The Wake County school system is taking a different approach than the Durham and Chapel Hill-Carrboro school systems in how they view proposed new charter schools.

As noted in today's article by Jane Stancill and Lynn Bonner, Durham school leaders are urging the State Board of Education to not give approval to a new charter high school that would be located in Research Triangle Park. The Chapel Hill-Carrboro school system is also raising concerns about a new charter school proposed in Orange County.

But Wake school officials have not submitted any response to the proposed Triangle Math and Science Academy that could open for the 2012-13 school year in the former Exploris Middle School building in downtown Raleigh.

The State Board of Education will revisit nine charter school applications next month; one of those is the Howard and Lillian Lee Scholars Charter school proposed for Orange County.

The application is a part of the "fast track" process, said Joel Medley, director of the North Carolina Office of Charter Schools. It will go to the state board for discussion in Febuary, and a decision will be made in March, he said.

The Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools opposed the school, and sent a letter to the state board last year, pointing out what it called factual errors in the school's application.

Nothing like a little holiday advertising to drive up the page count and allow us to bring you even more local news. Today's 16-page A section is packed; here's some of what we've got:

SCHOOL CROWDING: The Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schoools' new elementary won't open for another year and a half. New correspondent Brooks Dareff reports what the school board might do to ease crowding at Carrboro, Glenwood and Seawell in the meantime.

CONDO SITE SOLD: Developer Carol Ann Zin paid $1.14 million for the Aydan Court site off N.C. 54 in 2007. Find out why she sold it to UNC this fall for $410,000. (And she's not happy about it; read her guest column in today's opinion section.)

LONG LEAF GOODBYE: If you've got tickets to "Amahl and the Night Visitors" today (left), you're seeing one of our local opera company's final performaces. What? You didn't know we had an opera company? Read Dave Hart's story.

Anne Blythe says watch for the Lovette trial closing arguments tomorrow. Katelyn Ferral says watch for the town's report on the Yates Motor Co. raid this week. And police have arested a suspect in the mysterious shooting of a Chapel Hill man in his Ashley Forest home last weekend. 

Julie Moore is learning more things about Chapel Hill in today's My View, and Will Allen, Elias Schwartz, Roy Brock, Harvey Carnes, Jill Bone and Robert Dowling have letters in today's edition. What's on your mind?

Thanks for reading,

Mark

If the Triangle High Five has its way, Wake, Durham, Orange and Johnston counties and the Chapel hill-Carrboro school system will have a uniform set of math course names and sequences.

As noted in today's article, the Chapel Hill-Carrboro school board will review the Triangle High Five proposal at tonight's board meeting. Ruth Steidinger, Wake's senior director of middle school program,s said the board would likely get the presentation in January.

Wake will need to decide relatively soon so that high school students can make their course selections for the fall 2012 semester.

From correspondent Brooks Dareff

The Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools Board of Education will discuss a proposed charter school that targets the school district’s achievement gap during its meeting tonight. (See agenda here.)

The Howard and Lillian Lee Scholars Charter School advanced to the next stage of the state application process Wednesday as an N.C. Department of Public Instruction committee sent it forward for an interview in January, said Joel Medley, director of the department’s charter schools office. The state board of education will decide on applications in March.

The school would be named for the former Chapel Hill mayor – the South’s first post-Reconstruction black mayor in a predominantly white town – and his wife, herself a former local educator. Lee applicants plan to open what would by its fourth year be a 723-student, kindergarten-through-eighth grade school at an as yet undecided location in August 2012, according to the application.

City Schools Superintendent Thomas Forcella has disputed the applicants’ contention that the school is needed to help close the achievement gap between white students and black and Hispanic students. Forcella also has noted plans for an 11th district elementary school to open in August 2013 in countering applicants’ citing of schools overcrowding. The Chapel Hill-Carrboro NAACP has gone on record opposing the charter school, in part because it would divert public money from the school district.

A set of staff recommendations on easing overcrowding in three of the district’s elementary schools for the 2012-13 school year is also among the items on the school board’s agenda. Among the recommendations is spot redistricting one Glenwood Elementary neighborhood to Rashkis, where it would then stay beyond 2012-13.

The meeting begins at 7 p.m. at Chapel Hill Town Hall, located at 405 Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.

A proposed charter school named for Chapel Hill’s first black mayor is spotlighting the local school district’s achievement gap.

Angela Lee, daughter of Howard Lee, the first black mayor of a predominantly white Southern town, has applied to open a charter school in Chapel Hill.

The Howard and Lillian Lee Scholars Charter School would “provide high-quality K-8 education that places each student on the path to college readiness and closes achievement gaps.”

It would open in August 2012, serving 480 students as an elementary school and expand each year to eventually serve 700 students through eighth grade.

Howard Lee said the school would give students and their parents more options to help them succeed. The application is not meant to place blame or criticize the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools.

“It’s not my goal to get in a debate with the local system and [I] certainly don’t question the progress they’re making with some students, but some student regardless of what progress is being made can benefit from a different environment,” Lee said.

“Public school can never, in my opinion, rise to the point of having all students rise to the highest level because of the size and the diversity,” he continued. “But a charter school, if it’s run correctly, can take students and give them the more intensified attention that they can’t get in the public schools.”

Read more on this story, including a response from Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools Superintendent Thomas Forcella, this weekend in the N&O and CHN.  

Candidates running for the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools Board of Education Answered questions for an article published in the Chapel Hill News.  Here are their full answers to those and other questions.

James Barrett

1.  What do you propose the school district do to close the achievement gap?

For far too long, we have said this is a priority without actually making changes that could close our gaps. There is no single effort that will magically close them, but one thing we can and should do is have a full-time “gap czar” in the administration who would push for the changes needed to make substantial progress and be held accountable if we don’t. If this truly is our priority, we need accountability and clear resources applied in Lincoln Center.  This person will be able to research and share ideas that work in our schools to close the gap.

New, unofficial enrollment figures have caught the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools by surprise and could trigger a residential building freeze if the trend continues.

The city school district has 5,440 elementary school students, or 42 more than projected, according to preliminary, unofficial numbers, spokeswoman Stephanie Knott said yesterday.

A local agreement called the Schools Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance (SAPFO) restricts residential building when the school system runs out of room for new students. The SAPFO trigger at the elementary level is 5,506, Knotts says, so "we’re unofficially 66 students away from hitting the trigger.”

Earlier this year, school officials thought the district might hit the trigger next school year. Now, Knott says it's possible the district could surpass the SAPFO ceiling this school year. 

A building freeze is not inevitable. School ands county leaders say it’s possible new residential permits could be issued if a new school was under way. The city school district plans to open its next elementary school in 2013-14.

Look for more on this story coming tomorrow in The Chapel Hill News.
 

Here is school board candidate James Barrett's statement. He filed today to run for the Chapel Hill-Carrboro school board:

Chapel Hill- Carrboro schools face a historic year: With a new superintendent, we know change is coming. So even more than most years, this is the year we need strong school board leadership to guide the schools toward the goal we all share: helping all our children reach their potential.

I’m James Barrett, and I’m running for school board because I have the leadership skills and experience the board needs:

• Child of the schools–I began in Chapel Hill schools as a 3rd-grader at Seawell, going on to Phillips and graduating from Chapel Hill High
• IBM employee for past 20 years– experience as a manager and project manager of software development, responsible for overseeing $30 million budgets and guiding dozens of employees in their careers
• Founding member of the strategy team of Orange County Justice United and member Justice United’s education action team–through Justice United, I have listened to the concerns of the community and worked with government and other officials to effect change (see below)
• Elementary school weekly math volunteer and year-round rec league baseball/basketball coach
• Parent of an elementary school student and a middle school student in the district

Mia Burroughs is running for a second term on the city school board. Here is her statement:

CHCCS effectively educates many children and has highly dedicated teachers and staff. However, like any other institution, it can and should improve. My campaign slogan the first time I ran was “Every Student Matters.” Over these last three and half years, my highest priority has been to prevent students from falling through cracks in the system and to ensure that each student receives the best services the district can provide. In other words, every student matters.

I have worked for almost my entire career for non-profit organizations that strive to bring youth through the tricky years of adolescence. My role in those non-profits has been to advocate for improved public policies, raise funds through grants and educate the public. My knowledge of adolescent behavior and youth programs informs my service as a School Board member. School failure often goes hand in hand with other high-risk behavior.

Before my election to the Board, I volunteered in CHCCS elementary classrooms each of the ten years that my girls attended Seawell and Estes Hills Elementary Schools. Helping in the classroom allowed me to watch some of our finest teachers work their magic. I have tremendous respect and appreciation for the men and women who educate our community’s children.

My focus for the next four years, should the voters choose to return me to office, will be to maintain the services that we have that are excellent and identify and improve those that aren’t serving our students well. We still have too many students, particularly children of color and low socio-economic status, who leave our school system inadequately prepared for college or a career. I want to continue to sharpen our district’s focus on educating all our children to the best of their potential.