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In all the consternation about redistricting, we shouldn't ignore one of the feel-good events of the year.

The eighth annual Morehead Elementary Men's Breakfast takes place Saturday morning. This super-successful event brings the school's men - fathers, grandfathers, older brothers, uncles, etc. - together with their students and each other.

Too often, women have to carry the burden of being school volunteers. The men's breakfast seeks to build those bonds between men and the school. It's working well: last year, Morehead drew more than 600 people to the event. Many of them remained involved in the school, which is one reason the west Greensboro school is a multi-time winner of the Guilford County Schools' PTA award.

The breakfast begins at 9 a.m. and admission is free, thanks to the support of sponsors like Ham's Restaurant, Harris Teeter, Kelly Marks at Re/Max of Greensboro, Catering by Ellyn and the Rusty LaRue Basketball Academy.

This year's guest speaker is Rusty LaRue, who played basketball for Wake Forest, the Chicago Bulls, Utah Jazz and Golden State Warriors. He's also my buddy Jay's all-time favorite basketball player.

Starting in 2008, North Carolina fifth- and eighth-graders will have to take an End-of-Grade science test. The tests, which are mandated by the federal No Child Left Behind Act, will join reading, writing and math tests in elementary and middle schools.

Guilford County teachers aren't waiting to get ready, though. They're already training in ways to incorporate more science in their classroom. We spent some time with Jefferson Elementary's Sami Lotz, who has created a number of great science-based lessons. She's helping train her fellow third-grade teachers.

You also can test your own science knowledge in today's paper. We've got a few sample questions from the upcoming tests. They're not easy!

The good news is that last week's fight at Ragsdale High School wasn't nearly as bad as rumored.

The bad news? It still was pretty hairy, with 10 students suspended and criminal charges pending against 12.

So why were there so many rumors? Many people in the community were saying as many as 100 students were involved, which wasn't close to being true.

Well, maybe lack of communication from the school had something to do with it. We gave Ragsdale officials several opportunities to explain the situation, but they refused.

In this case, their silence made the problem worse. Parents lacked accurate, official information, so it's easy to see how rumors and speculation filled the void.

For weeks, we've heard complaints that the Guilford County Schools redistricting maps are hard to read.

Superintendent Terry Grier said he doesn't think the maps are that tough to read. But in response to the complaints, school district officials have created new, more readable, redistricting maps. Those maps aren't online, but will be available for public viewings. The maps feature more detail and will be available through Feb. 17. Here are the locations: (NOTE: List updated Feb. 6 to include hours and additional site.)

• Glenwood Public Library, 1901 W. Florida St., Greensboro
(336-297-5000)
Mon–Thur (9 a.m. – 9 p.m.)
Fri–Sat (9 a.m. – 6 p.m.)
Sun (2 p.m. – 6 p.m.)

• High Point Public Library, 901 N. Main St., High Point
(336-883-3660)
Mon–Thur (9 a.m. – 9 p.m.)
Fri–Sat (9 a.m. – 6 p.m.)
Sun (1:30 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.)

• Rankin Elementary, 3301 Summit Ave., Greensboro
(336-375-2545)
Mon–Fri (7:30 a.m. – 5 p.m.)

• GCS Administrative Office, 712 N. Eugene St., Greensboro
(336-370-8100)
Mon–Fri (8 a.m. – 5 p.m.)

• GCS Administrative Office, 900 English Road, High Point
(336-819-2700)
Mon–Fri (8 a.m. – 5 p.m.)

But some redistricting decisions already have been made. Check out the original maps and decide for yourself if they are tough to read.

Parents in the northern part of Guilford County will get together Tuesday night to discuss redistricting changes at their schools.

Attendance lines will change for Northwest and Northeast middle and high schools when the new Northern middle and high schools open. Tuesday's meeting will be about how those new schools will open. District officials have talked about opening the schools mid-year and keeping the students in a "school-in-a-school" on their old campuses until the new schools are ready.

The meeting is at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Northwest High School. This isn't an official GCS meeting; rather, it was called by parents in that community.

I know we focus mostly on the public schools, but I'm sure we have some readers interested in homeschooling.

If so, you should check out this blog: the Carnival of Homeschooling. It features lots of resources and articles, plus it gives homeschool advocates a chance to sound off on the issues.

The News & Record's never-ending battle with technology continues.

Our e-mail system went down once again last night for the umpteenth time in the past couple of weeks. Anyway, if you sent an e-mail to anyone here yesterday, including Jennifer and me, we don't have it. So please resend it or give us a call: 373-7078 for me, 373-7064 for Jennifer.

Thanks for your patience.

The school board meets in regular session again tonight. Guess what they're going to talk about?

Yep. Redistricting.

There are still several undecided issues. Board members originally had wanted to finish this round of redistricting by the end of last year. Now they're hoping to wrap it up this month. (The last major redistricting that ended in 1999 took about two years, but it was more extensive.)

Lines for High Point will of course be a hot topic. But there's also the issue surrounding Southern and Sumner elementary schools. Is the district's concern over space (Sumner has it, Southern doesn't and the area continues to grow) a valid reason to combine the two schools?

The district is growing by leaps and bounds. (More than 1,000 students per year.)

Is this the right approach? What do you think?

Read past articles about redistricting and see map proposals here. Word of caution, some of these maps are older versions we received early in the process. We're still working on making more legible, updated copies for online and/or the print edition based on the maps that came out recently. We'll keep you updated on when those will run.

Well, not quite frightful, but we did get a little snow this morning. That led Guilford County Schools and other school systems around the Triad to call a two-hour delay.

Some folks may be grumbling about that, since the roads in Greensboro were fine. But district officials also have to consider roads in the outlying areas, which may not be as clear.

Also, they have to make a decision pretty early - usually, before 6 a.m. It's a tricky balance, but usually, GCS transportation officials seem to make the right call.

I'm going to try to write about the R word without saying the R word. Let's see how long I can last, especially at 1:30 in the morning.

The board discussed R last night (Thursday, it's now Friday). Not surprisingly folks had a lot to say before the board had their say.

I'm fading fast here so at this time I'll just post a link to the comments by High Point representative Walter Childs.

I typed this from the copy of his comments that he gave to me after the meeting. Forgive me my typos. I did proofread it and think I got it copied exactly as it was written.

There's also some stuff in the print edition that should be arriving at your doorsteps ... now.

The school board agreed Thursday to spend $3.1 million to create two special academies that would siphon off students from Smith High School. The site is about a block away on Holden Road at the old Oakwood Mobile Home headquarters.

The special schools would likely include a medical careers/health academy early college similar to others already set up in the system. Smith already has a medical careers program, Grier said. The other could be construction technology or culinary arts or whatever the community thinks would be feasible there.

Is this a wise use of the district's money?

Everyone says the district should spend more resources where they're needed, the superintendent reminded folks Thursday. He noted that Smith is crowded and a high-impact school when it comes to poverty.

So this would give students alternatatives to a traditional education and reduce class sizes (OK, so maybe not 15 to 1, but this could potentially pull about 400 students out of Smith. That's one-fourth of the enrollment there now.)

The greenbacks would come from state public school building capital funds with about $1 million of the total from the district's own capital outlay money. That's what the district uses for items such as roof repair, emergency repairs and even buying mobile classrooms. In fact, they were using that maintenance money to pay for mobile classrooms used for the 2003 bond projects. So, to free up money for this project, the mobile classrooms will be charged back to the bond projects.

In English, that means $1 million will be taken out of the $300 million bond, cutting into the projects that have been put on hold because of rising costs in construction work. Anita Sharpe (an accountant, if you didn't know) said the mobiles should have been charged to each bond project in the first place.

So, is this a good use of taxpayer money? Does it address areas of concern, such as space and how to help schools impacted by high numbers of poor students?

I didn't want to post anything here until the big guy made the announcement official.

Bruce Buchanan, an award-winning reporter - but more importantly a good friend and excellent co-worker - is leaving the newspaper for another job.

I can't tell you what an asset the newspaper is losing. Bruce knew his stuff when it came to education reporting. I called on his expertise countless times as I adjusted to my move from the great Northern beyond, also known as Ohio, to the Tar Heel state nearly six years ago. I was working in the newspaper's Rockingham bureau at the time. Once I moved to the Greensboro office, it made it so much easier to just pop my head over the cubicle to ask him questions! :)

We'll miss him greatly here.

Here is a sampling of Bruce's work, much of which won him reporting awards:

Math test
Advanced Placement
Athletic scandal
Principal series
Testing scandal 1
Testing scandal 2
Testing scandal 3

You probably have seen this, but we've had a couple of requests to post the High Point City Council's statement on education. We always try to follow through on those requests, if we are able, so here it is.

Also, here's the story we wrote about the HP council meeting privately with GCS officials about redistricting.

Superintendent Terry Grier will answer education-related questions from local residents Friday morning.

A question-and-answer session with the Guilford County Schools superintendent is scheduled from 7:30 to 9 a.m. Friday at the Bank of Oak Ridge, 2211 Oak Ridge Road in Oak Ridge. The public is invited to the free event and all education topics are open for discussion.

The forum is sponsored by the Guilford Education Alliance.

******
UPDATE: FRIDAY, FEB. 17

Okay, I just got back from the Oak Ridge Q&A session with Dr. Grier.

Two meetings this week could decide where thousands of students will go to school in the next few years.

The school board meets at 6 p.m. today and 5:30 p.m. Tuesday. Redistricting takes up all of today's meeting and likely the lion's share of Tuesday's regular session.

A story in today's paper looks at the issues of diversity and neighborhood schools - concepts which parents don't all agree on and which the board will have to tackle with this round of redistricting.

Oh yeah - the Guilford County Board of Education is having a little meeting tonight.

The board met last night to discuss redistricting, in anticipation of making some decisions tonight. Board members got some answers to specific questions, but the bigger question - where to draw the lines - remains unanswered.

Staff members also introduced a fifth map for High Point last night - Map C*. This map would:

- Move the Parkview area from Andrews to Southwest;
- Move the Blairwood area from Andrews to Central;
- Move the White's Mill Road area from Southwest to Andrews.

I doubt you will see many unanimous votes tonight. In fact, it'll be interesting to see if the board can even reach an agreement on some of these hot topics, like High Point (obviously) and what to do with the Rankin kids.

We're here at the board meeting reporting live. I'll try to keep you updated as events unfold.

Redistricting is the last item on the agenda before board member comments. Check out the agenda here.

Right now, about 5:45 p.m., we're at the recognition stage. The board just recognized the purchasing department for winning an award and Bradley White, elementary physical education specialist at Madison Elementary, who received the Project Fit America 2006 All Star Teacher of the Year award.

Now they're recognizing all the teachers who went through the rigorous process of being National Board Certified.
"They're not here, were just recognizing them," board Chairman Alan Duncan told Kris Cooke, who began reading the list slowly, looking up into the crowd.

Each board member is reading names from the list. North Carolina has the largest population of certified teachers in the nation. Guilford typically sees many teachers get certified each year.

We're heading into public comment now. I'll let you discuss ...

If you haven't read today's paper, I'll provide you with a summation here. But before I do, I'd like to make a plea to anyone wanting to sound off on the board's votes. Please get in touch with me or Bruce. We're following up with stories for Thursday and later this week.
Reach us at jfernandez@news-record.com or 373-7064 or bbuchanan@news-record.com or 373-7078

UPDATE: See the maps here: High Point; Northern and other areas

Note that the High Point map changes are effective in fall 2006 for the high schools. However, the middle school changes are staggered.I believe that the Blairwood/Shadybrook changes would take effect in 2007 as would the Oakview west of Main section. All the other middle school changes begin in the fall, according to Eric Hoekstra. I'll double check that with him again on Thursday.

OK, now for the summary. We'll start with High Point:
A last-minute map, labeled C3, was approved. It is similar to previous C maps.

The main components are:
-Whites Mill Road from Southwest Middle and High to Andrews and Welborn.
-Penny Road area from Southwest High and Middle to Andrews and Welborn.
- Parkview attendance zone from Andrews and Welborn to Southwest Middle and High.
- Leonard Avenue area from Andrews to Southwest High and middle students to Southwest Middle. (The info provided Tuesday doesn't specify, but likely those students are from Welborn.)
-Assign the Shadybrook attendance area served by Andrews to Central. (This addresses the concern by some board members that Shadybrook was split between two high schools in previous maps.)

I know you may be unhappy about redistricting, but at least I hope we provided you with some information about it today.

For starters, we took an in-depth look at what these changes mean for High Point and heard complaints about the mystery of Map C3, which didn't appear until Tuesday night.

We also talked with parents affected by the changes. Some say they will move or take their kids to private schools.

Today's coverage also includes a look at redistricting winners and losers, a guide to redistricting and, of course, the maps.

It seems some people opposed to Tuesday's redistricting vote are showing their displeasure in public.

Of course, this redistricting protest shouldn't be a surprise to anyone here!

Here's a quick update on school board election filings.

So far, local voters don't have many choices, although we did get a couple of filings Thursday and today. The filing period ends Tuesday at noon.

- At-large: Nancy Routh (incumbent)
- District 2: Garth Hebert and Debbie Maines (Susan Mendenhall's seat)
- District 4: Alan Duncan (incumbent)
- District 6: Jeff Belton (Marti Sykes' seat)

Interestingly, no one (including incumbent Deena Hayes) has filed to run in District 8 yet. And three of the other four seats are unopposed races.

No matter who you vote for, it's always good to have choices; unopposed races are never good for the public. Our democracy depends on voters having choices, so here's hoping we'll have more filings Monday and Tuesday.

UPDATE (2 p.m. - Feb.28)
Filing closed at noon.
There will be only one contested race for the school board - District 2 in High Point.
In District 6 - which covers western Greensboro - a political newcomer received a free ride. No one else filed to run for Marti Sykes' seat.
And no one filed to run against any of the incumbents in the three remaining seats.
Do you think the lack of candidates means anything? Plenty of people have complained in recent months about the board needing to change. So how come nobody filed to run against the incumbents?

Students interested in getting a jump start on their careers can check out what schools offer during the final magnet/high school options fair Thursday. The fair is from 6-8:30 p.m. at Oak Hollow Mall.

Here's what students have to say about the opportunities they've found in career tech prep classes, which aren't just offered at Weaver.

Read more about all of the magnet/options offerings in Guilford County Schools here.