Duke University historian Tim Tyson is accusing the Wake County school board of trying to exercise "arbitrary police powers" by barring him from being on school property.
Tyson, one of four people arrested for disrupting the June 15 school board meeting, has finally gotten the certified letter sent Monday by the school system. Tyson questioned how the quartet can be barred from being on school property when their second-degree trespassing charges haven't been adjudicated yet.
"I take note that the Tea Party faction on the school board thinks it can suspend the legal process and convict and now apparently sentence us without trial, but I remind them that neither Mrs. Williams nor Rev. Petty nor Rev. Dr. Barber nor I have ever been convicted of one thing," Tyson said today. "They have no right to act otherwise."
Tyson also indicated that they plan to use their court case on the trespassing charges as a chance to grill school board members about eliminating the diversity policy.
"We will be issuing subpoenas soon," Tyson said. "I look forward to hearing them explain their shenanigans -- and perhaps even their alleged 'Secret Plan' -- to a sensible Wake County jury."
Tyson said the trespass notice won't deter people from protesting the school board's actions.
"Folks here are not about to sit quietly while some tea-bagger farm team runs roughshod over our public schools," Tyson said.
Click here to view the trespassing letters.
Comments
the board is out of their mind
Thu, 07/15/2010 - 23:54 — ellabakerif they think that barring the four arrested last time will keep hundreds of us from coming on the 20th and to every board meeting from now until they stop trying to turn Wake County into New York, Cleveland, Baltimore, St. Louis, Los Angeles, Jackson, Memphis, Chicago or any of the other urban disasters where "neighborhood schools" have led to the entire school district being 85+ per cent minority and 90+ per cent poor, which in turn has led to public schools where the entire middle class has to pay private school tuition because the public schools are so bad. It did not have to be that way--and in Wake County it WON'T be that way.
Pardon my directness, but
Sun, 07/18/2010 - 18:06 — woodstockPardon my directness, but YOU, Ella, are out of your mind if you think you are on the side of right or if you think your clownish leader and his silly circus antics and ignorance will stem the tide of positive change this county has demanded and WILL see through with the help of the new board majority.
The misguided anger and ignorance that you so proudly put on display will be the very things that will render your voice impotent. The louder you scream, the less we hear you.
But Ella... don't you
Sat, 07/17/2010 - 08:36 — zandeBut Ella... don't you realize that the new board and their supporters tell us that we don't have the kind of poverty that exists in those other places you named. Sure we have poverty but not the kind that would make our high poverty schools really bad. They will be new and different and improved very high poverty schools b/c they will be in the "promise" zone. You are so negative about this. Just trust them, do not protest or be so disagreeable. They will make everything right again.....
In all seriousness. What you describe is what is happening in Charlotte and they are again exploring adding some diversity elements to their policy. I also think that we will not end up with the entire district being high poverty schools. That did not happen in Charlotte. Some schools there are fantastic and some are failing. The Wakefields and Green Hopes etc. will likely be very good schools. It is the schools in SE Raleigh that I am the most worried about.
Facts
Sun, 07/18/2010 - 00:09 — jeffrey1don't you realize that the new board and their supporters tell us that we don't have the kind of poverty that exists in those other places you named
Dallas Independent School District - 82.9%
Cleveland Municipal City - 82.1%
Freson Unified - 81.5%
Houston Independent School District - 80.2%
City of Chicago School District - 77.4%
Los Angeles Unified - 75%
Detroit City School District - 74.1%
Memphis City School District - 72.9%
Boston - 73.1%
Milwaukee - 72.4%
New York City Public Schools - 73.6%
Philadelphia City School District - 71.4%
Baltimore City Public School System - 70.9%
Mobile County, AL - 70.1%
El Paso School District - 69.6%
Long Beach Unified - 68.5%
Oakland Unified - 65.0%
Dekalb County - 63.7%
Jefferson County, KY - 62.2%
Dade County School District - 61.2%
District of Columbia Public Schools - 61.0%
San Diego City Unified - 59.4%
Charlotte-Mecklenberg Schools - 45.9%
Wake County Schools - 28.2%
Why do we insist on comparing WCPSS to any of those other districts? We will never have that kind of poverty to deal with. We are NOT an Urban School District. Why aren't we comparing WCPSS with any of the following large districts that have comparable F&R statistics?
Fairfax County Public Schools
Montgomery County Public Schools
Cobb County Public Schools
Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District
Jordan District, UT
Brevard County School District
Virginia Beach City Public Schools
Prince William County Public Schools
Seminole County School District
Plano Independent School District
The Jordan District has
Mon, 07/19/2010 - 11:46 — danofncThe Jordan District has 49,000 students and 51 schools. How, exactly, is that similar to WCPSS?
The district was apparently broken up into two parts a year or two ago. Prior to that, it had 81,000 students. Still much smaller than WCPSS.
Also, they were 84.71% white, 9.91% Hispanic/Latino, and 1.19% black/African American. I'm still not getting the comparison.
I haven't checked any others....are the all so similar?
27 of Jordan's 32 elementary schools are YR according to wikipedia. You sure you want to include them?
I'm still not getting the
Tue, 07/20/2010 - 02:28 — jeffrey1I'm still not getting the comparison.
I'm not surprised. Let's take it one step at a time so Dan can understand:
Also, they were 84.71% white, 9.91% Hispanic/Latino, and 1.19% black/African American.
So, is poverty any different depending on your race. Is a poor African American more difficult to educate than a poor white? It seems that you have some racist attitudes that are emerging.
Our schools are less than
Tue, 07/20/2010 - 12:09 — user12345Our schools are less than 50% white and shrinking ... think your statement pretty much sums up your lack of experience ... I am assuming your neighborhood is 84.71% white and so you felt at home with that %. ... get outside your neighborhood ...
The discussion was about
Tue, 07/20/2010 - 22:59 — jeffrey1The discussion was about poverty. I ignored racial makeup. Sounds like you agree with Dan that because Jordan is white, they can't have the problems that we have here in Wake. And that makes you a racist too.
You're calling me racist?
Tue, 07/20/2010 - 09:25 — danofncFirst of all, in WCPSS there is an achievement gap between AA and white students. Finding out why and doing something about it should have been more important than any assignment plan (for the current board or any previous board). I don't know what percentage of AA students are also F&R, but I don't believe the achievement gap between AA and white is the same as the gap between NED and ED.
If you're going to find a really good comparison, I would think the ethnic demographics would matter, since there are achievement gaps between ethnic groups.
Your #1 and #2 don't address what you quoted. I understood why you thought the big cities were poor comparisons. I didn't understand why you chose Jordan. Now that I know you just randomly picked a few districts, it makes sense. You just randomly picked a poor example.
Your 2006 report is grossly outdated. The Jordan school district has been split. The more affluent people voted to separate and form their own district. Jordan is now millions in the red.
From wikipedia:
Split
When Jordan's east-side communities voted to break from the district and form their own, Jordan lost 44 of its 84 schools and a large part of its property tax base. This Jordan District split caused a loss in property tax revenue; together with $16 million in state budget cuts, this created budget problems for the district. As of August 13, 2009, the district faced a $33 million shortfall. Jordan teachers lost nine days' pay, and will be paid an average of 4.5 percent less in the 2009-2010 school year than they were paid in 2008-2009, and taxpayers faced a large property tax increase.
Continuing budget fallout
In early 2010, the Jordan district school board announced a $20 million shortfall caused by the loss of taxable property, and announced cuts that could slash teacher ranks, increase class sizes and impact extracurricular activities. On February 22, 2010 the board of education of the district had a meeting that turned into a protest, with hundreds of students saying "save our teachers!" Hundreds of students from several Jordan district schools walked out of their classes on February 24, 2010, to demonstrate at district headquarters over the announced budget cuts.
If you're going to find a
Tue, 07/20/2010 - 22:55 — jeffrey1If you're going to find a really good comparison, I would think the ethnic demographics would matter, since there are achievement gaps between ethnic groups.
The Jordan school district has been split. The more affluent people voted to separate and form their own district. Jordan is now millions in the red.
OK Dan, for you I am going to go back and edit my original post, and remove Jordan from the list. I apologize for not doing exhaustive research on each and every one of the 30 school districts I mentioned in that post (sic). Exactly how does that change my point? Why do you and everyone else insist that without diversity assignments, the future of Wake looks like Cleveland, New York, Memphis, Dallas, etc? Why not compare us to one of the other districts that I listed?
You're calling me a racist?
If the shoe fits. Jordan had (prior to the split) a very comparable percentage of F&R students in their schools, they did not assign students by diversity, and they did not resemble the schools of Cleveland, New York et al. Yet you insisted that because Jordan was mostly white, that somehow that made it different. I'd day that is racist.
I don't really care what
Tue, 07/20/2010 - 23:32 — danofncI don't really care what percentage of the discussion you think centers on assignment. I happen to think that the new assignment policy may very well worsen the achievement gap, which is my biggest problem with it.
I can't speak for anyone else, but my only real complaint about the new plan has been the creation of high poverty schools. High poverty schools have pretty much been failures everywhere. Until I see how WCPSS is going to handle them differently in order to avoid the failures, I am a skeptic.
I don't actually think WCPSS compares very well with other districts, period. Most districts don't have as many students, and those that have a similar number of students tend to have a much smaller footprint.
As for your assertion that I'm racist, that's ludicrous. You listed a district that is 85% white as an example of one that doesn't bus for diversity. I pointed out that the lack of diversity in that district means that it is useless as a comparison. In 2000, Utah was 95% white, according to wikipedia. I've never thought of Utah as a diverse state, so when I saw a school district from there in your list I did a google search. Less than a minute later, I was done with my "exhaustive" research.
Utah was 95% white ... I've
Wed, 07/21/2010 - 00:21 — jeffrey1Utah was 95% white ... I've never thought of Utah as a diverse state
When talking about assignment in schools, diversity is defined as, AND CAN ONLY BE DEFINED AS differences in socioeconomic status. As soon as you injected race into the discussion, you changed the entire context of the debate.
You agree that you focused on Jordan because you knew Utah was mostly white. You agree that Jordan had a similar SES to Wake, yet you insist that it is not comparable because Wake has more blacks and hispanics. How is that not racist?
If it walks like a duck, and talks like a duck...
"You agree that Jordan had a
Wed, 07/21/2010 - 08:19 — danofnc"You agree that Jordan had a similar SES to Wake"
I don't agree to any such thing. You never listed the percentage for Jordan.
If Jordan's percentage was 22%, then even if you give them 90,000 kids that's only 19,800 kids. In 05-06, WCPSS had over 36,000 F&R students. That's not similar.
At some point, the percentages don't matter as much as the actual numbers.
At some point, the
Wed, 07/21/2010 - 09:03 — jeffrey1At some point, the percentages don't matter as much as the actual numbers.
In what world do you live! Please make it a point to stay away from anything involving statistics.
BTW, WCPSS has over 96,000 students that are middle class and above. That's more than just about every school district in the country. Since numbers matter, that's enough to insure that everything is great here in Wake.
?
Tue, 07/20/2010 - 23:35 — Duhhuh666"I've never thought of Utah as a diverse state,"
Oh no we are going to bus people to Utah next.....
Hopefully you're on the
Tue, 07/20/2010 - 23:55 — danofncHopefully you're on the first one.
No thanks
Wed, 07/21/2010 - 06:28 — Duhhuh666Utah has it quota of normal people but, they have an open quota for "know it all *%&*" hey thats an exact match for you!
Why aren't we comparing
Mon, 07/19/2010 - 11:09 — user12345So what is your best guess
Sun, 07/18/2010 - 17:34 — zandeSo what is your best guess as to how many very high poverty schools Wake County will have? Maybe not as many as CMS. So what. Lets make it our goal to have no high poverty schools. No one has provided any reassurance that the new assignment systems will not create these kinds of schools. Stayed tuned.
I will try to answer your
Sun, 07/18/2010 - 20:30 — jeffrey1I will try to answer your question if you can define "high poverty school" for me.
I thought it was 75% f&l
Sun, 07/18/2010 - 21:32 — zandeI thought it was 75% f&l enrollment. How many of those will we have if we go to neighborhood schools? I understand CMS has about 55 or so. Could be wrong but that is what I have been able to find online for CMS:
20 schools between 70 and 80% F&R
24 schools between 80 and 90% F&R
11 schools over 90% F&R
What do we have to look forward to? Maybe what 7-10 schools with 80% or greater f&l. Does that work for you? It does not work for me to send any child to a very high poverty school here in Wake County where, as you say, we should not have to since we have less poverty than many. Lets bring back something that will balance for this.
...
Sun, 07/18/2010 - 21:41 — Sideburns"What do we have to look forward to?"
How about.....
A system that recognizes parents and allows them choice in their child's education.
A system that provides better stability in assignment rather than reassigning children as a way to "improve" their academics.
A system that recognizes the reason children are failing and provides what is necessary to address their education -- not just reassigning them to make the school appear healthy once again.
A system that does not force families to split their children on different calendars while they watch their community and neighborhoods lose any sense of cohesiveness.
...to name a few.
Great talking points but no
Mon, 07/19/2010 - 09:58 — zandeGreat talking points but no one has yet told me how very high poverty schools will be avoided. In fact, it has pretty much been conceded that they are going to happen. Some schools will have all of those wonderful things you mentioned and some schools will be high poverty schools. I hope we don't have to find out the hard way like CMS but I fear that is where we are headed.
Ok...
Mon, 07/19/2010 - 10:17 — Bob_Sconce(1) The magnet schools aren't going away.
(2) The last I heard, students will have the option to go to other schools if they choose.
(3) The change in assignment patterns doesn't get rid of No Child Left Behind, which requires the district to give options to students in failing schools.
(4) The ability to focus resources on schools where kids need the most help.
(5) You haven't even seen the zone maps (nobody has). Until then, we have no way of knowing if the number of high-poverty schools will increase or decrease.
"Until then, we have no way
Mon, 07/19/2010 - 11:05 — zande"Until then, we have no way of knowing if the number of high-poverty schools will increase or decrease."
Currently there are no schools with 70% free and reduced lunch. Under a neighborhood schools plans there would be around 10 elementary schools that would rise to this level. This is according to a study published by WEP that I am sure you are familiar with and disagree with.
This is according to a study
Tue, 07/20/2010 - 02:09 — jeffrey1This is according to a study published by WEP that I am sure you are familiar with and disagree with.
Uh...
Mon, 07/19/2010 - 11:54 — Bob_SconceThat 'study' was a strawman: let's draw a map, attribute it to the school board and then complain about how bad the map is.
Isn't Brentwood over 70%? Based on their '09 EOG results, they appear to be (139 F&R tests v. 182 total). I think there are others as well.
oh!
Sun, 07/18/2010 - 21:58 — Bob_SconceA system that doesn't deliberately hold back non-magnet schools out of fear that they'll make magnet schools less attractive.
A system that builds communities in schools instead of destroying those communities.
What is your definition of a
Sun, 07/18/2010 - 19:36 — ApexterWhat is your definition of a "very high poverty school"?
appearances
Fri, 07/16/2010 - 14:41 — loriacRight - everything 'appears' to be fine with the prior assignment approach. Schools have no more than 40% F&R (well, except for the ones that don't), SCHOOL performance numbers seem adequate (don't look at the sub groups), and we have these wonderful magnet schools that are promoted (however, no mention of the many kids turned away, and the lack of any entrance criteria means that there's no way to know if you will win this lottery.)
I would love to know who was benefiting from this - it wasn't the students (the non-magnet ones, anyway). Enough parents (voters) were fed up w/ the system to vote in 4 new 'non-status quo' BOE members. The appearance of a good school system is not enough. Thank goodness.
Ella, please by all means
Fri, 07/16/2010 - 10:29 — woodstockElla, please by all means add to the foolish spectacle.
Where the hell were you when the grad rates for ED and steadily dropped and poor and minority students were discriminated against? Now that this glaring stain on WCPSS's reputation is going to be addressed, you want to take a stand? Barber is a self-promoting clown ...and you are volunteering to be in his circus. Why?
you left out New Jersey.
Fri, 07/16/2010 - 07:45 — CaryCurmudgeonyou left out New Jersey.
I bet Barber and Petty are
Thu, 07/15/2010 - 13:36 — red_balloonI bet Barber and Petty are salivating for a chance to do another imitation of MLK's "Letter from a Birmingham Jail".
Tyson also indicated that
Thu, 07/15/2010 - 13:18 — CaryCurmudgeonTyson also indicated that they plan to use their court case on the trespassing charges as a chance to grill school board members about eliminating the diversity policy.
"We will be issuing subpoenas soon," Tyson said. "I look forward to hearing them explain their shenanigans -- and perhaps even their alleged 'Secret Plan' -- to a sensible Wake County jury."
And all of this has exactly what to do with whether they were trespassing or not? I'm not a lawyer, and I don't play one on TV, but I cannot see how a judge would allow their attorneys to pursue this line of questioning when it is irrelevant to the charge of trespassing. I believe the video is more than adequate to show they were trespassing, and I don't think the law says it is ok to trespass if you don't agree with the proceedings.
And this is completely consistent with how Where's Waldo and his buddies who trespassed earlier in the year were treated.
Again, Barber LIED to the school board about their intentions at the last meeting. His signature on a statement of good intentions means nothing.
Go for it!
Thu, 07/15/2010 - 12:59 — PACK_MIKE77"We will be issuing subpoenas soon," Tyson said. "I look forward to hearing them explain their shenanigans -- and perhaps even their alleged 'Secret Plan' -- to a sensible Wake County jury."
The fact Tyson is planning on a jury trial for second degree trespassing is priceless. What if Tyson loses. Will the jury be racist?
Anyone is apparently "racist"...
Thu, 07/15/2010 - 13:51 — midtownmomif you don't agree with him and his cronies.
Of course the Board has
Thu, 07/15/2010 - 11:50 — woodstockOf course the Board has every right to do what they did. Tyson can spew his foolish rants all he wants, it is not going to change a thing. And the silly threats of subpoenas are just laughable. The poor guy is losing it. He endured public humiliation with is hate-filled and idiotic comments regarding the Duke Lacrosse case. Now, it appears he signed up for another round of humiliation. Someone get this man some help!
---------------
Here is the letter to Tyson:
On Tuesday, June 15, 2010, you were arrested for causing a disturbance and interruption of the Wake County Board of Education meeting. You blatantly violated the Board’s rules for public participation at the board meetings and attempted to prevent the Board from conducting its meeting.
Due to your actions and pursuant to Board policies 1326, 1330, and 2212, you are not permitted in any Wake County School System property where Board of Education meetings are scheduled unless you provide the Board Chair, Mr. Ron Margiotta, with written assurance that you will comply with the Board’s rules of order and desist from attempting to disrupt and/or obstruct Board meetings.
Failure to adhere to this directive will result in immediate legal action being brought against you.
Wow...
Thu, 07/15/2010 - 11:36 — Bob_SconceI can't believe Tyson would use that foul expression. So much for raising the level of discourse.
This is hardly an abridgement of their rights. All they have to do is send a letter saying "I assure you that I will comply with the board's rules of order and desist from attempting to disrupt and/or obstruct board meetings" and they can go back in.