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WakeEd
The WakeEd blog is devoted to discussing and answering questions about the major issues facing the Wake County school system: the reassignment of thousands of students, the conversion of traditional-calendar schools to a year-round schedule, the district's response to growth and the school construction program.
WakeEd is maintained by The News & Observer's Wake schools reporter, T. Keung Hui. While Keung posts information and analysis on the issues, keep us posted on your suggestions, questions, tips and what you're doing to cope with the changes in Wake's schools.
Familiar face at Holly Springs High
Two Northern Wake high schools are getting new principals and a familiar face of reassignment will be filling at another school.
Ramey Beavers will become the interim principal of Holly Springs High. He's filling in for Luther Johnson, who has been hospitalized with an illness.
Beavers was the senior director in charge of growth management from 1997 to 2006. He was the person out there announcing the reassignment plan each year before he retired in 2006.
Beavers is now a consultant who runs Ramey L. Beavers and Associates. He's done some consulting work for the school district, including in growth management and human resources.
Beavers does have the credentials to be a principal. He was the principal of Cary High and West Lake Middle.
Also on Tuesday, Greg Decker was named the new principal of Sanderson High. Decker is now principal of West Lake Middle School and used to lead Lead Mine Elementary School.
Tina Hoots will be the new principal of Wake Forest-Rolesville High. She had been the school's assistant principal before taking her current job as principal of Davis Drive Middle School.
T. Keung Hui
T. Keung Hui covers Wake schools.
Comments
Interim principals
Thu, 12/04/2008 - 20:22 — MarvinSchwartzSo if a vice principal assumes the principal's position, then who does the vice principal's job?
Makes sense to me that a pool of retired, experienced administrators could step into a situation that required a longer-term interim situation. Then eveyone is settled for when the principal comes back.
And how exactly are these retirees getting paid twice? Are you referring to receiving a salary while drawing a retirement pension? And where exactly does the pension come from? Each school employee is REQUIRED to contribute a set percentage to their retirement accounts. Anyone who is "double-dipping" is only receiving the pension from the system they paid into while being paid to do an actual job.
Besides, it's only for a few months. Wouldn't it be worse for one of the VPs to do the job but without the title or the pay increase?
well... considering one of
Sat, 12/06/2008 - 16:56 — rr77rr99well... considering one of the Vice Principals at HSHS just quit... maybe they will need to find another retired administrator to fill that position, too.
Are they leaving now or just
Sun, 12/07/2008 - 07:49 — vsheehanAre they leaving now or just saying they will be leaving at the end of the year. Someone leaving a school mid year reflects more on the school then the person ie what is going on at the school to cause staff to leave mid year.
So this is now a F&R
Thu, 12/04/2008 - 10:43 — rr77rr99So this is now a F&R discussion? Are we blue in the face with this yet or what?
I still want to know why WCPSS is using former, retired, staff members to fill "temp" positions so that we can pay them twice? I really would like to know if this is the best way to go, or is it a way to keep "control" of the way things are run.... and I always love it when a former employee becomes a "consultant". How many of them are there in WCPSS so we can again, cut double checks and make sure the "bubble never bursts" with outsiders coming in and providing a new perspective on things?
Just asking.
Seems like a good job for an area superintendent
Thu, 12/04/2008 - 12:25 — fiestamomAdmittedly, I am not a fan of the "area superintendent" positions. It seems to be just another layer of bureaucracy that is a waste of taxpayer money. Why not have one of these folks become a temporary principal?
That's a great idea!
Thu, 12/04/2008 - 20:01 — sameolemessThat's a great idea! However, all of those that up at the "top" of the ladder would $hit a brick if they actually had to into a school and deal withtheday to day life there. They don't want to have contact, they just want to sit behind a desk, in an office, and add more paperwork for the poor teachers to deal with. Not only should they have to step in as Principal, but I feel they should have manditory visits to schools, just to keep that line of communication open. I bet everyone of them could count on one hand, how many schools in their supervision they have actually visited. So out of touch with the real world...SO SAD
Isn't normal for a business
Thu, 12/04/2008 - 10:54 — ncdad1Isn't normal for a business to keep a few exective on the "bench" in a staff position in HQ ready to temporarily fill in or be promote to an unexpected vacant position?
Maybe, but I just would
Thu, 12/04/2008 - 13:47 — rr77rr99Maybe, but I just would like to know if it's cost effective. Why can't one of the several vice principals or some of the "intern" vice principals have the spot? Unless none of them actually wanted it. Maybe that's the senario and of course, everything is under "lock and key" when it comes to ANY INFORMATION so we will never know... just have to follow the trail of gossip and leaks and piece it all together. WCPSS seems to prefer that "flow" of information rather than giving the actual facts.
Just a thought.....
Wed, 12/03/2008 - 14:29 — WuptdoJust a thought but isn't Dr. Beavers getting a little long in the tooth to be a High School principle. When he was the principal at Cary HS they didn't have the large F&R numbers, ESL students, nor the gang problems of today. High Schools in Wake County are not the same as they were in the 80's & 90's.
It was because of the good, solid reputation of Cary HS that we moved to Cary in the first place. Once upon a time Cary HS was the best (non-magnet) high school in Wake County, but its good SAT scores and academic reputation was destroyed by those who politick'd from "inside-the-beltline."
Whoa...wait a minute
Thu, 12/04/2008 - 07:30 — rr77rr99Whoa...wait a minute here. This is the first I am hearing that there's been no principal. Really? Who has been "running the show" ?
Why is WCPSS bringing in a retired former administrator to fill the need when I am assuming the vice principals up there have been in charge for months? Why isn't one of the vice principals taking over? Wouldn't that make sense? Aren't they familiar with what's already going on and the faculty and student body?
How long will it take for an "outsider" to get up to speed?
Is Beavers now being paid a salary AND collecting his pension? He's getting paid TWICE then? Does he get double benefits now as well? How does that all work?
I really wish WCPSS would stop promoting their great "communication" skills. If I were a "Communications Teacher" I'd give them an F! The parents are always the last to find out what the heck is going on, and WCPSS wants us "involved"? Yeah, okay.
And what's with the West Lake Schools? Do they have a revolving door on the principal's offices at those two schools or what? What's the average length of time a principal lasts at either their Middle or Elem. school? A year? Two?
Wow.
So many of the Baby Boomer
Thu, 12/04/2008 - 13:33 — KeungHui (author)So many of the Baby Boomer principals have retired in recent years that Wake now has a pool of people to pick from to serve as interim principals and interim assistant principals. These people do double dip. But that's not unusual. A number of retired teachers come back to take teaching positions while also collecting their pensions.
CHS
Wed, 12/03/2008 - 17:17 — ncdad1I think any school that has to shoulder the burden of all the low income and limited English students would be crushed. Apex, GH or PC would be in the same boat if they had gotten these students which explains why they are fighting so hard not to take their fair share.
Low income/Limited English
Athens 40%/8%, Cary 39%/11%, Apex 12%/3%, Green Hope 12%/4%, Pather Creek 9%/5%
% White
Apex 79%, Green Hope 72%, Panther Creek 61%, Cary 59%, Broughton 57%, Wakefield 56%, Athens 54%, County 52%
You do know that white
Thu, 12/04/2008 - 07:47 — vsheehanYou do know that white people can be F&R /limited english right? maybe you believe that a school that had a high density of Minorities with money would gladly take on more F&R/limited english and that its just white people who wouldn't?
Linkage?
Thu, 12/04/2008 - 09:03 — ncdad1Why would you make that linkage between color and income? They are two different stats from WCPS site. They just show that some schools are less diverse than others. I am glad I did not include the one on inequity of the number of AP classes offered from school to school or you would have linked that to race too.
No I wouldn't it just seem
Thu, 12/04/2008 - 22:00 — vsheehanNo I wouldn't it just seem odd you brought up ethnicity. Since ethnic bussing is not what WCPSS is doing. That would be illegal. Our you saying that you believe your wonderful WCPSS is doing something illegal?
It would be nice to know
Thu, 12/04/2008 - 23:13 — Voice_of_Reason_Since I believe it has been more or less proven (as much as it can be) that there is a very high percent of F&R fraud in Wake County; what is the real economic diversity mix in our schools? If the main data point we use to balance our schools is based on fraudulent numbers, what do we really know. The USDA only let's us check 3% (no more, no less) and there appears to be a huge amount of fraud. Since there has never been a prosecution anwhere in the US for fraudulantely requesting F&R money, are you surprised. At worse case a person has a 3% chance of being asked if they are not receiving food stamps (0% if they do). Even if they are discovered all they do is not answer the inquiry and they are dropped from the roles. It's amazing that the census income figures are so far removed from the high F&R figures we have. Of course there are those that claim homelessless to get into some schools (I think that is small though). I bet a lot of those fraudulent F&R numbers are white too. I just goes to show human nature throws monkey wrenches into everything. I wonder what would happen if everyone applied. Oh yeah I forgot to mention, Title I money is based on US Census data poverty rates, not F&R. Who gets hurt, you got it,, the real poor; it strips money away from target schools and spreads it around to more schools. Having more Title I schools does not equal more federal money, just less at each school. Sad, isn't it.
Sad
Fri, 12/05/2008 - 09:29 — ncdad1"Sad, isn't it." It is sad to me that in one of the Country's wealthiest and successful areas has so many people in this category. Assume half the folks are frauds leave you with 20% which seem surprisingly high for an area like this.
Another way to double check would be to compare test scores against the school's F&R numbers. For example, I think David Middle School has the lowest F&R % and the highest test scores?? And no I did not check ever school nor do a significance study and my reference in the WCPS site.
So, F&R is probably a strong indicator of school test scores.
Watch how you draw conclusions
Fri, 12/05/2008 - 10:10 — Voice_of_Reason_If you actually crunch the numbers there only seems to be a significant degradation in the school when F&R % gets around 40%. The % of ESL students has a far greater downward impact. I only did this for Elementary Schools in Wake County. But that can be very misleading if the fraud rate is high. I would venture to guess that the more likely perpetrators of fraud would be those that would be closer to the magic cutoff. Remember F&R cutoff is 180% of the national poverty rate.
But the issue is not that F&R's generally score lower, that's an indisputable fact for all kinds of reasons; it an issue of money and resources (not to mention mental pain). What if WCPSS only used the Free Lunch program children to balance the schools, at least there would be a lot less fraud because most on on food stamps which have a higher requirement for proof and the penalties are stiff (Remember when that got out of hand?)? Wouldn't that be more acceptable to all? And the money we get from the Feds fo Title I schools? Could not we concentrate on lowering class size in the first three grades for those schools? That would be a real help to these children since class size at that age does make a big difference in performance and building a good base to work from. There's a lot of research to back that up.
Actually the study showed that the fraud rate was even greater than 20%; however it cannot be proved because the USDA will not let us. The assumption of fraud rate was extrapolated from a 3% sample and those that were dropped from the roles from that sample due to not providing support documentation or just being caught making too much.
"I only did this for
Fri, 12/05/2008 - 11:53 — ncdad1"I only did this for Elementary Schools in Wake County. But that can be very misleading if the fraud rate is high."
I have heard that F&R is actually under reported overall because by the time kids get to HS they are too embarrased to be part of the program.
What embarrassment ? You
Sat, 12/06/2008 - 05:05 — vsheehanWhat embarrassment ? You give your # to the lunch lady and thats that. No one knows how much you did or didn't pay.
Where has WF-R Principal
Wed, 12/03/2008 - 09:58 — shank56Where has WF-R Principal Andre Smith gone ?
Smith is now an area
Wed, 12/03/2008 - 10:22 — KeungHui (author)Smith is now an area superintendent. Click this post.