The deal to house the Wake County school system's two new single-sex leadership academies at William Peace University fell apart in a matter of days this week.
As noted in today's article, the turning point came during Tuesday's school board meeting. The lobbying from Peace alumnae and students against the deal culminated in a lengthy closed-session board discussion that resulted in new questions for Peace that the university decided not to answer.
Peace's response was the terse statement saying it was walking away "due to the division and controversy on the Wake County Public School System board."
Miriam Dorsey, one of the alumna fighting the deal, said the school board shouldn't be blamed for Peace walking away.
"The reality is the (school) board could not find the answer to many, many questions," she said.
Dorsey said at least five school board members had agreed with the alumnae that the move to Peace "was not the best thing to do." She said the panel’s five Democrats were more likely to speak out on the issue.
Democratic school board member Christine Kushner declined to respond to Peace's allegations of "division and controversy on the" school board.
"My focus is on the 300 students who will be at the leadership academies," Kushner said. "We will keep going forward with the leadership academies. Many parents want single gender and the leadership theme."
UPDATE
Here's a press release issued today by the Peace alumnae who've hired a PR firm in their figth against the new administration:
April 13, 2012
From: protectpeacecollege.com
Subject: We Won Round One!
We made ourselves heard. Our calls, emails and visits to Wake County school board members paid off. Yesterday, William Peace University backed out of a proposed deal to house single-sex leadership high schools on campus. Peace’s decision apparently caught the school board by surprise. See below to view the news coverage.
We’re just getting started. This fiasco points to the fundamental problems under Peace’s new leadership.
Just as we can’t get straight answers and reliable information from the new administration, school board members couldn’t get straight answers and reliable information about the school deal. So the deal sank.
We’ll continue asking questions about what is happening at Peace. We will continue to seek honesty, openness and transparency – not hostility, secrecy and stone-walling.
We’re setting up a new website – www.protectpeacecollege.com – to keep Peace alumnae and friends informed. It’s still under construction. But visit it today and sign up for email alerts.
Comments
Thank You
Fri, 04/13/2012 - 19:26 — local23He/She really needs to read the plan, especially the points on new school being built and older schools losing children due to age out and changes in demographics.
Actually, the plan says no
Fri, 04/13/2012 - 23:59 — TarHeelFan3Actually, the plan says no such thing. Here is what it says:
"New Schools. Newly-opening schools will be filled solely through the selection processes,
eliminating the need to reassign students to fill schools. This may result in lower-than-optimal utilization of that building for the first few years of operation. However, this is preferable to forcibly reassigning students out of a school that they prefer. Newly opened schools will be gradually worked into a more permanent K-12 choice pyramid over time, with sufficient notice and options provided to students who are proposed to ultimately feed into that school."
You would think a plan this expensive would have the sort of things you describe, but it does not. Instead it rests solely on the "if they build it they will come" approach that works only in fictional movies like Field of Dreams. When they do build new schools, they will make re-assignments. The County commissioners may make them do it as a condition to funding, but they will do it. Wake Count taxpayers are not going to pay for schools we arent using.
This is in response
Fri, 04/13/2012 - 19:27 — local23to Side..thread below!
The republicans....
Fri, 04/13/2012 - 08:26 — bpuli9999played their cards extremely well the past few months.
They rushed through the new assignment plan. Tata (with the then republican majority) came up with more than a few dumb ideas (like this one) and pushed them through. Now the democratic majority is having to take the blame for all the crap left over by the previous board. None of the current republican members come forward to either offer solutions or take the blame. And they talk about responsibility!
JT - are you listening? You used to post here all the time and talk about honety and integrity. Stand up to your mistakes and help fix the issues.
DG - stop thinking about the auditor position and spend some time fixing the problems you helped create.
CM - You are not going to win. Focus on the present.
You seem to be focused on
Fri, 04/13/2012 - 17:06 — starsonoursYou seem to be focused on Blame rather than solutions.You must really be mad at the BoE members prior to 09.
No Matter
Fri, 04/13/2012 - 12:59 — local23What new and good things that this board and last board have tried to do, you bash the republicans. Can't you see that Tata and the board(s) are trying to do for the students to include new and innovative ways?
Everyone makes mistakes, but really Tata is trying to get things running with the new plans and NO ONE is giving this a chance. There will be bumps, curves and even derailment, but there will also be smooth, flowing and right on track for the majority of students in this big big system. All we hear from some of you posters is the negative and constant 'The sky if falling', but where were you 10 years ago, 15 years ago and 5 years ago when the majority of OTB took everything the board and staff threw at us and told us to deal with it.
I see more communication efforts between the board, staff, teachers and parents then I have every seen in the last 15 years!
Please post the positives if you have to always post the negatives.
BTW - who did you vote for in the last board election?
Well Said.....
Fri, 04/13/2012 - 16:53 — JanisTangoWell said.....I've seen many improvements at our school and several in the surrounding area since Mr. Tata came on board. .
Well is that not his job, to
Fri, 04/13/2012 - 17:04 — TarHeelFan3Well is that not his job, to make improvements?
Wake County does not have the capacity to make a choice plan work and under this plan you will see just as much reassignment over time. With our growth dynamics, you cannot promise a kid a seat at a certain school 13 years into the future. Note here, not with this capacity.
Anyone who thinks the new plan will not have the same level of reassignments as the old plan is smoking crack.
Why don't you believe that
Fri, 04/13/2012 - 17:24 — loriacWhy don't you believe that once they promise you a feeder pattern, it won't change? If your neighborhood doubles in size, the person in the new house down the street may get a different feeder pattern, but YOURS will stay the same. That is the promise.
However, if you want to change to the shiny new school that they build to accomodate all the new houses, then you can enter the choice process - it's up to you.
You might be thinking of the old plan where your whole node would be assigned many times to deal with the growth.
...
Fri, 04/13/2012 - 17:28 — SideburnsYou might be thinking....
You've assumed too much.
Is that the best you got?
Fri, 04/13/2012 - 18:18 — TarHeelFan3Is that the best you got? Thanks for the substantive reply.
You still have not answered the question: who is going to go to the hypothetical newly opened high school if every enrolled student already has a feeder pattered to a different school? As I understand it, once you go to kindergarten, they tell you "you will go to this elementary school, followed by this middle school and then this high school." At that time, the hypothetical high school school is not on the drawing board so there is no way the new school is part of the kindergartner's feeder pattern. Are you saying that they can fill the school without taking people out of their sacred promised feeder patter? How you figure that ?
Yet another aspect of this "plan" that tata failed to consider.
...
Fri, 04/13/2012 - 18:37 — SideburnsIf you read the plan, you'll understand. Read it and learn about it. Then you can come back and badmouth everything you don't like.
Exactly WHICH plan are you
Sat, 04/14/2012 - 01:12 — YouMustBeKiddingExactly WHICH plan are you talking about?? The "easy to read" 87 page plan approved by the Board in October; the 49 page "slightly easier to read" plan realized to the public on the website before the First Choice Round; the disorganized 74 FAQ's on the System website?? Or, maybe its the simple 2-page algorithm document Tata, Peppler & staff refused to release to the general public AND their bosses on the Board until its release was forced by an NC Public Records Request ... and which revealed critical differences between the Plan that staff was implementing during the choice rounds & the Plan approved by the Board in October.
The plan says exactly what I
Sat, 04/14/2012 - 00:02 — TarHeelFan3The plan says exactly what I say it says. Before you tell me to read it, why dont you read it yourself.
Here is what it says:
"New Schools. Newly-opening schools will be filled solely through the selection processes,
eliminating the need to reassign students to fill schools. This may result in lower-than-optimal utilization of that building for the first few years of operation. However, this is preferable to forcibly reassigning students out of a school that they prefer. Newly opened schools will be gradually worked into a more permanent K-12 choice pyramid over time, with sufficient notice and options provided to students who are proposed to ultimately feed into that school."
Translation: We will build it and hope people will go there.
Keung, A lot of
Fri, 04/13/2012 - 08:04 — shearertwKeung,
A lot of non-information in this blog post. Any chance you'll ever find out what those "unanswered questions" were?
If may change but the issues
Fri, 04/13/2012 - 08:25 — KeungHui (author)If may change but the issues the board directed staff to ask Peace about came from the closed session so details aren't as forthcoming.
Good to see they made an
Fri, 04/13/2012 - 07:15 — mnordbergGood to see they made an informed decision that the uncertainty in wake county schools was not being tied to the uncertainty in Peace University. Not sure putting the male academy in modular classrooms at the same middle school that may house a modular elementary school is a good idea. If the modular elementary school and leadership academy and middle school all end up there, you have common resources being used by elementary, middle, and high school students. But alas, when it doubt just roll in the mobile classrooms. (No on 2013 bond issue)
I agree. I love how Peace
Fri, 04/13/2012 - 10:23 — jenmanI agree. I love how Peace refused to answer questions but then blamed it all on the School Board. I was very glad to see Kushner still supports the leadership academies and that she took the high road when asked about the divisions on the board.
On a side note, one thing to know about the modular campus is that although it is near East Millbrook, the elem kids from the modular campus aren't on E Millbrook's campus at all. They really aren't even all that close to each other--think Wakefield High and Wakefield Elem distance. I agree that having an elem school and the leadership academies housed in the same modular campus may involve issues that need to be addressed. But I think it's doable until a permanent solution can be found.