Looking at Ann and John Campbell

Hope this helps:

News & Observer, The (includes Chapel Hill News) (Raleigh, NC)
The News & Observer
August 23, 2000

Plan would increase magnet schools' pull

Author: T. Keung Hui; STAFF WRITER
Edition: Final
Section: News
Page: A1
Article Text:

RALEIGH -- The head of Wake's flagging magnet school program on Tuesday proposed a series of carrot-and-stick measures designed to improve those schools and to make other schools less attractive to parents who might otherwise be interested in magnets.

Interest in magnet programs has waned in recent years, and some schools, especially those inside Raleigh's Beltline, are under-enrolled. Yet, some traditional schools are overcrowded. The plan presented Tuesday has costly measures such as raising the salaries of teachers at magnet schools and potentially controversial ones that would limit some options at traditional schools.

Caroline Massengill, Wake's director of magnet school programs, didn't have a specific dollar figure for the magnet improvements. But she defended the carrot-and-stick approach.

"If we don't have a distinctiveness, we'll not have the draw we'll need," Massengill said.

Board members said Tuesday that they wanted more details but affirmed their commitment to ensuring the survival of the school system's magnet school program

"I sense that the board has the will to make things happen,"said Bill Fletcher, school board chairman."We will have tough choices to make."

The board also may have to contend with opposition from parents whose children do not attend magnet schools.

Ruthann Brawley, parent at Brassfield Elementary School, complained that enacting the recommendations will pit parent against parent.

"I have a really hard time digesting it all," Brawley said. "Public education is supposed to be the same for everyone."

Wake's magnet school program has been its main vehicle for promoting diversity. When the program began in 1982, it was with the intent of encouraging white suburban students to attend magnet schools inside the Beltline.

Magnet schools offer unique academic programs such as creative arts and science, international baccalaureate studies and language arts.

More magnet schools, including year-round schools, were later added outside the Beltline. Now about 36,000 of Wake's 95,000 students attend 43 magnet schools, 12 of which are year-round schools.

While interest in year-round schools has risen, the number of applications for the other magnets - called program or equity magnets - has fluctuated. Although seven magnet schools opened this school year, Massengill said it's troubling that there was only a slight increase in the number of applications for magnet schools.

The opening of new traditional schools with more amenities and a far shorter bus ride have sapped magnet enrollment.

"Many people have to make that sacrifice of a long bus ride," said Lloyd Gardner, principal of Enloe High School. "Then they look at the the new school that is only five minutes and has much more technology."

While some magnets such as Enloe and Washington Elementary School are full, statistics released Tuesday showed there are possibly 270 seats still available at other schools.

In contrast, Bill Bartholomay, Durham's director of student assignment, said his district's magnet schools are full. Durham's eight magnet schools handle nearly 4,000 students.

Massengill brought to Tuesday's board meeting a lengthy list of recommendations for improving the magnet program. Her recommendations deal with the program and equity magnets.

Although most recommendations focus on making magnet schools better, some rely on weakening the ability of traditional schools to compete with them.

Massengill recommended that:

- Traditional elementary schools not be allowed to offer electives or anything resembling electives. She added that traditional middle and high schools should offer electives only from the middle and high school guides.

- Traditional middle and high schools should not be allowed to have a seven-period day. Traditional schools usually follow a six-period day, but some have added an extra period to provide more electives.

- The integrity of magnets against "mock magnets" be protected. Massengill recommended, for example, preventing schools from replicating the Academically Gifted Basics program by separating students by their ability in "flex grouping" programs.

Board member Susan Parry said the recommendations for the traditional schools may be easier to implement because they don't cost much financially.

Some of Massengill's other recommendations include such costly items as:

- Raising pay for magnet school teachers by 5 percent. She said teachers at magnet schools have more work to do because they also teach electives. Fletcher estimated this one item could cost $3 million a year.

- Increasing the number of teachers at magnet schools to reduce class size. Massengill also said the schools need more foreign language teachers, curriculum specialists and technology specialists.

- Increasing security, performing extra maintenance and replacing the aging computers in magnet schools. Massengill said many of the magnets are older schools and are in neighborhoods that parents don't perceive as safe.

- Adding more express bus routes and assigning the best drivers to magnet routes because the students have the farthest to travel. She also said start times should be later.

"We're asking for budget priority to develop a program that we've promised to parents," Massengill said.
 

Our middle school had art, band, computers, keyboarding, yearbook as electives. Which one of those replaced the foreign language offering?

And as Apexter pointed out, limiting foreign language in suburban schools was just one of several tactics that Massengill took to devalue those schools. Those steps have been well documented.

My wife teaches at a non magnet HS  and she has never heard of a freshman being denied entry to a foreign language.

Anecdotal evidence. My kid wanted to take a foreign language, and the class was filled. He did not get in. Plain and Simple.