Board OKs merging two schools
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After 14 months of divisive discussion and near-universal opposition to every previous scheme, the Orange County Board of Education adopted a plan to allow every student at HES to remain at their school, but simultaneously slammed the schoolhouse door in the faces of nearly 30 tax-paying Orange County residents - because they make too much money.
While forcing more children to attend the District's two lowest performing schools, the Board endorsed a plan to cut one's teachers by 25%.
8 comments:
Not just to HES, but to a slow death of year round education in Orange County. A big victory for ignorance and narrow mindedness, but November is coming. Anybody other than me ready to vote???
I imagine by now that the school board members would like to be voted out. Let's not throw stones at the members of the Board because they did not give us what we want. The merger may prove to be a mistake, but there was no malice in what happened.
Now it is up to our community to decide how we are going to react. Hopefully the bitterness of many HES and CES families will melt away and a peaceful merger will happen.
Unfortunately, there are no school board members on the ballot this year. The next ones up for re-election are Liz Brown and Dennis Whitling in 2008. That is if they bother to run.
The Orange County Board of Education elections are always held during the May primaries of even numbered years. The Chapel Hill Carrboro School Board elections are held in November of odd numbered years.
This means that everyone will have their chance to vote out Dennis Whitling and Liz Brown in May 2008. Assuming, of course, there are enough candidates to choose from. Anyone interested in running for Orange County School Board?
Those who have been following the politics of Orange County Schools Superintendent Shirley Carraway know this move is absolutely malicious in nature and has nothing to do with the children.
Absolutely Liz Brown and Dennis Whitling will run for re-election. They feel emboldened by their decisions (with relatively low dissent) and their ego's can consider no other alternative to re-election. They will both claim they have much more work to accomplish "for the children".
Those who have been keeping track of school board politics over the years will recall that both Liz Brown and Dennis Whitling first ran for elected office based on a lie. They both claimed to be against merging Orange County Schools with Chapel Hill.
With all due respect to the individual who is calling for peace and merger, that is a foolishly naive notion that only someone running for re-election would promote. Imagine that.
What would Dr. Carraway gain by being malicious? I'm not too excited about the decision, but I do believe that Carraway, Whitling and Brown have some integrity, and I cannot say that for all board members. We will look at the options and do what we feel is best for our children.
What does receiving free/reduced lunches have to do with being able to learn? Why the obsession of getting an equal number of "well-off" kids at each school? A kid doesn't learn more just because he/she can pay for lunch. Fix the "broken" school instead of bringing down a school that is working.
Since you cannot vouch for the integrity of the other board members, I will-at least for one of them. I have known Anne for a number of years. I firmly believe she ran for school board with the best interest of OC's children at heart. She is one of the few board members that has not been controversial. I believe her decisions are made after a thorough evaluation of the issue at hand. She wants what is best for all of our children whether they are AIG, poor performers, free and reduced, black, white, Hispanic or otherwise. I believe strongly in her and her vision for the future of Orange Co. schools. I believe she realizes the value of a good education which is likely why she became a teacher in the first place. I can assure you she is not in the position for any type of personal gain as has been said about some of the other members.
On a side note, body language says a lot, and I would strongly encourage the board to take note of their own when at meetings.
Anne is an asset to the Board. She made the hardest decision of all of the Board members. She is a good person who actually made a tough decision.
Dennis and Al, however, need to learn how to get along. Al wants to save HES, which is fine. But it can't be at the expense of the other Board Members. He was trying to attack Dennis and Ted, and I don't know why, besides at desperation. We want to act with class, and we want our kids to act with class. Ditto for our school board.
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