Do you remember AdvancED?
They’re the group that Rev. Barber and his performance crew went crying to
after the then-School Board began the process of changing student assignment in
Wake County. AdvancED, for those who don’t know, is an accreditation company
that…well…accredits our high schools. Sounds important, doesn’t it? Like
someone we should keep happy. But are they really?
Consider the original
complaint filed by Rev. Barber and the NAACP. It is nothing more than a
rambling rant of how much they despised the Republican majority – Mr.
Margiotta, in particular – and the Board’s desire to bring about common sense
changes to student assignment. (If you have a minute, you really should read the
whole complaint to get an understanding of what started this ball rolling. The
tone and inferences are, at times, quite comical)
Yet, as a result of this ridiculous complaint,
AdvancED came marching in, demanding to scrutinize a variety of issues – many
of which were completely irrelevant to
accrediting a high school. If you recall, there was some debate as to whether
AdvancED overstepped its authority in their review request. In the end,
AdvancED came to town and placed WCPSS on “accreditation warned” status.
Fast forward to today. AdvancED’s new report lifts
the warning and places WCPSS ‘s accreditation on "advisement". Due to the hard work of the previous Board
and Supt. Tata, the points raised by AdvancED, however disconnected they were
to the performance of our high schools, have been addressed and corrected.
But, what has really changed – besides the
political majority on the School Board? Are our high schools and their students
better in some way? Even the Wake Education Partnership came to the conclusion
that accreditation is just a public perception issue. We think it’s important
only because we’ve been told it is.
The original complaint from 2010 accused the
“Caucus” – which Rev. Barber condescendingly refers to the 5 Republicans that were serving – of
violations in governance and leadership. One of those complaints – holding
secret meetings. Ironically, we just recently learned that Chairman Kevin Hill
arranged a private meeting for some of the Board members without the knowledge
of others. The meeting itself was held less than 24 hours
after the new Board members were sworn in. (Board policy requires a 48-hour
notice for meetings.) And, remember, Kevin Hill wasn’t even Board Chair until
that evening. Why was he even involved in the scheduling of any sort of
meeting? It seems to me that some behind-the-scenes negotiations and
discussions must have been going in secret with the other Board members.
Another point in the original complaint – “…Ms. Goldman, Mr. Tedesco, Ms.
Prickett and Mr. Malone.…in lock-step, immediately unseated the experienced
Chair mid-term and replaced him with Mr. Margiotta.” Well, isn’t that exactly
what today’s Board did with Mr. Tedesco? Tedesco was readily removed as
vice-Chair mid-term during the Dec 2011 Board meeting. As soon as Hill was
elected as Chair, he, Sutton and their 3 new cronies replaced Mr. Tedesco with
Mr. Sutton.
Will AdvancED be hearing from Rev. Barber about these incidents?
Don’t count on it. His friends are in charge now.
I’ve always wondered why
people like Rev. Barber and his friends at GSIW who claim to want “high quality
schools” for our children would want to risk accreditation that they deem so
important. Could it be that they don’t actually care about our children and our
schools – but only their own political agenda? As we witnessed with the
election results last Fall, the fear and uncertainty created by these groups served its purpose. What a shame that these groups felt it was appropriate to use our
children’s futures to achieve their goals. And what a shame that this Board feels they can
behave in the same manner in which they complained about. Maybe AdvancED needs
to look at their governance and leadership as well.
But, again, don't count on it.
