News-Record.com

Well, Grimsley High's football team is going to state championship - and they won't get their uniforms dirty.

The Whirlies won tonight's scheduled semi-final game vs. Crest (of my hometown of Shelby). The Chargers admitted using an ineligible player, which meant they had to forfeit tonight's contest.

Personally, I'm sorry to see this happen. I know the fans of both teams were looking forward to seeing a game tonight - thousands were expected to attend. I'm sure the Grimsley players would rather win on the field, too. But rules are rules, so there isn't anything else that could be done.

Two years ago, teams at 11 Guilford County high schools and 13 middle schools were found using ineligible players in various sports. The violations were because the students in question missed too many days of school.

So what do you think about this particular situation or about the role of high school sports in general? Do we, as a society, put too much emphasis on high school athletics? Or are they a healthy outlet for players and fans alike?

We've had a request to start a discussion on the redistricting editorial that ran over the weekend. I know there already has been some talk about this over at Doug Clark's place, but I thought I would post the editorial here and get a conversation started.

Please understand: Jennifer and I have nothing to do with the editorials!!

One neighborhood

The idea of "neighborhood schools" appeals to many people, but the board of education should reject that policy. It isolates children by race and class.

The latest batch of North Carolina School Report Cards are now online.

Information in these report cards is from the 2004-05 school year. Data is available both for entire school districts as well as every individual public school in the state.

Calling them "report cards" has been a little confusing to some people; perhaps "statistical reports" would be a better term. These report cards don't evaluate how a school or a school system is doing.

In other words, schools aren't being graded. The report cards also don't provide any context of how schools do compared to each other, compared with schools of similar demographics or how performance has changed over time.

Instead, they simply provide a wide array of statistical data - things like test scores, class sizes, teacher experience, per-pupil spending and crime rates. Much of the data has been reported elsewhere, but this is a good, easy-to-use format that collects all of this information in one place.

The Guilford County Board of Education continued its redistricting discussion Tuesday night.

While no plans are finalized, district staff members did present maps that would reduce crowding at Northwest High School by pulling more kids in the Northwest attendance area to the new Northern High School, which will open in 2007. Many Northwest parents, including The Chalkboard's own Debora Mauser, had requested more relief for Northwest. The school is Guilford County's largest, with nearly 2,300 students. That's 700 more than the school's capacity, even though Northwest recently received a major expansion.

Also Tuesday night, the board re-elected Alan Duncan to be chairman for another year (his fourth). Duncan is just the board's fourth chairman since its 1992 formation (we haven't had a lot of turnover on the BOE since the merger), along with the late John Kernodle, Susan Mendenhall and Calvin Boykin. Amos Quick was named the new vice-chairman, replacing Anita Sharpe, who had held the post for two years.

Single-gender schools. A longer school year for middle and high schools. Using abandoned facilities to create small-themed high schools, siphoning off students from large traditional high schools.

Check out Friday's News & Record to learn more about what Superintendent Terry Grier wants the school board to consider as it searches for ways to reach students struggling in traditional settings.

The proposals came up as part of a discussion of the district's magnet and options schools. This is the time of year the board reviews those programs, which offer special themes ranging from Spanish immersion to performing arts, and generally are available to students throughout the district.

Some of the proposals dealt with existing programs: Expand Spanish immersion at Jones Elementary? Add sixth through eighth-grade at Triangle Lake Montessori Elementary?

Others are totally new: Turn Hampton and Washington elementary schools into single-gender schools?

Grier said traditional settings just aren't working for some schools, which is why he wants the board to look at these proposals.

He plans to give board members more data and research to peruse before they make a decision. Some of that should be ready by next Thursday's board meeting.

Any changes likely would be announced early next year as the district starts enrolling magnet/options students in February and March.

So, what do you think of these proposals?

UPDATE: I didn't know how to add this to the comments so I'll do it here. Joe referenced an item on sale at Ebay. Here it is ...

There's a lot we can learn from educators in Singapore.

The small Asian nation arguably has the best school system in the world. In 2003, researchers gave the same math and science tests to fourth- and eighth-graders in 49 nations. Singapore's students ranked first in the world in all four categories.

This week, a group of Singaporean educators are here in Guilford County. And they say they have a lot to learn, too. Their visit was sponsored and organized by the Center for Creative Leadership, which also has an office in Singapore.

Singapore's schools are changing. They're trying offer students and parents more choices - things like magnet schools and more elective courses.

As soon as I got the invitation to Friday's Holiday Light Spectacular on Southwest School Road, I knew I couldn't miss it.

For the last two months, the merry pranksters of North High Point have constructed some elaborate, creative displays that playfully protest the High Point high school reassignment plan (often referred to as the "It" plan here at The Chalkboard.). You can view their Halloween and Thanksgiving displays here.

And sure enough, the Christmas was the best yet and the get-together was nice, too. I enjoyed getting to visit in person with some of our Chalkboard regulars and I appreciate the invitation.

Parents at Washington and Hampton elementary schools aren't too pleased with a Guilford County Schools idea to turn their schools into single-sex schools for boys and girls.

Both schools have seen tremendous changes in recent years and parents at the schools say they don't need another. In addition, they say they haven't been consulted about the proposed changes. But Guilford County Schools officials say they will talk to parents if they decide to move forward with this proposal.

I was pleasantly surprised to learn that the number of Guilford County students taking band, chorus and drama has increased considerably during the past five years.

The reason I say it's surprising is that schools face so much pressure to produce test score results in math, reading, science, etc. In the late 1990s, many schools pushed arts to the side. But now, it appears they are making a comeback in the public schools.

The best news is that it doesn't appear this is a top-down effort by the administration to boost arts enrollment. Instead, students and their parents are realizing the benefits of the arts and are choosing to enroll in these courses.

And on a completely unrelated note, the weather is pretty nasty out there today. If you must leave the house, please be careful!

Quick update: Tonight's Guilford County Board of Education meeting has been postponed due to weather.

The meeting has been rescheduled for 5:30 p.m. Monday.

I hope everyone has had a chance to read Jennifer's article on teacher Tijuana Hayes from Sunday's paper. It really is a must-read, if you are interested in education. I've spent countless hours in local classrooms and even I was amazed at how much teachers are expected to do these days.

In addition to the story, news-record.com has a really neat multimedia presentation. Be sure to click on that as well.

Wow!

That's the only way I know to put it - last night was one of the biggest in recent Guilford County Schools memory as the school board voted to dump the High Point high school reassignment plan.

Well, I know y'all have a lot to say on this, so have at it!

This is such a big topic, I figure we might need two strands to talk about it.

Now that the plan has been dumped, the big unanswered question is, "What will the new attendance lines look like?" Here are a few ideas that the school board is considering.

So what do you think? What should the new attendance lines look like?

We only have 10 days left in 2005, but Monday's decision by the Guilford County Board of Education to end the High Point reassignment plan probably is the biggest education story of the year.

So we have several items for you in today's paper.

- We take a look at what might be next for High Point's high schools, as well as more about why board members Kris Cooke and Alan Duncan changed their minds.

- We also have plenty of reaction from students, parents and local residents.

- Also, there is a Q&A on the reassignment plan, a timeline on the history of the plan, and a graphic showing how each board member voted.

The past couple of days have been really busy for us, but we hope we are giving you the information you want. And we'll have more on this, both for tomorrow and the weekend. Thanks for reading!

I'm shamelessly using the Chalkboard to help get my job done. Hope you all don't mind. I'm working on a story about families whose children were moved to another school because of the High Point plan and might have to decide whether to move back next year. I say might have to decide because we don't know what attendance lines will look like so that could change who will have to make this decision for next year.

Know anyone who fits into this category? Are these discussions -should we stay or should we go - already going on in your homes?

Please give me a call or e-mail if you or someone you know is talking about this issue. You can reach me at 373-7064 or jfernandez@news-record.com

Thanks!

I doubt this will generate much commentary, but GCS announced some make-up day information for schools that don't follow the traditional calendar. I figure there may be some folks out there who can use this information, so here it is:

- Greensboro Middle College: Dec. 21 (yesterday) and Jan. 4
- GTCC Middle College (Jamestown): Jan. 3 and Feb. 17
- Middle College of Entertainment Technology: Jan. 3 and Feb. 17
- Early College at Guilford: June 5 and 6
- Oak Hill Elementary: Jan.3 and 23
- Hampton Elementary: Mar. 27 and 28
- Brooks Global Elementary: Feb. 27 and June 22
- Johnson Street Global Elementary: Feb. 27 and June 22

For everyone else, the bad weather make-up days are Dec. 21 and Jan. 2.

I meant to post this earlier, but something else came up this week (don't know what that could be...)

Guilford County's biggest high school is getting a new leader. When the spring semester begins next month, Angelo Kidd will take over as principal of Northwest High School.

Kidd is a veteran, having been principal at Northeast High School since 2001 and before that, he spent four years as principal at Southern High School. He always seems to get results and respect wherever he goes and just a couple of weeks ago, Northeast won the inaugural Hugh Humphrey Cup, given for high school academic improvement.

Retired GCS principal Butch Brigman (who was principal of Penn-Griffin Middle, Bessemer Elementary and Wiley Elementary) will serve as interim principal at Northeast until a permanent leader can be found.

In other personnel news, former Southeast High School principal and GCS administrator Barbara Zwadyk is leaving the district to become an assistant superintendent with the Winston-Salem/Forsyth Schools. Dr. Zwadyk was a big help to us over the years and we certainly wish her well at her new job.

I hope everyone in Chalkboard land had a wonderful Christmas. If you missed Saturday's paper during all of the holiday bustle, we had a story looking ahead at what might be next for High Point's high schools, now that the reassignment plan is dead.

The story also looks back at the controversial reassignment plan and tries to gauge how well the plan had worked so far.

One of our most dedicated Chalkboard readers, Barbara Ann, asked me to post this story. It's about the successful Gaston College Prep School, a charter school in rural Gaston, N.C. that is having remarkable success with low-income kids.

Gaston College Prep is affiliated with the KIPP program, which started as a charter school in Houston. President Bush himself saw the program first-hand when he was governor of Texas and has praised the program.

KIPP's methods aren't ground-breaking, but they have proven effective for poor, minority kids - the kinds of students who often struggle in traditional schools. Basically, students attend school longer hours than their peers. The school day is longer and kids even go to class on Saturdays. They also don't get as long of a summer break. In other words, the KIPP formula is based on hard work.

Guilford County Schools tried a KIPP-style program at Hampton Elementary in 2001. District officials tried the longer days and hours, although they didn't work with KIPP officials in developing the program.

However, the Hampton program didn't really work and was abandoned, largely because neighborhood parents didn't like it and were withdrawing their kids from the school in large numbers. Hampton then got a leadership magnet program and in recent weeks, has been talked about as a site for single-sex classrooms.

Interesting story out of Charlotte today: A former Charlotte-Mecklenburg assistant principal is suing the school system, saying she was mistreated and threatened after she exposed wrongdoing at Independence High School.

Former assistant principal Randi Imbriano says her problems started when she informed district officials that Independence was padding its enrollment totals. She also says she reported financial mismanagment at the school.

Imbriano says that when she reported these problems, CMS officials bullied her to not tell anyone else about the problems (presumably the press and the public) or she would be fired.

Obviously, I don't know if Imbriano's story is true. But I hope her lawsuit makes other government bodies think twice about trying to intimidate whistle-blowers. After all, the public pays for government services, including schools, and if something fishy is going on, we have the right to know about it.

I hope everyone is having a good New Year's Eve. In Friday's paper, we had the Top 10 Local News Stories of 2005. The list includes the school board's recent elimination of the High Point reassignment plan.

Here's a few stories from the education beat that didn't make the final cut. Obviously, the collapse of the High Point reassignment plan created the biggest buzz, but there were other noteworthy stories:

1. Guilford County Schools' academic performance nosedive. High Point controversy aside, the school system had a lousy year. The number of schools making state and federal test score goals dropped, as did SAT scores.

2. Redistricting begins. This really will be a bigger story in 2006, once the school board actually starts changing attendance lines. But the board began its first large-scale redistricting since 1999.

3. Dudley reopens. The $30 million renovation (actually rebuilding) of Dudley High School was completed. Now, Dudley has the best high school facility in the county and perhaps in the state. Also, McLeansville Elementary (formerly McLeansville Middle) reopened after six years in mothballs, much to the delight of folks in northeastern Guilford County.

4. Next round of school construction begins. Again, this will be a bigger story in 2006, but dirt actually started moving on the projects approved by voters in the $300 million construction bond campaign. This will include Northern High School, Guilford County's first new traditional high school since 1979.