News-Record.com

Bruce, I have cut and pasted from you article below.

"Southwest would undergo the most changes. Students currently in the Southwest Elementary attendance area -- those closest to the high school -- would go to Southwest. The remaining students would come from the Johnston Street area, the area around Oak View Elementary east of North Main Street and the Kirkman Park area. Before the lottery, those areas were assigned to Central and Andrews".

Does that mean Southwest gets students from Kirkman,Oak View and Johnson?

They have a total of about 486 students. Florence has about 340.

Or would the lines around the elementary schools change too?

Truth, the proposal is that students from those areas named would go to Southwest. But remember - you only would have high school-age students going to Southwest High.

According to GCS figures, 149 kids would come to SW from the Johnson Street area, 123 from Oak View and 196 from Kirkman Park. The rest - 560 - would come from the area immediately around the high school.

Oh, and under that map, Southwest would be 49 percent minority and 40 percent low-income, compared to 44 percent minority and 26 percent low-income at the present time.

Bruce, Will you say again where these maps can be found. I think you have said this once before. Have there been any dates set for public discussion ?
To ease over crowding at Sw, why dont they look at the Guilford College Corridor . Our addresses say Jamestown, not High Point. Send us to Western Guilford or Ragsdale .

Sure, Mary J - you can find those maps here:

http://www.gcsnc.com/redistrict_maps/redistricting.htm

The newest one isn't up there, but everything else is.

Bruce,
I personally missed that fine article. I heard that it was excellent.

What bothers me the most is the map that was quickly pulled out after the "it" plan died. This is a "diversity" map. It does what the now dead lottery was supposed to do.

If Guilford County wants to make "diversity" it's number one priority then why don't they just come right out and say so. It's obvious that they feel that diverse schools will make their job of educating easier.

Whether I agree or disagree with that goal doesn't even matter any more. I've come to realize that Guilford County schools do what they want, regardless of what parents say.

With that being said, I say FINE! Diversify High Point. Make every school a perfect 50/50 ratio. I don't care. Even knowing that not one single board member has convinced me that diversity=smarter kids--I say let them make their little Diversity Stew in High Point.

*******BUT*****if "DIVERSITY" is going to be their goal then they need to DIVERSIFY THE ENTIRE COUNTY!!!! They can whip out maps till the cows come home, but until they start talking COUNTY WIDE DIVERSITY EFFORTS, I will continue to do what I am doing NOW--looking for a way out of this hypocritical school system.

You tell 'em MooMoo.

Maybe it's just the Spirit of Christmas making me say this but I don't even think Dot Kearns would think of using diversity maps in High Point and not in Greensboro.

Have I had too much eggnog?

Moo Moo,

I attended the Little Four Basketball Tournament in Greensboro last night.

Out of the four teams I saw play, Southwest High obviously had the most racial diversity amongst its' Fan Base, Players and Coaches.

Dudley High had No White Players,,,No White Coaches,,,,No White Fans....

We all Know that Dudleys' Student Population is 99% Black.

Is this considered racial diversity to our School Board?????????????

Smith High was basically the same as Dudley in its' Racial Diversity Make-up.....

Is this acceptable in Greensboro,,,but not High Point???????

Northwest actually sported a few Black Players,,,but it was quite obvious that its' Fan Base consisted mostly of Upper Crust Whites.

We all know that Northwest student population is made up of over 90% Whites.

Should High Point High Schools be the Focus for a Lack of Racial Diversity,,,or should Greensboro schools lead the way in our school boards efforts to forcibly Intergrate Society??????????????

Please,,,Marti,Dot or Susan,,,Could you PLEASE give me some sort of Rational as to why High Point is a Target of Concern for Racial Diversity,,when a MUCH WORSE SITUATION lies in Greensboro????????????

We all know that if Parents had their say,,,Neighborhood Schools would be the Rule In GCS,,,,,,BUT If Racial Diversity is the #1 GOAL of GUILFORD COUNTY SCHOOLS,,,,then it MUST be done County Wide and there would be no better places to start than at Dudley and Northwest High Schools.

Moo, moo 12-Star General Slak!

I agree whole-heartedly AND I'm saluting you with my front hoof.

BTW, I'm a Holstein and can proudly say that I'm the perfect 50/50 blend of black and white that the School Board strives for ONLY in High Point. I must admit that my cow friends are a bit smarter for grazing with me. I think the school board is on to something...in High Point anyway. Why would they deprive the children in Greensboro of this new concept in learning?

I'll be waiting, watching, and chewing my cud to see if the school board and superintendent continue to deprive the rest of the county of the kind of education that can come from diversity maps like the one shown the other night.

MOO-MOO! Holsteins for everyone! The more the merrier, I say!

Amen, General!!!!

According to N&R last week, SW is now almost 50% minority. Is not this the ideal? Why would you mess with it???? It's insane. Especially with a lot of the Title I tranfers into to SW middle. All this fighting for POLITICS not EDUCATION. The HP schools will equalize on their own. Making kids pawns for somebody's political agenda is WRONG.

HEY POLITICIANS, LEAVE THEM KIDS ALONE!!!!!

Glad to see everyone is back from the Christmas holiday.

I'm with the General on this one. DIVERSITY ACCROSS THE BOARD AND IN EVERY SCHOOL IN THE COUNTY. Whatever the percentages are county-wide just do it.

Oh and by the way, since Greensboro is the county seat, start this diversity project with the 2 schools closest to downtown Greensboro, that would be Dudley and Grimsley and keep on truckin'.

I think you would be hard pressed to find people that took exception to a level playing field.

And Bruce as far as your other question about how well the HP Choice Plan has worked up until now; it has worked great for our family because we put our daughter in HP Christian.

I know I've said it before, but I'll say it one more time, there is no way Dot Kearns was ever going to abduct our daughter. Oh and by the way watching the replay of the School Board meeting made it all worth while. I don't know what I liked better:

1. Dot Kearns unable to get words out of her mouth.

2. Susan Mendenhall trying to be as sneeky as possible and Nancy Routh not falling for it.

3. Darlene Garrett literally taking Dot Kearns and Marti Sykes by the back of their necks and knocking their heads together like on the 3 Stooges.

All I can say General is let's give the troops a few more days off for New Year's and be prepared to mobilize and defend a January counter-offensive. Until one of our troops shows us that Dot and Susan have been captured, they are still to be considered armed and dangerous.

First I say "Eat More Chicken". Second I say "Leave our little calfs alone!"

General, I know you will be glad to see that the troops are resting, well fed and will be ready to go for future battles. They are in for the long haul.

With the Schools' "one county movement" we must start with DIVERSITY for Dudley, Northwest, Smith and the other schools. This is the only legal way they can go with it being a COUNTY SCHOOL SYSTEM.

I noticed while watching the School Board meeting T.Grier stated as he conveniently whipped out the latest proposal...."the HIGH POINT BOARD MEMBERS asked for this proposal to bring socioeconomic balance to the High Point school, blah, blah, blah...." I count TWO actual HP reps: Walter and Susan. Susan also has conStitutents in the county and Jamestown area. Dot is supposed to be AT LARGE. Have you ever heard them say "the Greensboro Board Members requested blah, blah, blah"???

In the spirit of the one county movement, High Point should remain neighborhood schools like the rest of the county. Or the rest of the county must be diverse. There is no getting around this. I heard that the North High Point committee is already working on the displays for January, February, March, etc. since receiving the impressive Scoop Award for best display in the N & R today. Your idea of setting up multiple sites for the various issues by other schools was great.

Parents at all the forum throughout the county have said they want NEIGHBORHOOD SCHOOLS, black, white, mixed. The time is right for the parents in this county to have their say and their day.

One of the School Board members also mentioned that redistricting should not take place but every 4 years. Well the IT plan with lottery was 2 years. Now that is scrapped. So it should be the IT Plan with TRUE MAGNET PROGRAMS and no LOTTERY for 4 YEARS. This will give the programs time to take off and grow with true choice for all.

No one wants a bunch of discontented cows on their hands.

Lets look at the school report cards.

Take Central first. Well believe it or not its elementary feeders (middle and Elem) pass around 75%+ of their children but Central itself only passes about 52%.

Andrews is even worse.
The feeders pass about 75% too but Andrews itself passes 32%.

These are the facts! The feeder schools of Andrews and Central have improving trends. Central and Andrews are falling through the floor!
I dont get it? Aren't they the same kids?

What good is sending children from other parts of HP going to do?

IT IS OBVIOUS THAT CENTRAL AND ANDREWS HAVE SERIOUS PROBLEMS THAT HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH DIVERSITY.

I REST MY CASE!

SACK GRIER NOW!

Bruce,
back to the first post and your reply. Which middle school do these children go to then?

Any idea when this "ooops look what I just knocked up five mintues ago" map will be available?

Identify the real problem.

Address the real problem.

Don't move the problem.

Don't hide the problem.

Don't bring in some new scores to dilute the problem.

SOLVE the problem.

It will take, a back-to-basics approach to education, discipline and hard work in the classroom, time and resources - a common sense approach.

Quit trying to redistrict that which does not need to be and for political reasons. There should be a long-term plan, step-by-step method in place with measurable goals. This should not involve redistricting. That solves nothing.

And one final question. When there are other failing schools in Greensboro have people simply said "redistrict"? NO. You create programs, you bring in specialists, you create magnet programs that draw students to a school, ones that will interest kids and be successful.

It is time to quit politicing and start educating.

I read in the newspaper that the people at Central were worried about the increase in gangs by certain redistricting plans. If gangs, violence or discipline are issues at that school, then this problem should be dealt with. These kids should be out and put in an alternative school. We need to make all our public schools a safe place to be.

Bruce,

Truth has posed some excellent questions. Also don't forget in the formula of feeder schools is Ferndale now being an "Opt Out" school.

Many are waiting to see the "Just look what I happen to have in my back pocket" map. Bruce can you post? and will it be legible?

Truth, it was unclear how the middle schools would play into this current map. Those assignments wouldn't have to change, though. But the board must draw new attendance lines for the high schools because they overturned the HP reassignment plan.

That map isn't available online yet, Barbara Ann. I asked our graphics folks to see if they could clean it up. Their reply: "This is completely unprintable."

Hopefully, the GCS staff will generate a better map that the one presented last week. At least, if they want to win the public's trust and confidence, they need to present a better map.

Bruce,

I respectfully disagree with your statement "the school board must draw new attendance line because they overturned the High Point Reassignment Plan". This is what certain people want you to think.

In Jan. 03 they tried the "Triangle Shuffle" between Adams Farm (Ragsdale), a piece of the GCR corridor and a part of Andrews. There was no need for that piecemeal redistricting plan then; there is no need now.

If diversity is to be the goal for the "ONE COUNTY MOVEMENT" then we must start at Dudley, Page, Grimsley and include Northwest and other schools that need to be diverse. Why High Point?

There have been other schools in this county which have had extra seats for years, sat empty (Craven, etc.).

There needs to be a moratorium on all this shuffling of kids in High Point. The peace needs to come back in our communities and bridges need to be mended. The focus themes are still at these three high schools minus the LOTTERY factor. That is what parents have been saying. Keep the programs, promote the programs, make them the world class programs they should have been. Kids will come on their own. Address the real problems of education and discipline in our schools. Leave the lines along. NOTHING has changed in HP - there are now new high schools on the drawing board. There is not real need to redistrict now. It is a fabricated, political agenda. Only by the School Board extending the olive branch and giving parents and families a break from this constant change, will progress start to be made.

If High Point is to be redistricted, then redistricting needs to be countywide. Of all the forums I have heard about throughout the county, parents both black and white desire neighborhood schools over diversity and putting kids on a long, costly bus ride. If diversity is to be the "one county movement" then it must be countywide and not just in High Point. It is time to quit the b.s. and get real.

Well, what I mean is that as of right now, there aren't any attendance lines or attendance patterns for High Point's high schools. They'll have to do something before the start of the 2006-07 school year.

And the attendance lines at the three high schools aren't going to be the same as before the HP plan. They may be similar, but there will be changes.

Its doesn't make sense that Florence would go out of SW middle with no plans for replacement unless as someone said they need the space for Ferndale
opt outs!

GCS not changing elementary and middle lines will do nothing for the academics in the high schools.

If children are not learning at an early age how can GCS expect things to blossom at the high school level?

Isn't that part of the problem with underachieving high schools now?

I think the reason they haven't come public with the "oops look what I have in my back pocket" map is probably because they have the numbers wrong.
From my basic math Eriks numbers were out.

If you take the numbers he gave it would mean that HP HS student body is 49% color and 55% Free and reduced lunch.
In reality color is about 100 students off than Eric stated Free and reduced about 500 less.

I also don't believe that Central will be as bad as stated with that map.

Didn't it give a little away in Central HP and Johnson st too and dip into NHP a little by Waterview rd (say no more). Its like musical chairs.

If current numbers at central are 46% color and 64% FRL I have to believe that will be better and not worse as Eric stated (66% & 71%)

I smell something fishy!!

By the way while we are at it Ragsdale numbers are 27 color and 23 FRL.

Ragsdale needs some improvements. Include them on the list with Dudley, Grimsley and NW. I think this is the reason Smarti did not want anything to do with ending the chop plan since she knew it might start stinking for her too.

Do you remember when Bullwinkle would say,,,,,"Hey Rocky, Watch me pull a Rabbit outta my hat"??????????

It is amazing how some on our School Board have so many similarities with the Cartoons of Old.....

Truth,

I think you are right on the money with Smarti. This is what everyone has been saying all along.

And Bruce what I am saying is the change DID OCCUR in ditching the lottery. Now let's do what the word "choice" was meant to do in the first place. Give these kids a true magnet choice or focus theme. Grow and promote the programs. Put the resources in the schools that need them.

These should be magnets like any other and not just draw from the 3 HP high schools. They would be open say to the Western part of the county and Weaver would be open to the eastern part of the county.

Think of all the money that could be saved on all the crosstown busing.

There are always other solutions if people take time to look at the entire situation, quit playing politics, and work for real solutions.

You and I both know the school board can do what they want. The question is will they attempt to make peace with a community that has been torn for 3 years, have put their children in private schools and/or have had their lives turned upside down. Sometimes it is best to take a "wait and see" attitude. If all three schools have great programs to offer and if the issues of discipline are dealt with fairly across the board, students will come.

Whether you force people by lottery or by a swapping plan, it will not work. People will continue to move or go private. History has proven that.

Also I feel strongly that the future of any bond referendums passing in this county depends greatly on their next move and their willingness to finally listen to parents.

Facts

Ragdale 27 color.23 FRL.

Western 23 color 31 FRL

Grimsley 32 color 20 FRL

Dudley 96 color 53 FRL

Smith 74 color 64 FRL

Northwest 6 color 5 FRL

Questions, questions!

Does moving Florence from SW middle make the attendance closer to capacity? I know that SW is overcrowded (getting some relief with building-is that correct?) could that be some of the reasoning for moving Florence?

What is the true capacity of Andrews? Anita was sure that Eric had that wrong, at least by what staff had told her. Also, anyone know why it takes so long for new numbers to be on each school's info pages.. IE NWHS says 1803 students, that hasn't been correct for two years. Hard for the public to get a grip on the truth... ahhhh maybe that is the reason!

Truth,

You always set us free!

Debora,

They have to take people out and bus out to make numbers work. This is NOT the reason.

If the reason is diversity, it MUST be countywide. See Truth's post.

Eric's numbers are questionable.

The reason it might take so long for "new" numbers is they may be "old" numbers and incorrect. The need time to FIX them.

Several individuals have seen a VERY similar map if the IF plan would go. It was a long time ago. Two years???

Ragdale 27 color 23 FRL.
Representative Anita Sharp ok with numbers.
Dot Kearns "at Large" ok with numbers.

Western 23 color 31 FRL.
Representative Anita Sharp ok with numbers.
Dot Kearns "at Large" ok with numbers.

Grimsley 32 color 20 FRL.
Representative Marti Sykes ok with numbers.
Dot Kearns "at Large" ok with numbers.

Dudley 96 color 53 FRL.
Representative Amos Quick ok with numbers.
Dot Kearns "at Large" ok with numbers.

Smith 74 color 64 FRL.
Representative Deenha Hayes ok with numbers.
Dot Kearns "at Large" ok with numbers.

Northwest 6 color 5 FRL.
Representative Darlene Garret ok with numbers.
Dot Kearns "at Large" ok with numbers.

Central numbers NOK for Susan Mendenhall and "at large" Dot Kearns.

Southwest numbers NOK for Susan Mendenhall and "at large" Dot Kearns.

Where do Dot and Susan live?
The pressure from the country club continues and so does the secret but obvious political agenda of these two school representatives!

Correction

Western 23 color 31 FRL.
Representative Darlene Garrett (not Anita) ok with numbers.
Dot Kearns "at Large" ok with numbers.

NEWSFLASH

Southeast HS 16% color 13% FRL.
Representative Anita ok with numbers.
Dot Kearns "at Large" ok with numbers.

Central numbers NOK for Susan Mendenhall and "at large" Dot Kearns.

Southwest numbers NOK for Susan Mendenhall and "at large" Dot Kearns.

If you look at the current district maps it is not too difficult to imagine different lines for Southeast HS with Southern ,Ragsdale, Smith, Dudley and Eastern.

I dont think too much scooping would be needed either.

Come on board! Lest get the numbers fair and square here!!

TRUTH AND MORE TRUTH

POOR WALTER

CAN SOMEONE CLUE HIM IN

I believe the percentages of economic/ethnic mix should reflect the actual numbers of the general population of the entire county. Thus, there ought to be some way (redistrict more to Grimsley from Dudley's area?) to balance across the county without incurring too crazy a technical problem.

The most difficult area to integrate without forced busing would be, of course, Northwest. There are areas now in Page, amazingly, that would not be far from the new North High, but the distance to NW is farther still. As I said on another blog, I traveled 12 miles to the town where I attended public high school in CT. If its is only a matter of a hundred or two students, would it be terrible to take from the Page district?

This is a pipe dream, of course, because NW parents have a hel of a lot of clout. When FedEx moves in, perhaps, there will be an economic shakedown (look at the drop in property values for the area near the Cardinal). And FedEx workers may be more diverse and in need of affordable housing in Summerfield and Oak Ridge. Day of Reckoning for the horsey crowd. Or will they set up a shuttle to bring them from less-well-off areas? Sort of like the hired help.

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