I have written here before that I am perfectly willing to admit when I make a mistake or to acknowledge when I don't know something. And, this is one of those times.
When I read yesterday's Daily Tar Heel article about Tuesday's Board meeting, I misinterpreted the following quote attributed to Liz Brown:
"So it's costing $1,000 a student," Brown said. "That was an expensive decision."
Given Liz's apparent distain for Orange County parents, I naturally jumped to the conclusion that she was criticizing the CES and ECES parents for deciding to send their children to HES rather than stay at the "failing" schools the Board had assigned to them. It would have been par for the course, but, as it turns out, I was wrong.
Based on a fuller quote provided in today's Durham Herald Sun, it appears that Liz was not being critical of parents at all (there is a first for everything) but was aiming her barbs at her fellow Board members.
"'It was an expensive decision, I think -- I don't know if I would have gone for that,' said Elizabeth Brown, referring to the board's decision to include Hillsborough Elementary as a designated school for transfers."
This greater context puts the quote in an entirely different light and begs a new question: How is it possible that "The motion to add Hillsborough Elementary as a choice option for both Central and Efland-Cheeks Elementary was unanimously approved" by the Board, when its most vocal member would not have supported such an "expensive decision"?
Could it be that a wide-eyed Liz Brown was misled into believing that including the choice of HES would come without the additional costs? In the Herald Sun article, associate superintendent Denise Morton is quoted as saying, "When the board approved Hillsborough as a school of choice, the board knew then there will be some added costs." Then, that can't be it. But, what could it be?
Oh yeah ... now I remember. Liz did not attend a single public Board meeting for over 11 weeks. That is almost three months!
The reason she never voiced her opposition to allowing parents from the two lowest performing schools in the district to send their children to the highest performing school was because she didn't even bother to show up for the discussion.
Yet, now that she has again chosen to grace the Board with her presence, she has the audacity and arrogance to criticize those who took their often thankless responsibilities seriously.
So, in the interest of fostering civility amongst the Board, I would like to recommend a new rule for Board members:
If you don't bother to show up for nearly three months, you don't get to criticize the decisions made by those who came to work.
I'll bet that is one motion that won't pass unanimously.
10 comments:
re: July 19, 2007 school board minutes and the discussion of "AYP Update": "Al Hartkopf amde a motion that choice schools for Central Elementary be Hillsborough Elementary and Cameron Park and choice schools for Efland Cheeks be Hillsborough Elementary and Pathways. Motion was seconded by Anne Medenblik." Can we send them the bill for the $31,400 for the recovery of the 27 days of missed instruction for those families who opted for HES? Over $1,000 per student! Yikes! What were those two thinking when they were the first to make and second this idea? Oh, that's right, they weren't. Yep, Ol' Al has our back alright! Dr. Carraway, Ms. Yarbrough, and Morton all tried to talk the board out of offering HES as a choice for this very reason! Can't blame this one on Dr. C.
Liz obviously lives in her own world. Look at her latest spin:
http://blogs.newsobserver.com/orangechat/index.php?title=funding_an_issue_again_for_orange_school&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1
Al and Anne made to motion to include HES as an opt out school for several reasons. It did bring up our FRL stats from 14% to 17%. That's the highest it's been in 5 years.
Also, there may be some legal issues for the board if they try to send the kids who opted out of Central back to Central next year. They don't know if the merger is legal under title 1 laws. The lawyers and staff are still investigating that.
So, there is a method to their madness.
Actually Al and Anne both did the correct thing by taking a leadership role on the Board. I fully support having HES as an option for both Efland Cheeks and CES.
Mr. Hartkopf and Ms. Medenblik are good Board members and outstanding citizens. It's too bad that $31,400 bothers you when the total budget is over $70,000,000, which is like four/hundreths of one percent of the total budget. Can't see the forest because of the trees, I guess.
Anyone able to attend the info meeting at CES last night?
I was at the CES meeting last night. If you have questions you want to lob my way, send an e-mail or give me a call.
jason AT jgrichmond DOT com
or
919-341-5056
In response to: "they don't know if the merger is legal under title 1 law"
--If you look at the title-1 school improvement sanctions under NCLB, you will note that after 6 years of missing AYP in the same subject the school must implement: "School Choice, Supplemental Educational Services, restructuring, and receive technical assistance.
At the CES meeting, the first question from a parent was:
"Will I have the option next year to move my child out of CES [even though I did not take the option this year]?"
Answer: Yes
I jumped in and asked What happens if the merger goes through - does that not mean that HES and CES are reconstituted schools and no longer subject to choice?
Answer: They are not totally sure, it is being reviewed by the lawyers, but the implication in the answer was that choice would not have to be provided.
So, you see, by putting the two schools together, the clock for AYP is reset to 0. Ms. Yarborough (I may have mis-spelled her name - she is the expert on NCLB) was not even 100% sure if they could still call the schools by the same names if they are merged. She did note that they would have different unique school ID's.
Based on the statement that the schools would have a new unique school ID, that tells me that the schools would be treated the same as a brand new school and at year 0 under NCLB.
Please note, I am in NO way stating that the board is motivated to merge based on getting out from under the NCLB school choice issues.
Based on the meeting at CES last night the Board is not going to be able to merge the schools!!! HA-HA!
They don't want it either! Now they have two sets of pesky parents that aren't going to set back and let them just do as they please!
Maybe the new superintendent will push them away from this all together and make them work for that $100/month. Show some initiative people! We know that's what you don't want- but now you don't have a choice- you aren't just dealing with HES parents!
Having HES as a school of choice
If you had a student at a school that was labeled "failing" - would you not demand the choice to move into the highest performing school in the district?
I think that if the board did anything OTHER than include HES, it would have been a mistake.
Having HES as school of choice was a mistake. Students who are possibly already behind academically, are now 6 weeks behind their peers. Teachers have to back-track, create seperate groups and try to catch these children up. The school has to find people to teach during what is suppose to be a three week break for the HES teachers. Is it worth burning out those teachers. In the end, you are going to lose some very good HES teachers.
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