Is the Wake County school board majority cutting away the district's ties with the education establishment with actions such as leaving the state and national school boards association and changing the qualifications for superintendent?
As noted in today's article by Thomas Goldsmith, majority members say they're following on their mandate from the voters to change the school system. That means breaking with some past long-standing practices of the old board.
"It is time for a new vision that will develop the capability of all our students," school board chairman Ron Margiotta told the board last week after being reelected to lead the board.
School board member Kevin Hill questioned the decisions to leave the school boards associations and to change the qualifications for superintendent.
"All it will do is isolate us, unless it's an attempt to remove any vestiges of diversity."
Margiotta said the decision to withdraw from the state and national school board associations was strictly made for financial reasons. Wake paid $40,415 a year in membership dues.
"Next year, our budget situation will be more severe than we've ever had," Margiotta said. "We need to start saving money."
Comments
Obviously, when you get a
Tue, 06/22/2010 - 09:15 — user12345Obviously, when you get a retiree, former volunteer firefighter, a character teacher, a sales representative, and an unemployed NGO coordinator together they develop groundbreaking approaches that have never been seen by educators before. Seriously, you have to worry about what they are going to do to the 140k kids that need to be educated … while they are going their own direction, hopefully, they find time to retain good teachers, maintain older facilities, extend advanced course, introduce vocational training, increase graduation rates, help the under served ED population all on less and less money … the boring old fashion things BOE use to do before the went their own way.
I've noticed that when the
Mon, 06/21/2010 - 13:38 — CaryCurmudgeonI've noticed that when the N&O editors want to trot out another propaganda piece, they always rely on Tommy Goldsmith. Love the headline "Wake Schools Fight Stays Hot." It doesn't look very hot judging from the sparse attendance and limited speakers at recent board meetings. Even Steve Ford got tired of regurgitating the same editorial on a daily basis. Barbor & co's staged arrest last week was meant to fire the troops back up. From what I could tell, two non-media people showed up to their press conference the day after. The Enloe pirates have probably already headed out for their summer trips to Europe.
The war's over man, Wormer dropped the big one.
interesting how you ended
Tue, 06/22/2010 - 11:01 — jeannie84interesting how you ended your post with a quote from Animal House, Mudge; are likening the BOE majority to Dean Wormer in that flick? don't you remember how the movie ends? Wormer loses!
Hi Joe,
Mon, 06/21/2010 - 20:41 — hmoncelleHarry_Moncelle
The ideologues have one a battle, the war is not over, election day is coming for the rest of the county. Those of us who live in a district that did not have a member up for election are getting ready for the upcoming election. I think the minority will once again become the majority as the ideologues of "double talk and division" continue on the path they have selected. It becomes more and more evident that the political agenda of resegregation of our school system and the return to Jim Crow education is what the Board Majority is seeking. I stood up to racism in the 1970's teaching in the fourth poorest county in the United States and I stand against it today.
Huh?
Tue, 06/22/2010 - 08:03 — Bob_SconceIf there's any ideology here, it's in the bussing-for-diversity supporters. The current board is just trying to create an assignment policy similar to that employed by 99% of the districts in the country. That's hardly an ideological position.
As to the upcoming election, good luck with that -- you'd have to take all 5 seats, including seats in the northern and western parts of the county. It seems to me that your better strategy would be to stop politicizing and start compromising. Otherwise, you run the risk of losing that election and having 2 years of carping be for naught.
How long have you lived in
Mon, 06/21/2010 - 21:50 — DrActualFactualHow long have you lived in Wake County? If you live in the same district you teach I don't think the result will be different in the future elections. Perhaps you are not aware of district 8 history.
cop out
Mon, 06/21/2010 - 21:11 — loriacIt's not about race - but some would like to keep that line of conversation going to ensure they keep their jobs (read Rev Barber). Mr. Saunders is another one who insinuates that high poverty schools get less funding than 'rich' schools. All this is a cop out. The old board failed to educate ED kids - the numbers are in. It's plain as day - no amount of 'civil disobedience' will change that. My bet is that there will be a great yawn as Rev. Barber and his friends continue to sit where they may - meanwhile, let's let the board get busy re-building our school system.
Don't be a dolt, by no
Mon, 06/21/2010 - 20:48 — woodstockDon't be a such a dolt, by no stretch of the imagination is this about race.
Just stop. Stop with the
Mon, 06/21/2010 - 21:34 — Dove314Just stop. Stop with the name calling. You're very good with words and don't need to insult people to get your point across. You take away from your own posts when you do this. You're better than that.
Mom? The truth is, I am not
Mon, 06/21/2010 - 21:45 — woodstockMom?
The truth is, I am not better than that. It is perfectly within my character to call a dolt a dolt, especially since accusations of racism seem to be the new weapon of choice for the opposition. I won't stand for it. Sorry to disappoint you.
Strange Article....
Mon, 06/21/2010 - 13:48 — Bob_SconceMust have been a slow news day--it doesn't really put out any new information.
Ron needs to provide the N&O with a better picture of himself -- the photo on the WCPSS website is good; the one the N&O likes to run looks like they caught him after he'd been up for 48 hours.
Money$$$$
Mon, 06/21/2010 - 13:36 — hmoncelleHarry_Moncelle
Does the chair of our BoE have a grasp of reality regarding school funding? Our new leaders have decided that they can spend ten's of thousands of dollars on a search for a new superintendent but we need to "save" money for next year! Meanwhile they refuse to use the NC School Board Association as a search engine that would have cost us much less than the head hunters out of Chicago! I recall that this new leadership team spoke a great deal about accountability of the "Old Board" and the many choices that group made to meet the needs of a growing school population over the past few years. Where is the leadership of this new band of ideologues when it comes to fiscal management? This group continues to divide our community as it moves us back into the bad ole days of "Jim Crow" education!
Cost
Mon, 06/21/2010 - 13:44 — Bob_SconceIt appears that the NCSBA's method to doing superintendent searches is simply to advertise the position and then screen candidates as they apply. Executive search firms do a lot more than that by actively identifying and pursuing individuals who might be interested. Besides, if you're a superintendent in, say Colorado, are you going to seek out the NCSBA? I don't think so -- you'll hook up with a national firm.
Heck, the board minority didn't even want to engage NCSBA -- they wanted to use one of the other search firms. Were they in favor of wasting money also?
Search firms
Mon, 06/21/2010 - 15:43 — Dove314The board could have saved almost the total NCSBA and National SBA fees if they had selected the second most expensive search firm that apparently had at least as much experience as the more expensive firm.
The forked tongue on budget expenses is comical.
Or they could have used
Mon, 06/21/2010 - 21:30 — ApexterOr they could have used trianglehelpwanted.com.
Going with the low is not always the best choice.
Didn't say go with the low
Tue, 06/22/2010 - 06:20 — Dove314I didn't say go with the low if you read the post. It says the second most expensive.
Donna Hargens $60,000 raise
Mon, 06/21/2010 - 21:50 — user12345Donna Hargens $60,000 raise is nothing to sneeze at either...
MONEY !!!!!
Mon, 06/21/2010 - 13:12 — jgegbgmg"Next year, our budget situation will be more severe than we've ever had," Margiotta said. "We need to start saving money."
Wonder why Margiotta can't figure out why his votes and actions have already cost the system more money than one can imagine. Give him and his team a little more time and they will break the whole system. At that time they will blame it on the previous board like they do everything else !!!!! Margiotta is a pitiful excuse for a chairperson !!!!! I'm sure the board up north was elated when he came this way and left them alone !!!!!