I wrote a story in Sunday's N&O about the Chapel Hill-Carrboro school board elections.

Greg McElveen, the only incumbent in today's race, called in and wanted to clarify some of his statements on the school budget cutbacks.

The state's Department of Public Instruction released School Report Cards for districts and individuals schools late last week.

Each school's report card can be viewed at www.ncreportcards.org. You can click to view details on each school district and individual schools in categories like technology usage, funding, test scores, suspensions and teacher quality.

It's a quite interesting and comprehensive read. In addition to the standard testing reports, you can also check out how many of your school's computers have Internet access, or how many teachers have advanced degrees.

An FYI to OrangeChat readers requested by the PTA Council:

The video for the Chapel Hill-Carrboro school board candidates forum sponsored by the PTA Council and League of Women Voters is available at ptacouncil.com

The senior leadership team of Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools will not be receiving bonuses this year.

But they wanted it that way.

At the annual superintendent's evaluation last Thursday, superintendent Neil Pedersen, assistant superintendent for instructional services Denise Bowling, assistant superintendent for support services Todd LoFrese and chief technology officer Ray Reitz, petitioned the school board to forgo their annual bonuses in light of the economic downturn.

More than 4,000 people walked down Franklin Street Saturday afternoon to show their support for the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools system.

The Public School Foundation's "Lucky" 13th Annual Walk for Education raised more than $83,000 to support the schools.

Seawell Elementary had the most walkers at 426. Rashkis Elementary raised the most money.

For photos from the walk, visit the Chapel Hill-Carrboro flickr site.

Both school systems in Orange County were honored Monday for having high graduation rates.

Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools and Orange County Schools received recognition at a state ceremony held by the Department of Public Instruction in Raleigh. State Superintendent June Atkinson and former govenor Jim Hunt presented the honors.

North Carolina's overall graduation rate is 71.7 percent. At Chapel Hill-Carrboro, the overall rate for their student cohort was 86.7 percent; in Orange County Schools, the rate was 81.4 percent for the class of 2009.

The student cohort rate tracks the progress of all students who enter districts in the ninth grade.

The Orange County Democratic Women hosts the second public forum for school board candidates tonight.

All six candidates will be present at the forum, held in the OWASA Community Room located at 400 Jones Ferry Road in Carrboro. The forum will run from 7:30-9 p.m.

There are six candidates vying for three seats on the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools board.

All six candidates for the Chapel Hill-Carrboro school board plan to attend the first candidate forum of the season Monday night.

The Chapel Hill-Carrboro NAACP plans to pose questions for the candidates on the achievement gap, budgets, retention rates and accountability. There will also be an opportunity for audience members to ask questions.

There are six candidates vying for three seats on the school board.

The forum will be held Monday from 7 - 8:30 p.m. at St. Paul AME Church on 101 N. Merritt Mill Road. 

School officials continue to work to make sure the new Carrboro High School arts wing will be approved and funded as quickly as possible.

The Chapel Hill-Carrboro school board voted unanimously at the last board meeting to approve the transfer of $78,600 in old project funds to complete the design and bid process of the project. The funds come from remaining balances on two older, completed renovation projects at Mary Scroggs Elementary and Glenwood Elementary. The two projects have a positive balance of $92,477 generated from sales tax refunds.

The move represents the next step in the process to break ground for the arts wing by winter. Once it starts, the project could take anywhere from 12 to 18 months to complete.

The Orange County Board of Commissioners committed to the construction of the arts wing in June – as long as the school district could fund the project using federal stimulus, no interest loan money.

So far, the school district has received $1.9 million from the state in “Qualified School Construction Bonds” from the U.S. Department of Treasury. The district has also applied for an additional $2.7 million from the state’s Department of Public Instruction, which has leftover money from school districts in the state that did not apply to receive the extra funds. They’ll
hear back later this month about this money. When combined, these two sources
make up the entire cost of the project, estimated at $4.6 million.

An update on the project and a request to apply for bond funding will be presented at tomorrow night's county commissioners meeting.

Gary Wallach is withdrawing from the race for Chapel Hill-Carrboro school board. That leaves six candidates vying for three seats. This was Wallach's second time running for the board. Here is his complete statement: