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If a sophomore is in a class with juniors and seniors, what does he do?

Did the school board look into the possibility of using vacant space at the Guilford Center, off Mt. Hope Church Rd.?

I personally think we should keep our students together, as a whole. Seperating the students will only cause hardship and confusing. What is you have a senior/junior who drives to school that has a sibling that is a sophomore/freshman? Think about the hardship of the underclassmen getting to school. Think about the friendships broken apart from the separation. And what about the sports? Having everyone as a whole at Northern Middle School seems to be the most obvious and sain solution to me. That way they will all be together, they will all have their friendships back with their piers and also the relationships that they have established with the staff as well. And also regarding sports, they would have access to playing/practice facilities as well. I can only hope the school board and administration reconsiders the Northern Middle School idea. All for the LOVE of the children! Children First!

Moving everyone to the new Northern Middle School in January or September is a great idea. However, that does not solve the immediate problem. Something like this was considered and offered to Improvement Team. They rejected it. They do not want to move twice in one year. So the move to Northern should be in August. This means Northern will set unused in the Spring.

It appears that once again, the school board didn't listen to the parents and students. It would seem that they didn't want to use Northern. Why didn't the school board rep for that district fight for what the people wanted? It sounds as though they were quided by what was the easiest for the school district.

Northern is in the untouchable white belt of this wonderful County we live in.

White Belt? I wasn't aware that cotton was a staple crop in Guilford County.

Northern Middle is not immediately available. The usual pattern in GCS seems to be that schools aren't ready on time so it may not be just sitting empty in Spring. It probably will not be ready. Also the HVAC, sprinkler system, etc. should be tested before the building is occupied and the building should have a permanent certificate of occupancy after the construction has been THOROUGLY inspected, IMO.

I think the immediate concern would be the short-term goal, to provide these children with an education with the least disruption as possible in an emergency situation.

Remember Dudley? Are the HVAC problems corrected yet.

Yes, MA McQuinn, the Guilford Center is a future, long range consideration.

It appears to me the Board's decision was well thought out to address an issue that needed immediate attention.

Wanting to get hundreds of parents and kids involved in helping them to make a decision that had a 72 hour window is absurd. In a situation such as this speed and execution are paramount.

Kudos to the Board and Dr. Grier for their decision in light of the time constraints as well as the limited options that were available to them.

I have personally talked with Dr. Grier and Alan Duncan about the sites available and listened to
their explanations and decision making process. They did take all of these sites that have been listed into account. They also listened to the students desire to stay together in their own facility. It will be very inconvenient for some people, but we need to pull together and coordinate efforts to solve the logistical problem. Given the time frame that they had to work with these are the best physical locations for now. The goal being to get the students back on schedule as quick as possible.

Dr. Grier has repeated this several times. This situation is suppose to be until the end of this school year and these facilities were available immediately. Where they go Fall of 2007 has not been decided? The Guilford Center and Northern Middle are still open options.

I commend the school board members, Guilford County staff, and Eastern High staff for pulling together and expediting this decision making process. It is important especially for students taking EOC courses to get them back in class ASAP, and with the same teachers if possible.

This was an extremely difficult and challenging task and they should receive nothing but praise for these efforts!! Thank you....

The Guilford Center is only an option if GCS purchases the property.

I believe that we can build a building in 21 months, not three years. Everybody has to put the shoulder to the wheel. Opening of the new school should be August 15, 2008. Let's make it happen.

Where will the district get the money to either buy the Guilford Center or build a new school for Eastern? Whatever settlement they get from insurance is unlikely to come close to covering the cost. Unless the district had replacement cost coverage, which is doubtful as it is expensive, then they'll likely get the value of the building, about $16 million. So, where will the balance come from? Even if they float a school bond in 2007, they couldn't have a building built by August 15, 2008. As I recall from discussions a couple of years ago, the price of the Guilford Center was in the vicinity of $100 million, maybe more.

The money would come from the Gateway West and the Union Hill Replacement School funds in the current bond issue. No need to wait. This, plus insurance money and lottery money would be enough. You don't have to all money on hand to start.

The Guilford Center is not $100 million. It is far cheaper that building space. The cost is less than 20 million, I think.

The Pentagon was rebuilt after 9/11 in 1 year. Cost about 950 million. If there is a wil there is a way.

All people in the county and state want to help. Don't underestimate them. The BOE must abandon "business as usual approach". Let's see it done. Ready for students on August 15, 2008.

Joe bless you this is what we need to concentrate on!

Discussions to see what we can do to make this happen will take place on Sunday Nov 5th at the Mount Pleasant United Methodist church at 4:00.

August 2008!!!

To keep in touch with what is going on in
Wildcat Country...

see www.wildcatfamily.com

Contributions may be made on this site and the distribution of funds will go to the Eastern Guilford PTSA/Athletic/Band boosters. This money will go straight to the needs of the teachers and the students.

Pam Dawson...
President of the Eastern Guilford PTSA

I had the pleasure to meet Pam on Thursday at the Greensboro Sports Complex. She was grace under pressure!

I was surprised that Northern Middle wasn't discussed more, except taking that school would displace other children in Jan (or maybe Feb, or at least leave them in the School in School concept that they have endured thus far.-- They plan on having about 700 students there in the fall, so my guess is with the long distance that many would have had to travel and the fact that kids would have had to move twice are the two main reasons that Northern wasn't picked. In addition capacity for that school is 850, so that would have been hard to do also.

Frankly I was surprised that they found two places somewhat local for these students. Too bad that GTCC east couldn't take all the kids. Although the time is strange, it does sound like GCS is going to make as many arrangements as they can to ease the stress and transition.

I am proud of our county for coming forward and assisting in so many ways! And thank God that everyone escaped with NO injuries!

Joe:
You are on the mark with one caveat. I grew up in a military town and spent 4 years studying engineering before I copped out and switched to "bean counting". The caveat comes from an old phrase "an elephant is nothing more than a mouse designed to “milspec". (milspec-military specifications)

If the Board has nothing to do with the design, turns it over to a qualified construction company using an intelligent "cookie cutter" design like Forsyth did, then 21 months is very realistic. My pessimism and the Northern High experience suggest twice the budget and twice the time with thrice the problems and controversy.

I just spent 3 days in Vegas at a technology conference and never put a quarter in a slot. I don’t gamble, I invest. I would consider odds on a three and a half year replacement time as a great investment.

There are great alternative solutions that do not soak the taxpayer available.

Deb:
Northern Middle is an economical part of a 3 step solution.

Garth,

You will soon be on the board. I hope you will convince them of fast-track instead of business as usual.

One thing you must consider, over the the next three years there will be many teachers at Eastern that will retire or will transfer for various reasons. Hiring new teachers will be very difficult because of late day start time and the lack of dedicated teaching spaces.

We owe it Eastern to fast-track.

Joe, I really hope you are correct.

Pray for Guilford County tonight.

Garth must be elected. We need him badly.

Check out the Agenda for Thursday night BOE meeting. Where is the Eastern High School update?
Did I miss it?

You missed it Joe, it is on the schedule

Debora,thanks. A Revised Agenda has been posted.