News-Record.com

At the private school my niece goes to they watched the school board meetings on Channel 2. The students all wrote mulitple page essays on why they are so glad they left the public school system after being redistricted. Others did research on the law. Many wrote about neighborhood schools and Brown vs Board of Education. I'll tell her about the Time Warner project.

Jennifer,

The High Point Enterprise has 2 articles in today's paper regarding the Commissioners' meeting Thursday night. They're reporting that the Commissioners voted 10-1 to not approve moving more funds from the 2003 School Bond (Jamestown Middle School) to a new project at Smith High School.

They're also reporting that GCS is under some sort of court order to remove 300 students from Smith to another facility.

I have seen nothing about either of these 2 important stories in the News & Record.

Why?

quest,

Because Bruce is gone..

Maybe because they didn't want the story to get out!

Perhaps these students need to go to Page and Grimsley since we are redistricting the WHOLE county by diversity. It looks like they need some of this too.

changing the subject:
i am curious about this state mandate for smith which apparently is requiring gcs to move 300 kids out of that school and into a new facility.

i simply do not remember smith high being labelled such a poor performing school. its got to be better than andrews which is the 2nd lowest performing school in the entire state (vicinity of 7000 schools) and was given state assistance.

it seems that the state would have mandated andrews make more changes than smith. why would the state be tougher on smith which seems to be performing better than andrews, instead of requiring more help for andrews students?

has anyone seen this very specific state mandate for smith? has anyone seen anything published about this mandate? i heard a lot about andrews and the middle college, but absolutely remember nothing being reported about smith.

jennifer, if the n-r has published anything along these lines, or if you have any info, would you please post? many thanks

A recent edition of The Christian Science Monitor reported on a dropout study commissioned by the Gates Foundation. The article pointed out that nationally, one-third of all high school students don't graduate. The dropout rate for black students is 49.8%, 48.9% for Native American students, 46.8% for Hispanic students, 25% for white students, and 23.2% for Asian students.

The study found out that students drop out for a variety of reasons. Many don't drop out because they can not do the work; they find school too boring. Others are too far behind, some are more worried about pregnancy, family issues, or trouble dating.

At least five states are considering raising the minimum age that a student can legally drop out of school from 16 to 18. A dropout earns $9,200 per year less than a high school graduate.

While we have much work to do, our district is already doing many of the things that the report recommended to curb the dropout rate.

Terry old boy, what are you going to do with those drop outs from N.High Point? I heard they are dropping out as early as middle school.

I blame the parents.

Who's gunna flip me burgers?

Oh, please Terry Grier..."CHRISTIAN Science Monitor"??

What next, forcing prayer on the North High Point kids to keep them from dropping out?

Believe me, we're praying all right, but not for a lower drop out rate...

There was also no article in the paper about the trailer fire at Florence Elementary Thursday night. The trailer is no longer able to be used, and they don't know what caused the fire, or so says the principal to the students. Of course, no note, no call, no nothing from the school. It's word of mouth and par for the course.

Maybe Dr. Grier could give us his opinion on mysterious fires at school buildings. I think he has experienced one or two or three or was it four?

Jennifer,

Can you please print the news about the Court Order to move the Smith students?

Can you print the story that HPE printed today about a 10-1 vote of the commissioners not approving the funds for Smith? Who was the person that was the one vote?

Can you please print the new about the fire at Florence? how much damage? was anyone hurt?

Can you please print the list of schools in the state Judge Manning is threatening to close. Dudley and Smith were listed tonight at 10:00 p.m.on Fox 8.

Are you short handed since Bruce left? Why are you not publishing the school news? All of it??

Maybe Dr. Grier has told Jennifer not to publish?

This sent to me by a friend who watched the Commissiones meeting. Jennifer why aren't you reporting this? SEE BELOW:

I just watched the commissioner meeting - first I cannot believe the n&r did not report on the meeting there was SIGNIFICANT TIME spent on the school money issue and most of that time was NOT GOOD FOR GCS!

Steve Arnold wants to know who Judge Manning is - why is he telling Guilford County what to do with their schools

Billy met with a "group" and was told by one father with 3 kids in Jamestown Schools (I think)he will NEVER vote for another bond - then Billy blasted the school board! The school board had gone to a jamestown board meeting and SOLD them on supporting the bonds.

The almost 2.9million the requested to be transfer is actually 3 different transactions from Jamestown Project.

JENNIFER WHAT GOES HERE?
-

You can watch the Commissioners Meeting today at 1:00 p.m.

Jennnnnnnnniiiiiiiiiiffffffffffffffeeeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr?

Nice to see Guilford Co. had two schools on Judge Manning's list. Dr. Grier, is it not INSANE that you have stood around spending the last two years not doing ANYTHING to improve education in guilford co. where it is needed most, but instead have squandered our time, resources, political capital and psychic energy to ceaselessly persue a single highschool so you could convert it from 44% minority to 56% minority. For a net change of 12 percentage point minority enrollment at a single one out of fourteen hgihschools in your district, you have compromised many other projects that are much more important. Please offer resignation or at least explanation. If you are a boardmember who has supported this outrage and have not already elected to not seek re-election, please resign immediately. You need to do this for all our sakes.

Now we know why Terry Grier has begun posting to the CB this week proclaiming the successes of reducing and holding the drop-out rate down. He knew the bad news was coming about the failures of two of his high schools. That's a good political move to try to pre-emept bad news by trying to create a focus on and selling something as good news. Note to Terry Grier: It didn't work. We weren't fooled.

John,

My question is why the action that is threatened is to fire the principals of the two schools? Is possible that a school is under performing because of the principal only, espescially in Guilford County where principals are changed more often than Terry Grier's socks? How can we hold one person responsible for the failure of a school? I say that the superintendent should be held responsible. He is the one that allocates resources and sets the curriculum, not the principal. The principals can't even go to the bathroom in this county without consulting with TG. It's now time for Terry Grier to be outta here.

Lowering the drop-out rate is being done by dumbing down instruction and throwing discipline out the window. To most quickly improve the government schools, the drop-out rate should go up. This can easily be accomplished by eliminating those who only show up to eat, socialize, and disrupt the education of others. I taught in Guil. Co. for 30 years. This road is consistently blocked by administrators.

Dr. Grier,

2 of the worst performing schools in NC (according to last year's test scores) are in Guilford County.

Now, 2 of the worst 30 schools in the state (using the last 5 years of data) are in Guilford County.

No other school system in the entire state has that distinction.

The common denominator is YOU.

Terry.....YOUUUUUUUUU whooooooooooooooo??? Hey Terry??? Not posting this morning??? What's wrong? Too many questions that you don't have appropriate "Bamboozle" answers for yet??????? It really is time to quit urinating on High Point, you've got a whole county to fix!!!!!

You're in quit a mess ol' man. It's either time for a buy out or a fire...which will it be???

Saw Dr. Childs driving a bus down Barrow road today.
I wonder what he was doing that for?

I saw the bus too!!!!! That's so nice of Dr. Childs for offering to drive the bus!!!!!!!

He can even take Ms. Frizzle's place.

Does anyone know why our school principal would pull out the top 10% of our graduating senior class and request them to take an SAT prep class
and re-take an SAT test paid for by Guilford County Schools? All of these students have been accepted by their school of choice. Example
NC State, East Carolina Appalachian, Elon, UNCG,
Clemson.......and this spring they have enough to do.

Does anyone know the purpose?

I had to pay for my child's Sat prep class!

What gives?????? That's right 269 smackroos!!!!!

Lisa,

Which school??? Earlier in the year a group of seniors from, I think, Southeast presented a petition to the School Board asking that they not be required to take this class - for the very reasons you cite. The School Board realized how ridiculous this was and it was stopped at that school.

Quest,

There WAS a petition and this was brought up at a school board meeting because it pulled these same high achievers out of AP class time. I had a friend tell me this has happened at Page before.

Lisa,

You can bet it has to do with raising the numbers and the statistics. More high scores to report "again".

Yes this fall Eastern Guilford seniors were also being asked to pull out of AP classes to take the SAT prep test on the computer, regardless of whether or not they had already been accepted to a college.

Now the same seniors (top 10%) have been asked to take a class taught by teachers that are currently being trained to teach the SAT. Once they take the class, they are expected to retake the SAT, paid for by Guilford County. They say if they make higher scores it will help them to get more scholarship money, which is a hard sell since most money for this year has been given out and most deadlines are past.

I just want to know what the real pupose is and why it is so difficult to get a straignt answer.

Gentlepeople:

It seems pretty easy to write whatever you want and claim to be ANYBODY you want here. Is it possible that Grier is NOT posting here and someone is impersonating him?

Houdini.....I mean Mr. Grier:

For all your whining on an earlier blog about not getting coverage about the drop==out rates.....well, you got your wish. If you have time today read the N and R and HP Enterprise. It
is great coverage for the inaccurate numbers given regarding drop-out rates..I bet the number cruncher is a GCS grad. or maybe not?!!!!!
Be careful what you wish for...................

Quoting from High Point Enterprise:

"Word is that state education officials will begin reporting dropout percentages and graduation rates via a different system in 2007, one that is more in line with most, if not all, of the reporting methods the other 49 states use.
  Casual observation of what’s happening locally also raises questions about low dropout rates. It’s common knowledge that something less than 75 percent of the students entering ninth grade in high schools in High Point, and probably the remainder of the county as well, gain a diploma after four years, rather than the 97 percent figures given for Guilford would indicate.
  That translates into the actual dropout rate at least seven times higher, as Public Policy Watch noted, than figures released last week.
  We all should be happy that dropout prevention efforts are making headway. We all should be sad over the fact that the figures reported don’t ring true – or even close.
  What kind of lessons do such shenanigans give our students?"

Worse, what kind of fales sense of security does this give our community. Is it fair to lull the masses into a false sense of security like they did the County Commissioners into transferring funds from a voted on project to another new pet project to hide the problem Judge Manning has made public.

The commissioners should be ashamed that they were lulled into yet another school board con.

The real drop out rate simply calculated would be number of kids entering 9th grade, less number of kids graduating, divided by number of kids entering ninth grade. ie 1000-600=400 400/1000 = 40% probably much closer to real number.

At least 10 times the rate Dr. Grier lays claim to. Maybe he has gone to far or he blames it on the high priced statistician.

The story about Smith and Dudley being on the state closing list of schools was in the N & R on page B4 on Sunday. It was an Associated Press release.

Jennifer where are you? Are you on vacation or did you quit too?

Are you going to run a detailed follow-up on why Smith and Dudley are on the closing list of schools?

I heard Southern High was not doing so well this year. Can you verify this and give us a report on Southern?

What is the story about a new program being offered at Western High School? Where is GCS getting money for this new project? We can only hope and pray more money is not coming out of the Jamestown Middle School bond fund.

Garth,

It was mentioned in the News-Record editorial today that the drop-out rate doesn't include kids that stop going to school?? I'm not sure what that means as I would assume that kids that have dropped-out also stopped going to school. What do they have to do to be counted as drop-outs, fill out an application?

Dropping out must require an exam, if you fail you do not get to be a drop out, evidently that is now called a "drop off". If Grier believes he has made progress, then he should publish the real numbers for us. How many kids really finish High School in Guilford County and How many start - Raw numbers, not massaged. With population moving in, this should give the raw numbers to him and the advantage to him, yet we do not see these numbers. Why?