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ESL stands for English as a Second Language. Guilford County Schools has somewhere around 4,800 students whose first language is not English. These students come from about 100 countries and speak more than 80 languages (it might be more than 90 languages this year). The majority speak Spanish.

UNCG is hosting a seminar on April 4 to address the issue of how to help these students. Here is a list of speakers:

• Jillian Haeseler, assistant professor of linguistics at Greensboro College. She will open the discussion with "Classrooms without Borders: Identity, Culture in Second Language Learning and Teaching."
• Micheline Chalhoub-Deville, professor of educational research methodology in the UNCG School of Education. Chalhoub-Deville will discuss "Academic English language learning testing in grades K-12."
• H. Nolo Martinez, assistant director for research and outreach at the Center for New North Carolinians. Martinez will consider the roles and responsibilities of colleges and universities in educating diverse student populations.

The district provides services to these students in their schools. Some schools now have interpreters to help work with parents as well.

But some school systems have invested more, starting "welcome centers" to help these students learn English and adjust more quickly. Guilford officials have talked about it in recent years, but have not started a center.

Should they?

We wrote today about Guilford's dropout rate being the lowest among the large, urban districts in the state and lowest in the Triad. The data came from the state's annual report released Wednesday.

While Guilford's rate remains low, it has been fairly steady for about three years now. The state rate also has flattened out, and this at a time when schools are making more efforts to help students stay in school. Those efforts include smaller, themed high schools and middle colleges, where students study on college campuses.

Why is it so important? Letting students drop out has serious consequences, as former N&R reporter Bruce Buchanan wrote in this October 2005 series. (Story 2; Story 3)

What more should school systems be doing to reach these students?

Time Warner Cable wants to give teachers $1,000 for the creative use of cable TV in their classroom.

Know anyone who qualifies? They must teach in a state accredited public or private school (K-12) in the Time Warner Cable service area. Classroom projects must have taken place between Sept. 1, 2005 and April 14, 2006.

For more information or to receive an entry form, contact Susan D. Lawson at 336-217-6653 or susan.lawson@twcable.com

Judge Howard Manning Jr., who has presided over the Leandro school funding case, sent a letter (Please be patient, this PDF takes awhile to load) Friday to the state superintendent and board chairman threatening to close high schools that are not improving.

Dudley and Smith high schools were among the 19 schools identified by Manning, according to an Associated Press report that ran in the News & Record Saturday.

We're working on a follow up story for tomorrow's paper.

Last night, Guilford County Board of Education members reacted to Judge Howard Manning's mandate to fix failing schools or face serious restructuring next year.

Here's how Charlotte reacted. (Registration may be required.)

Today's story focused on Dudley and Smith, but the board also voted on a few items that might interest someone out there.

The board:
• agreed to use the proceeds from selling the former Rena Bullock School to help pay for part of the renovation work at Southeast High School. The state Department of Environment and Natural Resources is requiring that a water line be extended to the school, which will cost about $650,000, said Kevin Lear, the school system’s chief operations officer. The current $1.5 million project for classroom additions and a cafeteria expansion does not cover the waterline cost, he said.
The school, which closed in 1988, could bring about $163,000 based on the current offer.

• delayed a decision on redistricting a portion of Southwest Elementary so the board can review demographic data and to allow for public comment. The proposal was overlooked when the board completed redistricting last month.
About 100 students would be moved from Southwest to Colfax Elementary. But they would still attend Southwest Middle and High schools.
The affected area is south of Interstate 40, west of Sandy Ridge Road and north of Clinard Farm Road and Piedmont Parkway.
The move would take effect when a new elementary school opens to serve the northwest area, likely in 2007.
• delayed again a decision on the Simeon Stadium deal. This was for a technical issue. The lawyers needed to include in the final contracts the full legal descriptions of the land involved.

Sam Houston, a longtime educator who advocates for more science, math and technology education, recently talked to Guilford County leaders about how to better prepare students.

In case you missed the 7:30 a.m. breakfast meeting, here's his slide presentation. (You need Powerpoint to read this.)

What do you think of what Houston has to say about thinking globally and preparing students better for high-skilled jobs?

Sorry, I'm just getting around to posting Sunday's story on redistricting. Thanks to Jonathan over at the North High Point and Jamestown blog for posting it earlier.

This week I'm shifting gears back to Dudley and Smith for some stories that likely will run later this week. I'm hoping to look at how communities are rallying around these schools to help and see what's up with the state assistance teams promised by Gov. Easley back in August.

A judge today ordered a delay in requiring comprehensive eye exams for all students entering kindergarten.

Judge Leon Stanback signed a consent order Tuesday disallowing any additional court proceedings until October and preventing the state from enforcing the requirement until at least July 1, 2007, the Associated Press reported.

About a dozen school systems - including our neighbors in Alamance-Burlington and Winston-Salem/Forsyth - joined a lawsuit last month protesting the eye exam requirement. Eye doctors have argued the more extensive exams are not warranted unless a child fails a prescreening.

Should the state be allowed to require these exams? What about families who can't afford them? Or those in rural areas who have to travel a long distance just to access a doctor who can conduct the exam?

Charlotte-Mecklenburg's superintendent has submitted her budget for 2006-07.

It includes cuts of about $9 million and a request for $31.8 million more from county commissioners. Some of the areas targeted for the extra money:

* $4.9 million for teacher and administrator recruitment and retention incentives.
* $2.2 million to decentralize the district into smaller regions.
* $2.2 million to address equity in funding through a new weighted student staffing model.
* More than $837,000 to address safety by expanding the academic truancy/suspension centers and Positive Behavior Intervention and Support programs.

Is this a sign of things to come in Guilford County as the district here prepares its budget for next school year?

The superintendent has until May 1 to give his version to the school board. However, last year, he turned it in about three weeks early.

County commissioners have asked to get the school budget earlier, although legally it is not due to commissioners until May 15.

As school officials look at the budget, where should they cut, what should they add?

School officials will go before county commissioners (scroll down to page 6) tonight to get approval on using state and county funds to create an early college academy for Smith High School.

Our editorial board offered its opinion on that issue today.

The crux: some of the money would come out of the 2003 bond.

It's kind of a confusing path that goes something like this:

The state money the district wants to use for the Smith Academy needs to be matched by local funds. Typically that comes from capital outlay. But the board has been charging some of the 2003 bond costs - specifically the use of classroom trailers - to capital outlay instead of the bond. Rising construction costs have put the bond projects over budget already, not including the trailer costs. (Read previous stories here and here.)The school board put the Jamestown projects at the bottom of the list when it prioritized projects after construction costs started to go up.

So school officials want to charge back the trailer costs to the bond, freeing up the capital outlay money they had used for the trailers to cover the local match to the state money for Smith.

Phew. OK, did you get all that?

The idea behind using the bond money for Smith is that there won't be enough left over for the Jamestown project anyway - the other bond costs have already eaten into it. We don't have an updated tally, but it was about $11 million back in September.

Should they let the money sit there until they can scrape up enough elsewhere to do the project or spend it now on students at other schools?

Struggling high schools were promised help from the state. But the teams of top-level educators haven't shown up in most of the targeted schools - including 12 in the Triad.

Read more in today's News & Record.

Some related links you might be interested in:
Audits of Dudley, Smith and Central
Fall semester EOC results for Guilford's high schools

Joey Cheek, gold and silver medalist at the recent Winter Olympics, will visit Aycock Middle and Dudley High on Thursday.

Cheek is a Dudley graduate.

The visits are part of the city's celebration of the hometown hero. The News & Record is sponsoring a charitable luncheon that day with Cheek. Here's the full schedule of events for that day. (Note: The WXII interview noted on the schedule will actually air during the evening broadcast.)

Lindalyn Kakadelis, who I interviewed for the redistricting story, sent me this interesting piece from the Gotham Gazette. I thought some of you might like to read it.

A New York City teacher and an author/New York Times education columnist talk about the system there and the policy of breaking down large (2,500- to 4,000-student) high schools. They also touch on some other topics, including racial segregation/integration in relation to education.

Check it out. Let me know what you think.

Superintendent Terry Grier is a finalist for the Charlotte job, according to the Charlotte Observer. When pressed last night by reporters, Grier would neither confirm nor deny the report.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg could officially release the names of its top three finalists today.

It looks like the Charlotte school board may be struggling (Registration may be required) with the process to replace retired Superintendent James Pughsley.

You've seen it here, struggling students told they must take double doses of English and math to improve their test scores.

But is this narrow focus - which is a result of the federal No Child Left Behind Act - squeezing out other aspects of education that should be equally important?

The New York Times reports on this issue in Sunday's edition. (Registration may be required.)

Charlotte officials have announced the schedule for their community to meet superintendent candidates, including GCS Superintendent Terry Grier.

Next Wednesday (April 5) is the day.

UPDATE: The Guilford school board spent three hours Wednesday night discussing Grier's future behind closed doors.