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No news happened between Nov. 6th and Nov. 9th?

..interesting.....

There was indeed news between Nov. 6 and 9 off the education beat. It was both online and in the newspaper. Jennifer was running the education beat solo during those dates (Morgan has had a few days off) which were busy due to the continuing situation with Eastern. A quick check of our publishing system shows Jennifer had at least four or five stories in process during that time that have shown up in the paper since or will Sunday.

As with the other beat-related blogs (Scoop, Front Pew, etc...) the News & Record hosts, this is a supplement to, not replacements for, the daily coverage in the paper and elsewhere online.

And yes, every now and then you will see a blog go quiet for a few days while its authors turn their attention to the hard-copy edition. If you see that happening and have a suggestion for a post, please send us an e-mail.

Mark,

why would the N&R not run a story about Garth Hebert winning in district 2? Both the Rhino Times and HPE did.
As one certain person said "this was a statement".

Well, it was and the N&R was nowhere.

District: I hate to let the facts get in the way of a good rant, but the N+R did run a story on Hebert winning. It was authored by staff writer Sue Schultz and ran on page B2 of the Wednesday paper.

The outcome of Hebert's race was also in the A1 rail of that same paper.

Mark,

Did we also miss seeing a report on the School Board Meeting where they gave Grier an extension and set some goals for him that are totally unmeasurable?

Stormy: Jennifer answer that question in this very post.

Mark,

I don't see any commentary on the goals or did I miss it? There was significantly more in the HPE hardopy edition several days ago.

Do you really think that what District 2 said was a rant? Really.

Mike, Herbert getting elected was good enough reason for a seperate strand. He has run on a platform for change and there waas plenty of discussion before the election.
As I said. Its appropriate for a seperate strand to continue the discussion on exactly what changes are needed.

District: The original inquiry was about a story, which I would take to mean coverage in the newspaper, not a "strand," which I would take to be something here online.

Stormy: I'm not going to get into a conversation of over the breadth and depth of the N+R's education coverage. I'm sure that's a conversation our education reporters would be happy to have and probably have had with you from time to time.

I will say, from my own point of view, the work that Jennifer and others have done regarding Eastern H.S. is probably a higher priority for us AT THE MOMENT than the subject in which you seem to be interested.

To you both: I'm the paper's state government reporter. I don't typically comment on other N+R blogs where I am not an author and I am by no means an expert on education coverage.

However, I felt compelled to do so in this case because commenters here were misrepresenting what had appeared in the paper and by extension were casting aspersions upon two of my colleagues who work very hard at what they do and have some darned good and meaningful work in recent weeks.

It's obvious you both care passionately about the school system here in Guilford County and would like the aspect that you are focused upon to receive more attention. That's fair enough and I think that argument can be made without the sort of hyperbole that's been used in this thread.

That's my two cents, which you may take or leave.

Mark,

Excuse me, but why are you getting so hostile? We were only asking why no coverage on some important things that are happening in the schools. Sure, the Eastern fire is an important event, but does it mean that everthing else that is going on should be ignored? YOur competition seems to fele that it is important enough to cover.

And, I resent your use of the word hyberole. Nothing that has been said here has been an obvious or intentional exagerration. I think that your posts are uncalled for here.

Mark,

If anyone is going over the top here its you. I have re-read the blog here and I dont see anyone having a go at your colleagues. Lighten up man.

Mistah Binker, are you another one of these N&R writers with utopian goals and no children in the Guilford County school system? It seems like most of the people at the N&R have no children at risk, but definite ideas about which 'hood other people's kids should be at.

Well, Mark is right - District2 said the N&R didn't run a story about Garth's victory. They didn't ask, "Did you run a story?", they said, "You didn't run a story."

This simply wasn't true and Mark pointed that fact out. I would call that an "obvious or intentional exaggeration," wouldn't you?

Folks,

Looks like the discussion about the election has carried on just fine without a separate strand. But since it is so important to y'all I'll create one.

As for our coverage, we do have to focus sometimes when one issue overshadows others. The fire at Eastern is a big deal. When 1,000 students are displaced and new schools need to be created for them, that's a big deal.

Granted, the fire was not as important to North High Point as the election. But we did run the outcome of District 2 in a story and the results rail on the front page.

Regarding other coverage, I'm not sure what other media outlets wrote about following last week's board meeting. I already explained why we didn't get something in the next day about the contract extension. Even if I'd been able to get it in, it would have been no more than a sentence or two.

It was a one-year extension with no pay raise (they did that earlier, which we reported).

The superintendent's goals? Here they are, feel free to discuss them:

*Develop and implement a process to inventory the effectiveness of the programs and initiatives that impact the district's improvement of its thematic goals for reading scores, middle school achievement and high school graduation rates, as measured by evaluation of the effectiveness of programs and overall progress shown on the district's Balanced Score Card assessment.

*Develop and implement an effective instructional leadership development training program for school administrators.

*Establish project teams to meet with representatives from various employee groups to review the findings from various working conditions surveys and develop and implement strategies to improve the working conditions for these groups as measured by next school year's survey results.

*Strengthen MWBE program based on implementation of processes and improvement in percentage participation.

*Increase number of schools making AYP.

*SAT improvement based on statistical study.

Jennifer, how can you possibly say the Eastern High fire is a big news story? Obviously, the now-defunct High Point Choice Plan from 2+ years ago is a much more relevant topic for today's paper.

Jennifer and Mark,

I've had my renewal subscription setting on my desk for sometime, and I have been contemplating whether to renew or not. The contempuous attitude that I have seen here the past few days toward your readers (aka customers) has convinced me that I no longer value getting your newspaper in my driveway anymore. I realize that this won't be a concern to you, but I thought that I would just let you know.

Jennifer,

Since you haven't seen what other area media outlets were able to get out about the secret board meeting, here's a free copy of what the HPE had to say:

Board gives Grier contract extension

Halloween came and went on Oct. 31, but Guilford County’s Board of Education still was playing trick­or- treat during a board meeting Nov. 9.

Late that night, with the television newscasts already completed and too late for newspaper deadlines, the board came out of a lengthy closed session to announce that Superintendent Terry Grier’s contract had been ex­tended another two years – to 2010.

The timing of the move certainly appears to be an effort by some members of the board to keep such potentially controversial action out of the public spotlight as much as possible.
Congratulations go to Nancy Routh and Darlene Gar­rett for voting no. With Anita Sharpe’s abstention, the vote was 8-2. Thank goodness, too, that Garth Hebert was elected to the board last week. Soon, the board will have someone who brings a business perspective to such dis­cussions. Perhaps he can influence enough of the others to quench the board’s desires to extend Grier’s contract before his future term is anywhere near its end.

The board established goals for Grier for the 2006-07 school year. It would have been wise for the board to wait until he achieved at least some of them before adding to his job security, especially since he already should have been well along on two of them:
● Developing a process to measure if programs and ini­tiatives geared toward improvement in scores and gradu­ation rates are working.
● Forming a project team to meet with school system employees to get feedback.

If Grier were as good a manager as eight members of the board appear to think he is, he would have achieved them long before now. The school district needs a better administrator evaluation system, and the board needs to stop trying to keep its actions out of the spotlight by play­ing games with the media."

Jennifer,

nobody else can be condescending on here but you. Frankly, your attitude makes me sick. I am from High Point, not North High Point and the Hebert story was big news to me. Your insistence that this is an NHP only thing annoys me.
As for Eastern, come on, its not a big deal. You can call them up and get an update. This kid of complacent journalsm will bring down a newspaper.

As for Grier. I hate that man. He has ruined the schools in HP. He makes me sick too.

Jennifer,
Thank you and your staff for the excellent coverage on Eastern Guilford High School. It has been very important and has met an immediate need for the Eastern community.

I have been depending on your posting of the school make-up schedule, bus information, etc to know where my child is going to school today! Yes it is posted on the internet, but many of our students do not have access to this that have access to your paper.

Many parents are in the dark about the tiniest details, for example.

Do we need to send lunch money to the school today if we have already paid online? I don't think the Brown Summit location has internet access. We sent money anyway, but I hope others thought to.

What supplies do we need to buy and send with our student this week?

Have bookbags been donated and are there enough for eveyone? How and when will they be distributed?

Are there lockers at Brown Summit?

What supplies can we send to help the teachers out for tommorrow?

When are the report cards that were suppose to be sent out two weeks ago coming home?

Were the report cards destroyed in the fire or have they just not had time to send them out? We have no idea what our students grades are for the firs half of the semester.

Who do we contact concerning our students grades,
schedules, etc? Where are the counselors located?

How do we contact the teacher if they do not have internet or phones in the classrooms?

If a student is placed in a class that he was not in 2 weeks ago, how is he going to pass and get credit for the class when he will be 9 weeks behind? For example, some weighligting students are now in Computer Applications 1.

How do we contact our student in case of emergency?

Where is the office at the Brown Summit facility?

I'm the PTSA president and I cannot answer these questions. Jennifer can you find out...and post
this info in the paper for us. It can be on the
back page, just somewhere to get this info to all
of our parents....thanks so much........

For those with internet access...keep up to date
and in contact with events at
www.wildcatfamily.com
Next student event
Saturday, Nov 18th...11 - 4:00
Town of Gibsonville..by the Merchants Association
Recognizing Eastern High students with fun, food, and music...
Memorial T-shirts...will be sold at the
Nov 17th Lighting of the Greens in Gibsonville in
the formal Boone Furniture store location. All
available Eastern merchandise will be available at this location.

But...I thought the Eastern fire was no big deal? That's what "The Real Truth" says, anyway.

"As for Eastern, come on, its not a big deal. You can call them up and get an update."

As a reporter who has been working on this story for the Rock Creek Record, an N&R-run community weekly in eastern Guilford/western Alamance, I must respectfully disagree. As Pam Dawson alluded to, there are so many questions to be answered with a story of this magnitude, and our readers are asking us to answer them.

It's not simply about the basic facts -- which, yes, we could perhaps get by making a series of phone calls (though certainly more than one). It's about the thousands of real people across Guilford County (EGHS students come from as far away as High Point) whose lives have been affected by this acute, unexpected and massive-in-scale tragedy. Telling those stories requires us to get off our duffs and talk to those people, and that requires a lot of time if you're going to do it right.

Chris,

Thanks for the info. I didn't realize kids from High Point were being bused in to Eastern. Was that part of the last redistricting?

Real Truth,

I understand that the District 2 race was important to you. We didn't ignore it. A story ran on B2 and results ran on A1, same as the races for sheriff and commissioners. Only the bonds got a story on the A1 front that day. We also previewed the District 2 race shortly before the election to give folks an idea of how the candidates stood on various issues.

What questions or issues about the race do you feel still need answered?

As for the coverage of Eastern, we feel the situation warrants a focus of our resources. Especially right now, with the immediate need from the community to understand what has happened and get questions answered. As you can tell by Pam's post, there are still many more questions and concerns for that community.

I've covered education for more than 10 years (first in Ohio and now here) and have never seen a school destroyed by fire. I've never seen a district have to basically recreate new school environments for more than 1,000 students.

And we’ve hardly been complacent. The district has limited our access to the new Eastern sites. So instead of relying solely on the district for updates, we’ve spent the past two weeks tracking down families and trying to get the story from them.

What about how our schools are doing academically? Didnt complete ABC data come out recently?
I really think that info Pam requests above should be provided by GCS and not an Education reporter.

Truth,

ABCs came out Nov. 1, the day of the fire. We had a story, complete with a chart, in the paper the next day.

And yes, GCS should provide for Eastern parents the information Pam requested. But it's part of our job, too. We do it all the time, in varying degrees (ie. events calendars, the school district calendar, etc.).

In something like this, we're able to compile a variety of information into one place. And printing it makes it available to folks who don't have computers, or whose kids don't bring home information from the school to their parents.

Shouldn't Sonya Conway and her staff be providing answers to all of these questions? Ms. Conway's department is named District Relations, so shouldn't they be relating to people and keeping them informed? If the district had a disaster recovery program in place, they would have put a communications plan into place for events such as this. In such plans, you anticipate disasters such as this even you don't think they will ever really happen, becaue as we have seen, they do. Local media should be part of the communications plan, but not in its entirety.

Re:
In something like this, we're able to compile a variety of information into one place.
%%%%%
The appropriate place for this information is the GCS website not the N+R. If GCS does not provide it then its the N+R's job to put pressure on GCS. You should not do it for them!

You assume everyone has internet access.....
the teachers of Eastern do not even have
internet access and may not have it anytime soon!!

It would be very costly to the school and to the district to send a mail out every day to over 1500 people to keep us informed, especially as quickly as things are changing.

The newspaper is a very affordable and practical way to keep us informed. The district office is working to get the school up and running and this is an enormous task that no one has had to face before.

The newspaper and television reporters are helping by keeping the students, teachers, and parents informed and they have all done an excellent job!

I understand that there are other issues that need to be covered, but don't harass these guys so much. They have the same staff with twice the work load.
They can get back to the ABC results next week.
These results will not change in a week!

I am also certain that the minute the elected officials that you cherish so much steps out of line they will soon become the victims of your vicious blogging.

You have made it quite clear that you don't care about the students, teachers and staff at Eastern Guilford.

Soon we will go back into our normal quiet routine and you can continue with your daily useless and unproductive postings!!

By the way Truth, you can get the ABC results off of the GCSNC website and the State website as well as this they can!!

complete report at
http://www.gcsnc.com/pdfs/2005-06abc.pdf

Sorry Deb...I think I just lost the grace under pressure attribute.......enough is enough!

Pam,

Your post sounds more like you are addressing a group rather than an individual. I don't think I need to remind you that Eastern has received support from ALL areas of GC including H.P. Our schools and parents have collected money, sent supplies and have assisted in as many ways as we can. We have followed the updates with concern, knowing that this could have happened to any school. Please don't bite the hand that feeds you because you didn't like the post of one individual.

You have made it quite clear that you don't care about the students, teachers and staff at Eastern Guilford.

***************

Yes, they have, Pam. They've made it abundantly clear that they have zero concern for these folks who have lost their school. Nope, it's all about them and their petty grudges.

I, for one, appreciate the efforts of the N&R and the local TV stations to keep Eastern parents, students and staff informed during this crisis.

And you are right, Amazing - people in High Point have contributed to the Eastern effort. They just aren't the same handful of High Point folks who spew their venom on this blog. Those people remind me of the Grinch who stole Christmas - I can't see them caring for anyone but themselves.

I'd like to know more about the High Point kids that are bused to Eastern. That just doesn't sound right. (see Chris Coletta's post above).

If GCS is truly busing kids from the southwestern most part of the county to the eastern most, then there's more wrong with this school board than I imagined.

Amazing,

My comments are intended for the "group" of specific "fictitious characters" behind some of the postings on this blog that have chosen to attack the reporters that have been so kind to our community.

You are right about the outpouring of support and caring from people all over the triad, and we do appreciate it. We also appreciate the effort that these reporters have put into keeping us up to date. They have had to leave their desk and try to track down information. They appreciate how difficult attaining this information has been for us.

Personal attacks on these reporters is wrong!

Give them time to catch up.......

Pam,
you just keep doing what you are doing for your kids! The 'choice plan' in HP caused such havoc in many lives, that it is still the catalyst on this blog for many. It is the drive and the passion of many.. however not all.

I will never agree with that now defunct plan but it didn't affect my family, as it did many.

I do think this forum can be a good way to communicate, and share our pain and frustrations and share ideas. Many times we disagree, sometimes there are personal attacks, most times we get off track, but there are times that we have open communication.

I have learned many interesting things by reading this blog, but I have chosen not to post as often as I use to. I do wish we had more posters, with new ideas and opinions that our county might benefit from. I wish that not everything was about the choice plan, but that is the reason that many are now involved in our schools and their involvment is a good thing.

There is more help on the way for Eastern, many of the PTSA presidents gave checks from their parents to Debbie at yesterday's meeting. I have things at my school to bring, as did others. Of course our checks were made to the PTSA, as we would rather an organization of parents have the money to address needs on a personal level than the GCS. I know that as parents, you and your board will make the best decisions for your kids.

Debora,

Thank you and everyone that is working behind the scenes.

The shock is wearing off and frustration is starting to set in as our students are heading back to school.

Our juniors and seniors were met on their first
day at the GTCC campus with "GTCC students" chanting for us to get off of their *expletive* campus. The press was kept on the other side of
the building as this was happening.

GTCC students just followed our students into the classrooms or just showed up in the classrooms making comments.

Our girls were followed and heckled at and some of the boys have been threatened. The second day our students cars were broken into on the GTCC parking lot. The campus is very poorly lit at night and concern for the safety of the teachers and students is high among parents and staff members. There is no sense of safety inside or outside of the GTCC building.

Our students are afraid on the GTCC campus!
No one ever expected us to face these kinds of problems.

At Brown Summit,
Also, its true they finally fed the last lunch
yesterday around 3:00 and later, but some students still did not get anything to eat all day.

We can deal with and be patient with a few problems with scheduling, but the safety and welfare of these students need to be addressed immediately!!

I hope as PTSA president that you are voicing your concerns about safety loudly to the GCS staff. They should hire another SRO if necessary. I heard that the problems were with the GTCC middle college kids, not the regular students. Is that what you think? Tell your girls to only go places with a 'buddy'-- they shouldn't have to do that, but take precautions. Call your BOE representatives and ask what they are planning on doing about it. Get in their faces about this. Education and safety go hand in hand.

Get a group of fathers to do car patrol in the evening-- with lots of flashlights- don't let anyone walk to their car alone. You know the drill... you will have to be proactive until the system can be reactive.

Pam,
I dont believe that I mentioned anything about High Point. I asked about ABC data. I do not think that a discussion on this is "useless and unproductive" either.

I wish the children of Eastern well. God forbid you get treated like HP people have been and continue to be treated. It seems that you, Pam, have jumped on that band wagon very nicely. Shame.

I still disagree that its Jennifers job to go after all this info. GCS should be providing it. That is just my opinion.

I actually agree with your statement, but in the absence of this pertinent information being provided by Guilford County Schools, we appreciate her/their effort very much!!

Deb,
We are already in motion for the students, I was
in a meeting for three hours last night discussing these topics. A parent asked me a question that I cannot answer. Since this is a GTCC campus and other students are allowed to carry up to 3 inch
knifes, can our students and teachers carry MACE
for their protection.

Pam, I am glad we agree and I also understand you being grateful to the N+R and Jennifer.

Pam,

The Eastern fire is a terrible tragedy to our county. I think we all feel horribly for the students and their losses.

With all due respect, for one moment, just imagine if the day after the fire the School Board announced that there would be a lottery to determine where the Eastern kids would go to school.

The poorer children would get their first pick of Page, Northeast, or Southeast. The rest would be randomly assigned by a computer program.

That would have been even more tragic - wouldn't it?

While SW, thankfully, didn't burn, our kids were forced into a random lottery - kids who had gone to school since kindergarten and who lived side-by-side were now assigned to 2 different schools- neither of which was SW.

Then the board tosses that and decides to bus children who live 1 mile from SW to several miles away at Andrews - the worst performing school in the state.

Now do you get a sense of the frustration expressed by the SW parents?

Allen,

I think you were actually referring to "just saying"'s numbers.

In any event, they're very accurate and published on the NC DPI website. Anyone can check it out.

Now - where did you get the numbers to state that achievement was up?

I think Allen's post that you're referring to was on his blog, Thinking Out Loud.