Archives for category: North Carolina
« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

NC Teachers: Tell Your Stories

By dianeravitch
November 8, 2013 //
6

North Carolina Watch wants to hear from teachers.

“Happy Friday to all,

I am writing to let you all know that NC Policy Watch just unveiled a new feature on our website, called Your Soapbox, that is seeking to collect North Carolina’s teachers’ stories.

We are doing this because North Carolina’s teachers have watched the state fall from 25th to 46th in the nation in teacher pay since 2008. In July, lawmakers stripped teachers of tenure and salary supplements for those who have obtained master’s degrees.

Educators are also dealing with years of drastic cuts to supplies, textbooks, and teacher assistants.

So we are looking to hear from NC teachers and publish their stories online. We’re looking for written stories that they can submit using the submission form here. If educators have photos to send of their classrooms, please email them to lindsay@ncpolicywatch.com

I can also interview teachers and publish audio files on the Soapbox as well.

Again, the Soapbox link is http://www.ncpolicywatch.com/2013/10/30/your-soapbox-on-the-front-lines-educators-stories-inside-and-outside-the-classroom/

I would be grateful if you could let your contacts know.

All the best,
Lindsay”

Lindsay Wagner
Education Reporter

N.C. Policy Watch
224 S Dawson St.
Raleigh, NC 27601
919-861-1460 (office)
919-348-5898 (mobile)
lindsay@ncpolicywatch.com

Twitter: @LindsayWagnerNC
Blog: http://pulse.ncpolicywatch.org
Website: http://www.ncpolicywatch.com

Categories North Carolina, Teachers and Teaching

NC: The Great Tablet Mess

By dianeravitch
October 29, 2013 //
10

A reader in North Carolina updates us on the great tablet fiasco, the recriminations, and the eternal question: who is making a lot of money? Hint: not the teachers.

The reader writes:

Add to this fiasco ANOTHER one from North Carolina. (Greensboro’s NEWS AND RECORD has created a page for the great Tablet Deal Gone Wrong):

http://www.news-record.com/news/schools/collection_9555d386-2551-11e3-a120-0019bb30f31a.html

Scroll to bottom article discussing current Guilford County Schools Sperintendent Maurice Green’s connection to Peter Gorman, current senior vice-president for AMPLIFY and former superintendent of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools ( i.e. Green’s former boss). Green kept mum about the connection.

Key excerpt below from:
http://www.news-record.com/news/schools/article_9c78ebb8-bd9a-11e2-9fc2-0019bb30f31a.html

Gorman joined Amplify after serving as superintendent of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools from 2006 to 2011. Green was his deputy superintendent before leaving in 2008 to lead Guilford County Schools.

“It raises an eyebrow,” said Linda Welborn, school board member. “I could see the concern and possibly the perception from other people that are aware of the connection.
“Had I known, I probably would have asked more questions.”

Welborn and board members Ed Price and Darlene Garrett said staff should have mentioned that history when they recommended Amplify for the four-year contract.
But Price and Welborn said Amplify seemed worthy of the contract because it had the lowest bid and met the district’s criteria.

“The fact that (Gorman) worked there, that in and of itself would not have stopped me from voting for them if they had the best deal,” Price said.

“I do not question Mo Green’s integrity, and I don’t think he would have done something just because of his past relationship with Peter Gorman.”

Nora Carr, the district’s chief of staff, said Green purposely excluded himself from the review process so as not to influence the staff’s decision.

“He certainly made every effort to remove himself from the process so that the team could make decisions that were based on facts and the individual strengths of the proposals,” said Carr, who also worked for Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools before coming to the district in 2008.

Carr said business connections in the education sector are common. Green had a previous work history with an employee of another company that bid on the PACE project, she said.

And he developed relationships with executives at Apple, which provided iPads to Montlieu Academy of Technology.

Green and school board Chairman Alan Duncan also used to work for the same law firm.
“Education is a small world,” Carr said. “If we ruled out every company that had a connection with us, we would have a very small pool to draw from.”
Still, some board members were not satisfied with the review process — either because the project team did not include teachers or because details weren’t provided on the other vendors.

Garrett, who voted against the Amplify contract, said she wanted to hear presentations from other companies.

“We should have had more information,” Garrett said. “We should have asked for it, but I think we were in a rush to approve it.”

The school district won a $30 million federal Race to the Top grant in December and is on a tight schedule to put digital devices in the hands of most middle school students this fall. The initiative is part of national efforts to improve student learning through digital technology.

But some people wonder who stands to benefit more from the trend — the students or the companies selling the technology.

“There is the concern that once you’re locked in there, what happens after the four years?” Welborn said about the devices. “This new age of electronic teaching is going to be huge money.”

Categories Education Industry, For-Profit, North Carolina, Technology, Computers

NC Leaders Abandon Any Pretense of Common Sense

By dianeravitch
October 23, 2013 //
42

Legislators in the far-right legislature of the once forward-looking state of North Carolina waste no opportunity to demoralize teachers with their wacky punitive policies. They just don’t like teachers. They seem certain that only 25% of the state’s teachers are worthy, even though 96% were rated effective by the state evaluation system.

So the teacher-bashers in the legislature will make sure to play whack-a-mole with the lives of teachers.

The new plan is to strip tenure from all teachers and let teachers compete for four/year contracts and $5,000 bonuses.

North Carolina is one of the lowest paying states in the nation for teachers. One reason to accept low wages is a promise of reasonable job security. That will be eliminated. As Lindsey Wagner reported in NC Policy Watch, some NC teachers are leaving the state, realizing that the legislature wants to destroy their profession and reduce them to public mendicants.

Leaders of the state’s two largest districts see this as bad policy:

“The General Assembly voted this year to eliminate teacher tenure in 2018. In the meantime, school districts across the state are being required to identify which educators will be offered a $5,000 pay raise as part of a four-year contract if they give up their tenure. Roughly one-quarter will be offered the four-year deal.

Some of the most vocal complaints are coming from the Wake County and Charlotte-Mecklenburg school systems. Like their counterparts across the state, the large systems are searching for a way to carry out the new state requirements.

“I’m hoping the General Assembly will talk with educators and look at the long-term consequences – both intended and unintended – of this legislation before it does irreparable harm that will take years and years and years to fix,” Wake County school board member Kevin Hill said Tuesday at a school board meeting.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Superintendent Heath Morrison said the four-year contract and bonus plan has raised a host of questions, and threatens already-rocky teacher morale.

But backers of the change say it provides meaningful education reform by basing job security and pay on performance. They say the old system of giving tenure and then basing pay on seniority rewarded ineffective teachers.”

Contracts and bonuses will be tied to test scores.

A defender of the legislation used the occasion to ridicule teachers:

“Only in the warped world of education bureaucrats and union leaders could a permanent $5,000 pay raise for top-performing teachers be branded as a bad thing,” Amy Auth, a spokeswoman for state Senate leader Phil Berger, a Rockingham County Republican, said in a written statement.

Historically, North Carolina public school teachers who have passed a four-year probationary period have earned tenure, called career status.”

And there is more to this sad story:
Critics of the system, such as Berger, have pointed to the firing of 17 tenured teachers in the 2011-12 school year to argue that too many bad teachers are still being employed. But supporters of tenure argue that it protects good teachers from being fired unfairly, and that many bad teachers are encouraged to resign.

Starting July 1, 2018, North Carolina public school teachers will receive contracts of between one and four years. Teachers will work under contracts that are renewed based on performance – like nearly every other profession, according to Auth.

Some changes go into effect now, such as offering four-year contracts to some educators.

A big question concerns how to determine which teachers will be offered the four-year contracts. Superintendents will present a list of names to their school boards, which can modify the list.

Administrators from 10 of the state’s biggest school districts, including Wake, Charlotte-Mecklenburg, Durham, Johnston and Gaston, held a video conference Tuesday to talk about the changes.

“You actually have some school districts that are suggesting that they’ll do a lottery because of concerns about legal issues and concerns about morale,” Morrison said.

Auth stressed that the “top 25 percent of teachers” will get the new contract and raises, saying they’re “highly effective teachers.” Teachers must be rated “proficient” under the state evaluation system to be eligible.

But Ann McColl, general counsel for the N.C. Association of Educators, pointed to state statistics showing that 96 percent of classroom teachers were rated as proficient.”

Categories North Carolina, Teacher Evaluations, Teacher Tenure, Teachers and Teaching

NC: We Don’t Want No Teachers No-how

By dianeravitch
October 4, 2013 //
57

Before you write to tell me that the headline has a triple negative and to correct my grammar, please be aware that it was written knowingly and with a sense of outrage.

In this article, Lindsey Wagner of NC Policy Watch describes the massive demoralization of teachers and the prospect that some teachers will leave North Carolina to find a state where teachers are not treated with contempt, as they are by NC’s governor and legislature.

One businessman quoted says that NC is now exporting teachers because of flat or declining salaries.

And this:

“Teachers not only grapple with reduced budgets at home, but also in their classrooms. Significant cuts to instructional supplies over the past several years have left teachers with little choice but to dig into their own wallets for paper, markers, books and other teaching materials.

“And it’s not just supplies – many educators in North Carolina teach students living in abject poverty. When students comes to school soaked in urine and hungry, teachers once again open their hearts and wallets to get those students extra food and clean clothes so they can actually learn that day.

“Elementary school teachers rely heavily on teacher assistants to manage their classrooms and ensure learning gains, especially at a time when lawmakers have lifted the cap on class size. For the 2013-15 biennial budget, funding for 1 in 5 teacher assistants was cut. Some school districts have been able to save jobs with local funds, but many more have been forced to cut those positions from classrooms.”

And the legislation, in its war on teachers, said that no one would get a salary increment for earning a master’s degree. In other words, the state does not want its teachers to get more education.

Voters should throw these wreckers of public education out at the earliest opportunity.

– See more at: http://www.ncpolicywatch.com/2013/09/26/is-north-carolina-a-net-exporter-of-teachers/#sthash.ZCz4Rooy.dpuf

Categories North Carolina, Teacher Tenure, Teachers and Teaching

Kay McSpadden: Why “Invisible Man” Belongs in the Schools

By dianeravitch
October 1, 2013 //
2

These days, one is surprised to hear any good news coming out of North Carolina, which has achieved national ignominy for its governor’s and legislature’s relentless attacks on public education and teachers.

Yet there is good news, as teacher Kay McSpadden explains, the Randolph County school board reversed its decision to remove Ralph Ellison’s “Invisible Man” from its schools and libraries. The board banned it in response to a parent who complained, saying, “The narrator writes in the first person, emphasizing his individual experiences and his feelings about the events portrayed in his life. This novel is not so innocent; instead, this book is filthier, too much for teenagers. You must respect all religions and point of views when it comes to the parents and what they feel is age appropriate for their young children to read without their knowledge.”

Educators who reviewed the book opposed banning it, but the board banned it. After this absurd decision made the board an object of national ridicule, it reversed its vote only two days later.

McSpadden explains why the book has become a classic and is appropriate for teenagers.

She writes:

“The first time I read “Invisible Man,” I, too, thought it was a hard read – a complex read – and I knew I needed to read it again to understand what I missed the first time through. A few years later when I wrote my master’s thesis, “Invisible Man” was the perfect book – so layered and complex that I could read it a dozen times and still find something new.

“That’s one reason I assign it every year to my Advanced Placement students. I hope it is a hard read – the kind that forces them to read with engaged intellects as well as with opened emotional sensibilities.

“It seems to be. My students like it – some even calling it the favorite novel we read all year. The nameless narrator’s quest to discover his identity is the same journey my students are on – making it a book that speaks to teenagers. A story that intentionally follows the mythical hero arc, it is both universal and particular, focusing on our shared humanity even as it speaks to the particular experience of being black in America.”

For anyone interested in learning more about the history of book banning and censorship of the language and imagery that appears on standardized tests, please read “The Language Police: How Pressure Groups Restrict What Students Learn.”

A thought: does this episode not remind us how important fiction is? Doesn’t it remind us how literature compels us to reflect on our thoughts and feelings? Doesn’t it suggest that books become classics when we find we can return to them again and again to discover new things about the book and ourselves? These days, with the exaltation of “informational text” in the Common Core, it is good to be reminded that great literature has power that lasts a lifetime.

Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2013/09/28/4347647/sometimes-a-hard-read-is-the-most.html#.UkbgsbzWZCY#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2013/09/28/4347647/sometimes-a-hard-read-is-the-most.html#.UkbgsbzWZCY#storylink=cpy

Categories North Carolina

Outrage: How Extremists Brought Vouchers to North Carolina (Follow the $$$$)

By dianeravitch
September 23, 2013 //
11

The extremists in the North Carolina legislature and in the governor’s mansion have decided that the state’s public education system must be subject to market pressures.

That means they want public money put into private hands, as much as possible.

North Carolina was once the most progressive of southern states. It is now among the most regressive, competing with Louisiana in a race to the bottom.

Please note that the lawmakers did not put the decision about vouchers in the hands of the electorate.

No state referendum on vouchers has ever passed, and they know it.

Being fearful to say out loud what they are doing, they call vouchers with a deceptive name, as do their supporters in other states. They call them “opportunity scholarships.”

One state official is responsible to oversee the nearly 700 schools that are eligible to receive voucher students.

The campaign for vouchers was funded by extremist groups, from inside and outside the state.

Please note that in the latest TIMSS international tests, students in North Carolina’s public schools took the test and were rated as one of the highest performing entities in the world.

Want to know about vouchers in North Carolina?

Read these outstanding and objective articles by Lindsay Wagner of the NC Policy Watch. Here, here, and here.

Who is footing the bill to privatize public dollars? Follow the money. North Carolina has its own Art Pope, who handsomely funds libertarians who agree with his views; this very conservative and politically important multi-multi-millionaire is now state budget director. Art Pope was profiled by the New Yorker magazine because of his outsize influence in changing the face of the North Carolina Republican party.

And then there is all the out-of-state money that has helped elect a reactionary legislature.

The voucher promoters–who represent the most reactionary elements of our society–are always able to find and pay people of color willing to make ridiculous claims that they are doing the work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., by helping to destroy public education that serves all children. Think of the Black Alliance for Educational Options, which is handsomely funded by the Walton Family Foundation (whose stores do not allow unions and pay minimum wage to their employees). And North Carolina has its own cheerleaders for local billionaires, falsely laying claim to Dr. King’s campaign for public responsibility, not privatization.

And lest we not forget: the governor’s senior education advisor is Eric Guckian, a distinguished leader groomed by Teach for America.

Categories North Carolina, Vouchers, Walton Foundation

North Carolina County School Board Bans Ralph Ellison’s “Invisible Man”

By dianeravitch
September 22, 2013 //
41

The Randolph County Board of Education voted 5-2 to ban  “Invisible Man” by Ralph Ellison from the shelves of Randolph County Schools libraries.

All copies of the book will be removed from school libraries.

This action followed the complaint of a parent.

Committees at both the school and district levels recommended it not be removed.

The book, originally published in 1952, addresses many of the social and intellectual issues facing African-Americans in the first half of the 20th century.

It was one of three books from which rising Randleman High School juniors could choose for summer reading for the 2013-14 school year. The others on the list were “Black Like Me” by John Howard Griffin and “Passing” by Nella Larsen; honors students had to choose two books.

There was little discussion after the board was presented with the Central Services Committee recommendation concerning the parent’s complaint about the book. All board members had been supplied with copies of the book last month to read.

McDonald [a board member] asked if everyone had read the book, stating, “It was a hard read.”

Mason [a board member] said, “I didn’t find any literary value.” He also objected to the language in the book. “I’m for not allowing it to be available.”

Cutler [a board member who opposed the resolution] asked if there were other options to which Catherine Berry, assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction, replied that there were other choices. She also explained that the book is on the N.C. Department of Public Instruction’s list of suggested supplemental works for high school students.

It was at this point that Cutler made the original motion which was defeated. Lambeth then made the motion to ban the book which passed.

The board action was prompted by a complaint about the book from Kimiyutta Parson, mother of an RHS 11th-grader. She submitted a request for reconsideration of instructional media form, which detailed, in a 12-page supplemental document, her reasons for the book’s removal.

She stated, in part, “The narrator writes in the first person, emphasizing his individual experiences and his feelings about the events portrayed in his life. This novel is not so innocent; instead, this book is filthier, too much for teenagers. You must respect all religions and point of views when it comes to the parents and what they feel is age appropriate for their young children to read, without their knowledge. This book is freely in your library for them to read.”

Parson also objected to the type of language used in the book and its sexual content.

A school-based, six-member media advisory committee met, according to board policy, and recommended it not be removed from the library.

A 10-member District Media Advisory Committee also met, agreeing with the school-level group’s decision. According to its recommendation, “the committee appreciated the parent’s concern for their child and the interest taken in their education. The District Media Advisory committee unanimously agreed that the book does relate directly to curriculum and RCS should keep the book on the shelf and as a literature piece for instruction.”

 

 

Categories Education Reform, North Carolina

Troubled Charter Chain Plans to Open Three Schools in North Carolina

By dianeravitch
September 14, 2013 //
23

A charter chain that has run into legal problems in Philadelphia
and Chicago plans to open
three schools in North
Carolina. Lindsay Wagner of the NC Policy Watch writes in the
“Progrssive Pulse”: “The NC Department of Public Instruction
received 171 letters of intent last week from charter school
operators keen on opening up new schools in time for fall of 2015 —
the highest ever received since lawmakers lifted the 100-school cap
in 2011. “ASPIRA is a national advocacy organization dedicated to
developing the educational and leadership capacity of Hispanic
youth. ASPIRA also supports the charter school movement in
districts where significant numbers of Latino students are failing.
“In Chicago, ASPIRA has run into allegations of financial
corruption and misconduct at its charter schools. Last year, the
CEO of ASPIRA Illinois, Jose Rodriguez, was fired by the charter
operator’s board. “And in troubled Philadelphia, ASPIRA Inc. of
Pennsylvania owes more than $3 million to four charter schools it
runs, according to the Philadelphia City Paper. That money,
according to school district officials, is taxpayer funds intended
to fulfill the purposes of the charters. The organization has also
spent $17,000 to a union-busting law firm to deal with a “teacher
unionization issue,” according to the City Paper.” – See more at:
http://pulse.ncpolicywatch.org/2013/09/13/troubled-charter-operator-aspira-intends-to-open-three-charter-schools-in-nc/#sthash.ccu4IQJ5.O3QpNDSH.dpuf

Categories Charter Schools, North Carolina

Our Hero Charter Teacher Responds to Your Letters

By dianeravitch
September 11, 2013 //
32

I honored Chris Weaver, a charter school teacher in North Carolina who spoke out against the governor and legislature’s wanton attacks on public schools. He even rejected his local paper’s effort to honor him. Here he responds to those who wrote letters about his actions.

Dear Diane & Readers,

Terry Kalb, my NY friend who sent my newspaper letter to Diane, sent me the link, and it’s the first time I’ve visited the blog (but not the last). Thank you Diane for the “honor roll” honor, and no, I surely don’t reject it. Thanks also for the most enheartening comments from readers. Here are a few follow-up thoughts:

For Joanna Best: I am with you 100% on the “best teacher” category in the “retail popularity contest” Best-Of issue of our news weekly. It does more harm than good, and I hope my letter helped folks to think a little more deeply.

For Michael Fiorillo: I appreciate your comment as well. As a teacher who has taught for eight years in district public schools in two states and for seven years in my current charter school, here is my take on the issue you raise, and some of my questions (I have many as-yet-unanswered questions–as all critical thinkers do):

I am opposed to any charter schools being managed by for-profit corporations.

I know that charter school legislation is used for political purposes as a “stepping stone” toward the privatization and dismantling of public education, and I am opposed to all such purposes.

I do consider the charter school where I work to be a public school. (I am open to different views.) We serve any student and family who enters our doors. We abide by strict fair-lottery rules. We are governed by a board elected by our public community. All board meetings are open and all financial and policy decisions are transparent. We do not serve an economically privileged student body.

I will share some of the ways that our school falls short as a public school. One of the “arguments” in favor of public charter schools is that they can serve as laboratories of innovation, which can develop and share best practices with the public school community. My school IS a laboratory of innovation, but we have, as of yet, been inadequate in our efforts to share best practices. The idea of sharing best practices is an ineffective idea if there are no structures in place to facilitate that sharing. I am working on developing structures for this in my own school and hopefully beyond, but my sense is that on the whole, charter schools focus on the needs of their own school communities (like independent schools do) and do not engage in all kinds of essential possible actions that could place them in true solidarity with the public school community (where I want to be). My school also, like most charter schools, does not offer breakfasts, lunches, or transportation to our students, rendering us inaccessible to many of the families in our city in the greatest need.

So why do I teach in a charter school? At the moment, I choose this setting because I believe in school self-governance. I believe in local school control of curriculum and staffing decisions. At heart, more important than any other factor in my teaching life, I am committed to child-centered education, which to me is holistic, hands-on, community-centered, and honoring of teacher autonomy, creativity, innovation, and academic freedom. Public charter schools CAN be, and SOMETIMES are, places where teachers are free to develop curriculum that is highly responsive to the gifts and needs of our students. District public school CAN be, and SOMETIMES are, the same.

When I taught in district schools, I did not teach any differently than I do now, but I was out on the experiential lunatic fringe among teachers, and I found myself bending and breaking more rules in order to meet my students’ (and my own) needs than I do in my current position. My school is full of innovative teachers, and if a rule or requirement is not right or does not make sense, we can take our ideas and concerns to our own administrators or board of directors and propose a change, and these folks have the authority to make many of these changes, and they listen to us (and when they don’t, we can become very persuasive)..

A specific example is that here in NC, the new state budget basically mandates the firing of all assistant teachers in 2nd and 3rd grades in public elementary schools statewide. The tragedy is two-fold. The decision itself is criminal in its destructive impact, but the structural centralization that allows such a thing to happen is equally a part of the problem. In my school, we take the hit of the budget cuts, but we will never remove the second teacher that we have in our primary grades, because the students need these teachers and we have the local autonomy to preserve the positions and make our cuts elsewhere.

I am interested in the movements in public schools and districts that are moving public education more in this direction of local autonomy.

At this point in my career, as I am about to turn 50, I am raising my head and looking around. In many ways I have been teaching in a “utopian bubble,” and I am satisfied and excited to break the bubble from the inside and not to be so self-centered and school-centered. To me, the most important best practices right now are process innovations and structural innovations that allow large organizations to be more decentralized and self-organizing. There is a lot of critical excellent work to be done in this arena. I have more thoughts about that of course, but I’ll save it for another time.

For now, I send my gratitude out to Diane and to the readers of this blog. I call on my fellow public school teachers to take heart, and keep our attention fully on the present needs of our students (holistically, not just academically), while simultaneously mobilizing to defuse the wave of misguided political stupidity as it crashes through our communities. This ignorance, like all ignorance, is not as mighty as it appears. We know about teaching and learning, a knowledge that is true, ancient, and unshakable. Now is the time to speak up, act as collectives, and, as I wrote in my letter to the paper, allow our unity and our wisdom to be self-evident. Every small step matters.

With Respect,

Chris Weaver, Asheville, NC

Categories Honor Roll, North Carolina

A Hero Educator Who Teaches in a Charter School in North Carolina

By dianeravitch
September 10, 2013 //
28

A regular reader informed me about an amazing charter
school teacher in North Carolina. Chris Weaver was selected as
“The Best Teacher” by Mountain XPress, a local newspaper,
and he rejected the honor. Read here to learn why he rejected it.
He is committed to the common good, not to self-interest. He
understands that educators must work together towards common goals,
not compete. Congratulations, Chris. You have joined the honor roll
of the blog. Please do not reject this honor. You deserve it for
your courage, your integrity, and your dedication to your
profession and children!

The real Best Teacher

By Chris
Weaver on 08/13/2013 01:00
PM

While I
appreciate the community value of the Best Of WNC and the shout-out
from the Xpress readers in my school community, I am
writing to relinquish the title of Best Teacher, because I know who
the real Best Teacher is. I teach at a public
charter school. While my school grapples with the low per-student
allotment and the dismal state teacher salary scale, I know that it
is our children and teachers in our district public schools who are
taking the biggest hit from the budget passed by the extremists in
the North Carolina General Assembly and the governor’s
office. I want district public school teachers
to know that public charter school teachers are standing with you.
Your students are our students. Teaching assistants are a
necessity. Small class sizes are a necessity. Compensation for a
hard-earned master’s degree is essential. A state government that
offers underpaid teachers $500 of taxpayer money to sign away their
due process rights is an aberration.
Xpress readers, the Best Teacher in WNC and
elsewhere in our great state in 2013-2014 is the teacher in your
local public school who will not be demoralized and who does
everything he or she can to meet the needs of every child, with
less help, less money and more demands than ever before.
The Best School is the public school down the street or
up the road. Our Best Administrators are struggling with being
required to implement misguided decisions in the least-damaging way
they can find while striving to sustain morale in their
schools. I know that [Mountain Moral Monday
speaker] Rev. William Barber is right about the temporary nature of
the current state political ideology, because we will go forward
together and the power of our unity will be self-evident. But right
now, as school opens this year, I encourage people of all
persuasions to go to our city and county public schools and say,
“Thank goodness you are here. What do you need? How can I
help?” — Chris Weaver
Asheville

Categories Charter Schools, Honor Roll, North Carolina
« Older Entries
Newer Entries »