Your future is your past

Have you seen your future?

WCPSS has posted the recommendations for the "bridge" plan for 2013-14. And it provides some very good insight into what is coming down the pike with the BIG reassignment plan in 2014-15. 

If you didn't know already, the new Board majority voted to move back to base assignments - which caused great disruption and upheaval to our children and families for the past decade - rather than continue with the Choice Plan, which promoted proximity and promised stability. And, yes, nodes are back too.

In a quick reading, here are some things we all should be concerned about:

1. Anyone can choose to move back to their base assignment based on their 2011 node assignment. Or can they? In the proposal, it states: "Students participating in the Base Declaration will have a guaranteed seat at their base school for the new school year."

Sounds great! But, wait...there's more. 

 "Unless the school becomes fully capped based on numbers requesting to return to their base school." Huh? That's a guarantee? Some will get their base assignment; some will not. How is that any different than not receiving your first choice, which the anti-Tata's so whined about as a problem with the choice plan?

2. This proposal includes a stay-where-you-start policy. The Dem majority on the Board have touted the implementation of this sort of policy in their push back to base assignments. In his editorial rant, Kevin Hill referred to this new policy as a way to provide stability. Well, what he didn't say is that this Board's version of stability will not, in most cases, come with bus transportation. Read it and weep.

3. Those who participated in the Choice Plan last year are now being told that their promised feeder patterns "...will be honored, to the extent possible." Doesn't sound promising, does it? And, once again, your choice to maintain that feeder pattern may not come with transportation.

Keep in mind -- this is just the beginning. This proposal mostly addresses the opening of a few new schools. Next year, the Board will address what they have coined as "hot spots" across the county - and more than likely use the same guidelines as listed in this proposal.

No bus, no choice, no stability, and no recourse. Welcome back to 2008.

What goes around, comes around

Back in January of this year, I wrote a blog post about the AdvancED complaint filed by the NAACP. (Read it first - if you haven't already. It will help with the history.)

While I stand by my claim that their complaint was ridiculous, I had to chuckle when I read that the Wake County Taxpayers Association (WCTA) has filed a complaint against the new Board majority. Now, I don't find it funny as it relates to our school system (although, accreditation is just a public perception thing, if you ask me), but it is extremely ironic. Or is this Karma?

The Democrats of Wake County - namely Great Schools in Wake - have taught others how to fight dirty and now their tactics are being used against them.

But, the WCTA complaint against the new Board is no joke. Unlike the NAACP, WCTA has their facts (and act) together. Each complaint listed is supported by documentation - whether a media article or a WCPSS document or email. They lay out a concise trail of breadcrumbs for AdvancEd on some serious issues of "...poor governance, inept and irresponsible leadership and lack of transparency and direction", as the complaint states. And this is before the 5-4 partisan vote to fire Supt. Tata!

So, where is the outrage over this? After the NAACP filed their complaint, Yevonne Brannon and her GSIW fringe group were shouting from the rooftops. In October 2010, Brannon and Patty Williams issued the following statement:

“By acting with impunity in moving forward with a massive student reassignment plan,
the Board majority has caused the public to lose confidence in and question their ability
to govern responsibly. Even citizens who voted for majority members are saying, ‘This is not what I voted for.’”

Sounds familiar, doesn't it? Here's what Brannon said in January 2011:

“This majority repeatedly claims to care about the wellbeing of students, yet, when the going gets tough, they put their own self-interests ahead of those of our children. Once again, they are rushing to judgment without regard for how their decisions will impact the reputation of our award-winning school system.”

Wow. Are Brannon's words coming back to haunt her?

After witnessing the haphazard leadership and partisan actions and decisions of this Board majority, her statement is quite prophetic. And yet GSIW remains silent. And we're to believe that it's not about politics? Yeah, right.

In the last monitoring report from AdvancED, the only praise given was to Superintendent Tata. The AdvancED team acknowledged Tata's leadership and commitment:

"...but the Board has begun moving in the right direction with the Superintendent being a stabilizing force."

"A common theme during interviews was the significance of the Superintendents’ influence on the direction of the system in providing governance and leadership focused on student learning and system effectiveness. Described as a “calmer” Board, stakeholders attributed this change unequivocally to the Superintendent’s leadership."

So, how is it that the only person in WCPSS leadership who was recognized by AdvancED - a firm that is "dedicated to advancing excellence in education"- was summarily fired? 

The Board was scheduled to submit a progress report to AdvancED by November 1st even prior to the new WCTA complaint. Now, they have the onus of responding to the new complaint as well. 

Considering Supt. Tata was fired without cause with a 5-4 vote, you must wonder if AdvancED will believe the continued lie from the Board majority - that his firing was not political and not personal?

Let's hope not.


 

Power, Corruption & Lies

C'mon... Do we really believe that Board members Susan Evans, Christine Kushner & Jim Martin aren't secretly involved with the partisan and very hateful group, Great Schools in Wake? You'd be foolish to believe otherwise. 

Back in May, I wrote this blog post. Members of GSIW were somehow completely aware of what was going to happen during the Board meeting in June the following month. How?  Because they were orchestrating it thru their members - Evans, Kushner & Martin. 

GSIW "suggested" in their email for a push to create a directive for a new student assignment plan. Voila!...the Board majority had a new directive prepared and ready to approve for the June meeting. Coincidence? I think not. 

(BTW -- here's a photo of GSIW and their "diverse" group. Notice in the article that Board member Susan Evans is referred to as a "coalition leader" - even though she continues to deny involvement with this group. Evans also placed a GSIW leader to chair her Board Advisory Committee. Does she really think we're that stupid or is she just that arrogant?)

The WakeEd blog had a post recently about Yevonne Brannon, the leader of GSIW, containing another email sent to her group. Her email blathers on and on with praise for her friends/members on the School Board yet berates Supt. Tata at every opportunity. Since then, this small group of crazy women (honestly, have you heard them before?) have organized their comments at every School Board meeting to bash and blame Tata.

So, is it really surprising to anyone that Chair Hill and Vice-Chair Sutton have now scheduled a closed session meeting to discuss "personnel matters" on Monday? 

Are they firing Tata? 

Yevonne and her GSIW biddies have ordered it -- therefore, Evans, Kushner & Martin must make it so. That's how the School Board rolls these days.

Add to this all the push-pull of student assignment (which GSIW is intimately involved with too) and you, as a parent in Wake County, are losing every chance of being heard. 

Your School Board is being controlled by a small fringe group who don't have to follow rules or ethics policies. They just make a demand -- and the Democrats on the Board respond.

The days of parents being recognized in WCPSS are slowly slipping away. Choice is being shown the door and stability will soon be a memory. To put a nail in the coffin, Board member Susan Evans, has already stated:

"...we have the opportunity through assignment to assign kids wherever we feel like is in their best interests."

Apparently, that's what GSIW wants -- because that's certainly not what the parents of Wake County have been fighting for over the years.

Read more here: http://blogs.newsobserver.com/wakeed/wake-county-school-board-on-assigning-students-in-their-best-interests#storylink=cpy

Out of focus

Let me start out by saying that I believe assignment - and how students are assigned - should have nothing to do with achievement. For decades, the solution to addressing student achievement in WCPSS was always to fall back on student assignment. If a school wasn't performing, students were moved to other schools to make the school "healthy" once again. That solution didn't actually do anything positive to the education of those who were moved - you simply can't make a child smarter or perform better just by reassigning them. But, it made some people feel good. Really good. It was a cheap, feel-good way to perpetuate the awards for diversity and the perception of "no bad schools". It also, however, created much unnecessary instability, did nothing to improve achievement and ticked off many parents royally.

WCPSS was on its way to untangling assignment from achievement with the new Choice Assignment Plan. All parents were given choice - with a mix of proximity, calendar, and magnets. All families were promised stability at every school level and a predictable future as their children aged up. Plain and simple - this plan provided what parents wanted for their children and families -- and had little to do with raising achievement.

As a result of this new focus, Supt. Tata and his staff have worked to understand the educational needs of different schools and students and have implemented academic solutions to address achievement -- and we are now seeing very successful results. Just last week, the NC Department of Public Instruction released performance data for Wake County schools -- and the results are incredible. There have been gains across the district - at many schools and subgroups. (You can look up your school here.)

So, rather than fret over the demographics of a school and how to create and maintain a utopian mixture of students, it's obvious that our focus should remain on how each school population could be served better academically. We've seen the success - and it could be only the beginning.

Instead, however, the School Board has thumbed their noses at parents and chose to direct staff to link assignment with achievement once again. They didn't even wait to see how many more successes could be achieved. The new Choice Assignment Plan has been nixed (without even getting a chance) and we're moving back to "healthy" schools, set aside seats for certain types of student, limited choice and quotas for every school.

Back to a system that believes assignment and "diversity" will magically increase achievement. In reality, it will only serve to make the Democratic Board members feel good about themselves. After all, that's all it's done in the past.

And now for something really scary...

As I talked about in my last post, the WCPSS Board majority is raising the dead.

Yes, the horrors of nodes, multi-year reassignment plans and assignment quotas are on the verge of a unwanted return.

And that's not even the scary part.

A parent from Kevin Hill's district wrote to him with concerns about changing the new Choice Assignment plan. In his reply, Mr. Hill stated: 

"I agree with the following: 'Parent choice' proceeds from the belief that the purpose of education is to provide individual students with an education. In fact, educating the individual is but a means to the true end of education, which is to create a viable social order to which individuals contribute and by which they are sustained. 'Family choice' is, therefore, basically selfish and anti-social in that it focuses on the 'wants' of a single family rather than the 'needs' of society."

Say WHAT?!

Kevin Hill, the chairman of the Wake County Board of EDUCATION, does not believe that the purpose of education is to provide individual students with an education?!

Hill believes your children should be used "to create a viable social order"?

O.M.G.

Yeah, read that again...and again...until it really sinks in. 

It's hard to believe Hill actually admits that he doesn't think education is about educating at all. But, after years of pretending otherwise, he did. 

So, the jig's up.

It is now clear that this new Board majority isn't out to help you or your children. So, you can quit emailing them about not getting your 1st choice, or not liking your feeder pattern, or your disgust over their sneaky midnight vote to revive the old assignment plan. It does not matter.

What matters to them is what part you and your children will play in their socially-engineered agenda.  To them, you, your family and your children are just pieces of their societal puzzle.

And we should be very scared.

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/06/20/2150093/change-in-wake-student-assignment.html#storylink=cpy

Were you even awake?

Well, Wake County, here's what you elected.

The School Board waited until 12:53 A.M. (yes, A.M.) to rush through a vote -- without public input -- that will drastically alter the new choice assignment plan. 

You know, the plan that our superintendent and staff have worked on for the past 2 years, the plan where everyone has already made their choices for next year, the plan that gave our families choice and our children stability, the plan that hasn't even been fully implemented yet. 

And guess what? They have directed staff to go back to a multi-year, node-driven assignment plan that incorporates socioeconomic and academic achievement goals. 

Gosh, that sounds awfully familiar. 

During the meeting on Tuesday (and into Wednesday) and just before voting on the directive that will probably reassign your child, School Board member Susan Evans felt it was important to remind everyone who she is and what she thinks of us -- in her usual arrogant and condescending fashion.

"While I acknowledge that, first of all, the Raleigh Chamber and the Wake Ed Partnership are valuable partners in our community, and I respect the input of all citizens, at these board meetings on the blogs, wherever they choose to give their input, I just wanted to remind Ms. Prickett and the board that we are the elected officials charged with making these important decisions on behalf of the school system."

In other words, everyone can go pound sand.

Wake Education Partnership called this vote a "...late-night, partisan debate..." with the "...abscence of a collaborative approach."

The Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce also issued a statement to the School Board warning them -- and reminding them of the past: 

"Based on our research we believe that an address based approach advocated in the directive will require mandatory assignment to fill schools." "With a sizeable majority of parents satisfied with the current choice plan we anticipate a change will create disruption among a new group of stakeholders."

Disruption is putting it mildly.

Read more here: http://blogs.newsobserver.com/wakeed/greater-raleigh-chamber-of-commerce-disappointed-in-wake-county-school-boards-student-assignm#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://blogs.newsobserver.com/wakeed/greater-raleigh-chamber-of-commerce-disappointed-in-wake-county-school-boards-student-assignm#storylink=cpy

So, where do we stand now? That's a good question. Some are claiming this was merely a directive; others are calling this the creation of a new plan for 2013-14. Regardless of what this turns out to be (and, let's be honest -- this really is a return to the days of yearly reassignments), you should be awake and be concerned.

This is just another step in the wrong direction.

That's what friends are for

Now wait just a minute.

Board member Jim Martin said what?

Martin said the provost of N.C. State asked him to help out.

For May 29th's policy committee meeting, Martin, the chair of that committee, added an agenda item to discuss "Student Assignment for Extended Family Professional Leave". And then, at the meeting, proceeded to talk about how to create a policy specifically to serve his colleagues at NCSU.

Is this really a pressing issue? Well, for Mr. Martin, a professor at NCSU, it is. After all, this is his employer we're talking about.

I questioned Mr. Martin about the unethical nature of creating a policy to serve his friends and co-workers at the request of his boss. His response, in a nutshell, was..."The Provost is not my boss."

Martin goes on to say in his email..."You must realize that NCSU is one of the large employers of Wake County. It is for that reason that we should pay attention to matters impacting that employer. Careful attention should be paid to policies that impact any of the County's major employers."

He isn't concerned with, as he called them during the committee meeting.."the lowest common denominator". In Martin-speak, that would be those people who aren't as fortunate to have professional opportunities but have to leave the system for a short period for other reasons.

According to Mr. Hui on the WakeED blog.."[Martin contends]...that it's not equitable to say that because famlies of transient students have less resources than professionals that it's a reason not to go ahead with a leave policy."

So, let's boil it down....

Martin isn't concerned about you and me. He isn't concerned about those with less opportunities and less resources. He only wants to serve those he works with, those that attend his son's school and those who are just like him.

So, how do you feel about that? If you work for a major employer...let's say...NSCU, for example... Mr. Martin will pay careful attention to you and your children. He'll work to create policies to help you to ensure you're happy.

If you don't, well, you know...

You're an afterthought. After MYR and years of reassignment, it's an attitude those of us in Apex are familiar with.

It appears that attitude is making a comeback.