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Thanks for this info Bruce, my son's bus was 20 minutes late, but for the first day, not too bad!

Thanks for the update. I haven't heard of any lost kids in our neighborhood today either.

I was happy to read in today's Rhino that they are providing kids with water at the HUBS during the hot days. I had emailed Jim Moen and the others several times about this last year. Sometimes they do listen to suggestions. I also read that the assistants are in place at the HUBS. (Pardon the word "HUBS" - I know they changed it but I can't remember what they are calling it this year.

Beware of your driving speeds all week in the school zones. The cops are out in FULL FORCE. I saw several by SWH today - watching and pulling people over.

I was at Andrews today. Things were very orderly and the atmosphere was very positive. All the teachers I talked to had good things to say. This is very different from the past 3 years.

Andi,

Now that is good news. Let's all hope it lasts for the sake of the children.

I felt very good about students' first day back at Southwest Guilford Middle School.

Mr. Farkas, our principal, was pleased with how things went and let our staff know it over the intercom after the buses had left.

I'm glad to hear that things went well at Andrews. A senior there, whom I taught as an eighth grader, dropped by our school a couple of evenings ago, the first time I'd seen her since she finished middle school. She was proud to be a student at Andrews and described having good teachers in the classes, but she admitted that the hallways were sometimes not controlled as much as they needed to be. Hopefully that will no longer be the case.

Hope all went well in all the schools and that any troublespots are quickly taken care of.

The only stain on opening day was Page High School's idea of abandoning the Free Education model. It was embarssing to see the officials at Page so out of touch with what Public Education is all about.

Joe,

ditto, ditto, ditto

No child should have to pay to be in sports. It should be open to all kids who want to participate. If a kid could not afford it, how embarrassing is that?

Could you see how elitist or political this would get.

The entire spirit and reason to have sports in the first place would be ruined.

My sons first day was a good one too and for that I'm thankful.
I am also thrilled to hear that the beginning of the year for Andrews was positive. Every child in Guilford County deserves to have a postitve educational experience.

However,there are still concerns that need to be addressed.
I have a friend who is a kindergarten teacher. Yesterday was terrible for her. She is one of the best, most caring educators around. She hosts events in her home for her students and their families every year. I hope that Guilford County doesn't lose her.
She had 18 students and never had any help in her classroom yesterday. She had to deal with crying students, a room full of parents who don't want to "let go", language barriers, parents trying to give her money, etc. No teacher or child can benefit from a situation such as this. Teachers assistants in Kindergarten are a must if we truly want to put children first in Guilford County.

Second concern......long bus rides. A girl a few doors down from me has to board the bus at 6:46 and returns home at 4:56. She is from a single parent family and used to help provide care for a younger sibling in the afternoons, but that is no longer possible. A 10 hour school day is just too much.

To end on a positive, the article today was fun to read and bought back many memories of my childrens first days of school. The pictures captured such wonderful emotions of the students first day of school. Thanks for providing it.

Bruce and Jennifer,

I am perplexed at the allowable number of students in a classroom.

My child's kindergarten class has 22 students in it. My middle child's fourth grade class has 29 students. My eldest has 32 kids in his seventh grade class.

I thought there were state mandated limits to the number of kids in a given grade classroom. I also heard that it's not on a school-by-school or class-by-class basis, but rather on a district basis. Is that true?

In other words, since the predominantly lower income schools have very small class sizes in GC, does that average out my kids' VERY overcrowded classrooms?

Please help me understand and thanks in advance for your response.

Numbersgame,

I hope this link works. I looked up your question on DPI's Web site.

If I'm reading this report correctly, class size is based on a district's average for the first two months of school. Then the district must look at individual class sizes to see if any of those are way out of proportion with the district average. Those must be fixed or the district must get a waiver to continue with the large class size.

Kay,

Regarding kindergarten, you are correct. There was speaker last night at the SB meeting who spoke of TWENTY-NINE (29) KIDS in a kindergarten class and no assistant. Her mother stayed to help the teacher. Having subbed now for almost six years, I can attest that kindergarten is the most tiring grade to sub. (lots of fun but TIRING) There are just so many needs even with an assistant. Think of a day when you have 25 kids; some need to go to the bathroom, others don't. It is never at the same time. If you don't get them there, accidents can happen. Then if it is a TESTING day for the rest of the school, you must use certain bathrooms, be extremely quiet and do not use the playground for recess. There is snack time; nap time; cleanliness needs; where to fit all the kids at nap time; tying shoes; kids with food allergies; kids with meds; kids who hit other kids; fire drills; tornado drills and basically just plain safety issues, let alone teaching.

No student should have a 10 hour work day unless it is his choice meaning sports and after school activities. Many adults don't put in that much time.

There are still many issues that need to be addressed.

Numbersgame,

Jennifer is correct. The numbers are usually over at some schools for the first few weeks until every one comes back. At some schools, an additional teacher is added or you might have a split grade say K and 1st or 2nd and 3rd combination.

Last year at one of the CDE meetings the subject overcrowding came up as I had 30 in a class at Jamestown Elementary the beginning of the year. It was a very difficult class. (and no assistant for lunch time, etc.) Later that same class had 24 or 25. If the numbers can't be lowered; they simply send off to Raleigh for a waiver if they can't be fixed due to lack of enough teachers and/or money to hire more teachers.

What I find ironic is the Guilford Educational Alliance supported the 15 kids per classroom concept. This "seemed to be the magic bullet". That sounds real wonderful if we all schools could do this; but in reality where would you have the space in Guilford County for this? Where would you have the money to hire all the teachers needed for this ratio in every school? These are lofty goals but where is the funding? We can't even have all the teacher assistants we need now with all the budget cuts.

As you can see while some schools may be getting 15 per class; others now are way over crowded. The additional "help" falls on the parent volunteers they have always depended on.

I was amazed that Transportation Director Jim Moen thought yesterday's bussing was "reasonable". My middle school child was put on a bus according to a transportation department issued list. The problem, wrong bus. Mr. Moen told me the school put him on the incorrect bus, but he admitted his department made up the list. His bus driver was looking for him but could not remove him because of the list. My son had a ten hour day. Mr. Moen told me some busses didn't finish up until 8:29pm. I guess I was supposed to be grateful he got home.
Mr. Moen also told me he hadn't even looked at the zero period bussing. Our ninth grader who had all his transportation forms in on time has yet to be given a pick-up time/bus assignment. Our neighbor is in the same boat. What do children do who have no one to play bus back-up?
I guess Mr. Moen thinks that my child can just miss Honors English. I'm sure the English teacher, Principal and Superintendent do not think attendance is optional.

Jennifer,
your piece about redistricting in todays paper did not have any mention of the High Point discussion by the Board last Thursday. That and the FRL data was by far the dominating part of that part of the agenda.
Failed again !
$$#$@#$#@#$!

I think the redistricting Weaver/Andrews concept was mentioned in Thursday's paper briefly. It was under a title on budget or something. Either it was there or in the HPE.

Deb and/or Joe could you do a post filling everyone in on the FRL data and what was said. You were both at the meeting.

Thank you.

Okay this is my take on the conversation.
Darlene asked Jill (attorney) is there was an new case law to quide redistricting. Jill's answer, yes plenty of case law; but the 1990 law that was upheld by the 4th district court (hope I have that right) was that race could not be used for redistricting. You can use area of the county(pods) but not individual race per student.

Kris then asked what about FRL info-- after much input about some people having info/some not-- Jill said that FRL could not be used as the only factor on AN INDIVIDUAL BASIS-- Kris was very surprised and seemed to want to talk more about that.. asked about HP specifically but I heard no new answers. Nancy said that this was one of the problems about not having each school a true magnet (asking to be in a specific program, not just the school)

Jill said at that point that if they wanted to talk about those specific topics that she would not be available at the next meeting, but would be at the retreat.

On another intersting point, the meeting to discuss ABCs is this Tuesday 11-1:30

It all sounded very strained; like they were wanting to ask/say other things but let it go.

Reassigned,

I wrote about the High Point plan discussion in the story that ran Friday. Saturday's story was a follow up to items that I couldn't cover in that first story. I'd link to it here, but I don't think the first story ran online. Sorry.

I didn't write about the FRL discussion because I had stepped outside to call the parents of a couple of student speakers that night. From the tail-end of the FRL discussion that I did hear, they had not come to any decision.

Yes,
it was very strained indeed. They were being very careful on what they said.
Funny business me thinks.
Me thinks I know why!

Jennifer,

Did you hear Dot talking about how people always approach her on Sundays (3 in a row) to tell her how much they like the High Point Plan?

I bet you could do a survey on the streets of High Point next week and uncover that the vast majority of the people HATE the High Point plan and lottery.

Do you think what Dot meant to say was that the Central people sure were appreciative?

Driving our son to Central is becoming a very expensive thing to do (he will not be going by bus).
Its not only an increased cost to the school authorities but it is also to families like ours. Its quite a finacial burden. Not to mention the enviroment.
It would of been cheaper for all concerned if he were to go to his neighborhood school.
I hate this plan Dottie.
I hope I bump into you some Sunday afternoon....

It is highly unlikely that you'll bump inot Ms. Kearns on Sunday or any other day of the week.

Most people in N. High Point shop, socialize, and go to church in N High Point, Jamestown or Greensboro (commonly known as GreenPointTown). Most of Ms. Kearn's crowd never crosses north of the 311 bypass.

That way "never the trains shall meet"!

Tim,

perhaps we should go knock on her door...one at a time

Three things come to mind when Dot says people are happy with the program in HP
1)People were happy before so you need to show educational improvement to make this a success
2)Numbers don't lie, so even if people are happy many children aren't getting a passing grade from the state or the federal government (total of around 45% of HP kids failed eog's)-only 100 9th graders pick Andrews, etc, etc, plus estra money for bussing, kids on buses longer, more busses needed, etc, etc
3)see number 2 when in doubt

ditto Deb's comments and consider this:

If the Title I funds had not been shifted from Andrews, how many kids according to the NCLB laws would have opted out thus forcing the local school district to stop and do something to improve this school once and for all?

Why is this school one of the lowest in the state?

Will GCS meet the challenge to really, really, really work on educating the students who are in this school and not send them on a long bus ride across down?

Knowing now what we know that many, many families from North HP/Jamestown have gone private or just simply transferred out of the area, when will GCS realize that FORCED BUSING people to schools they do not choose whether by "lottery" or piecemeal redistricting for the sake of the "right" numbers will never ever work?

Parents just want the best education possible for their kids. You only get one shot at it. I would imagine that any school board member with a kid in public schools would only want the best for their own kids too.

ForcedCentral,

You might run into Dottie if you go by the K&W on a Sunday afternoon. A lot of the really old people from Emerywood go there after church.

My daughter and her friend followed her into the bathroom one Sunday just so they could turn the lights out and leave her in the dark.

Those darn North High Point kids!

I have received several e-mails today asking if I am in-fact the "In the dark" poster. I wish I could take credit for this, but alas it is not me.

Since some of the kids have the K&W staked out I suggest some of the parents keep surveillance on the ABC store on that side of town for Dot's "uptown" partner in crime.

By the way I would like to thank the HP Central parent who is willing to detour the carpool to a nearby private school and pickup our daughter everyday; it is much appreciated. Like I told Ms. Kearns personally on several occassions last year, she may get my tax dollars, but she would never get my daughter.

in the dark,

Great post! Thanks for making me laugh which I haven't done much since this plan has been implemented!

Maybe one day Dot will see the light!

In the dark,

Great post! Thanks for making me laugh which I haven't done much since this plan was implemented.

Perhaps one day Dot will see the light!

Three phrases should be among the most common in our daily usage. They are: Thank you, I am grateful and I appreciate.