It's probably unrealistic to expect a new system of neighborhood schools to be in place as early as next school year.
As noted in today's article, new school board members say their eventual goal is to move to neighborhood/commnity-based schools. While folks on the blog probably knew that, it may come as a a surprise to those who thought change would be immediate.
"We will begin to make systemic changes," said new school board member John Tedesco. "It's not going to happen overnight."
Tedesco said the immediate goal is to change policy 6200, Wake's student assignment policy. Once this is changed, they can craft a new assignment system based on the revised policy.
Tedesco is expecting some resistance from the old board and some community groups over changing policy 6200.
While community-based schools is more of a 2011-12 proposition, Tedesco said there are some things that can be changed for the 2010-11 school year. Examples include:
* Eliminating the weekly Wednesday early dismissals.
* Revising the magnet selection criteria.
* Halting spending of money on Forest Ridge High.
* Opening any future new schools as voluntary year-round schools.
For the existing year=round schools, Tedesco said he'd like to survey the parents to see who wants to convert back to a traditional calendar. He said he'd also like to survey the traditional-calendar schools to see if parents want to convert to a year-round schedule.
Comments
Every move the new board
Tue, 12/01/2009 - 12:58 — shearertwEvery move the new board makes will be heavily scrutinized. Every instance something appears to not be working perfectly will be magnified. And perhaps it should be. That's the gig. So their decisions must be measured carefully.
As much as I'd like to see the whole system scrapped and everything redone from scratch, its just can't happen that way. Change will have to be slow and deliberate. This is like turning a cruise ship. Turn too hard and the boat tips over, or at least everyone spills their champagne and gets upset. The new board has a tough job, one with no perfectly right answers. They'll have to take their time, make the best decisions and try to move forward incrementally. I fully expect that's what they'll do. Patience. Patience. I hate to say it but patience.
Give them a call
Tue, 12/01/2009 - 22:08 — supportwcpssshearertw -
"take their time" "make best decisions" "patience" "Change is slow and deliberate"
Sounds like the Board has no plans to take the slow, thoughtful option.
I have no doubt that new
Tue, 12/01/2009 - 14:58 — NWRaleighMomI have no doubt that new members of the Board will move slowly and deliberately trying to disrupt as few families as possible. Also, any possible changes will be sabotaged by 'old' BoE members, superintendant and Growth Management. Powerful groups will threat to sue and lobby behind the scenes. We will see a lot of negative publicity and distortion of facts.
It all will happen regardless how fast Board moves. We, parents, can wait, our children can't.
I understand that changes
Tue, 12/01/2009 - 10:53 — NWRaleighMomI understand that changes can't happen overnight. But I still hope for the miracle. Some changes can be implemented as soon as 2010-11.
So...
Tue, 12/01/2009 - 12:32 — Bob_SconceThe new board should be careful to avoid the mistakes of the old board. One of those mistakes was not giving families enough lead-time on changes that affected them. We saw that with Wacky Wednesdays, which was decided, what, maybe a month before year-round schools started? We also saw that with the year-round conversion, where parents didn't know what their July schedule was going to look like until around April!
Converting back to traditional...
Tue, 12/01/2009 - 09:18 — midtownmomI wonder if there's any thought of getting those surveys out quickly to see if it's possible to change back to traditional as early as next school year. While I'm sure there are families who like the year-round schedule, I'm betting the vast majority at a set of schools I'll not name would celebrate the change back. (But I'm not holding my breath for 2010-11.)