Parent group tweaks Web site and mission
A dispatch from one of our education reporters, Jennifer Fernandez:
ABC of Guilford County has spruced up its Web site at www.ABCofguilfordcounty.com - and redefined its mission.
The group now touts itself as a "grassroots educational advocacy group" that believes "parents can have a positive impact on the quality of public education."
The previous Web site focused on overturning the Guilford County Board of Education's Feb. 10 vote to begin a controversial reassignment plan this school year with freshmen. Under the plan, students are shuffled via a lottery among Andrews, High Point Central and Southwest high schools to achieve better socioeconomic balance, use of space and to improve academics, school officials argue.
The redesigned Web site notes that ABC started with a "handful" of parents meeting to discuss the plan. More than 200 parents organized shortly after school officials unveiled the plan in January. The majority of parents are from the Southwest High School area. But the group has grown to more than 1,000 members with many of them coming from across the county.
The new Web site is still under construction. One link that has not been carried over from the original site is the group's Yahoo message board, where many lively, and some times contentious, discussions take place. That site can be found at groups.yahoo.com/group/ABCofGuilfordCounty/