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I don't understand it either. If the bond issue fails, many people will blame these Board members. What is troubling about this is that they spent little effort fighting for a bond issue they could support. Poor people, especially minorities, face many obstacles. When their leaders turn negative, little progress is made. Look at Obama, he is likeable because he has a positive message. These Board members did not think up this first. They seem to be following the Simkins PAC. This will confirm to the PAC that they are team players. Waiting to the last minute seems to say they are followers and are somewhat reluctant to express their views.

This is a sad day. Everyone of us want better achievment levels for minorities. How this vote will help reach that goal is beyond me. Where is there program to improve achievment levels. We want to see it.

The black school board members must be very angry and discouraged to do this. I can't imagine how the school board will be able to work together effectively after this. It doesn't bode well for the school board.

I agree. I've got a call out to Amos Quick. Hope to hear from him soon.

Much is said (and rightfully so) about the duties, responsibilities and shortcomings of the school board, the administration and the schools. We should always demand accountability and results from these entities. One thing that is not discussed very much at all is the duties and responsbilities of parents and students.

We seem to believe that schools can take children from all walks of life and turn them into responsible adults without any assistance from parents or the students themselves. I personally believe, based on my own experience, that it is a 50-50 partnership. Schools are there to provide an education but, like most things in life, one only gets out of schools what one puts into them.

We must confront the truth that without parental involvement and responsiblity, schools are fairly limited in what they can do. If parents don't demand high standards or set standards for behavior for their children, how can schools? What can schools do to educate a child who sleeps in class because he did not go to sleep at a decent time? These are, of course, rhetorical questions but they demonstrate the limitations of the schools.

As for students, how is a school responsible for the conduct of a student who, for example, chokes a teacher? Or for a student who cusses at a faculty member? I fail to see how anything that goes on a public makes students do these things. Students must be held to certain, well-defined standards and must know that they are largely responsible for their achievement.

Here's an idea to encourage parental involvement and what I like to call "ownership" of schools by parents and students: Neighborhood schools. It is much easier for a parent to attend a parent-teacher conference if the parent needs to travel only a mile to the neighborhood school instead of 20 miles to the school that the parent's child has been assigned to. Take for example, Eastern High School. Students who live next to Page High School are, for some reason that I do not understand, bused to Eastern High School. (For those of you who haven't been out there, Eastern is a long way out.) Because of the long ride, there are students who are unable to stay after school for sports or other extra curricular activities because their parents cannot travel out to Eastern to pick them up. I believe that extra curricular activities are a vital part of an education, and create a sense that this is "our school" not just the school that students are sent to.

Moreover, there is a sense of "disconnect" for students who are bused to schools. Those from nearby Page live in one community, but go to school in another. They go from the city to the country and go to school with kids they don't know. I am informed that there is even sometimes hostility between the students who are bused and the ones for whom Eastern is their local school.

For students bused from nearby Page, Eastern is not the "hub" of their community because it so far away, and I don't believe that the parents and the students have the sense of ownership or involvement that they would have at a local school.

It's pretty startling to me that school board members aren't supporting school bonds. It's that simple. And that astounding. What a poor choice.

Amen Paul, amen.

This is simply shrewd politics. Here's why. Fingers in the wind tell folks that the bonds are unlikely to pass. What Simpkins/Quick are trying to do is to strategically own the reason why as a means of coopting the process on the second go round.

One group of opposing voters (including me) says simply that the bonds are too expensive; that much of the money is wasted on unnecessary projects and gold-plated schools; that the same amount of money could do infinitely more to relieve overcrowding if it were spent in a fiscally responsible way. Demographically, this argument trends toward middle-class whiteness (the amen chorus for Paul's letter above).

Simpkins/Quick are providing a racialist counternarrative: that the bonds don't do enough for the black community.

If the bonds fail, there will be another bond package in the near future that will need to respond to the reasons why this one failed. One alternative would be to craft the bonds to be more fiscally responsible: to eliminate waste, build cheaper schools, and cut the athletic funding. Another alternative would be to direct more money toward black contractors and racial "equity."

Simpkins/Quick are angling for the latter. To be sure, there is overlap between the two perspectives noted above: e.g., regarding the Harvard-at-the-Airport campus. But Simpkins/Quick realize that the board doesn't have to please everyone, only 51% of everyone. And no doubt there will be discussions that if minority set-asides and a few minority-oriented programs are added to the mix, X % of the vote will be delivered.

Of course, the bonds may pass, rendering all of this moot.

I say impeach the bloody lot of them. Its absolutley ridiculous.

These people complain and complain about everything but never actually demand anything from the administration. Nothing, no plan, no follow-up just meeting after meeting of nothing.

Amos says he is unhappy about the cost of the Airport school. Arent we all? Who is best placed to do anything about that?

Where do we go when GCS admin says the cost of the school is right and he/we says its too expensive?

Where do we go? Its total utter bloddy incompetence!

Simkins. I mean Simkins.

I think Brian is dead on!

Allen, these three board members have been against the bonds for months. Whether you agree with their thinking or not, it's hardly an "11th hour" bombshell.

Not to sound critical, but you would've known this weeks ago had you been reading Erik Huey's education blog. Erik's blog is a must-read for anyone interested in the Guilford County Schools.

I still say this: What about the Asian contractors and the Hispanic contractors?

I've never once heard Deena Hayes advocate for them.

Double standard. Racist.

Allen, if you want to see really where some of the problem is, look in the mirror. Why are you putting this on the blog, maybe reaching say, oh, maybe fifty people, when you could have had this front and center on the editorial page and reached thousands. Like Bill Cosby says, "community leaders say a few things softly then say let's move on." And it just goes on.

You have been very reluctant to go after people who are abusing the system using a race agenda. We see it over and over again.

It is sad when people who are supposed to be dedicated to education are more concerned with getting paid and are doing it blatantly. They know they can get away with it and nobody will really do anything. You should be shouting from the rooftops and calling publically right know for the resignations of any schoolboard member or politician who puts getting paid over education.

ps

I want to apologize in advance if by chance you did editorialize about this in the print edition and I missed it.

If Duncan and Cooke would resign I would vote for the NEXT bond; this one I already voted NO because of well.... Duncan and Cooke.

I refuse to allow them to WASTE ANY MORE TAXPAYERS DOLLARS.

As far as the rational of the Simpkins PAC/Deena Hayes, etc. that is INSANE. But I'll gladly take the no votes. I hope it pushes this over the top or down into the gutter depending on how you prefer to look at it.

I do want to thank Duncan and Cooke for forcing our family into a private school situation, it was the best move we could have made. However its very, very hard to ever support a school bond under these circumstances when your have to write the check to private school and write the check to the County for your property taxes.

Raindrops fall on lads and lasses heads
As to their trailers, they are led.
You don't want to dread those rainy days?
Then step right up and pay the Hayes!

Reading through the memo sent by Hayes, Quick and Childs outlining the rationale for black citizens to oppose the bonds, it seems to me that their concerns have little to do with reasons for voting against the bonds: fiscal incompetence, inflated costs for new schools, an inability to spend the money already received, etc. I think that the BOE has bent over backwards to help minority contractors get work, far beyond the minimum percentage targeted by the state. Beyond what they have done, much with greater no-bid minimum amounts, I suspect is curtailed by state law concerning the bidding process and the necessity for bonded contractors--neither of which the BOE can do anything about.

What I don't understand is if the bonds are not passed then whatever percentage minority contractors can expect is zero. No money to spend, no money to spend with minority contractors. And misbehavior in school, underachievement in school, lower SAT scores and the like will continue unabated, just in substandard facilities for all students, black, white and hispanic.

No BOE, no superintendent, no principal or teacher can raise children so they are ready for school or desirous for learning. Likewise, none of them can go home with students and keep them at their academic work after school is over. Frankly, I'm tired of adults taking the adolescent stand that it's always someone else's fault, never mind. I guess it is too much to ask that some folks grow up. Opportunity must be equal in school, but achievement will always be individual. Sorry about that.

Jack it's not supposed to make sense. It's a scam to get paid.
Deena Hayes doesn't give a flying fink about minority under-achievement just like Rev. Wright can rail about plots against minorities and inequality etc. but at crunch time, instead, loving the limelight and gettin' paid even more, even though the price may be he's probably destroying the chance for a black man to be president, ostensibly what he's been preaching for all these years. Loving the limelight and getting paid! By TV networks and his soon-to- be- book I'm sure; "Barrack and Me"

It's all a scam, and in the black schoolbaord members' case is shameful, bordering on extortion, holding education hostage if they are not paid.

As long as community leaders in G-Boro, and the press, say or do nothing, it will go on and on.

I have not yet heard back from Amos Quick. I hope he can give me some additional insight on his thinking.
I agree with Brian that the bonds will have a tough time passing anyway.
I agree also that this is about leverage ... but leverage for what?
What specifically do these leaders demand that the school district isn't working on?
I know some people considered him the devil incarnate, but I saw Terry Grier working pretty hard to close to achievement gap, to the point that critics said he was concentrating too many efforts on low achievers.
The district should be held accountable but so should parents and the community when it comes to how our African American students are doing.
I'm not convinced parents and the community are upholding their end of the deal.

... That is to say, I agree with Paul Daniels -- to a point.
The problem with so-called neighborhood schools is that they tend to be racially and socioeconomically segregated.
I know mine is a minority opinion (no pun intended) these days, but segregated schools are unhealthy.
Maybe neighborhood schools are the lesser evil, but I'm not yet convinced of that.

"I'm not convinced parents and the community are upholding their end of the deal."

Allen, you couldn't be more on target. As a teacher with many years in this system, I couldn't begin to describe how many of our youngsters have absolutely disastrous home lives, and I just don't know exactly what the schools can do about that especially by the time a student reaches high school. From personal experience with two children, I don't think raising children to be thoughtful, hard working, respectful human beings is magic, it just requires lots of time and hard work. I'm not sure I could have done it by myself--being a single parent without someone to tag off on--and being older and somewhat more settled when I had my children made a big difference. Having so many children born out of wedlock and to very young mothers is a social disaster that the schools can't begin to cope with, regardless of their good intentions.

To "punish" all the other children who would benefit from better facilities because the achievement of one group doesn't match what one would like--especially when there are many outside influences beyond the schools' control which contribute to that underachievement--seems just plain mean spirited. I don't think Dr. King ever espoused that in his many initiatives to improve the lives of African-Americans.

But Allen, you still chose to live in the Northwest district, didn't you - you know the least segregated school in the county.

But Allen, you still chose to live in the Northwest district, didn't you - you know the second least segregated school in the county.

And, Allen, we've never heard you advocate for busing poor and minority students into your school, have we?

Also, we've never heard you advocate to diversify the most segregated school in the county - Dudley.

I know, we've asked for years and you always ignore the question.

But we'll keep asking anyway, as long as you keep bringing it up.

Allen, Northwest, your neighborhood school, is a very unhealthy school!

I agree.

No one should harass Allen about his school choices. He is his children's best advocate and he needs to do what is right for his children--not what's right for N&R readers or anyone else.

Actually, I live in the Page district.

But you said earlier that your child(ren) went to Northwest.

Our neighborhood was redistricted.

Allen,

But your child(ren) went to Northwest. The only time Northwest was redistricted was to send some of the students to the Taj Mahal (aka Northern high school).

Yet again you avoid the direct questions.

When will you advocate that Dudley be diversified?

Why did you send your child(ren) to the 2nd least integrated school in Guilford County and why haven't you advocated for diversity there?

Allen:

Thanks for your thoughts.

I understand your concern, and the concern of others about segregated neigborhood schools. But don't parents choose where they want to live based in no small part, on where their children will go to school. (This is certainly true of the good folks in NW, and I'll bet its true of a lot of parents who send their kids to Dudley). I believe that parents know better than school board members what is good for their children, and that it is wrong for school boards to step in and essentially veto parents decision based on fuzzy notions about diversity. (What IS the proper mixture). We have children riding two hours a day to school just so we can feel good about the fact that we have kids of all walks of life going to school together. I am willing to bet at least some of the kids who live near Page (in my example) would rather go to a local school where they can be involved in extra curricular activities like sports and band, things that they can't do now because they live too far from school. (As an aside, I have it on good authority from someone who has your concerns that the area around Eastern High has enough people from different backgrounds to aleviate any concerns about Eastern being "unhealthy", as you put it, if it were a neighborhood school. I live in Southeast Greensboro, and the same is true here).

More importantly, and I feel silly saying this, schools should be in the business of educating kids. Educational outcomes should be our paramount consideration. I am unaware of anything beyond anecdotal evidence that indicates diversity provides educational performance (if you know something I don't, I am always happy to be disabused of any false notions). One of our problems, I think, is that we have become distracted from our primary mission. Focus is what we need, among other things.

Best regards,

Paul Daniels

Tonight Guilford County has sent more than a message of HOPE. Its a message against the Guilford three of the school board!!!!!

FANTASTIC!!!!

YES to our CHILDREN!

No to certain members of our school board (Quick, Hayes and Childs) who pander to special interests instead of the interests of our children!

This is a great day for Guilford County!

Here's one for Allen and the crack investigative reporters at the News & Record:
Which school board member has the same home address as one of the decision-makers in a minority construction business? Which school board member refuses to answer questions about this? Which school board member routinely recuses herself when a vote concerning this minority construction business comes up on the Board?
If you answered "Deena Hayes," GIVE THAT MAN A BOX OF FREAKING MARS BARS!!!!
The only publication to note this peculiar living arrangement is the Rhino Times and the only reporter who asked the question was John Hammer. I am no Hammer or Rhino fan but credit where credit is due.
How 'bout it Mr. Editor? Care to take a crack at this? Ask Deena Hayes about it. I dare you. I double dip double dog dare you!

To Anonymous's questions about my living in the Northwest district:
Yes, I did before it was redistricted as the Page district.
Honestly, however, we did not choose the house based on the school district. We were just looking for a good house at a decent price.
Believe it or not, I didn't know which school district we were in until after closing.
As for why I'd send a child to the second least integrated school in the district, I fail to see your logic.
As the picture at the top of this blog indicates, I am African American.
Ergo, a child of mine attending Northwest would help the cause of diversity there, not hurt it.

As for whether I've advocated for diversity at my alma mater, Dudley, I've answered that question at least a hundred times ... now at least 101.
Yes I have, on this blog, in columns and in editorials.
Type "Dudley" into the search window on this blog for evidence of that.

So, was there a double secret redistricting of as couple of students form Northwest to Page that no one knew about? This is amazing, indeed, as there are black students that live in the shadows of Page High that are bused many miles to Eastern High. Why would GCS redistrict Northwest students into Page, when they are already busing students all the way to Eastern, supposedly because Page is over-crowded? Was this a deal that GCS made for you in exchange to give them positive publicity on the editorial page?

Allen Johnson - "but I saw Terry Grier working pretty hard to close to achievement gap, to the point that critics said he was concentrating too many efforts on low achievers." Perhaps, but he wasn't very effective then was he?

Jack, your public school system is not into equal opportunity for students, it's all about equal outcomes. That is the great education equalizer. If you focus on the lowest-performing students, then you dumb down the whole student group. Higher achievers are left to fend for themselves, because, well, they can and will do so. Face it, in high school today, there are very few options for parents of high potential students in our traditional schools. GCS has encouraged every student to attend advanced classes, and as such, advanced classes are no longer so. College Prep classes are nothing such. The only viable options for high-potential students are IB programs and Early College, because you have to gain entrance to those options through merit. I'm hearing that the High Point Central IB program is about to dry up as qualified candidates in that area are growing up and graduating.

Anonymous:
You sure do come up with a lot of conspiracy theories under the cloak of anonymity.

Some counterpoints to your points:
1. Redistricting in my neighborhood occurred after my stepkids were grown and in college. I'm guessing the school system redistricted it for racial balance at Page. My neighborhood is majority-white.

2. The schools did make some progress on the racial achievement gap on Grier's watch.

3. There is some validity to the notion of encouraging more students (who can do the work) of taking more challenging classes. It has been shown to yield good results That does NOT mean opening such classes up to students who cannot do the work or don't want to do it.

4. I agree the schools should not lose the needs of high achievers while addressing under-achievers. IB, AP and Early College are examples of the schools' attempts to meet the needs of high achievers.

Allen,

You are being very surreptitious and misleading about the Northwest/Page thing. Why didn't just say all of that before rather than misleading everyone?

So, why would GCS redistrict kids from your neighborhood away from Northwest to Page to achieve racial balance, when they have black kids that practically live at Page High at are bused to Eastern. Would those black kids not help the racial balance at Page? Heck, they could save fuel costs of busing them all the way to Eastern and they could go to their neighborhood school.

By the way, when was that redistricting announced by GCS, we must have missed it?

Allen,

As to your point #3, that is exactly what is happening with AP courses in GCS. Didn't you hear that Grier was pushing every student he could into taking AP courses, whether they could handle it or not? That is why GCS spent $750,000 on AP tests for students in one year, and why the pass results were pathetic.

But, I am glad that we agree that practice is wrong. but, it did work for Terry Grier to get him a bigger and better job. And, any progress that Terry Grier made in closing the achievement gap is so small that it can not be measured and sustained. And, it was a very great cost.

I've got nothing to hide, nor, do I think, has the school system. This redistricting happened years ago, and it was done in the full light of public scrutiny.
We first moved into that neighborhood in 1992.
I'm older than maybe you might think.
The child involved has since gone on to college and even finished a graduate degree.

Allen, I am not suprised, Page and Northwest are both excellent schools. You had a great choice either way. Just goes to show what a good parent you are.

At least your child wasnt bussed or "chosen" to go to Smith. That would of been terrible.