Here's a quick recap of today's joint meeting of the Wake County school board and county commissioners.
While no vote was taken today, it looks like the school board will soon be restoring some of the parent counseling positions cut from Project Enlightenment. A majority of board members raised concerns today about the plan to contract the counseling work to Wake County Human Services.
The question is whether the school board will make it a conditional restoration.
The board could just outright give the $225,000 to Project Enlightenment so that it could restore some of the nine counseling jobs that were eliminated because of budget cuts.
The board could also say that Project Enlightenment will only get the money for a year while the new model is being developed. The school system and county haven't yet signed the contract to provide the new service because they're still going through the details.
Also today, school and county staff unveiled a "full service" school model that will be piloted at four schools as part of a way to provide a wide range of services to families. In the beginning, one night a week of literacy and other services will be provided to students and their parents.
All three elementary schools will be Title I schools. The middle school will be one that gets kids from Title I elementary schools. The schools haven't been publicly identified yet.
UPDATE
In an online post today, the N.C. Social Justice Project calls the informal agreement to restore the Project Enlightenment funding "an uncharacteristically reasonable measure." The group has frequently chastised the school board majority for eliminating the diversity policy
"At the very least, the Board has shown that they are able to identify programs that ARE functioning properly and choose to do the right thing and continue to fund them," the NCSJP writes. "Hopefully those Program staffers who were laid off earlier this year will be able to come back and continue doing the great work that makes Enlightenment live up to its name."
Comments
Clearly terms like "core
Thu, 09/16/2010 - 08:54 — red_balloonClearly terms like "core competence" and "outsourcing" are alien to this BOE. Getting a businessman to be the supdt. doesn't seem like a bad idea after all.
The full service schools
Wed, 09/15/2010 - 13:44 — jenmanThe full service schools model is an exciting development. Keung--can you give us more info about this? I'm especially curious as to how long this has been in the works, who spearheaded the effort, if there was anybody resistant to the idea, etc.
pilot program
Wed, 09/15/2010 - 14:31 — HereWeGoI wonder where the money is coming from?
The school system and Human
Wed, 09/15/2010 - 15:17 — KeungHui (author)The school system and Human Services are coming up with money from other parts of the budget. They're hoping to win a federal grant that woudl allow them to expand how many nights a week they could hold the activities.
I'll try to post the handout
Wed, 09/15/2010 - 14:03 — KeungHui (author)I'll try to post the handout later. They spent a lot more time today about Project Enlightenment than about the pilot program.