Education

April 8, 2010

Wanted: More time and a little trust 

Wake school board members slogged through more than nine hours of meetings Tuesday filled with debates about student reassignments, budget cuts, magnet school programs and bus schedules.

But the moment that crystallized the system's leadership issues came during a debate about a resolution designed to show a "commitment to efforts of voluntary desegregation." It took only a few minutes.

This is a matter of some urgency for the school system. If Wake is going to successfully compete for a federal magnet school grant worth $12 million, it must file an application this month showing it is committed to "supporting the elimination, reduction, and prevention of minority group isolation."

But it was only two weeks ago that the new board majority approved the framework for "community based assignments" that specifically avoids the word diversity. Board members also rejected several motions designed to ensure economic balance in the schools.

So on Tuesday, board member Anne McLaurin offered a plain-spoken objection to the resolution involving the magnet schools. "This is less than honest," McLaurin said. "You are doing this just to get this grant. You are not committing this to the policy of the whole school system."

John Tedesco, who wrote the resolution with fellow board members Debra Goldman and Keith Sutton, objected immediately. "This highlights our commitment in the new assignment process," he said.

He suggested McLaurin support the magnet school resolution and work with the new board majority to create a community-based assignment plan that includes diversity through the use of magnet schools.

The details, he explained, will be worked out later in committee discussions.

"We don't believe things work that way anymore," McLaurin replied. "That's part of the problem."

School board Chair Ron Marigotta responded, "Well, you better get on board.. It's really that simple."

And it is that simple - and that difficult. That's because Tedesco and McLaurin are both correct. A school board committee is the proper place to hash out the details. It's hard to imagine blending these two critical resolutions without a full airing in committee.

But board minority members have come to distrust that process. They have repeatedly and ferociously complained that no major decisions have come through committee since the new five-member majority took control Dec. 1.

Out of time, out of trust and out of ideas on how to compromise, the board approved the resolution on a 5-4 vote.

Between a bus and a hard place

 Budget news went from bad to worse this week for the school system when Chief Business Officer David Neter told school board members to expect another state reduction of at least $20 million for 2010-2011.

 The state reduction is in addition to cuts the board is already planning for next year. Coincidentally, those cuts also total about $20 million. The combined $40 million in reductions will come in a year when 3,800 new students are expected to enroll.

 The $40 million does not include any additional reductions in local funds controlled by county commissioners.

 Having already recommended layoffs for up to 70 employees who work outside the schools, Neter warned that additional cuts will significantly affect all aspects of the school system - including classrooms.

 Even getting students to the classroom is proving difficult. As many as 2,000 new students are expected to ride buses next year, which would normally mean adding about 25 buses to the school system's fleet of 907.

 Because it can't afford the additional drivers and maintenance costs, the board wasn't planning on adding any new buses next year. It was planning instead to cut the transportation budget.

 But moving more students without more buses means spreading out the time it takes to get everyone back and forth. While most high schools would still start at 7:25 a.m., some elementary schools would run from 9:30 am to 4 p.m.

 Understanding the backlash this would cause from parents, board members drove themselves to frustration looking for answers. Can we flip starting times for elementary and high schools? Can classes begin at 7 a.m.? Do kids really need 30 minutes to eat breakfast? What if older kids rode city buses?

 If this was a microcosm of the bigger budget debate, it wasn't promising. The group eventually decided to try and find money for more buses. They weren't optimistic. It was simply better than any other idea at the time.

 "I hate to be the predictor of doom," school board Chair Ron Margiotta said in the next day's news articles, "but this could be just the beginning."

                                         Flurry of assignment changes top 1,000

 From almost the first day the new school board majority took control in December, several board members have made it clear they wanted to "tweak" the current three-year student assignment plan in response to parent complaints.

 Dozens of tweaks later, somewhere between 1,000 and 1,500 students will be attending a different school next year than the one to which they were assigned.

 School administrators have not yet totaled the final number partly because changes were being made as late as Tuesday evening - late enough into the school year that principals were beginning to worry about planning for next year without knowing how many students would be in their schools.

 The changes, most of them made in the past two weeks, stemmed directly from the board's promise to give parents more choices and allow them to attend schools closer to home.

 But without the luxury of time, board members found themselves making changes based on email pleas from parents, folders full of petitions or comments offered at hearings where student reassignments weren't part of the agenda. No public hearings were held specifically to talk about reassignments and it obviously wasn't clear to some parents how to get on - or off - the list that was being considered.

 Board member Kevin Hill rejected every request on the grounds that no parent could be expected to understand the process being used. "We're just cherry picking here," he said.

 While some changes require students to move, others allow families to stay even if the school is above capacity. Some parents will no doubt be thrilled, but there were also cases - such as a move of 132 students from Garner High School to Southeast Raleigh High School - where it wasn't clear that families even knew the move was being discussed.

 Based on some immediate reaction from parents in the western part of the county, it appears likely more families are just finding out about the moves. At this point, however, it's too late to make more changes.

 Final enrollment projections based on the changes should go out to principals by April 23.

                                                                            Noteworthy

 ... A group of 25 educators and researchers, including some the most highly-regarded experts in their field, recently released a statement titled "The Price of Retreat" warning that "serious, negative consequences await North Carolina's largest school district" given the school board's decision to no longer promote socio-economic balance. The full text of the statement and a list of those who signed it can be found here.

 ... Wilburn Elementary was one of four schools in the nation to be honored recently with the TAP Ambassador Award. The TAP program has attracted interest in Wake because it offers a way to use federal funds to pay teachers more who work in higher-poverty schools.

  ... Ligon Magnet Middle School teacher Freddie-Lee Heath has been named the National Dance Educator of the Year by the Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance. Heath has developed a new dance curriculum for Wake County Public Schools. His school tap company, Tapestry, also has performed throughout NC and made many trips to New York City.

 ... You will notice (we hope) something new at the bottom of this newsletter. It's a button that allows readers to donate directly to Wake Education Partnership. The Partnership does not sell memberships and is committed to helping educate the public about current local school issues free of charge. But if you find newsletters such as this one to be valuable in your understanding of the schools, we ask that you consider making a donation to help support our work. It is greatly appreciated.

 Any fledgling efforts at cooperation between the new majority of the Wake County school board and its remaining members suffered a setback this week when the board voted 5-4 to end mandatory year-round school assignments despite a host of questions about potential costs and student reassignments.

 The resolution, introduced without advance notice in a fashion similar to the board's first meeting, also marked the first directive to reduce efforts at maintaining socio-economic balance in the schools.

 After the vote, Superintendent Del Burns said his staff will immediately begin working on a plan to make the changes, although he isn't sure what that plan will look like.

 In a closely related discussion, the board decided at an earlier meeting Tuesday to survey all Wake County school parents about the kind of school calendar they prefer. The key to that discussion was deciding to collect most of the information online, which speeds up the time it takes to get results and makes it possible to change school calendars next year.

 Taken together, the two decisions mean the status of any given year-round school won't be known until at least February 16 and possible student reassignments won't be known until March at the earliest.

 The actions marked a sharp reversal from the previous meeting Dec. 15 when board members seemed willing to delay major changes in year-round calendars until 2011-2012 so they could collect as much information as possible about parents' preferences and the related effects of the changes.

 Several times during Tuesday's meetings, which lasted more than eight hours, school board Chairman Ron Margiotta stressed that the board has made no decisions yet and it is simply looking for a way to give parents as much choice as possible as soon as possible.

 "We need to know parents' preferences before we can do anything," he said. "If we can do what they want, we will. Some changes we just won't be able to make."

 Two step approach

 The first step in the process is to survey parents about what kind of school calendar they prefer. Letters will go home with students beginning next week with instructions about how to take the survey. The deadline will be Jan. 25.

 The superintendent's staff will then compile the answers, including a section for comments, for the board's Feb. 2 meeting. That would allow board members to decide as soon as their Feb. 16 meeting whether to change the calendars of some schools. Converting some year-round schools to traditional calendars would mean reassigning students for whom there is no longer room.

 The students most likely to be reassigned would be those who have applied to attend a year-round school that is then converted to a traditional calendar. Click here to see the capacities of each school based on the different calendars. (The Partnership will provide a fuller explanation of the school system's options in a separate release next week.)

 Board members did not discuss whether they will hold public hearings for families who might be reassigned. By that point, however, it will be too late to add mobile classrooms for next year because of permit requirements and other constraints. That means any reassignments would have to occur within currently available space.

 The second step in the process would then be guided by the resolution that prohibits mandatory year-round assignments. If the families in a year-round school, for example, choose to remain on a year-round calendar, families who dislike that decision can demand a transfer to another school with a traditional calendar.

 The resolution also requires the system to make "every effort" to accommodate families who are in a traditional-school calendar and want to attend a year-round calendar school.

 Giving parents the time to make those decisions would likely take another two to three weeks. That means it could be late March - but probably closer to mid April or later - before principals are given school rosters. The principals need the rosters to know how many teachers to hire when classes begin again the first week of July.

 Any teachers who want to request a transfer for the coming school year will need to make their best guess about what kind of calendar they will be working with as the deadline for teacher transfer requests is early February.

 The net effect of the process on the socio-economic balance of any school cannot be considered under the language of the resolution. Several groups have since questioned whether that wording effectively changes board policy on student assignments. If so, a different voting process would be required and the board might need to revisit the question at its next meeting.

 Board member Anne McLaurin questioned whether it is possible for the staff to generate quality results in such a short time for both the survey and the student reassignment options. Several board members dismissed her concerns as unwarranted before approving the resolution.

 Decision on legal contract delayed

 The first consequence of Tuesday's split vote on year-round schools came within minutes and it had nothing to do with school calendars. Instead, it involved the board's resolution approved in December to hire an outside law firm to review the district's legal expenses and offer advice to Ron Margiotta as board chairman.

 The resolution called for Margiotta to negotiate a contract with Thomas Farr of the firm Ogletree Deakins. A summary of the contract, which can be found here, would cost the district up to $50,000 for a review of legal costs and an uncapped amount for any legal advice or representation.

 Farr is a well-respected attorney with strong ties to the Republican Party that reach back to the days of former U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms. The board's current attorney works for a firm with strong ties to the Democratic Party.

 Both political parties were openly involved in this year's board elections, which are technically non-partisan.

 Margiotta wanted to present the contract at Tuesday's meeting, but board members accidentally removed it from the agenda along with other items when it became apparent the meeting would likely take longer than expected.

 By board policy, it takes a two-thirds majority vote to place an item back on an agenda once it has been removed. Having just watched the board majority push through the resolution on year-round schools, most of the board minority was in no mood to oblige them any further. A motion to put the contract back on the agenda failed.

 A special meeting is likely before Jan. 19  with the Ogletree Deakins contract as the only item.

Achievement gap, assignment practices to get special attention

 One of the few significant topics that drew unanimous support from board members Tuesday was a request by Ron Margiotta to create two ad hoc committees focused on academic achievement gaps and student assignments.

 The committee addressing academic achievement will focus on suspension rates, test scores and graduation rates of students who are from poor families. The school system does well on most overall rankings, but it has worked for years to close an achievement gap between middle-class and poor students that has grown recently as statewide standards increase.

 The student assignment committee will review the current three-year assignment plan and look at other longer-range issues. That committee will include members of the public suggested by board members. Additional details about its work were not discussed.

 Noteworthy...

 ... For the second year in a row, 197 Wake school system educators were certified by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. National certification is the highest certification standard teachers can earn and studies have shown the students of nationally-certified teachers post higher test scores than their peers. Wake has 1,702 certified teachers in the system, which is the most in the state and the second-largest number of any district in the nation.

 ... The Great Schools in Wake Coalition, an organization of 15 community groups created in response to some of the changes being discussed by the school board, was announced Thursday. The group, whose website can be found here, includes organizations such as the YWCA of the Greater Triangle, the Raleigh Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance and the League of Women Voters.

 ... In addition to providing live coverage of all committee meetings and regular board meetings, WRAL.com is posting archived video of past meetings on its web site due to increased public interest. The meetings are available live at wral.com. Past meetings can be found by clicking on the education section of the website.