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I should have told you the odds of a new Jamestown Middle School and renovations to Ragsdale were 10-1 against that ever happening.

Surely we all know that the board has its own agenda and that includes not funding sufficient facilities and education for students in Southwestern Guilford County. Note the High Point Choice Plan and now the placement of both Jamestown Middle School and Ragsdale on the priority list.

It is amazing that the Pleasant Garden project stayed on the list. Pleasant Garden has the space and does not need more. The problem, a few parents do not want children crossing a road for cafeteria, media center, etc. This crossing is state of art, light, crosswalk lines, hand paddles, etc. There has never been an accident there. It is a good teaching aide for the children to be careful around streets.

Jennifer,

7-Star Gen Slak here , still waiting for a response from you on the Ciara Lilly incident...

Will your superiors not allow you to communicate with me on this issue??????????????

Justice must be served and you have the power to right this wrong.

7-star General,

I'm sure a gag order has been issued from the N&R headquarters--you know, the one on Eugene Street.

You deserve another star for your persistence though.

it is worth mentioning that Alan Duncan requested that the staff, while working on county wide redistricting to do two versions-- one with neighborhood attendance and one with social-economic content. His comment was that we had used social-economic in HP but that might not be available as a tool in the future. I don't know what that means-- but pay attention people! If the concrete info about HP choice plan is what we expect the redistricing might be changed-- also Alan asked that a plan for a school like Weaver be looked at to be placed within a current HP HS-- changes could be coming

Thanks Debora for mentioning that. Only those that can tolerate watching the entire board meeting would've caught that. Some just can't stomach watching the meetings until the very end.

You would think that there would be some astute reporter somewhere that would have reported that, especially with the known opposition for the High Point plan...but, all the education reporters from the N&R can muster up is a post about bread.

Real education reporters would be calling Alan to clarify many of his statements and investigating just where he's going with his requests to the staff.

But...real education reporters we ain't got.

Thanks again Debora for keeping abreast of school happenings.

Debora,

Thank you for your speech to the Board Tuesday night. You spoke for many of us.

I, too, heard the comments from Alan. Let's hope that the tide is turning toward logic!

Dear Quest,
what was your take on those comments? I was totally surprised by them, and not quite sure what to make of them. They are planning on redistricting the entire county (I guess for when the new schools open in a couple of years) I undertand that the plans will be reveled in Aug an then open discussions will commence.

Maybe the school board members in Greensboro just do not want this kind of social economic and racial redistricting in their little neck of the woods. Maybe they are reading about all the happenings in this country and realize that busing because of race is ILLEGAL. It just is not illegal in High Point according to them.

Maybe they are starting to hear from some of the lawyers for the High Point students.

It is so out of character for Alan to give direction to the staff on a major subject without getting consenus from the BOE. Had they discussed it in closed session? I told him after the meeting that it was a mistake to have whole county redistricting. This would just stir up the pot in some communities. This would cause more harm than good. Alan gave a signal that the BOE is bailing out of the High Point Plan. The BOE could not have handled a sensitive problem in a worst way.

Debora,

I was also quite surprised by Alan's directive to the administration to look at redistricting the entire county. He did mention that they would probably not be able to depend upon FRL information in the future and other measures were probably not as accurate. Since the HP plan is based upon FRL, it looks like the lack of FRL will force the demise of the HP plan.

Since the Northern part of the county will have to undergo redistricting due to the new schools, now would be a good time to redistrict the entire county.

I guess time will tell when the map(s) are unveiled in August. Should be very interesting.

Joe,

Please elaborate more fully on your conversation with Alan after the meeting.

Also, can you please explain what you meant by "The BOE could not have handled a sensitive problem in a worst way."

Are you referring to the High Point Plan as the "sensitive problem"?

Frankly, I was shocked that Alan embraced whole county redistricting. If we have learned anything from the last redistricting is that you should be careful in disturbing parents and children unless it is absolutely necessary. I am opposed to county wide redistricting. Alan did not say much, he seemed very conflicted. I reminded him of the problems we had last time. He responded that "He was aware of that". They continue to meet on student appeals. I believe they are bailing out of the High Point plan. This will doom any chance it had for success.
Other people would say it had no chance for success and it is better to pull the plug now than later. In early August SAT scores come out. If all HP schools went down, the HP plan will be under greater stress.

If anyone wants to respond to Ciara's opinion piece, you're more than welcome to offer your opinions and perceptions in a letter to the editor or counterpoint column.

I believe the limits for those are 250 words and 400 words, respectively. They can be sent to edpage@news-record.com or to:
Letters to the Editor
The News & Record
P.O. Box 20848
Greensboro, NC 27420

(NOTE: You will have to put your name and contact number on anything intended for publication. The number won't be published, but your name will be.)

Ciara's piece was originally part of the Minority Journalism Workshop tab, but was reprinted as part of a sort of "young voices" column. I don't know if the word limits on that are different. There was no word limit when it ran in the workshop tab.

I believe there has already been interest expressed by a fellow classmate to write a rebuttal. However, I don't know the status of that since editorial is not my department.

It's a big issue alan should think think and then take any decision.

It's a big issue alan should think think and then take any decision.

Well , SW is having an extra 10 classrooms built this year but my guess is the redictricting will not happen until the Northern schools are built which is 2007? . If the new Jamestown was built by then and the size of Ragsdale increased then the whole map of HP could be redrawn...Right?

New,

Not necessarily. There are many variables. 10 classrooms cannot handle all the future growth.

Also there are additional monies coming from the State of North Carolina from the various fines that have been collected. These monies are going to all schools and may be used to help build more schools.

Ragsdale and Jamestown may just move on up the construction list if the funding comes through.

Don't count on that money! It could take years to get the politicans out of the way to get that money to the GCS... where will the money come from? The courts ruled that all fines from 1999(?) go to schools, but that money has already been spent.