News-Record.com

There's an old Army saying about, "Hurry up and wait."

That pretty much describes what it's like covering a local election for a daily newspaper like the News & Record. Tuesday night, I covered the Guilford County Board of Education races - four contested races in all.

You hear it often from parents, teachers and school administrators: School X has too many students and not enough seats.

But what are the most crowded schools in Guilford County? And what schools have empty seats? We thought we would find out:

That's what some Guilford County Schools parents are asking, after receiving letters this week informing them that the school district is on a federal watch list for failing to meet test score goals. Guilford was one of 44 districts in the state placed on the watch list.

Only one problem: the letter, dated Oct. 28 by the state, didn't arrive in local homes until after last week's school board election. That has some critics wondering if the fix was in.

"At best, the timing is curious. I thought the superintendent wasn't supposed to support incumbents," parent Tim Mann said at Tuesday night's school board meeting. Mann is a founder of ABC of Guilford County, a school reform group that backed two challengers - Jim Kirkpatrick and Bill Davidson - in their bids to oust incumbents Dot Kearns and Kris Cooke in the elections.

The testing requirements are part of the federal No Child Left Behind Act. By federal law, if a school system fails to meet its goals, all parents in that system must be notified.

Superintendent Terry Grier said there was no chicanery involved. He said the district received the letter on Thursday, Oct. 28, three working days before the election. District officials had to make 66,000 copies of the letter and distribute them to schools. From there, they were either mailed to parents or sent home with children. That task took a few days, he said.

Grier said the real question is why the state waited so long to send the letter. After all, they knew which districts were on the watch list in early August.

In fact, he pointed out that Guilford's placement on the watch list was the subject of a front-page News & Record article on Aug. 6.

"It's not something we're proud of," Grier said. "It's not something we're trying to hide, either."

Guilford County's teenagers are doing plenty of good in our community. For example, check out this item sent to me by Go Triad editor Jeri Rowe:

The Page High School Operation Smile Club has organized a benefit concert Saturday night. Operation Smile is an organization that funds operations for people with facial deformities in third world countries. All proceeds from the show will go to Operation Smile.

Performing at the show are Ryan Horne, Starting Tuesday and Beaconwood, a band featuring Page student Ryan Stanford.

The 7 p.m. concert takes place at Cafe Jam on Spring Garden Street. Tickets are $8 in advance, $10 at the door. Refreshments will be served, but alcohol is not permitted.

If you've had your fill of football Sunday afternoon, you might want to check out a public forum on the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

The forum, sponsored by the Community Dialogue on Education, is from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. Sunday at Gillespie Park Elementary, 1900 Martin Luther King Boulevard in Greensboro. Members of the public will have the chance to get information and share opinions about this sweeping school reform law.

No Child Left Behind, one of President Bush's first and most important domestic initiatives, holds schools accountable for reading and math test scores. Schools that don't meet the standards for all groups of students (white, black, disabled, poor, etc.) face sanctions, such as allowing students to transfer to a different school. No Child Left Behind also requires that all classes will be taught by a "highly qualified" teacher by 2005-06.

For some background reading on No Child Left Behind, click here.

In case you didn't see it in today's paper, Sodexho, the company that runs Guilford County Schools' cafeterias, is leaving.

Company officials said they were losing money on the deal. The district now will take over the cafeterias once again - which is likely to cost more money.

So what you folks in Chalkboard land think of this development?

Rather than spending time with your family over the Thanksgiving break, wouldn't you rather spend it with the Guilford County Board of Education?

Fortunately, the school board is giving us that opportunity, with a six-hour retreat scheduled for Tuesday night.

The retreat will run from 4 to 10 p.m. Here's the agenda:

4:00 - 5:00 p.m. - Status of Board Goals

5:00 - 6:00 p.m. - Governance Committee Matters for Review

6:00 - 7:30 p.m. - Role of Magnet Schools and Schools of Choice in Guilford County Schools

7:30 - 8:00 p.m. - Feeder Patterns for IB High Schools

8:00 - 9:00 p.m. - Strategies for Taking Next Steps in Student Achievement and Continuing to Close the Achievement Gap

9:00 - 9:30 p.m. - Substitute Pay and Accommodating Teachers as Parents

9:30 - 10:00 p.m. - Funding for Athletics

10:00 p.m. - Adjourn

Over the weekend, The Chalkboard was hit with several obscene "spam" postings. Similar messages were left at other News & Record blogs. I'm sorry if anyone was offended.

We cleaned these messages off and our IT department is working on ways to block these types of spam messages. Until then, we're going to keep an eye out in case we get spammed again.

But we also aren't going to do anything that would limit your ability to express your opinions. The Chalkboard was created to be a place where you, our readers, can exercise your right to free speech about education and school-related topics. And it's going to stay that way, whether some spammer likes it or not.

As reported in today's News & Record, the Guilford County Board of Education plans to reopen the old McLeansville Middle School campus as a traditional neighborhood elementary school.

McLeansville closed in 1999, when it was replaced by Eastern Middle. Some of the campus was built in the 1930s, while other buildings date from the '50s.

But quietly, another former Guilford County school appears headed for demolition.

I hope everyone out there in Chalkboard land had a great Thanksgiving - I know I did. I also know that I have plenty to be thankful for.

But many children right here in the Triad aren't so lucky. Guilford County Schools serves 299 homeless students, according to a report compiled by district officials in September. School board member Deena Hayes asked district staff members to compile those numbers.

Breaking those numbers down a little more, 206 of those homeless students are in elementary school, 68 are in middle school and 25 are in high school. However, logic tells you that many high school-aged homeless kids have dropped out of school to get a job.

And unfortunately, the numbers of homeless students typically rises as the school year progresses.

You've read this year about the fights where principals were injured and students beaten. Now find out what students and teachers think about school discipline in Guilford County Schools.

The News & Record is running a two-day series starting Saturday, Dec. 4. It is called "Within these halls: School discipline in Guilford County." We take a look at school discipline from the perspective of students and teachers, the two groups closest to the issue who seldom get to voice their opinions.

Then, on Dec. 9, we'd like to hear from the community at a forum on school discipline at Greensboro College's Finch Chapel, 815 W. Market St. The session will run from 7-8:30 p.m. and will be moderated by Dr. Karen McNeil-Miller of the Center for Creative Leadership.

Guest panelists include Terry Grier, Guilford County Schools superintendent; Alan Duncan, chairman of the Guilford County Board of Education; William Price, principal at Aycock Middle School; Debbie Gamble, a teacher at Southeast Middle School; Perrine DeShield, a junior at Northeast High School; Sam Lee, a senior at Southeast High School; and Allen Johnson, editorial page editor for the News & Record.

Longtime News & Record reporter Taft Wireback and I spent several weeks interviewing dozens of students and teachers for this series. We hope it will provide you with some insight into what goes on in schools today, and how your students and their teachers are dealing with these issues.

If you have questions you'd like posed at the forum, send them to jfernandez@news-record.com or twireback@news-record.com. Selected questions will be used at the forum.

Hope to see you there.

Say you are a school principal and you want to hire a new teacher. Or host a baseball game. Or get rid of an underperforming employee.

You better have a good lawyer - and a bottle of aspirin wouldn't hurt, either.

A fascinating new study by Common Good, a New York City-based legal reform organization, looks at the overwhelming mountain of laws governing public schools.

The easy-to-read study walks the reader through the laws and procedures a typical New York City high school principal must know, although schools here in North Carolina face just as much legal red tape.