News-Record.com

Trying to squeeze in $3.5 million in renovations at the former McLeansville Middle School before the Aug. 25 start of school proved too costly.

The Guilford County Board of Education learned Thursday night that it would cost $1 million more than budgeted for the project to get the work done in time. The district is delaying the opening of the school to rebid the project, hoping for more favorable bids. The first day for the new school might not be until late October or early November. McLeansville will reopen in 2005-06 as an elementary school to handle growth in the eastern part of the county.

Read the entire story here.

Construction costs ain't as friendly as they used to be. Five years ago, when the district embarked on its then-largest ever construction bond of $200 million (plus about $54 million from county funds), projects came in under budget. The district saved millions because of the favorable bid climate.

Those days are long gone. Most projects in the $300 million bond, passed by voters in 2003, are coming in just under or just over projected estimates. E.J. Deering, who oversees the district's construction work, said the district has been able to negotiate lower prices for the over-budget projects so far.

But the district isn't even half way through the 28 projects for this bond. If construction costs keep climbing, what will happen to later projects such as the $29 million Jamestown Middle replacement school, estimated to be completed in July 2007?

The latest project - a $4.2 million renovation of Ragsdale High - isn't expected to be done until late 2008.

Just thought you might like to know that The Chalkboard (well, along with the rest of the News & Record) has made it to the New York Times. Check it out here.

This is the education blog and I failed to post a link to a student-created newspaper here. Duh. My bad.

I'm correcting that now. Here's a link to SoundOff, a newspaper tab created by seven local minority students during a weeklong session June 20-24 here at the News & Record.

Every year we invite minority students in the area to test drive a career in journalism. This was the 25th anniversary for the Minority Journalism Workshop. We had a really good crop of students this year. They interviewed the head of the Transportation Security Administration at PTI airport, wrote book and movie reviews, took photos and we even had an enterprising young man who drew an editorial cartoon. (I'm so jealous, I can barely draw recognizable stick figures!)

Some Chalkboard readers mentioned seeing the July 7 editorial in the N&R by Ciara Lilly, a recent Southwest High School graduate. She tackled a very difficult and personal topic: racism. The original opinion piece ran in SoundOff, which you can access at the link posted above.

We also have a journalism opportunity now that is open to any student.

Next Friday (July 15) is the deadline to apply for bus transportation for the 2005-06 school year.

Why is this important? Because anyone who misses the deadline won't get an assigned bus stop until the sixth day of school, when late applicants will be added to routes, according to the Guilford County Schools Website.

"During this time, parents who have not received a bus stop assignment will be responsible for providing all transportation for their children," according to a press release from the district.

Read the rest of the press release on the district's Web site.

Here's a link to information on obtaining transportation.
And here's a link to the transportation request form.

In case you've forgotten, the school board meeting Tuesday will be more than an hour earlier than usual.

This will be the first meeting with the new 5:30 p.m. start time. The board voted in May to start meeting earlier and to broadcast meetings live. However, the first live broadcast won't be until next month. One change at a time.

The meeting agenda can be found here. Just scroll down to Tuesday's date to see it.

I hate to jinx everything, but here it is: the agenda looks pretty light. Of course, now that I've said that, something will come up and the meeting will go extremely late.

Two topics that potentially could drive a later meeting: budget and transportation.

Unless new information has come out of what's happening with the state budget, the local budget will remain in a holding pattern. About $1 million in potential teacher raises are on the line, dependent upon what happens at the state level.

The transportation department will give an update on what's going on for next year. Bus transportation requests are due this Friday. The district has been trying to get as many requests filed as early as possible to avoid problems like last year, when the new hub (transfer) system failed to deliver when school started.

The hub remains in place with no substantial changes. But the district has new software to create and manage its routes. Officials said this software would be easier to work with under the hub system.

We'll find out in about six weeks, when buses roll for the first day of school, Aug. 25.

Far be it from me to disagree with the News & Record's editorial board - it's my job to report news, not provide opinions. But since they brought up persistently dangerous schools in this Monday editorial, I thought I would add what I know.

The persistently dangerous label is more than a scarlet letter. It is a federal classification created by 2002's No Child Left Behind Act. Any student in a persistently dangerous school may transfer to a different, safer school. It's similar to the provision that allows kids in academically failing schools to move.

In other words, the intent of the law isn't just to admonish unsafe schools - it provides students an escape route from unruly, unsafe environments.

If you've picked up the paper today, you've probably already read about school bond projects being delayed because of rising construction costs.

Superintendent Terry Grier told the school board Tuesday that the district will be about $30 million shy of completing the $300 million in building and renovation work. Voters approved the bond referendum, which includes 28 projects, in 2003.

The board voted Tuesday to prioritize the projects.

We didn't have time last night to get the priority list in the print edition. So I stayed here for awhile to type in this list for Chalkboard readers. If I can get an electronic copy of what was handed out Tuesday I'll post it here, too. That has more information, such as project totals, what's been spent so far and what remains.

But here's the list, in order of priority:

Northern High
Northern Elementary
Guilford Elementary
Northern Middle*
Northwest area elementary
Allen Jay (Southern) Middle
Union Hill Elementary
Southern High
Parkview Elementary
Peck Elementary
Oak View Elementary
Morehad Elementary
Peeler Elementary
Ferndale Middle
Reedy Fork area elementary
Pleasant Garden Elementary
Special Education Center West (Gateway)
Jamestown Middle
Ragsdale High
Guilford Middle

*Northern Middle was approved last night, so that moves it off the priority list and into the "projects under contract."

The other under contract projects are: Florence Elementary ($7.7 million); Irving Park Elementary ($3.1 million); Madison Elementary ($2 million); Northeast High ($11.6 million); Northeast Middle ($4.7 million); Southwest High ($7.9 million); and Stokesdale Elementary ($9.3 million).

Also, Gibsonville Elementary ($12.9 million) is pending.

About $213 million has not been spent.

White bread sandwich fans can breathe easier: Guilford County Schools isn't replacing white bread on school menus.

The state's second-biggest district, the Wake County Schools (Raleigh), is getting rid of white bread completely this year. GCS officials decided that students might not take to such an abrupt change in their diets, so they are keeping white bread.

However, they will look to incorporate more whole wheat breads into the menu this year.

As most of you know, a new state law requires school districts to start the school year no earlier than Aug. 25. That's when Guilford County Schools students return to class.

But a handful of local schools operate on a year-round or alternative calendar. So for those schools, here are the first days of school:

- Hampton Elementary: July 21
- Oak Hill Elementary: Aug 1
- The Middle College at Greensboro College: Aug 8
- Brooks Global Elementary: Aug 9
- Johnson Street Global Elementary: Aug 9
- The Early/Middle College at GTCC East: Aug 9
- The Early College at Guilford: Aug 16
- The Early/Middle College at GTCC: Aug 16
- The Middle College of Entertainment Technology at GTCC: Aug 16

As requested, here is Jennifer's story about teacher turnover at Andrews High School. It sounds like there is some interest in discussing this, so here you go.

A few days ago, someone asked why we hadn't written about the upcoming redistricting. I said it's been known about for a while, and it has.

But we did some checking around and found out some new, not-yet-reported, details. So we decided a story for today's paper was in order.

For example, the process will start in late August or early September and (hopefully) will be finished by January. Also, the school board itself will handle this round of redistricting, rather than create a volunteer committee to do the heavy lifting.

By now, I hope you've all seen today's story on Guilford County Schools' performance on federal test score measures in the 2004-05 school year.

These measures, called Adequate Yearly Progress or AYP, are required of all public schools. I won't rehash the story too much: basically, Guilford didn't do as well as it did last year, but the bar was raised, meaning schools had to score higher in order to pass than they did in 2003-04.

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UPDATE: Here is a story from the Raleigh News & Observer about AYP performance of school districts in the Triangle. Looks like they struggled this year, too.

Here is more information on the Guilford County Schools' Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) results for 2004-05.

Five schools - Bessemer Elementary, Gillespie Park Elementary, Hairston Middle, Kirkman Park Elementary and Northwood Elementary - must offer student transfers this fall. These poor-neighborhood schools failed to make AYP for two consecutive years.

Four other schools have failed to reach their goals for three consecutive years. They must both offer transfers and pay for private tutors for any student who wants them. They are Ferndale Middle, Montlieu Elementary, Washington Elementary and Wiley Elementary.

A tenth school, Vandalia Elementary, passed AYP in 2004-05 but still must offer transfers because the school failed the previous two years. However, one more successful year and Vandalia will be off the sanctions list.

In case you're interested (and you probably aren't), WUNC Public Radio's "The State of Things" had me on as a guest today to talk about 2005 Adequate Yearly Progress results. I was on with Eddie Davis, president of the North Carolina Association of Educators, and Lindalyn Kakadelis, director of the North Carolina Education Alliance.

You can catch a rerun of the show tonight at 9 p.m. on 91.5 FM.

News-Record.com is getting more and more interactive and the latest thing we're offering is "podcasts" - audio interviews you can listen to on your computer. It's very much like a radio show, just without the commercials.

With all the recent news about Guilford County Schools struggling to meet federal Adequate Yearly Progress requirements, Jennifer and I have recorded a podcast on the subject. You can check it out right here.

Here is something quick on the high school Adequate Yearly Progress results. We'll obviously have much more in Tuesday's News & Record:

Only two of Guilford County's 14 traditional high schools met federal test score benchmarks called Adequate Yearly Progress.

Northwest and Southwest high schools made Adequate Yearly Progress, or AYP in the 2004-05 school year. Three alternative high schools - Bennett Middle College, GTCC Early/Middle College and the Early College at Guilford - also met the standards, which are based on standardized state tests.

The remaining high schools fell short of the federal goals. However, schools had to meet higher minimum scores to pass in 2004-05.

Last week, the district learned that 58 percent of elementary and middle schools made AYP, compared to 72 percent in 2003-04.

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UPDATE: Here is a link to the full story from today's News & Record.

A British newspaper recently published this story about Greensboro's Jones Elementary.

Jones offers a Spanish immersion program, where English-speaking students take most of their lessons completely in Spanish. It's been a popular magnet program for nearly 20 years and an academic success, too.

The school board meets Thursday in regular session. Remember, meeting time is now 5:30 p.m.

Here is a link to the agenda. Click on the July 28 meeting link.

Here's the short version: AYP update, budget update, construction update. There are some other items on the agenda, but these are probably going to be the hot button topics.

There's something under staff reports on "High Point athletic area," that I suspect is an update on the talks about turning Simeon stadium over to the city. Reporter Eric Swensen went to a meeting on that this morning and his report will be in Thursday's paper.

And of course, there is always the public comment period at the beginning of the meeting, which could bring up new topics.

As Jennifer wrote for today's paper, Kiser Middle School is changing the mix in its academically gifted courses.

The school is blending its advanced learners - that's "AL" in school jargon - with other students of varying academic levels. Kiser officials say the middle school was becoming a divided school. They also say limited efforts to mix students were successful last year and both improved academic achievement and reduced discipline problems.

Some parents of gifted students aren't happy with the changes, though. They wonder how bringing in students of different academic levels will help their advanced learners. They also say they weren't given enough notice and enough time to seek alternatives, such as Lincoln Middle's Very Strong Needs (VSN - what's with these acronyms?) program.

Seeing red? Don't worry, you're not hallucinating. The N&R is changing its blogs to match the front page of www.news-record.com. If you remember, we used to have a green background.

But that's gone the way of the dinosaurs, apparently.

I'm not too partial to this red, but maybe it will grow on me. We hope it will grow on our faithful Chalkboard readers as well. The higher ups have the final word. And that word was "red." So here it is.

Enjoy!

And while you're here, here's a heads up on some upcoming stories:

Saturday: Local educators rally against state cuts to teacher assistants
Sunday: Haven't read enough about Adequate Yearly Progress? Don't fret, we've got another installment for you.
Next week: The state ABCs results will be released Thursday. Look to the Chalkboard for local results and links to the state site. A full story will appear in Friday's News & Record.

That's all for now. Have a good weekend.