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I was talking today with Howard Lee, state school board chairman, about the current budget proposal and toward the end of our conversation I asked him about the four-day school week idea being offered as a possible solution to rising transportation costs.

The doubling of fuel costs over the past year caught both state lawmakers and educators off guard and most of the fretting that typically takes place around budget season had to do with possible shortfalls in the fuel budget.

"It's an unanticipated predicament we find ourselves in" Lee said. "We cannot stop running the school buses and we cannot shut schools down just because of a lack of money for fuel."

(Fortunately, Lee told me, the state budget up for final approval this week makes those cost manageable for the time being).

Continue reading "Howard Lee on fuel costs: "We're in trouble"" »

Over the past two weeks, the editorial department has been interviewing school board candidates (at-large and District 3) for its endorsement process. Check out the questionnaires for Sandra Alexander, Michael McKinney, Darlene Garrett and Mike Stone. I will upload audio files in the coming weeks.

Concerned citizens in Guilford County are mobilizing to help the Board of Education address the challenges facing black males in the district as well as overcome the hurdles imposed by standardized testing.

This comes with the release of preliminary suspension numbers by Guilford County Schools. The file is too large to upload, so if you are interested in the full report, e-mail me at morgan.josey@news-record.com.

Next week: The long-awaited magnet schools study makes its way to Tuesday's school board meeting. Check out the first half of the report here.

The Guilford County Board of Education will meet twice next week to narrow down the list of candidates for the superintendent position, Deena Hayes told me today. I'm assuming those meetings will take place on July 9 and 10 as I received special meeting notices for those dates today.

Hayes said the board still hopes to have someone in place by the start of school. Just in case you missed the announcement last week, Ray and Associates received 135 applications from 33 states, including North Carolina. Thirty-one people passed through the screening procedures and eight made the semi-finalist list (although the board plans to review all 31 applications).

The semi-finalists are from Alabama, Georgia, Ohio, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia.

I'll update as I get more information.

Check out the progress North Carolina and other states have made, according to a round up by the Southern Regional Education Board.

Read more about the one-year-old initiative here.

Note: The public can listen to the state Board of Education discuss the 2008-09 budget in a 3 p.m. special meeting today.

The N.C. Department of Public Instruction notified district finance officers across the state Monday that they could face a shortfall in funds provided for diesel fuel. Below, the text of that message:

Continue reading "State budget doesn't look good for districts" »

Not so, according to the Fordham Institute, which released this report today.

Statement from Joyce VanTassel-Baska, past president of the National Association for Gifted Children and member of the study’s peer-review panel:

"As our nation makes significant gains boosting the performances of low-achieving students, we continue to shortchange our gifted students. Settling for stagnation or modest learning gains penalizes gifted learners, especially underserved students whose needs continue to go unmet, and jeopardizes our nation's future as we struggle to compete in the global economy.

"Especially alarming are findings that our nation’s teachers do not consider themselves prepared to meet the unique learning needs of gifted students, nor do they feel encouraged by the system to focus on cultivating the talents of our gifted learners. While no one will dispute the critical need of increasing proficiency for students at the lowest levels, doing so at the expense of high-performing students – especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds – only perpetuates the cycle of inequality and results in continued underperformance in the classroom.

"I hope this study serves as a wake-up call if we as a nation are truly committed to leaving no child behind and investing in students from all ability levels to maximize their potential. Nothing less than our future is at stake."

One thing pointed out in the study is that low-achievers have made greater gains than high-achievers over the years. My question is: Is it fair to compare the gains among these two sets of students? While it is possible for a student to score a low 2 on a state exam one year and then a few years later score a high 3, how far can a student who scores a low four go (when the scale is 1-4)?

Howard Lee, chairman of the state Board of Education, and state Superintendent June Atkinson, are not happy about the proposed budget coming out of the Senate. Their statement, released Monday:

"Today, the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Education released its budget for the public schools. Overall, the news for PreK-12 schools is not good.

First, we want to commend the Senate on fully funding the State Board of Education's request to expand the More at Four Prekindergarten Program. This will ensure that at least 5,000 additional at-risk 4-year-olds are prepared to enter and succeed in the public schools.

At the same time, the Senate's budget overall will place the burden of funding quality education on our local school districts. As diesel fuel prices push past $4 per gallon, the Senate increased the fuel budget by a net of $8 million or $0.32 per gallon. This leaves a major hole in the PreK-12 budget. If the Senate Budget passes as it is currently written, it is likely that we will need to withhold from $40-$60 million from local school districts' budgets in order to cover fuel and student population growth needs. In addition, the Senate budget for ABCs bonuses for teachers is $36 million short of our projections for the 2007-08 school year. This level of funding likely would mean reductions to the bonuses awarded to our public school teachers.

In addition, the Senate failed to make key investments requested by the Board to increase needed services for teachers and principals in schools with low student achievement and high dropout rates as part of the state's assistance program and the Court's focus on low-performing high schools.

We look forward to addressing these concerns as the budget process continues."

The Guilford County Board of Education will, after 15 years, stop insuring school property through the N.C. Department of Public Instruction.

The reason? It was able to get a stronger policy through Surry Insurance Co. (underwritten by Berkley Mid-Atlantic). The policy will cost more than $781,000, but sublimits have been increased, which in the event of a loss, would keep the district's out-of-pocket expenses low. Examples: Berkley Mid-Atlantic would pay $750,00 for extra expenses, such as moving students, whereas the old policy offered $100,000. The state also offered a total of $1 million for both demolition and cost of construction expenses. The new policy: $3 million.

Risk Manager Wanda Frazier said she was told the district could have received $20 million more in its settlement for Eastern Guilford High School had it been covered under this new policy. GCS received a settlement of $17.6 million from the state. An expensive lesson to learn.

Keep in mind however, that even with a $37.6 million settlement, GCS is building the new Eastern at a cost of $61 million.

By the way, the school board spent a great deal of time Tuesday discussing (and questioning) the Haberman process of interviewing teachers and administrators. Turns out former Superintendent Terry Grier is using the same process in San Diego -- and ruffling some feathers -- as he overhauls the positions there.