News-Record.com

see http://guilfordschoolwatch.blogspot.com/2009/03/
leaky-roof-at-archer-should-prompt.html

As schools continue to spiral down a academic disaster what else do students have to worry about and staff working conditions.

Roofs leaking, molded schools - I question where do we find feedback on mold test that the district has performed.

http://www.acorn-online.com/joomla15/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2946:parent-testing-of-modulars-finds-astronomically-high-mold-levels&catid=10:greenwich-local&Itemid=68

Perhaps in lieu of wasting energy on SMOD they should focus on the well being of students and staff!

Whats all the fuss.

Its just a little leak.

Anonymous, I would NOT say a leaking roof is a little leak.

The fuss is parents/staff are concerned about the school climate and the well being of students you know those little people we drop off at school every day and expect them to get a education in a safe environment.

A leaking roof is something that everyone should pay attention to.

Hats off to the speakers who addressed the board I hope they get more than just a generic "Thank You" letter for coming to speak at the BOE meeting.

If so just keep coming and sending correspondence if it was at my school I would be doing the same thing.

Keep the community updated on the out come!

From time to time roof might leak and
I just think there are bigger fish to fry.

“The reality is the funding is not keeping pace with the needs of our schools,” he said.

If GCS is too broke to fix a roof how are they going to pay for the regionalization plan?

All:

Our problems with maintenance are disheartening. This is no the first school that I have run into with a leaky roof. We should take pride in our schools and I think it is hard to do that when we have things like this going on. (Don't get me wrong, we need adequate schools, not monuments to school boards).

There is one thing to remember, however, and that is money for capital improvements such as new roofs comes out of a fund separate from funds used to pay teachers and run schools. So, whether there is money to fix a roof really has nothing to do with whether we have money for other non-capital expenditures. Just something to keep in mind as you read the news.

Paul

Paul:
While there has been improved transparency in some ways, staff has become far better at hiding in other ways. It will take Mo a year or two to change atmosphere of sr. staff. PBS is a so bad as to border on criminal poor pun intended. One student asked me if it was real or just a joke. Principals tell teachers that send kids up for discipline to handle it, it’s not good classroom management to send a student to principle. With 28 to 30 kids in a middle school class classroom management is all but impossible. Violence I am told is worse not better and while Rome burns we twaddle on. Gangs are real now, note Greensboro gang member of Bloods picked up in New York for local murder charge. High Point University spends fortune on lighting, Iron pronged fences and fleet of security guards. Fantastic facility but it looks like a fortress.

Climate Task Farce was a disaster. Several involved thought it was biggest blunder and set school discipline issue backwards. The Board never accepted it’s product, yet we follow it’s blinded path. The next time someone tell me suspensions are down I may suggest they be charged with felony obstruction.

Yes we have leaks and drips, most cannot be addressed by maintenance department though.

Other schools in the country use PBS with success, it is all in whether it is implimented the way it is designed to work according to the research based approaches that are very specific. Here in AZ all the high schools have "security personnel" all over the schools. These people are NOT police officers. They are adult supervisors who basically wear a school logo shirt that says "SECURITY" on the back and jeans. They are paid about $8-10 an hour to patrol the halls, the bathrooms, they are posted at each entry/exit way, and they escort students to the office and back when necessary. They also patrol the parking lot, and they stay with students who are "having an emotional meltdown" until other staff can attend to the student. They are not "cops" and they do not act like "cops" in the traditional sense. They are adults who are extra eyes and ears who are supervising who is where and what is going on. They are friendly to students but firm. They do not look down on students or treat them in judgmental ways, just matter of fact, "where are you supposed to be?" I think it is a cost effective people management system. When you consider a large number of adolescents in a small space, it is unreasonable to expect that our schools are not out of control with regard to behavior. That is part of the foundation of PBS. If adults are placed in strategic appropriate ways, 80% of students will follow the "social rules" they follow when they are other places such as the grocery store or the mall. How many students would scream and yell and be rude, disrespectful and out of control in these settings? If you go out and watch, the kids don't act like they do in our schools in other settings. Why? Because we allow them to act out of control in GCS schools and part of that happens because of a lack of adult attention/ supervision/visibility. The reason we had problems with Task Force is because people were more concerned with being right, and engaging in power struggles than taking care of the children. Things have not changed apparently.
We already know everything we need to know to adequately address the issues in our schools. The issue is not how we feel about doing it, or whether we can do it. The issue is how we feel about the fact that we have not done it so far.
We can do this better if we want to.

What a sad place.

Hi Tererina,

Good to see that you are still alive and sorting out the school systems in AZ now!

Best...

There was a lack of leadership on the task force and a lack of leadership on the school board to help it.

I am not involved at ALL here. Not one committee, nothing. I have not been to a board meeting. Nothing going on here. No fighting, no major issues other than the normal national issues that all public schools face. There is no drama here. And all the schools pretty much look like what many in GSO would call "Taj Mahals." I don't know how they do it, but there are huge, new, multimillion dollar schools all over the area. I don't know how that works, but the facilities here are very different.

Here is a comment from an Arizona High School Blog.

ScottsdaleNativeApr-01 @ 3:21 PM Report abuse 31This will do nothing. The educational system is such a disgrace in this state, I'm surprised any HS graduates in Arizona get into any college at all. An "A" here is barely worth a "C" anywhere else.

Here is the link.
http://www.azcentral.com/community/mesa/articles/2009/04/01/20090401mr-ranking0401.html

Isnt the internet a marvelous thing?

This district is a JOKE! My old boyfriend teachers there and the problems that this districts faces are amazing. Each teacher is give 8 hours a month for sick time, but are told that they can't use it because they don;t budget for the sick days. Now that makes sense! The superintendent has always been very vindictive towards the staff and teachers and now the district is removing teachers needed to teach class. Great work Higley!

Perhaps some of Guilford County's best bloggers go to AZ blogs too!

There are plenty of good parents in Guilford County who have no problem with our schools.

Its all a matter of how much you take notice..

My neighbors relocated from AZ last summer. They actually think that the schools are a lot stronger here in GC.

Their child was not pushed in AZ at all.

The gangz in AZ even have their own forums.

http://www.topix.com/forum/mesa/TSGMBI7ADIFJJAKAG

No drama here.

The drug gangs are described by the Justice Department as "the biggest organized crime threat to the U.S." Crimes connected to these cartels are spreading across the Southwest, especially in Phoenix, where most of murders and kidnappings are believed to be linked to the drug trade. The cartels are also increasing their relationship with prison and street gangs in the United States to facilitate drug trafficking, according to a congressional report. This cooperation enables the traffickers to excavate cross-border tunnels and install ramp-assisted smuggling roads over the border fence between the countries, in order to get their cargoes into the United States.

My mother teaches in an elementary school in south Phoenix and has been there for 25 years. She's at work from 6-6, sometimes later if she's teaching ESL classes to student's parents after class that choose to come. She gets there early because she has early morning recess duty with some other teachers and sometimes gets lesson plans done in that time. She quite frequently does lesson plans and grades papers through her lunch, if not assisting the special needs class which she does some days. After the school day is over for the kids she grades, has meetings with staff and sometimes parents. On Saturdays she taught at a "day camp" type thing for kids at her school who needed extra help, 7A-1P, that just ended not too long ago. This day camp program earned her a very small amount of money, but being a teacher, she needs whatever she can get.

She takes one vacation a year, which lasts for less than a week, and then she's back to work. No downtime for her. She spends the rest of any time off running her own small business because she isn't paid during this time and needs some form of income to pay bills. Up until last year, she would attend classes at night during her breaks, and she had to drive to Tucson every weekend for one class a few years ago.

The teachers that she works with are the same way. From observing them all growing up, I could never be a teacher myself. I've heard some horror stories about parents who refuse to believe that their children are violent in class, parents that are on drugs and can't even give their kids baths or feed them, etc. She is truly passionate at what she does, loves teaching, but still needs money to pay the bills. This is why she currently has two side jobs in addition to teaching.

Perhaps the last few bloggers forgot it is not about AZ this blog is about Archer.

The same way you all got off task shows why the system is so messed up.

Lets stay focus all you people who are helping to fix this messed up school district.

I think the point that these bloggers have made is that there are soooo many other places in this country with problems. Its not only in the US either. Plenty of European countries struggle with educating disadvantaged children.

Public school, is public school, is public school wherever you go.

Dont bet that you get a better deal at Private schools either.

A willing kid with good parents can suceed anywhere.

10:12 anonymous. It's an open forum blog and bloggers can blog as they choose.

"I don't know how they do it, but there are huge..." Terrina P

It's called tax base dollars and retirement dollars. It's called not having an 11% unemployment rate in your county, not losing a tobacco industry, a furniture industry, a textile industry.......

It takes money to build schools.

Its also about having one of the worst house deflation's in the country. Lucky enough in GC house prices have hardly droped while in Arizona, Florida etc there are so many peole upside down its unbelieveable.

You dont need a brand new school to teach kids well.

Leaky roofs...
................we have no toilet paper.....
due to freeze in discretionary funds.?..

Paul,

Roof repair is hardly a capital expenditure.
It is certainly a legitimate expense item.
Garth explain that to Paul.

I'm not sure when it goes from expense to capital but
cleaver accounts know how to manipulate it.

The other day I told some people that the system was less the honorable in their dealings.

Their response was:
They certainly have no shame and are an embarrassment to the community. At the least
they are disingenuous.

Todays paper quote from Ms Carr:
"Theres a sense that we're going to have additional
positions displaced"

Real ( non Pr ) people don't talk that way

"We are looking at more layoffs"

Even worse the PR people are helping decide who should go.

Read on "Bull Shit"
New York Times best seller list.

"Theres a sense that we're going to have additional
positions displaced"

In fact a good PR person would not say that.

Perhaps:

"We are very concerned that we may have to cut more people"

Think about it

We need to really worry for our kids.

Paul...

...toilet paper pleasssee.....................

We have none due to cuts in funding to our school out of discretionary money at the end of the school year.

I am pretty sure the Guiford County Health Department would have something to say about this......................

dear Parent,
it sounds like your school didn't plan properly. I know that all money has to be spent by something like end of Jan. There is a line item for janitor supplies, you should ask the leadership team if that line item was decreased from last year. It would be worth knowing.

Deborah:
Some schools do not allow leadership team input, principals do not believe in them. My belief is if Principals pull stunts that limit community input and involvement without good reason, goodbye. We need to have the most community buy in possible!
Garth

No drama in AZ?

There are plenty of nice schools but there also shootings, gangs and an apathetic school system.

You guys in GC dont know how lucky you are..

Community and leadership team input? You must be joking.

Hopefully 2 year contracts on principals expire for good after two years.

all too often the parents on a leadership team are there to ONLY fulfill a legal requirement. All decisions are made and announced at meetings, with absolutely no input from parents. This is not how the law is suppose to work, but parents I have heard from are afraid to go over their principals head... perhpas the new regional supervisors will attend some meetings unexpectedly and see fo themselves.

Debora,

Your school isn't the only one that works that way. I heard that this was happening at Florence Elementary.

My school is doing fine, but I have talked to many people through PTA that did not have a successful experience with leadership and feel like they are just there to rubber stamp administration.

"Garth said:

Deborah:
Some schools do not allow leadership team input, principals do not believe in them. My belief is if Principals pull stunts that limit community input and involvement without good reason, goodbye. We need to have the most community buy in possible!
Garth"

Even more important are the principals really qualified to make many of the decisions?

The school system comissioned an independent study on HR. One conclusion was that many principals and assistant principoals were still wet behind tbe ears and not qualified. The were promoted without the qualifications/training.

If you like, E-Mail me and I will send you tne study.

You wiill not be able to change things.

Remember they have Ms Carr.
The Minister of Propaganda

There is a saying in mental health circles that goes something like, "It is not the issue, but the reaction to the issue that is important." So it is telling that the attacks to Picarello's post was about comparing AZ to GSO which was totally off topic. So if, instead of addressing the issue, we attack the messenger.... maybe that is why things stay so stuck and inefficient here. We do not care about the real issues on the table, we care about personal attacks and ego states. It is too easy to take this audience off topic.... just too easy to evoke "attack mode" in this group. Anyone else notice that?