the effects of a system of schools divided into the "haves" and "have-nots."
11/8/10 Debra Goldman as potential swing vote on the Alves plan
"As it seems to be the case with student assignment issues nowadays, it looks like it's up to Wake County school board vice chairwoman Debra Goldman whether the district will embrace the plan being developed by Michael Alves."
11/8/10 Diversity policy supporters pointing to 2011 school board elections
"Supporters of the old diversity policy are ramping up the message of "wait 'til next year" in the aftermath of last week's GOP election victory on the Wake County Board of Commissioners."
11/8/10 Schools studying race-based satellite zones
"The Alamance-Burlington Board of Education won't make a decision right away on eliminating satellite zones created to improve racial balance in schools in the former Burlington school system."
11/7/10 Will they scrimp on schools?
"The two sides' beliefs as to how the public is best served are about to be vigorously tested - perhaps no more so than in the arena of education."
11/7/10 CMS vote is a preview of the pain to come
"But they're hardly united. The clash over school closings has created rifts between schools and neighborhoods, with allegations of racism, class prejudice and political favoritism swirling."
11/6/10 Great Schools in Wake Forum: 'Beyond Appreciating Diversity'
"The Great Schools in Wake Coaltion, a project of WakeUP Wake County, will present a forum Saturday, November 6th at 4:00pm. The forum will be held at the Unitarian Fellowship at 3313 Wade Avenue, Raleigh."
11/5/10 Successful consensus
"Malone didn't say that consensus is hard to achieve, or that the persons we elect must lead even when there is no consensus. Instead, he indicated that it is better to conduct the schools' business as a winner-takes-all game, as coercion rather than compromise."
11/5/10 Too much politics
"Like judges, whom we also elect in a nonpartisan format, we expect our school board members to place education above politics."
11/5/10 Feds still reviewing NAACP complaint against Wake County schools
"No decision has been made yet by federal investigators whether to pursue the civil rights complaint that the NAACP filed against the Wake County school system in late September."
11/5/10 The Haves vs. The Have-Nots
"Even with state and federal governments spending billions of dollars in an effort to close achievement gaps, through the No Child Left Behind Act and the more recent Race to the Top initiative, we continue to see point variations on college-entrance-exam scores. I believe it all comes down to the "haves"-those who have access to college test-prep courses-vs. the "have-nots"-those who don't."
11/4/10 Ron Margiotta and Deborah Prickett come out against the Alves plan
"Wake County school board members Ron Margiotta and Deborah Prickett both said tonight they oppose the use of student achievement as a factor in Michael Alves' controlled-choice student assignment plan."
11/4/10 NC: Wake school diversity advocates see no message in GOP commissioners sweep
"But days after four Republicans - all supporters of the school board's policy - swept to victory in the four county commissioner races, Democrats and supporters of school diversity policies said the vote was more about the national economy than school issues."
11/4/10 Wake to hold workshops on student assignment plan
"The public can now begin registering to attend meetings to provide Wake County school administrators with feedback on student assignment changes for the 2011-12 school year."
11/4/10 Wake school board claims mandate
"Emboldened by the Republican sweep of county commissioners' seats, GOP members of the Wake school board said Wednesday that the public has given them a mandate to move ahead on community schools and the elimination of diversity-based student assignments."
11/4/10 Making more school advisory groups subject to the Open Meetings Law
"We're seeing today the first consequences of Wake County school board attorney Ann Majestic's legal advice that more district groups need to follow the state's Open Meetings law."
11/3/10 Speculating Wake: Coble up, transit down, schools in trouble, Pope's in his heaven
"I am bumming myself out just thinking about the consequences of last night's elections, so allow me to just fire up as raw speculation - sans elaboration - some of the things I've been hearing:"
11/3/10 No time to quit
"After every election, the pundits and talking heads rush to proclaim the end of this era or that one and predict the long-term realignment that never happens. That's truer than ever Wednesday morning as people continue to misinterpret this election and make generalizations based on their emotions instead of the evidence before them."
11/3/10 Now what?
"The first and most important lesson to take from last night's results is this: They were not a repudiation of progressive policy solutions. Yes, voters voiced their frustration with our current hard times in the only way available to them - by voting "no" on a lot of people associated with the party in power."
11/3/10 GOP sweeps, takes 4-3 hold of Wake Commissioners board; statewide, GOP is in command, Etheridge is losing
"Republicans swept the four Wake County Commissioners races and they added one legislative district to their side of the ledger."
11/3/10 GOP regains majority on Wake board
"In an apparent sweep of four seats up for grabs Tuesday, Republicans were well on the way to regaining control of the Wake County Board of Commissioners. Democratic incumbent Lindy Brown was narrowly losing to a Garner tea party backer and three Republican incumbents won conclusive re-election victories."
11/2/10 Harding High: Paranoia justified
"Months ago, when Superintendent Peter Gorman started talking about closing schools, I heard from Harding parents and faculty who were convinced he had their school in his sights."
11/2/10 Board hones list for Wake schools chief
"Wake County school board members say they may be able to hire a superintendent by January. They met behind closed doors Monday to review applicants recommended by a search firm."
11/1/10 Steve Rao accuses Tony Gurley of flip-flopping on mandatory year-round
"In the latest shot at GOP Wake County Commissioner Tony Gurley, Democratic challenger Steve Rao is accusing his opponent of flip-flopping on the issue of mandatory year-round schools."
11/1/10 Search committee to review superintendent candidates today
"During today's superintendent search committee meeting, school board members will meet in closed session to review the names of applicants presented by Heidrick & Struggles. The search firm has been videotaping interviews of some of the top candidates to view."
11/1/10 Wake Board of Ed hears from superintendent candidates
"Members of the Superintendent Search Committee of the Wake County Board of Education met in closed session Monday to watch videotaped interviews with candidates for the open leadership position."
