WakeEd

The WakeEd blog is devoted to discussing and answering questions about the major issues facing the Wake County school system. How much will the new Democratic majority on the school board do to undo the changes made by Republicans since 2009? Will the new student assignment plan be a hybrid of the last two models or primarily be a return to the use of busing for diversity? Who will replace Tony Tata as the new superintendent of the state's largest district? How will voters react to a likely request in 2013 to borrow potentially more than $1 billion to build and renovate schools?

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.

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School board and staff not aligned in goals

Submitted by KeungHui on 12/22/2009 - 16:13

It looks like observers on both the left and right agree that the staff is not exactly the friend of the new Wake County school board majority.

In the latest issue of the Independent, a liberal weekly, Bob Geary talks about how the new board majority and the staff aren't aligned in their goals. Geary cites the "painstaking negotiations" that the board and staff went through last week during the development of the parental survey on year-round schools.

"The staff is unlikely help them as the board majority tries to alter a system that's a national model—and a bargain at costing only $8,000-a-year per student—and replace it with 'neighborhood schools,'" Geary writes.

A few weeks ago on NC Spin, John Hood, president of the conservative John Locke Foundation, called the staff "the enemy" and "the adversary" of the new board.

Members of the new board have talked about how they want to work with existing staff. At last week's meeting, school board member John Tedesco denied the rumors that they're hiring attorney Thomas Farr to build a case for firing Supt. Del Burns.

Also in Geary's column, he's redefining the term mandatory year-round. He says "under existing policy, 'mandatory' year-round assignments are rare" because few of the students who've applied for traditional-calendar seats have been denied.

It's in line with the talk that mandatory year-round is the same as mandatory traditional.

But as critics of MYR will note, until the calendar conversions in 2007 the vast majority of students at year-rounds were voluntary application students.

1261513234 School board and staff not aligned in goals The News and Observer Copyright 2011 The News and Observer . All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Comments

conflict of interest question

Wed, 12/30/2009 - 09:31 — user67890

Keung, I have a question that most likely you or someone on the wakeed blog can answer. According to this url: http://katysconservativecorner.typepad.com/katy/2008/01/thales-academy.html
Ron Margiotta is a Trustee on the Thales Academy board. It is not clear to me:
1. whether this is a salaried position
2. how this is not conflict-of-interest
Salaried or not, it seems to me that being in a position of influence with wcpss and with a privately run/operated school is putting Mr. Margiotta in a win-win position....if wcpss thrives, he is in a position of power, if wcpss does not thrive, he is still in a position of power with Thales.
Thanks.

Huh..

Fri, 01/01/2010 - 11:40 — Bob_Sconce

Don't know if it's salaried.

As to conflicts of interest, generally those are more specific to individual transactions. If, for example, Thales were trying to enter into a contract with WCPSS, Ron would probably have to recuse himself from that decision-making. The interests of the two are not so diametrically opposed that he can't reasonably do both.

Why the name change?

Kathleen Breenan- is a Thales Trustee too

Thu, 12/31/2009 - 22:26 — shank56

Kathleen Breenan- is a Thales Trustee too ,

according to the website posted

This may be one of your more

Wed, 12/30/2009 - 10:35 — woodstock

This may be one of your more baseless and illogical posts yet.

However, it you really want to talk about conflict of interests. Every time Mayor Meeker promotes events downtown, builds convention centers and $200M complexes downtown and pumps a disproporationate amount of money into downtown Raleigh, his wife, school board member Anne McLaurin and her family enjoy financial benefits since they own many of the parking garages and lots in the area. Not only do they enjoy increased traffic to their lucrative enterprize, the value of the land the garages and lots sit on increases. THAT is conflict of interest.

Simply show the old

Thu, 12/24/2009 - 10:33 — aquaman4life68

Simply show the old leadership the door, if they can't make prompt effective decision. If they want to drag their feet...just make sure they are dragging their feet as they are being escorted out of the building on Wake Forest Rd., with their pink slips pinned to their jackets.

mark my word..... terminations are a necessary step.

Wed, 12/23/2009 - 11:30 — mike_cary

mark my word. WCPSS and our new school board will not make necessary progress UNTIL a bunch of people (staff) are terminated.

"Change" is good (as they always tried to convince parents during constant Re-ASSIGNMENTS) - - change at WCPSS will get rid of the status quo no-indepentant-thought deadweight and it will give a new generation of staff a chance to shine. Start the CHANGE today!

Staffing changes should be agenda item #1

Wed, 12/23/2009 - 12:47 — red_balloon

Immediate leadership level changes should be the first priority of the new board. Burns and the other education superstars need to take their busing skills elsewhere at the earliest possible. Progress will be stifled each and every day unless Burns and his coterie are ejected. Otherwise, the MYR fiasco will be repeated across all other election promises and board agenda items.

Immediate and decisive action is the need of the hour.

It would seem to me...

Wed, 12/23/2009 - 05:56 — nancync

When a governing body, in this case, the school board, wants something done, staff responsible should take that direction and move on it. They are not there to dictate, they are there to support, do, create and finish the tasks laid out.

Suggestions are fine, nitpicking is a waste of time however.

I can't imagine in the real world, a CEO or manager of any company would sit idly by allowing workers to tell them what to do or slow down the process of a decision made.

Then again, this is never how those who govern work. They are, after all, not real world employees, they're at best cogs in the wheels.

Bob Geary is wrong

Tue, 12/22/2009 - 21:26 — red_balloon

From Bob Geary's article: If more magnets are added in Wake's outer suburbs, however, as some of the new members advocate, the result would be empty seats in the Raleigh magnets.

Bob Geary must have missed the parade of magnet parents and students espousing diversity at the 12/15 meeting. Since these folks are enamoured by diversity, I do not see why they would leave in droves for magnets in the suburbs. Unless of course it was a parade of liars and it isn't diversity that they value so much.

Empty seats?

Tue, 12/22/2009 - 21:28 — RichardAnderson

What, how can we have empty seats? What about the EXPLOSIVE growth? The capacity crisis? Oh, right. My bad.

You made me smile Richard

Wed, 12/23/2009 - 05:59 — nancync

Had it not been for the court case about MYR, we never would have seen parents opting out of it in such numbers, exposing for all to see the true desire of parents.

How many YR schools are running below 4 full tracks? That speaks volumes and isn't going to be ignored anymore.

Ahhh, a new era of schools in the system, a new direction and with much hope, addressing education and not chess moves!

How many you ask?

Wed, 12/23/2009 - 11:19 — g88ky07

"How many YR schools are running below 4 full tracks?"

Those are the ones that should be converted back next year, based on $$$, and in my opinion, it doesn't matter what surveys say or don't say at those schools!

The Cliff

Tue, 12/22/2009 - 18:24 — user12345

The post-stimulus era is often called "the cliff."

ALBANY, N.Y. – Using federal stimulus money to avoid layoffs at schools is going to create a shortfall even more difficult for states and schools to contend with when that money runs out, according to a first-of-its-kind study released Monday.

New York alone will see a $2 billion shortfall after stimulus money ends in 2011-12, and that could drive up some of the nation's highest local property taxes another 8 percent, according to the analysis by state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli.

....http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091222/ap_on_bi_ge/us_school_funding

The post stimulus era

Tue, 12/22/2009 - 19:25 — RichardAnderson

The post-stimulus era is often called "the cliff."

The post stimulus era is actually called the future so unless you have some kind of crystal ball, that is all speculation.

Except ...

Wed, 12/23/2009 - 06:02 — nancync

If one time stimulus funds were used to fund any portion of employees or ongoing expenses in schools, there will be a sharp loss felt when that money is gone.

Don't know if NC stimulus funds were used in any capacity for long term costs, but that funding will have to come from somewhere else when the feds money is no longer available.

Anyone have any link to how stimulus funds were used in NC? In particular and most importantly, schools?

Shame on our new school board...

Tue, 12/22/2009 - 17:54 — bkittner

Obviously, the writer of this San Francisco Chronicle story on Monday, about places to move to that boast good public schools, diversity, high property values, clean and good natural resources didn't do his homework before he recommended Wake County. With our new school board, in cahoots with our county commissioners, we're about to disappear from "best of" lists like this in the future...

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2009/12/21/moneytales122109.DTL

Wake Country on list

Wed, 12/23/2009 - 11:33 — mommy59

I agree that lists are a farce!

Here is a quote from the artilce:

Community engagement, engagement, engagement,"

Sounds like community schools to me!

Ah, the "best of lists"

Tue, 12/22/2009 - 20:04 — g88ky07

what a farce they are!

Pfft...

Tue, 12/22/2009 - 18:29 — Bob_Sconce

So, let me get this straight. WCPSS should be trying to impress literature Ph.D.s who are fellows at ultra left-wing think tanks?

We got into the position where 45% of black students NEVER GRADUATE by paying too much attention to what such people think. Past boards and the WCPSS administration have ignored the concerns of Wake families, and instead focused on those of the New York Times and the education ivory tower. In doing so, they angered parents across the county who booted them out of office.

I would be very pleased if we never showed up in another article by either Rod Baedeker or Rich Benjamin.

And, BTW, he also cites Durham county, which does not bus for diversity.

zoning

Tue, 12/22/2009 - 18:24 — loriac

This is all about zoning.... schools should focus on education. The author tends to seek out diverse areas, funny he didn't talk about looking for areas where they would have to be bussed to achieve that perfect mixture of diversity at the schools.

Get rid of them

Tue, 12/22/2009 - 17:31 — Duhhuh666

If they are unwilling to work with the board they have three options, retire, quit or be fired!! The board is in control of the administration, if the administration doesnt like the edicts of the board, they should find a new job elsewhere.

I'm sorry I don't get it.

Tue, 12/22/2009 - 19:00 — truthBtold

Did anyone really read the linked article? It didn't sound like some sort of staff vs. BOE show down to me. In fact, I watched it on WRAL.COM and I think the staff gave the Board at least 3 if not 4 options for them to consider. The Board needs to go from campaigning to governing and there is more than a sound-bite mentality involved.

Has anyone actually read the "resolutions'? They are vague at best and sets up whomever is trying to act on them to guess what the new majority wants. Go to the wcpss net to read the final documents. They are full of subjective language, anyone with a brain would be asking a lot of questions before being sent on a goose chase with the "ReSeg 5" in charge.

Mr. Hui, I realize that our kids are out of school and there isn't much to write about, but given your penchant for throwing granades and then stepping back to watch the sharks chum, I question your objectivity and motivation about posts like this.

Given the time you've spent with your Apex friends at Tyler's. I just wonder what kind of influence your socializing with those you cover does to your reporting?

I read it...

Tue, 12/22/2009 - 22:15 — Bob_Sconce

A central point is that if the board and staff were in agreement, the board could say "run a survey to find out X, Y & Z," and the staff would have done it. But, since the Staff doesn't like its new bosses, the staff has been doing things like "Oh. Ok. What questions do you want to ask? Do you want it on colored paper or white? What font should we use? Do we use bullets or numbers? When do you want it to go out? Do we do the Spanish version on the front or on the back?"

It reminds me of my son when asked to clean his room: "I don't know where anything goes. You need to help me."

The administration understands what the board wants -- find out which familes prefer which schedules and then use that information to figure out where year-round schools should be placed in the county. The problem is that the administration doesn't want to do what the board wants and is setting up roadblocks.

Well looks like we have our conspiracy de jour

Tue, 12/22/2009 - 20:31 — TrailerParkGirl

Watch out for those dangerous Yankee fans otherwise they may overthrow the government.

If you would have asked, I

Tue, 12/22/2009 - 19:15 — KeungHui (author)

If you would have asked, I would have pointed out that the Triangle Yankee Universe meetup group hangs out at Tyler's in Apex. I wish they met in Raleigh but it's where they're at. We could use some additional bodies to watch the games next year. You can go here for more info: http://www.meetup.com/triangleYankees-Universe/

And Since T.P.G. knew what I was talking about

Tue, 12/22/2009 - 20:47 — truthBtold

it is apparent that people here are part of your social network. I was just asking about how you might stay objective when you are socializing with your audience that is so opinionated?

I am sure you never talk anything other than batting averages and RBIs.

Sorry for the dispersions

<--Is not a Mets fan

What are talking about?

Wed, 12/23/2009 - 00:12 — TrailerParkGirl

I only knew the Yankees angle by reading Mr. Hui's response post to you.

We do not know each other personally and have never socialized. I'm a Tigers fan, don't live in Apex and don't even know what Tylers is other than I assume by the posts that it is some sort of entertainment/bar/restaurant where people watch sports, including Yankees games.

My point was that this new conspiracy theory a day stuff is getting really out of hand lately. You continue to make my point.

What is the deal with Apex anyway? It's not like there are only five people living in Apex and they are all on this blog, so if Mr. Hui was spotted in Apex there must be a connection.

BTW - I do know some people in Apex though and OMG some are even Black. Can you imagine that? They happen to be NED though, so not sure if they "count" or not in the "stereotyped diversity" game here. Do they? I know the Asians I know in Apex don't count and I'm not supposed to hide behind them. How about outside of Apex - what about the Latinos I know who are NED - do they count? What about the one that makes six figures? Does he count? How about the ED white people - do they count? Does the answer differ if the "white" person is Middle Eastern or North African instead of European? When I introduce my friends who are Black am I supposed to say "This is my Black friend, X. I'm really worldly because I have friends with Black faces?" (referencing what one of the Enloe people said, I would actually NEVER think of it that way).

I really don't understand the rules of this game as it is foreign to me.

...

Wed, 12/23/2009 - 10:02 — Sideburns

And don't forget that you must live in Wake County for x number of years before you "count". Someone on another thread (ex-Yank, I believe) said you're a "newcomer" if you've lived here less than 20 years.

Well..

Wed, 12/23/2009 - 11:05 — Bob_Sconce

That's an improvement. It used to be that anybody whose granddaddy didn't go to school with your granddaddy was a newcomer.

What makes you think I hang

Tue, 12/22/2009 - 22:45 — KeungHui (author)

What makes you think I hang out with the people on this blog?

BTW, I can assure you that the only scores I'm talking about in Yankee game have nothing to do with EOGs. Like I said before, you can always hang out with us next season to watch the games.

So let me ask then,

Tue, 12/22/2009 - 20:52 — truthBtold

Mr. Hui, since I didn't ask before, let me double check. Do you go out drinking with the WCPSS staff too?

Whatsamatter Trooftold, no

Tue, 12/22/2009 - 23:10 — CaryCurmudgeon

Whatsamatter Trooftold, no friends of your own? FYI, the "opposition" don't all run in the same social circles, and Hui doesn't run with any of them (he would certainly be welcome). Everyone has a right to a life outside their job, don't they?

Hui, live long and prosper.

Since I don't hang out with

Tue, 12/22/2009 - 22:43 — KeungHui (author)

Since I don't hang out with the leadership of the WSCA or any of the other advocacy groups, it doesn't matter. Let me get this straight, because I go watch Yankee games in Apex means something? I attend Star Trek group meetings with people who live in Durham and Knightdale. Does that mean I'm influenced by Durham or Eastern Wake?

Sounds like WCPSS

Tue, 12/22/2009 - 17:07 — woodstock

Sounds like WCPSS administrators need to start demonstrating leadership and setting staff expectations moving forward.

No..

Tue, 12/22/2009 - 18:38 — Bob_Sconce

The "Staff" referred to is Burns, Dulaney and Holdzcrum. This devling into minutae stuff described in that editorial is absurd -- those administrators aren't getting paid to be babysat by the school board. If they can't do their jobs well, then the board should find administrators who can. Sure, they may have to pay out some contracts. But, that's a lot better than staff stalling everything that the new board wants to do.

We don't disagree. My point

Tue, 12/22/2009 - 19:17 — woodstock

We don't disagree. My point was that the administrators either need to get their staff onboard with the new direction or the BoE will find new administrators that will.

“Sounds like WCPSS

Tue, 12/22/2009 - 18:34 — user12345

“Sounds like WCPSS administrators need to start demonstrating leadership and setting staff expectations moving forward.”

Sounds like the new board needs to start demonstrating leadership to me. Just because they were elected to the board does not mean they gain automatic credibility in the eyes of the employees … … political officials come and go and people do not jump when they take office since they may just be replaced in a few years … if the new board has a new vision, they will need to “sell” and explain it to the employees to gain their acceptance … threaten to fire everyone, calling them the enemy, etc. won’t get them anywhere..

School board and staff not aligned in goals

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