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Burns was my son's principal in both elementary and high school. He made everyone respect and like him because he really cared about every student, staffer, and parent.
Burns turned Millbrook high completely around.
The graduation issues may relate to the increase in non-English speaking and poor students in the district. Also, explosive growth caused much stress in the system.
The bigoted transplant board pushed him out.
You think drop was due to non-English speaking and poor students? Isn't this who his diversity plan was supposed to help the most? We're looking at five consecutive years of declines; not just one.
In typical pot vs kettle, gains made under Tata's tenure were dismissed by Hill and Sutton yesterday as being "expected" and the work of the entire staff, not just one person.
And get over the transplant hang-up already. You're forgetting one minor thing: When y'all sold them that overpriced farm land you also gave them a right to have a say 'round here, in the form of a vote
One of the biggest mistakes EVER was not charging impact fees.
Exactly. The DEVELOPERS should have shouldered this cost -- you want to put up a new subdivision? Well, here's what it is going to cost you. They would have simply applied the cost to each individual home anyway and passed the cost on to consumers, but that's the fairest way of doing it.
I think that the short-sighted (and often clueless) town council thought that doing this would somehow make the town of Cary a place where NO developer wanted to build. The reality is that demand drives behavior, and if people want to live in a certain area, developers will build there. The other possibility is that the town council was in the developers pocket, which would hardly be shocking. Any time politics and money intersect, ethics and common sense are usually in short supply.
I also lived in the Northeast where they had city/town based schools. It was pretty bad since it basically created the achievement gap from hell and encouraged the creation of academic ghettos in the inner city and poorer towns where students were overwhelmingly from poor or working class backgrounds, and schools were ill equipped due to the insufficient tax base. All this was next to tiny wealthy suburban districts that fiercely guarded their privileged position and tax base advantages.
The result was it was great if you lived in a posh suburb, or corporate bedroom town, but awful if you lived in the city, or a depressed working class town.
The only funding advantage that suburban schools have in the NE is through PTA donations. Inner city schools are given MORE money by the state. Every municipality has to pony up to fund urban schools. At the end of the day, though, the additional money does not improve student achievement.
The only thing I have to say....from the OP...I really haven't seen much in constructive suggestions in what people would do... Besides "fire everyone" and stuff like that. I'm interested... Current residents of wake county... What policies would you put in place if you were a board member? And why?
If you've been reading this forum for the past many years, you should have picked up on what has frustrated people and what many would like to see changed. Let me see if I can recap:
You read about a large bond issue that failed in the late 1990s because many voters felt it was loaded up with way to many non-essentials that were unlrelated to the stated purpose of building out the district infrastructure. What voters want: A school board that is good stewards with the taxpayers' money, that does not spend unnecessarily, and applies the funds it has available to advance the educational achievement of students in Wake County.
You read about a school board that because increasingly isolated from parents and actively turned a deaf ear to their concerns. What voters want: A school board that listens to its constituents and is responsive to parents' concerns.
You read about parents' growing concerns with the diversity-based assignment model and the too frequent reassignments. What voters want: An assignment model that offers a greater degree of stability and predictability.
You read about a school board that tried to force a new high school into a location in Rolesville despite opposition from town elected officials and residents. What voters want: A school board that works collaboratively with other community leaders rather than imposing its will from outside.
You read about the frustration of voters that lead to the shift to a new Republican majority, which immediately and drastically shifted course from prior district policies, angering some in parts of the county not represented by these new members. What voters want: School board members who do not act simply out of their own personal and parochial interests but represent the community at large.
You read about a board that fired the district superintendent over what appears to be a control/power struggle over who ultimately was in charge. What voters want: A school board and administration that can work together for the good of the district.
I might have missed some items, but that's my summary of the past 15 years or so.
Exactly. The DEVELOPERS should have shouldered this cost -- you want to put up a new subdivision? Well, here's what it is going to cost you. They would have simply applied the cost to each individual home anyway and passed the cost on to consumers, but that's the fairest way of doing it.
I think that the short-sighted (and often clueless) town council thought that doing this would somehow make the town of Cary a place where NO developer wanted to build. The reality is that demand drives behavior, and if people want to live in a certain area, developers will build there. The other possibility is that the town council was in the developers pocket, which would hardly be shocking. Any time politics and money intersect, ethics and common sense are usually in short supply.
A bond issue would address funding issues with ready availability of funds for construction, and would retroactively impose fees on residents who paid no impact fees, with the possibility of costs being passed to tenants by landlords.
Impact fees are an attractive "tax that man behind the tree" approach, with the added "benefit" of artificially increasing home values of existing properties as the cost of new construction is increased.
I also lived in the Northeast where they had city/town based schools. It was pretty bad since it basically created the achievement gap from hell and encouraged the creation of academic ghettos in the inner city and poorer towns where students were overwhelmingly from poor or working class backgrounds, and schools were ill equipped due to the insufficient tax base. All this was next to tiny wealthy suburban districts that fiercely guarded their privileged position and tax base advantages.
The result was it was great if you lived in a posh suburb, or corporate bedroom town, but awful if you lived in the city, or a depressed working class town.
Yes, that is why my family moved down here. I went to WCPSS in the 80s and 90s and things were mostly fine. That was also when Wake was getting the most accolades it seems like. If Wake could find a way to take the things that worked during that time period and implement them now I think it would help a lot. Also not letting developers build where there isn't the school infrastructure in place to support new students would help as well but the school board doesn't have any control over that.
I would feel sad as a teenager...or to have a teenager, that doesn't get to experience of high school spirit. Being at the same high school as their neighborhood friends, and some of those high school experiences...
When I was in high school all of my friends save one lived nowhere near my neighborhood. Most of the high school kids in my neighborhood were a-holes. Going to school with kids from different neighborhoods doesn't destroy the high school experience
Really, the few people you see on C-D forum threatening to leave are just that few. Most people, while disappointed with the school board right now, are going to stay put because they like their schools!
I think that if the real estate market were better, Wake would see more people leaving for greener pastures. I don't believe that people who came from well run school systems are staying because they think the schools are great.
When I was in high school all of my friends save one lived nowhere near my neighborhood. Most of the high school kids in my neighborhood were a-holes. Going to school with kids from different neighborhoods doesn't destroy the high school experience
But did you at least go to the same high school? When I moved to north Raleigh we were placed in a node assignment that shifted one high school student in the entire neighborhood to a school inside the beltline. Every other high school kid in the neighborhood went to a school less than a mile away. (Similar for middle school - except two kids were affected.) It really disconnected those kids both from their schools and their neighborhoods.
Some of the people in my neighborhood went to Enloe, some went to SE Raleigh which was brand new at the time, and the rest went to Leesville. There weren't that many high schools in Wake County at the time, even Leesville was considered new, and all the ones east of us were overcrowded so I'm not sure where else they would have sent people.
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