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Absolutely the management of Oak Hollow Mall and CBL Associates of Chattanooga did the right thing; they picked up the ball and ran with it. It appears they listened to their customers who did not like the idea of a Middle College at the Mall.

It would have been the short end of the stick for High Point if the Middle College would have been put at the mall. There are ample vacant buildings and office space in downtown High Point; put it there where Dot Kearns and Susan Mendenhall can supervise the school.

The mall did the right thing; even my 10 year old could see that a mall school would not be a good fit for these students!

There is plenty of space in HP and the GC Board has got to get a SCALES type facility in HP now. I heard DR G mention this in the same breath as this mall school - anyone know if there is any substance to his search for space for SCALES in HP or is this just another sound byte to appease the citizens of HP?

Well, part of the idea would be that students could work part-time and go to school part-time, since many students drop out of school because they have to work. Having the program at the mall would have given students easy access to jobs and work-study opportunities.

Of course, you could also make the point that the mall would provide plenty of distractions for teenagers. So there were pros and cons to the "school at the mall" idea.

But since this deal fell through, Dr. Grier has said the district will look for other sites. I suspect they'll look at some of those downtown locations you mentioned.

Oak Hollow Mall is hardly the Mall of America.......P L E A S E

Also before GCS put out a press release on the Mall School you would have thought that the owner; property manager, store owners, etc. would be on the same page. The final decision was always theirs.

There is definitely need for an Alternative School in High Point. They used to have the SCALES program spread out in trailers in High Point. What message does that send a young kid? To me, it would say, we are just spreading you out and hiding you so we don't have to deal with it. Now these same kids are but on a long bus ride to Piscah Church Road at an increased cost to the taxpayers. Also they begin "school" so late; it is not like real school.

I really like the idea of a combination work/study program. This is not a new idea by any means. I had written the board and superintendent many times on this for the past two years about votech programs in our schools. Votech programs have been around for years. Not everyone desires to go to college or will make it. Not everyone is qualified to take A/P classes nor wants to. But they do need marketable skills.

I just don't think the mall was the answer. It would be like putting a diabetic in a candy store. This is not fulfilling their "needs". Well at least not their educational needs; maybe their temptations to want to hang out and continue to put an emphasis on the "importance" of materialism in today's society, instead of teaching real life value that last in tough times.

I would hope to see a program like this somewhere in High Point where perhaps a kid goes to school half a day then goes to learn his trade in the afternoon. It could be for example: plumbing, electrical; computer technology; beauty school; a trade in the furniture business. The possibilities are endless but you must get the business communities on board to help. The program should provide counseling; mentoring and solicit community volunteers and organization such as Big Brothers/Big Sisters. Business could "adopt" a student and zero in to help one student at a time. The business "parent" could help with school supplies and possible other needs as they become known. People could tutor on their lunch hours one day a week or just take a student out to lunch and listen to the student tell about his or her day.

These are just some ideas that might work.

well, i'm not terribly surprised that Oak Hollow Mall needs its space for commercial uses. But i have a suggestion for an alternate school for these 200 or so students AT ALMOST NO COST TO TAXPAYERS!
use the tomlinson building at central. let me be more specific.
originally, parents were given 3 reasons for the hp choice plan: overcrowding at swhs, empty seats at andrews & central, and diversity.
well, after glancing over the 05/06 9th grade enrollments at all three schools it appears the board may have failed in 2 of their 3 goals.
05/06 9th grade enrollment at all three schools was down from the 04/05 numbers i found. this leads me to believe that now andrews has about 327 empty seats instead of 258 they had. central has about 367 empty seats instead of only 306 (i believe this is the approximate number of seats in the tomlinson building - a separate facility adjacent to central high school).
but, thankfully, some overcrowding was relieved at swhs since their 9th grade population dwindled by 25 students over 04/05 numbers. maybe they could eliminate -1- of the -29- or so trailers they now have?
bottom line, gcs seems to have room at the inn for these students.
question: if gcs has filled none of the empty seats, nor measurably relieved overcrowding at swhs, and more kids are failing at these schools this year that before choice plan, what have the taxpayers spent millions and millions of dollars for? and......who's accountable?

Bruce,

On an unrelated note and bringing up old business, I was informed by an individual recently that he attended the ERDI Convention in San Antonio in February. And, you'll never guess who he says that he ran across at the convention; Terry Grier's other employer, Nova Southeastern University's representatives. Apparently, they were shilling for business among the school superintendents in attendance.

I asked the person if they had an attendance list, and he said that ERDI was very secretive now about attendees, after all of the hullabaloo last July. Even their website has minimal information on it, and they don't take inquiries. Must be a double secret society.

I was just curious if you are aware whether Terry Grier kept his promise never to attend another ERDI conference? Since his other employer is now attending those conferences, I thought that perhaps he was there representing them; sort of joining the other side, vendors instead of school superintendents. Isn't it interesting, though, that Nova Southeastern University is now attending these meetings as vendors?

On a related note, are you aware whether the school board ever implemented a disclosure process around its conflict of interest policy for Terry Grier and his department heads? Are they monitoring his outside activities at all, or do they still not really care what he does outside of GCS and a potential for conflict of interest? If Terry Grier is employed by an ERDI vendor attending the conference, and they are marketing their services to school superintendents, isn't this a potential conflict of interest that should be disclosed and reported?

I asked the board last year if they were going to implement any process in this regard, and I was told that it would be looked at, but anything that they did would be personnel-related, and by law, had to be private. Sounds like a pretty neat way to keep things under cover, doesn't it?

by the way, high point did have a scale school program until last year; in fact, your school board spent $200,900 to establish this facility - built fencing, poured concrete & installed the inevitable trailers. a year later, the board decided to dismantle their new hp scale program & move it to pisgah church road in greensboro (which means hp students are bussed all the way to the other side of greensboro, i have heard ride times are almost 2 hours each way daily, but have gotten no confirmation). Taxpayers bore the additional cost of $329,831.000 to move this program to greensboro. can someone point me in the direction of the money tree?

Cheryl,

You are a whiz with those numbers. You must certainly be aware of the original Solutions Proposal that was presented to the School Board and later the GC commissioners with this very suggestion. As usual, they did not listen.

The Tomlinson Building would be GREAT for an Alternative School.

At the end of the day, it is THE SCHOOL BOARD who is accountable for what is going on in our schools today and for the children who are not getting an education that will help them survive in today's complicated world. These officials are elected by us to spend the taxpayers money wisely.

Why do we still have so many trailers? What about safe schools? I just don't get how they come up with their list of priorities of how to spend money.

$500,000 for some Diversity Training by a so called ministry. Give me a break. I am for tolerance; kindness; and diversity in our schools and for zero tolerance of bullying. To me if teachers are pressured to attend this type of seminar, that is bullying in itself. Also if their message was so good, why are the meetings so closed?

I've heard nothing about Dr. Grier attending the latest ERDI conference.

Just for background, Dr. Grier used to work as a part-time consultant for a company called the Education Research and Development Institute. This institute is funded by companies that do business with school systems.

As you know, Teddy, some folks questioned whether that was a conflict of interest and Dr. Grier said he would stop going.

I've heard nothing that would indicate that he isn't living up to that promise.

I was told by someone (can't remember who) that the Tomlinson building was housing the 9th grade academy. does anyone know if that is accurate?

I remember being at the meeting where the scales was moved, but can't remember what the thought process (is that an oxymoron for our BOE?-I know; just shut me up) was to do that. I remember one of the speakers asked about money spent etc. Our board needs to get a plan- -a farsighted plan and implement it in stages that make sense.

when asked about moving the hp scale program, she said the programs were consolidated to the greensboro school "to provide a developmentally appropriate space where middle and high school students could be served separately."
i sure would like to have a bus schedule for the scale school - especially the high point bus schedule!

note to file: never be in too big a rush to proof before i post!

the "she" i was referring to is Ms. Conway!

Deborah,

To my knowledge, you are correct on the Tomlinson Building. But GCS knew it would be empty BEFORE they implemented the lottery.

They were presented other options; they didn't listen.

Cheryl,

Interestingly enough, I looked up a News & Record story from February, 2003 where GCS officials were touting the benefits of a separate High Point SCALE location.

At the time, they were saying that having a second SCALE site in High Point would: 1. Reduce transportation costs by more than $100,000 a year and 2. Cut travel times for High Point students, giving them a greater incentive to come to school.

Bravo Bruce!

That is a great research find. Awww that was the year and time of the great Smith Stadium outing in the snowstorm. Quite a memorable evening.

I remembered thinking, "Why is this reporter not talking about the Guilford corridor in the Triangle Shuffle? Why are their concerns not being heard?"

Thus the beginning of lots of ever increasing hours and hard work on the School Odessey Journey. You are still here and so are we.

Maybe we could all start a new reality TV show called "Survivor - Guilford County School Blunders"

Have a great weekend!

When it comes to small mall properties CBL Associates doesn't take good corporate care of them. Pemberton Mall built in 1985 has long detoritated. Businesses like FYE have left this mall due to the high rent of the mall. Just last year alone CBL closed over ten business and the cinema was the latest causulty. The CBL rep here claims she's drawing in business here but thus far no results.
Now what lead to the Pemberton Cinema 4 closing was the fact that Village Entertainment refused to pay the high rent. At the sametime the mall here has had lapse security. The mall is more empty and devoid of life. Here's another hidden secret CBL gets the cut of the profits from the stores they rent too. Just a little FYI there.
Members of the community are still upset over the cinema closing that occurred during the Christmas holidays.