News-Record.com

okay...
Mo Green and what he is doing

BOE candidates/races

turn over in GCS admin

transportation costs

lack of books in schools

overcrowding

etc, etc

Welcome, Brian.

I agree with Debora's lists.

What is up with the lack of books in the schools this year? Students have tests but can't bring the books home to study - or worse yet - some kids have books and some don't.

I'd like to know why the Guilford County schools suck....that is a mystery with the tax base in this county. Also, why did you leave your position at Central? Was the system too sucky for you too?

I'd like to know why the Guilford County schools suck....that is a mystery with the tax base in this county. Also, why did you leave your position at Central? Was the system too sucky for you too?

I'd like to know why the Guilford County schools suck....that is a mystery with the tax base in this county. Also, why did you leave your position at Central? Was the system too sucky for you too?

Why do the schools suck? Did you leave Central because it was too sucky?

I would like to know why Eastern Guilford High school has not received the help it needs from the central office to address its current staffing needs.

This is normally addressed within the first month....

We need additional teaching staff and another SRO officer to handle the problems we have
inherited from overcrowding and understaffing.

I am sure if the Fire Marshall gets wind of the fact that we have 42 students in "trailer" classrooms designed for a Max Occupancy of 25 .....something will be done....

Why are some of these students not shifted to a school that has room or at least a building? They are being bussed to Eastern...they can be bussed to Northern just as well!

Who audits these students to make sure that they are even within our school district?

We are busting at the seams...literally...and we have a lot of seams.....................

So much concern was placed in the fact that you could not possibly put our student body back on one campus....yet now we are overflowing and NOTHING is done!

This is unmanageable!!
I would like to see some action and less talk from downtown!!

What happened to all the money that the community and businesses donated to Eastern High School?

WHERE IS THE MONEY? Tell us where it is and why it hasn't been spent.

What are they waiting for?

Why did Florence Elementary school lose 11 positions this year? What is going on there???

what does the school baord really plan to do to protect our children from gangs in our schools?

are they going soft again (actually have been soft) in this area because of politics?

Why after the establishment of these magnet schools, Guilford County education is worse off than before? Why we pay the highest salaries in the state but get only average results? Why we do not have a good reading program for all students? If it is OK to call Supt. Green by "Mo", is it OK for children to call teachers by their first name or by a nickname? Why is so few students attending highly competitive colleges? Why are parents asked to contribute school supplies for the room use? Why was "Mo" allowed to bring his own secretary and push out the one we had for the Supt.? When, where, how did the BOE supplement the salary of Dr. Grier from private organizations? Was it done in open session? Where is it in the minutes? Why does the BOE hold functions on Sunday? Why does each school have one SRO? Why not distribute them where there is the need?

Joe,
Grier's private donations was never discussed at BOE, at least not in terms anyone could understand. Your there almost every time, I know you never heard it.

Northern also needs more teachers. We were estimated to have 783, then 817... we started day one with 849. We have 35 and more in chemistry classes and English classes.. .not enough books for classes (as previously said)-- test without a way to study. Downtown gave our APrincipal a terrible time about spending money on books... no one seemed to know we were expanding from 2 grades to 3... Northern Middle and Northern Elem need and are probably getting trailers... just like Adams Farm and Jesse Warton. The lines are all wrong. NWHS still has over 2200 students. I told them that there would never be any relief with the current lines

How hard is it to get books for classes? Wouldn't it be better to have a few left over than not enough for students? Northern High has one APrincipal for 850 students.... ONE!

I didn't know Mo Green brought his own secretary, but my guess is that is just the first change that will be made. I am more concerned about positions that make a difference... academic, transportation, AL, safety etc.

How do we help keep students engaged and on task? Can we ever find enough belts to keep pants around the waste and enough material to cover midriffs, etc... okay enough from me, I must be losing it.

Why in the world does Northern only have 850 students when there is room in that building for 1600???

Why does NW have half of their student body in trailers and why do we have over 42+ students in classes at Eastern???

Parents need to go see what is going on in the schools...sit in the classes... and walk the halls...
Central office is not responding to schools needs

Hard decisions like redrawing attendance zones to better use facilities is something that is done yearly by most districts. Ours does it every 5 years and then considers political implications in making their decisions. It is a disgrace that Nortwest is so crowded when we have other facilities that are not utilized.

I watched the whole presentation on the Achievement Gap--lots of coffee kept me from nodding off--and was left with the impression that GCS hasn't really done anything for the past 20 years and the gap between black and white students has remained constant. Yet I know that the district has spent lots of money, tried many different approaches/programs and invested a great deal of hours on the problem. Just how much money has been spent(or thrown at the problem in the past 20 years) and what programs have been tried? Before anyone says the schools and teachers need to do more, what has been spent and done already . . . apparently to no avail?

Dear Furious Parent,

Does Eastern have 42 in each class, or just a few? I think it is too much if only one, but working on leadership I have seen tough decision being made.. perhaps AP Chemistry has 15, that takes one teacher for 2 periods... that usually means the regular and honor chemistry classes will have more students, although the average might be 25... right? No, but do you not offer the other class to those that want it? Take that example times every subject and you can see where things get out of line.

Correction: NWHS has 2108

Northern was built for 1220, with room to finish some of the space to accomadate 1600 when needed. I believe there are 8 unfinished classrooms. They will cost about 1/2 the price of a trailer to finish when the space is needed. The gym, cafeteria can can hold 1600.

Northern only has 850 because we only have 3 grades... 9, 10, 11... The BOE started our school with only 9 and 10th grade and we will grow as those get promoted. I thought it was strange, but since students get the opportunity to grandfather in once they finish 9th grade, the decision was based on kids not wanting to transfer.. also Northern wasn't and isn't offereing the same classes as NW/NE so finishing credits might have been a problem. Next year we should be at capacity.

The overcrowding is in the core/ regular 9th grade level courses.... and especially PE/weightlifting...

We do not have a gym...when the weather is good they are outside....but when the weather is bad they put the 40+ in one of the small trailers that we see so frequently around the county...I guess they sit on each other because there is no way there are 40 chairs in the trailers....

Just forget the weightlifting class...with 40+ in a room big enough for maybe 15.......I would be seriously concened with safety....

They are doing the best they can with almost 200 unexpected additional students....what they need are additional staff.....Normally this would have been addressed by now....

This seems a shame when there is plenty of space in other areas of the county............

I think Andrews High is still under capacity. I guess if those families up "North" don't like their kids being on top of each other in a trailer, they could move to High Point.

To Joe Stafford,

Just where would you put all these 2100+ Northwest kids? How could you possible draw the lines so that Northwest would get some relief????

Isn't the Airport Area High School supposed to address some more of the overcrowding at Northwest?

It's a fact that families who relocate here swarm in droves to the Northern/Northwest area - why do you ask???

BECAUSE THE BOARD LEAVES THEM ALONE. They've never had to go through with an ugly redistricting aka busing scheme. Ask the Eastern folks about busing - they see it every day when kids who could walk to Page are bused several miles to Eastern. Ask the people in High Point. They've had more than their share of stupid redistricting schemes. There are kids today that can walk to Andrews, but are bused to Southwest.

Parents will only take so much and then they either move to the Northwest area or they enroll their kids in private schools.

Joe - you might call it political, but as long as this is a free country, parents will move or enroll in private schools.

Stupid busing schemes only cause parents to leave the system.

to last anonymous

everything you you stated to Joe S is true. it's easy to watch from the side lines and give all these utopian ideas ideas of where kids should go to school. ask any parent in north high point or jamestown. they are still angry over the hp "choice" plan. jo green has many bridges to mend. some will NEVER be rebuilt. as you stated, "parents will move or enroll in private schools". I can personally name over 20 families that have gone private, love their new schools, but are bitter over being forced into this situation when others in the county don't have to go through this redistricting bs every couple years. look how much money and volunteer hours the schools lost because of this and all to satisfy a few central high alma maters in power. if one scheme doesn't work in high point, try another.

and what about the cost of fuel??? where, Joe S, would you bus all these NW students? and how much would that cost?

how the heck hard is it to find money for books???
we've had that problem in other schools. we can spend all this money on cooking school magnets, "academies", and other numerous programs to save a few students who end up quitting anyway so what about books for students who want to learn??

where are the priorities in this county? certainly it's not for the children.

maybe mo green can find mo money for books.

Brian,

Why did you leave High Point Central after one year? I would think that GCS pays more than Oakridge Military Academy?

Thanks to everyone who has responded and welcomed me. Couple of answers for you:
1. My leaving HP Central had nothing to do with the school or the school system. I wanted to be a journalist and took up teaching when I couldn’t land a job after school. After a year teaching I wanted to try freelance writing and took a part-time job at Oak Ridge to help keep the lights on. That became a full-time position which was later cut from the budget and forced me to hunker down and find a newspaper job. Best thing that ever happened to me.
2. Green told me this morning he is aware of some textbook scarcity and is taking the issue up with his cabinet on Monday. I’ll touch base and hope to have something in the paper this week about it.
3. Crowding at the schools was a major topic this morning. Expect to see something in the paper about it Sunday and likely later on as the year progresses.

Welcome Brian, and congratulations on getting the opportunity to do what you love to do. I hope you like this beat.

My interests are similar to most of the people who blog on thais site. Fortunately or unfortunately, I am a little passionate about education, so I tend to write entries that are probably a lot longer than most people want to read, egads, so I apologize for that ahead of time.

Before I get to my questions, I want to say that I think this county has a lot programs already in the works that should address the needs of a
number of Guilford County students. Many of Dr. Grier's innovations address the needs of many students in the system.

In this system many teachers feel as though they are treated as if they are worth at about a dime a dozen. They feel like they are treated like pawns on a chess board. It has seemed as if the previous administration thought programs taught children. Does Dr. Green think that people are as important or more important than programs when it comes to educating children? What does Dr. Green plan to do to raise teacher morale? Is he concerned about high teacher turn-over rates at some schools and the number of teachers who have left Guilford County to teach for less pay and fewer benefits in neighboring counties? Does he believe that even a large school system such as Guilford can create a sense of family and develop employee loyalty to decrease turn-over? What types of aid (such as teacher assistants or extra planning time) would Dr. Green be willing to provide to teachers, especially those who teach students in schools with high numbers of students on free and reduced lunch? Many of the teachers who teach students in these schools have additional responsibility for tutoring during planning time or as an additional class. How would Dr. Green improve working conditions for teachers? Also, for teachers who work in schools with lower numbers of students on free and reduced lunch, but who work with the neediest students in those schools, would he be willing to provide teacher assistants or additional planning time?

At risk students often require much more time. First, it may take more time to build a trusting relationship with the student. Teachers may meet with parents more often or go to greater lengths to try to get the parents to the school. Also, these children may have learning differences that require different types of instruction that the teacher may have to develop himself or with the help of a resource teacher to fit the needs of a particular student or a group of students in his room. While some teachers make extra money for working at high income schools, many others would rather have better working conditions. How will Dr. Green address this issue?

There were several examples of parental misconduct either at school or at a school related function last year. There are some teachers who have been physically or verbally threatened and intimidated by parents. What strategies would Dr. Green develop to help educate parents about interacting with teachers appropriately? What are his thoughts on creating a sense of teamwork between the parents and the teacher with the child at the center. Some parents walk into the school or the teacher's classroom with the idea that the teacher is the enemy rather than someone who is invested in the success of their child. This type of issue might be best addressed at the local level, yet the superintendent could set the tone.

What are Dr. Green's thoughts on training principals to help parents and teachers understand that they are on the same team when it comes to the student's best interest?

The increase in verbal and physical violence in our society has carried over to our schools. Teachers may become targets of verbal or physical violence when intervening in student behavior or when meeting with the parent of a student with whom the teacher has had to intervene. What are Dr. Green's thoughts on the issue of teacher safety? Most people who enter the teaching field do so because they love working with young people or are passionate about a subject; they do not enter it with the idea that they will spend part of their work day "in the trenches", yet that is exactly what happens in some schools. Of course, student safety is the first thing that schools must provide, but what about expectations for teachers and other staff members who may be injured in the process of protecting students? How important is teacher and staff safety? What are some proactive steps Dr. Green would see as appropriate to a assure teacher and staff safety?

Both North Carolina and Guilford County have an ethics code for educators. Will Dr. Green give more emphasis to adhering to this code of ethics than the previous administration?

Is there a course of action for a teacher to take if he or she believes that the local administration is over-looking or mishandling a potentially serious situation? One examples of this would be if there were a student who ran out of class whenever the teacher's back was turned, and the student ended up running around the school grounds at will on a daily basis. Referrals and parent conferences and other interventions have not worked. Yet, the administration chooses to humor the child and continue to try to work with him. Meanwhile, the child knows he has beaten the system. While it may seem harmless to the administration, this behavior could result in harm to the student himself or in damage, theft, or vandalism by the student. He could light a fire in a trash can or assault another student in the hallway. Moreover, it is a dangerous precedent for other students to witness that the school will allow a student to wonder unimpeded. How would Dr. Green like to see a teacher handle something that he or she sees as a danger to a student or the student body as a whole if his principal does not take such behavior seriously?

I am curious as to why at the end of the budgetary process the positions that are cut are the reading specialists when we are trying to erase an achievement gap.

What qualifications does the county require the people who are appointed as principals to have? How many are principals become principals with no leadership training or at least a couple of years of supervised experience as assistant principals? Will the new superintendent develop a principal and assistant principal evaluation form for teachers to complete and send to the county as part of the principal's evaluation? Other school systems, large and small, have this process in place, and it helps teacher morale and improves the quality of local leadership. Will Dr. Green make changes to the way principals are trained?

Another question, but first a statement. That black males have struggled disproportionately academically is not new. It is pretty well documented in education circles, that around the fourth grade good readers start moving ahead, average readers establish themselves, and other readers start to struggle. What are we doing for fourth and fifth graders to target those children who are beginning to struggle? If we are not doing anything at this level, when are we going to start?

I noticed that Dr. Green (I'm sorry, but I just can't say Mo in this context) was on the boards of many community organizations in Charlotte. Will he do something similar in Greensboro?

One of the helpful things found in the county's research is that it identified the areas where students who are having the most difficulty in school with discipline---which, in my experience, is almost always connected to difficulty with reading and comprehending what is read----live. Will Dr. Green approach community leaders and wealthy developers with philanthropic leanings to donate their resources to recreating some of those neighbor hoods mired in poverty and crime into mixed income areas where there are recreational opportunities as well as school support services such as tutoring and mentoring? Does Dr. Green believe that this is a model that would work in Greensboro?

Again, I apologize for such a long entry. But I agree with the writers who said we should have a great school system. I agree. The resources are here, and if the school system could earn the reputation as a great place to work, I think a lot of good teachers would give some serious thought to relocating to Guilford County.

It may sound as if I am teacher centered, and to the extent that I know that what a child learns is directly related to what a teacher is able to teach, I am. Better teachers mean better learning. Happy teachers are much more likely to create classrooms that students want to come to. If a school system is truly child centered, it can not ignore the critical role that teachers play in creating the world where the student can learn and succeed.

This is such a non sequitur. We want to eliminate the achievement gap and we want to understand why students at the top are not scoring higher, but we don't provide a person with special expertise in reading????? A reading specialist can be a resource for basic reading as well as someone who can help prep students for the SAT.

While there is some merit to the county's approach to teaching teachers to use their content area to teach reading skills as well as content, this alone can not meet the needs of the basic reading student.

However, he special programs the Dr. Grier initiated such as the middle college high school programs, The Twilight school,
The High School Ahead program as well as some of the special high school programs help meet the needs of a lot of teenagers who have difficulty in traditional high schools. So there are some right headed things happening.

I have worked in three Guilford County Schools, and I would recommend a change in the way books are currently issued and stored.
Currently, at least from what I observed where I have worked, textbooks are stored in the teacher's classroom and issued from the teacher's classroom. Numbering of books is up to the teacher or department. It is the teacher's responsibility to turn in a lost book form for the student at the end of the year, and the student must pay for any lost book before he gets his report card.

After the money is paid, I don't know what happens. There should be someone who orders replacements, but I don't know if that is done or not.

One school, a large urban/suburban school I worked in appointed a book room czar. He had the responsibility for issuing and receiving textbooks at the beginning and the ending of the school year. Based on their class rolls, teachers would request X numbers of a certain ttext for each class taught. All of the books were stamped. Each stamp was a unique series of numbers. The stamp also included that the textbook was the property of X County School System and a place to write in the school year, student's name, and condition when issued as in (N) new (G) good (F) fair.

Each teacher had a pink sheet with the student's name and textbook number. When the textbook was issued to a student, he was required to initial that he had received that textbook. That helped to make the student aware that he was responsible for that book, plus is a student wanted to deny that he had lost his book, the teacher had his initials by his name to refute this.

After the first few weeks of school, we copied out pink sheets and gave a copy to the book room czar for his records. This helped tremendously at the end of the year because he was able to find out who the lost books were issued to and notify the teacher before a letter was sent to the parent saying the child had to pay.

Often the lost book was in another teacher's classroom. I liked to write my name, classroom number, and school in my books, so they came back to my room faster, if anyone who found a lost text cared enough to return it.

Anyway, this system provided more accountability than I have seen in the schools where I have worked. The czar let department heads know how many books had been lost, so department heads turned in the number lost and how many might need to be ordered.

I worked in a much smaller middle school where the department was the book czar for everyone in her department and issued texts from her room and received them at the end of year. This helped with planning for the next year.

The way Guilford does is is that each teacher turns in a list of students who have lost X book. I do not know if the assistant principal then compiles a list from those lists and then orders or not.

One thing I have found out is that books that are not numbered and assigned to a student grow legs.

Textbooks are a major expense, and we could improve accountability. Students need to know from day one that they are accountable for their textbooks, and their parents need to support the school system. I know $40+ is a lot of money and coming up with that kind of money is a hardship on some families. So hopefully most parents will work with teachers to help children who have trouble keeping up with things, develop some strategies.

This is a hole in the dam that could help the county save tons of money.

Northwest High....still packed, even after Northern opened....

Eastern High....kids riding a bus close to an hour from north Greensboro (within 15 minutes from the Northern campus) packed into a "pod village" once they arrive....

Northern High, with built-in extra space that can be readily upfitted, not to mention being currently under capacity...

Is the solution not obvious?

Will Eastern be crowded once their new school is open? Those students that are bussed from Greensboro live next door to Page.. no room for them, but room for a new IB program. I think that all students should go to the school closest to them whenever possible, however it seems that is not the case in most of our schools. Look at the lines, they are more about racial and economic issues than time and distance.

Debora,

You hit the nail on the head and with the rising cost of fuel, why in the world do we continue to bus kids across the county???

Debora...

As at Northern....as the new Eastern walls are
going up so are the number of students in our attendance zone. We have over 200 additional and unexpected students this semester....

Forty-two in some classes!!

When parents asked to be re-assigned to Page they were told there was no room...yet the minute Northern alleviates this...They somehow have 100 seats for an IB program....while still busing
students from the corner of Cone and Yanceyville to Eastern.... I followed a bus to see for myself...

The students that ride for 45 minutes to Eastern
can see the football lights of Page when they get off of an Eastern Guilford bus in the dark!!.....
Why not but these students to Northern where there are EMPTY classrooms!!

Grant it...some would rather go to Eastern than Page...but they should be given the option

The parents do not even know how to get to Eastern to pick up their kids and those that are dependent on public transportation would have to pay a hefty taxi bill because Greensboro city buses do not drive out to Gibsonville.....

It is funny how politics and money talks in Guilford County...They spent so much time talking about the crowding at the new Northern elementary and middle school while...

There is room for over 500 high school students at Northern High right now...and schools around the county have 40+ students in classrooms and trailers....Something should have been done before school opened this fall!!

I think the problem is 2 fold.. one the predictions or enrollment are way off in some areas, putting everyone in to extra crowded spaces, not enough teachers etc. Now teachers have to be moved, students have to change their rooms/schedules etc. This is worst for the young kids, they get use to their teachers and then everything is disrupted. High school is not such a big deal.

The second is the redistricting lines are strange at best.