How will North Carolina school districts ensure they have at least 1,025 hours of instruction this fall?

As noted in today's article, Triangle school districts, like those in the rest of the state, are going with 1,025 hours instead of having 185 days of classes. It varies how each district will meet the new requirement, which is up from the old one of 180 days and 1,000 hours.

For instance, school officials in Johnston and Orange counties say they already have more than 1,025 hours of instruction at individual schools. This means they're not expecting to make any bell schedule changes for this fall.

Pencil in Dec. 4 for what could be a lively discussion about whether the Wake County school system should hold early release days on Wednesday or Fridays.

As noted in today's article, the school board's executive committee has put the early release issue on the agenda for the Dec. 4 board work session. The board's Democratic majority has the votes to push through a change but whether they want to risk any appearance of a scaled-back return to Wacky Wednesdays/Wake Wednesdays remains to be seen.

Aside from the argument from supporters that Wednesdays would be better for promoting student achievement, you're also likely to hear that they're only talking about six Wednesdays per student and not every week.

Orange County Schools Board of Education Chair Donna Coffey released this statement today in response to the demotion of Orange High School Principal Armond Hankins:

On behalf of the Orange County Board of Education, I would like to respond to recent statements questioning the District’s commitment to African American leadership presence in our schools.

As we pursue hiring the best-qualified staff, both the Superintendent and Board are mindful of the importance of recruiting and maintaining a diverse staff of school system leaders. Our Superintendent makes personnel recommendations to the board at every meeting, and we know that he values diversity and makes recommendations based on good and honest reasons in the best interest of children.

The School Board knows that not every personnel decision will please everyone, but we are confident that the cumulative personnel decisions over time show our commitment to recruiting and maintaining a high quality, diverse staff of leaders and role models for all our students.

Recruiting and retaining educators of color has been a longstanding goal of our Raising Achievement and Closing the Gap Committee, and our board has strived for many years to ensure that our students of color have role models at all levels.

Currently:
- African Americans comprise 16.2 percent of our student membership.
- 38.3 percent of our district’s administrators (principals, assistant principals and central office staff) are African American.
- 20.8 percent of our district’s teachers, teacher assistants and other instructional/classified staff are African American.

Our Superintendent and Board highly value our students and their families and encourage open communication. We are firmly committed to promoting outstanding student achievement and individual success for all students. The 1:1 laptop initiative recently approved by the Board reflects our commitment to ensuring that all students have access to the best educational tools possible for their success.

Donna Coffey, Chair
Orange County Board of Education
 

How much stock should people place on the new list of the nation's best public high schools that was released this week by U.S. News & World Report.

As noted in today's article, the rankings saw some schools that do well on other lists such as Raleigh Charter High, Enloe High and East Chapel Hill High not getting ranked. Less academically heralded schools such as Garner High and Southern Wake Academy were honored on this new list.

The difference from the lists done by Newsweek and The Washington Post seems to be that U.S. News requires schools to do well with their low-income and minority students.

In homage to April Fools' Day, the New Raleigh website is poking fun at the Wake County school board.

In a post today, New Raleigh "reports" that the Wake school system will send all its students to Orange County to get a "better education." Click here for an earlier cartoon in which New Raleigh depicts Superintendent Tony Tata as Rambo.

Here's today's full post:

Rain has forced  cancellations Thursday for area sports teams. Orange and Cedar Ridge have called off just about everything that was scheduled for today.
The Cedar Ridge High School tennis match at Science and Math is rescheduled for 4:30 p.m. Friday in Durham.
Orange High's indoor track awards have been postponed to 6 p.m. on March 16 in the school cafeteria.
Cedar Ridge’s home softball and baseball games against N.C. Science and Math have been rescheduled for March 21.
The Cedar Ridge lacrosse match at Durham Jordan also has been postponed to March 21.
Orange High’s tennis match with Chapel Hill and soccer match against Person both have been postponed and are not rescheduled at this time.

The CHHS girls won their first-round game in the Carolina-Six Conference basketball tournament and will play at Orange tonight at 7 p.m. in a semifinal game.
Chapel Hill’s girls had a big fourth quarter Monday, including an 18-6 run, to down Northern Vance, 59-51, in the Carolina-Six’s first round. Ninth-graders Jamella Smith and Catherine Romaine both recorded double-doubles. Smith had game highs of 18 points and 22 rebounds, while Romaine had 12 points and 21 rebounds.
The CHHS boys’ team hosts Northern Vance at 7 p.m. tonight in their tournament’s semifinals. Orange plays at Southern Vance in the boys’ other semifinal.
In the Carolina-10, River Mill's girls play Cedar Ridge at 6 p.m. tonight, followed by a boys semifinal between Northwood and Granville Central at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Northwood's girls play Granville Central at 6 p.m., followed by the boys’ semifinal between Carrboro and Cedar Ridge at 7:30 p.m.
East Chapel Hill is hosting the semifinals and finals of the PAC-6. The Wildcat boys play Riverside at 8 p.m. Thursday. The chanpionship finals are Friday, with games at 6 p.m. (girls) and 8 p.m. (boys).
For all the scores, see the News & Observer or check out Preps Now.

From correspondent John Sharpe

A gender discrimination lawsuit against the Orange County Board of Education by a women’s volleyball and basketball coach has been settled in mediation for $93,000.

Laurie Calder-Green, a former English teacher and coach at Cedar Ridge High School in Hillsborough, was dismissed in mid-2008, allegedly because she got verbally aggressive with the players, said her attorney, Luke Largess of Charlotte.

Calder-Green complained of gender discrimination, claiming her behavior was no different from men’s coaches. She filed suit in January of 2010, with claims of gender discrimination under Title 7 and Title 9, among other actions.

Michael D. Parker, attorney for the board, said Calder-Green was dismissed “because of interaction with the players,” but did not go into detail.

In a statement released Thursday, the board denied any wrongdoing, and said: “Considering the turmoil this matter has already caused … a settlement served the best interest of the school system.”

Parker said half of the funds will come from the school system, and the other half will come from the liability insurance provider for the N.C. School Board Association.

Under terms of the settlement, Calder-Green will receive $50,770, her attorney will receive $32,320, and her daughter, Emily Roberts, will receive $10,000.

Largess said Roberts was denied employment at Cedar Ridge following the dismissal of her mother.

Grady Brown Elementary needs your help to win a new school playground.

"Our school, in Hillsborough, has a 40-year old blacktop with weeds running all through it, monkey bars and a set of parallel bars," writes principal Fay Jones. "We have 350 children who go outside daily and do not have any swings or slides."

The PTA  and Rachel Monschein in particular developed a video and entered it into the Pepsi Refresh $50,000 Grant Playground Program. Three months later, the school is among 1,000 schools competing to see which projects receive the most votes by Feb. 1. The top 10 projects will be awarded the grant money.

"This is week 2 and Grady Brown Elementary is ranked 56th out of 1,000 projects," Jones writes. "We need the community to band together to improve this playground. We are not asking for your money but your time. You and anyone over the age of 13 can vote three times a day."

Here's how :
1. Vote online via Pepsi Refresh (www.refresheverything.com/playgroundforgab).  Click vote for this project.

2. TEXTing 73774 and in the subject line put 105202

3. Vote online using Facebook login: Exit out of the Pepsi site, then reenter the site using the link again http://www.refresheverything.com/playgroundforgab. Click vote for this project but this time use the "Login with Facebook" button.

The chairwoman of the Orange County Schools Board of Education will face a runoff against the recent election's next highest vote getter.

Chairwoman  Anne Medenblik will face Laura Nicholson after Nicholson requested a runoff. It will be held June 22, the same day as the runoff for U.S. Senate, county officials announced today.

In a letter to the Board of Elections, Nicholson said she did not make the decision lightly and would have felt uncomfortable making the request except for the fact that a runoff is already being held that day.

Under the rules for the non-partisan school board race, a candidate may request a runoff if one or more top vote getters fails to win more votes than the total number of votes cast divided by the number of candidates running.

In the school board race the threshold was 2,636 votes.

Medenblik, who finished fourth in the race for four seats, won 2,565 votes; Nicholson won 2,500 votes.

"That was a tough race," said Debbie Chesire, deputy director of the Board of Elections.

The top three finishers in the May contest were incumbent Debbie Piscitelli and two former county department heads:  Donna Dean Coffey and Brenda Stephens, who squeaked above the threshold with 2,651 votes.