News-Record.com

So let's get this straight, Allen. It was "justified" when Dudley parents defied the school board to preserve their school. But the schoolboard "did the right thing" when they removed neighborhoods .6 miles away from SW High that had been part of SW High since it's inception in 1979? How does the N&R decide whose traditions have merit and whose doesn't? Just curious. Or does tradition only count when you're talking about physical structures like buildings and things?

Allen...Oh, Allen....

Don't mean to disturb you. You could be off somewhere adjudicating whose traditions have merit and whose don't.

Well?

Sorry, I shouldn't have disturbed you. Perhaps you already answered the question.

Oh no, parents SHOULD have a voice in these matters ... and they do. But that doesn't mean one side is always right and the other is wrong.
Also, even those voices aren't monolithic.
Among parents and communities there often is disagreement, as there is in the case of J.C. Price. A number of homeowners in Warnersville welcome the Greensboro College sports complex.
As for Dudley, the school board just plain had bad intelligence in terms of renovation costs and the structural integrity of the building.
That wasn't a matter of opinion. It was a fact.
Communities should continue to speak out about their schools.

How long has that building sat empty and unused (5-10-20-30 years)? Was there ever a move to preserve, renovate or use the property by the residents of the area, previous owners, Gso city or anyone else?

Anyone living near a school or athletic facility deals with occasonal traffic, balls, kids hangin out, etc. The residents need to learn to cope and get along with there new neighbors. GC's current lacrosse/soccer field is in the middle of a neighborhood as well. Doesnt seem to have done much damage there. Could be worse. The property could be an old abandon school, attracting various miscreants and vermin.

The opposition group (as well as others in our community) need to stop calling racial fouls every time things dont go their way. I just cant make the connection in this instance.

BTW: Third party rezoning bites and needs to be addressed, outlawed, repealed... whatever.

The building has generally been in use. GTCC used it as a campus before selling it to Greensboro College.

The schoolboard having "bad intelligence"????
How unusual. How precious and rare.

Sort of like thinking people will agree to get their child sent by lottery from a functioning school to a failing school.

Sort of like persisting with an experimental lottery plan after the grant money for it is denied?

Sort of like plunging ahead with a "redistricting "Map C" despite being told it would be an abject failure since the re-assigned kids would never show up at their new school and move instead out of district or make other arrangemwents and the only result would be long bus rides for disadvantaged kids from downtown High Point to a distant suburban school AFTER having removed quality teachers from the school they are now bused to TO the school they should be attending due to Mission Possible and other re-assignments?

Is this the kind of bad intelligence you are referring to?

So if the decisions are based on bad intell. the citizens have a right to protest without local newspaper columnists exhorting the schoolboard to screw the people anyway, and instead support their resistance? Cool.

When do we start?

Allen, Skeet brings up a good point. He is a wise man. Did you know that Southwest middle lost two top Math teachers to Mission Possible schools. Good for those schools right? Just one thing. The kids that have been bussed up are not getting those Mission Possible teachers. There are getting the rookie teachers that replaced them.

This is one screwed up system.

School Board Intelligence? Now, that's an oxymoron if I ever heard one.

If it wasn't for bad intelligence...the schoolboard would have no intelligence at all.

I agree with Mick Riggs - how on earth is this an issue of race? How does racism even enter the equation?

It seems to me that this is a developer-resident conflict. Those happen every day in commmunities made up of people of all races. And just because a black person and a white person may disagree doesn't mean it's automatically a racial issue.

I normally might be more sympathetic to the Warnersville Community Coalition, but they've completely lost me with this whole "racism" nonsense.

What really ticks people off in the end Allen is that the N&R will make editorial pronouncements like "Lottery Good" or "Forced Redistricting for High Point but Mysteriously Not for Greenboro-Good". But then when the subsequent reality proves to not be good, your'e gone. We don't hear anything more about it. There is no responsiblity. There is not follow-up.

Like for instance you could send Jennifer or Morgan out to the neighborhoods involoved and see how the people have deserted the public schools or even moved from the sections of towns involved. They could talk to the kids and their parents about the hardships involved and how it has gone for naught. You could talk to the principals at the schools who are disgusted at the lack or resources to help cope with these ridiculous changes. You could talk about the real estate dead zones created in all the affected areas, not just in nHP where people now don't want to live because of being on the bus for three hours instead of 45 min a day.

There is plenty of room for RESPONSIBLE REPORTING here, but it's one big cover up.
You are just like some airheads at a party shooting off or like Marie Antionette saying "let these parents eat cake".
You should be ashamed.

Just Saying:
I agree; this is not a racial issue. But the point I attempted to make in the column is that the roots of mistrust run deep, causing some people to see racial motives where none exist.
Not too long ago, not too far away, it often was about race.

Allen,

The problem that is created is when everything that happens is attributed to racial motives, and then something occurs that is truly about race, everyone has become numb, and they don't give it any credence. Sort of like Chicken Little running around saying the sky is falling, then when the sky does fall, no one will listen or consider it seriously. Better to hold the accusations of race for the real thing.

Will you never reply to Skeet. They are good questions and deserve an answer.

I fully agree. Some people knowingly exploit race as an issue when they know better. I'm not sure that's the case here. But sometimes this Warnersville thing has gotten ugly and personal from what I'm told, and that's unfortunate.
The neighborhood people who favor the Greensboro College sports complex have been made to feel as if they somehow have abdicated their blackness.

As for Skeet, he has asked these same questions 100 times and I have replied as many times. There's nothing new or different I can say.
As for coverage, I am not in charge of the news department, so those inquiries are best directed to JR.

Allen, it seems to me that race is being used as a hammer here. Rather than come up with legitimate reasons why the sports complex is a bad idea, the Warnersville folks are blasting anyone who disagrees with them as either "racists" or "sell-outs."

And I believe they know probably better - it's a dirty trick designed to win a political argument. The idea is that Greensboro College will back off, rather than risk being branded as "racists."

Allen, you are missing a tremendous opportunity to help your community. You just send reporters out into the field to document whether what you advocated editorially has been a sucess or failure and then objectivly report on it. Not rocket science. Why don't YOU go to Robinson and say "look, I hung my neck way out on this supporting a forced busing plan for somebody else's community and not ours, so how about if we go look at what I helped foster". Is Robinson going to say: "I don't think we...a...at least I don't think doing that will be, ah...Let's not do that".?

Wait a minute, that may be a bad example. You know what I mean.

Imagine the value to the community if you, as the press, would actually fulfill your function and get a Dot Kearns, Kris Cooke et. al. to actually look in the mirror and say to themselves "maybe those people are right, maybe we really don't know what the heck we are doing". Imagine how you could begin to make a change. As it is now-NOTHING, free pass. The same old crap happens over and over.

Here's a good example of what's been wrought in our community. Two quality math teachers were moved from SW Middle for whatever reason (Mission Possible/re-assignments. etc.)

Their replacement was a Scandanavian woman, very nice, who had approximately a fourth-grade level command of the English language (approx 11th grade in GCS)whose previous teaching experience was in a one-room (K through 12) school in the Scandanavian wilderness. She had actual reindeer sticking their heads in the classroom and her biggest problem was the horns on the helmets of the kids locking up when they were on their way to the bathroom.

So they drop this lady down in the middle of GCS with hormone-riven fourteen yr. old boys and girls whose main cultural touchstones are Jessica Simpson and Snoop Dog. Now this lady may have had the mathematical mind of Newton or Archemides, but the kids had trouble understanding her and the class quickly degenerated into chaos as spirited lads would suddenly blurt out words like "Penis" etc. in the middle of the lesson. She of course had no idea what half the words meant and she thought they were asking questions etc. Now I'm not condoning what these kids did etc. but you can't do stuff like this and expect parents to support public education.

Conclusion:
The mission possible teachers got sent to a school and the kids werent there anymore.
They had been swapped and were eleven miles up the road with the Scandanavian teacher.

Yeah, this bussing really helps the needy kids get access to the best resources doesnt it?

What a %%$$##@ up place this is!!

Print that Allen.

Skeet,

Let me get this Right....

Top Math Teachers from Southwest Middle are moved to Troubled crosstown school to help PROBLEM STUDENTS,,,,,meanwhile PROBLEM STUDENTS are chained and shipped to Southwest Middle,,,where the top teachers have left...

Lets' see,,,,,Problem Students being held Hostage in a School that they do not want to be at,,,at a school without MISSION POSSIBLE,,,at a school without the tons of $$$$$ and Resources of their NEIGHBORHOOD SCHOOL........

Who in the HELL thought up this HAIR BRAIN IDEA..

This sounds like nothing more than CROSS TOWN BUSING,,,which in the past has shown NO EDUCATIONAL BENEFIT to ANYONE.....

Once Again, the Poor, Minority Student is left at the BOTTOM of The BARREL.

Three Hours a day on a BUS does wonders for a Students Academic Progress.

The Socialist Members of our School Board have just about ruined Public Education!!!!!!!