At tonight’s school board meeting, Supt. Heath Morrison announced an online tool to allow parents and others to share ideas with the task forces named to help design the district’s strategic goals. There are 22 such task forces. I’ve sent every task force the following message:
At your first meeting, please establish that all future meetings of your task force will be open to the public and that the public will be notified of your meeting times and places in accordance with CMS policy.
To bring the disparate interests associated with CMS together, we as a community must air issues thoroughly, allow fact-finding and vigorous debate, and then build consensus around what may well be a compromise position that honors the complexity and diversity of this district and its people.
Your modeling of behaviors like transparency, candor and openness will help the community move away from its confrontationalism, and contribute to an environment in which the superintendent’s ultimate recommendations can gain a foothold.
Indeed, Heath Morrison probably doesn’t need your ideas; he already has lots of those. What he does need is a way to move community members away from apathy or obstructionism or me-first-ism. Your task force can contribute to that by carefully airing in public all sorts of proposals related to your topic and then gauging public response.
Most citizens with a vital interest in your discussion will never attend your meetings, of course. And neither CMS nor media has the resources to “cover” every task force. So it is imperative that you find new ways to share your deliberations with the public. Be imaginative. Call on your friends to get the word out.
This is just one of many websites that one or more task forces could use without cost to share information about its proceedings. And there are lots of offline methods of sharing information. I hope each task force will find a suitable tool.
Sunday’s Observer editorial page began a two-week focus on citizen comments on “what would make CMS a great system.” Comments are below.
Mike DeVaul
Senior Vice President, organizational advancement, YMCA of Greater Charlotte
“If it takes a village to raise a child, then why does it not take a community to educate one? In my view, a great public school system focuses on its core services and engages community partners to ensure that all students have goals beyond high school graduation. I believe that Success in school, work and life for any individual depends on a “network” of support (school, parents, mentors, extracurricular and enrichment opportunities) that nurtures his or her their potential.
“First, we need shared accountability for learning. At the Y, we are determined to make the best use of a child’s out-of-school time with activities that develop character and social skills, provide academic support through tutoring and connect students to positive role models. By opening the doors of communication between schools, businesses and organizations like ours, we could all have a better understanding of each child’s specific needs and challenges and would be better equipped to work with parents and teachers to have greater impact on academic performance.
“Second, I believe that greater emphasis on kindergarten readiness and post-graduation vocational study could significantly increase our kids’ success rate. Could public and private business work together to re-invent the education system to one that started in pre-kindergarten and supported kids through age 20?
“We also need to nurture strong parental support. Not by judging their abilities or intentions but by providing true supportive help. We have adults in our community who have felt disenfranchised by a public school system since their youth. Lacking the chance to connect to their own education as children, they have greater difficulty connecting now. The school system needs more volunteers to help foster and strengthen good parental navigation skills. Most of our challenge lies in some parental inability to understand the system. Instituting a parent mentoring program in our community could utilize parents with good navigation skills to help their neighbors make better decisions for their children. We stand ready to assist.
“Lastly, as part of a cause-driven nonprofit that believes structured, enrichment activities truly help children learn, grow and thrive, I believe that every child should have access to out-of-school programs such as swimming, creative arts, dance, team sports, after-school programs and camp. Again, through collaboration with schools, businesses and organizations like the Y, and with the support of citizens who give their volunteer time and resources, we can provide year-round and lifelong structure and support that every child needs to succeed.
“The YMCA has been working in concert with our National Office for several months re-engineering our programs the better support educational outcomes. We stand ready to be an even stronger ally with our schools and others. We are better together, it takes a community to educate a child!”
Ericka Ellis-Stewart
Parent, civic activist
“A great public school system is one that is focused with laser-like precision on the business of educating children. It is a system where in which our community can rest assured that all children will have the opportunity to live up to their potential regardless of their geography, race, or socio-economic status. Simply put, each student has the opportunity to interact with and learn from a highly qualified teacher every day.
“A great public school system is one that is ripe with options that allow students to flourish academically, socially, and emotionally. It provides a plethora of opportunities for traditional and specialized learning that are geared towards challenging young minds to become critical thinkers and the leaders of tomorrow. Its daily goal is to change the life of a child for the better at every intersection.
“A great public school system creates a culture and environment of dedication and passion for teaching. The evidence of Learning is palpable in every corner of the schoolhouse. Teachers make learning come alive inside of the classroom. Principals are inspirational leaders and change agents. Parents are involved and highly visible. Educators are leaders in innovation who are valued and compensated for the contributions they make. Teachers no longer have to beg for reams of paper and hand sanitizer, or teach all day without a planning period.
“In a great public school system, all schools throughout the district produce academically successful and globally competitive students who are prepared to enter college or the workforce upon graduation. Every school becomes a place where teachers want to teach and students learn. With the effective use of technology, learning is made applicable and relevant to real-world issues. Throughout the district, there is a strategic focus on recruiting, developing, and retaining dynamic and skilled educators. Each classroom has a qualified, and capable , and experienced teacher.
“In a great public school system, each child has a strong foundation in reading, writing, mathematics, and science. All students are bi-lingual; fluent in English and at least one foreign language before entering high school. Music, arts education, and physical activity are no longer spare parts, but key components of the school day. The educating of our children becomes about more than teaching to the test. It becomes focused on a child’s growth, learning and development. School calendars are no longer tied to our agrarian roots and limited to only 180 days. School days are extended to provide children with more instructional time, if necessary. Achievement gaps become non-existent, and graduation rates soar, and no child is left behind.
“In a great public school system, as a community, we commit our resources equitably and efficiently to ensure that all children become well educated, productive citizens. We are no longer satisfied with mediocrity or status quo. We demand continuous improvement and expect nothing less than overwhelming excellence. We must put children first and set aside our political and philosophical differences to become “the village” that it takes to educate every child in our community.”
Amy Farrell
Executive Director, Kids Voting Mecklenburg
“Imagine we are in the year 2020. Over the past decade, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools has become widely regarded – in our community, state and nation – as a truly great school system. Charlotte residents are proud of CMS. Parents are moving to Mecklenburg County to enroll their students in CMS. What made CMS great? How did we get here?
“In 2010, CMS faced significant challenges due to the economy, public perception and other factors. Teachers: unhappy. Students: discouraged. Parents: uninvolved. Politics: ugly. Between 2011 and where we are today, in 2020, that changed. What made the difference? Getting the students involved in determining the success, and future, of their schools and community. The steps were simple, and transformational:
“Civic learning was restored as an essential CMS priority. Instead of focusing only on math, reading and science with just a touch of civics, government and history in 10th and 11th grades, students were given dedicated time, resources and learning opportunities to begin the civic learning process in kindergarten and continue it through graduation. We understood that just as we must learn to read, write, add and subtract, we must learn how our governments and communities work, the roles of leaders and citizens, and the impacts of policies and decisions. That knowledge built interest, commitment and trust.
“Ownership of CMS and its future was shared with all students. Smart people recognized that all students have the po tential to be leaders, and gave them good opportunities to develop and practice their skills at school and in the community. It was clear that students cared and wanted to make a difference. They helped to evaluate teachers and give them thoughtful suggestions. They met with school and city leaders to make decisions and share ideas and solutions. They watched out for and encouraged one another, making sure that the class that entered 9th grade was the same class that graduated four years later.
“Students were given a permanent seat at the table. Having teens, even as unelected advisors, sitting alongside elected officials on dais during school board, county commission and City Council meetings kept the focus on students and the future. It gave young subject experts a chance to weigh in on the decisions affecting them. It significantly increased the quality and tenor of the political dialogue, which became civil and productive.
“So what happened in 2011 that kicked off this change? As a community, we struggled with scarce resources and difficult decisions. Then, it dawned on us. We had the resource the entire time: our students.”
Pamela Grundy
President, Shamrock Gardens PTA
“Marker-wielding kindergartners cover the Shamrock Gardens Elementary stage, intently coloring a set of circus posters. They work in clusters, some kneeling, some sprawled flat on their stomachs, chattering happily as they fill the space between the lines with bright and varied hues. Their faces vary too, ranging from palest white to deepest brown.
“Below the stage, parents and teachers sit amid the remains of a spaghetti dinner, going over learning games that families can play at home. They talk as well, exchanging smiles and stories.
“Our families have come to Shamrock Gardens by many different paths. Some of us have lived in Charlotte all our lives; others have traveled farther – from Minnesota, California and New York, from Africa and Mexico and Vietnam.
We also come from different neighborhoods – from the working-class enclaves of Plaza-Shamrock and the Park Apartments, as well as from the tonier settings of Plaza-Midwood and Country Club Heights.
“But our children are all learning together. And by working to support them, we are creating a new community at the intersection of our differences.
“In my ideal school system, events like our kindergarten dinner would take place all across the county, at a far grander scale than we have been able to accomplish at our small school.
“Rather than narrowing our educational focus to endless iterations of standardized test scores, our community would take a broader look at children’s lives, helping turn schools into anchors and meeting points for the neighborhoods and families that they serve.
“Public policy and individual choice would also work toward creating school communities that pull our children out of the isolation of race and especially of class, broadening every child’s experience and providing opportunities for the highest levels of excellence at every school.
“We hear a lot these days about great teachers and involved parents. But if children are to reach their full potential, they need strong communities as well to challenge and support them.
“These goals involve plenty of obstacles: cultural and language differences; the harried lives so many of us lead, no matter what our income; housing patterns that frequently divide those with means from those without. They would require all of us to put more of ourselves into our public schools, from struggling single parents to corporate executives.
“But they would also help us make our schools into the best kind of public institution, one that strengthens not only individuals, but also communities and a nation. There is a difference between a goal that seems for the moment out of reach, and one not worth pursuing. Piece by piece, we have been building this kind of community at Shamrock Gardens. Staff and parents at many other schools are pursuing similar ends. None of us is there yet. But many are further down that road than we were some years ago.
“Faced with great challenges, communities and nations can divide or unite. In these hard times, we need to follow the Shamrock kindergartners’ lead, and grow together.”
Lucille Howard
Civic activist and former CMS parent
“CMS Superintendent Peter Gorman recently told the board of education that school course offerings are largely determined by size, student interest and staff certification. But the board still voted to create several kindergarten through eighth grade schools and one sixth through 12th grade school.
“All are destined to have limited course offerings simply because there will be fewer students at each class level. Fewer students at each class level almost certainly equate to diluted and, therefore, fewer requests for languages, higher math, advanced placement and other electives that are standard in the large middle and senior high schools.
“Seven grades in a school with 1,000 seats (an average of 143 students per grade level), which has been approved for Cochrane Middle School, guarantees almost nothing for the students beyond grade level math, language arts, history, etc. Will any Advanced Placement courses be on the schedule for Devonshire Elementary and Hickory Grove Elementary students assigned to Cochrane? It’s already been presumed that students will be transported to Garinger High for any sports, band and extracurricular activities.
“A long-standing CMS goal to have equity in access to comparable educational opportunities no longer exists for students assigned to these K-8 and 6-12 schools. CMS appears to have evolved into three systems: one of low-poverty, high-achieving schools; one of magnets serving students with transportation and good “luck”; and one of high-poverty schools in low and middle income communities teaching only the “basics.”
“Is institutionalized, unequal public education by Zip code now acceptable? If this is so, must families who have the means leave these schools and communities in order to get an equal education for their students? Is this healthy? Is it moral? Is it legal?”
Tim Hurley
Head of Teach for America in Charlotte
“Consider this: In one elementary school, more than 90 percent of the students are proficient in both reading and math. Three miles away, in a different elementary school, only 30 percent of the students are proficient in reading and less than half are proficient in math.
“If you’re wondering where this is happening, you don’t need to look too far. Both of these schools are here in Charlotte.
“The unfortunate reality in our city today is that where a child lives is born determines the quality of his or her education – children growing up in low-income communities are not given the opportunities they deserve to succeed. Solving the problem of educational inequity may seem daunting, but we know it’s possible.
“Working in our city for the last two and a half years as the executive director of Teach For America’s Charlotte region, I have seen many teachers – some of them Teach For America teachers, others not – lead their students in low-income communities to academic success. These classrooms, where students are held to high expectations and fully invested in their education, demonstrate that economically disadvantaged students can succeed on an absolute scale.
“Having witnessed these teachers put their kids on a different trajectory, both in school and in life, I have come to believe that having more highly effective people throughout Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools – teaching in our classrooms, leading our schools, and making decisions within the district – is a critical part of closing the achievement gap.
“To do this, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, like any high-performing company or organization, must go out and find talent. If we want the best to work in our school system, we must be aggressive in recruiting them here. Then, we must develop them to be leaders and work hard to retain them. If we do this successfully, I think Charlotte can become a harbor of educational talent.
“This school year, there are 230 Teach For America teachers – recruited from many of our nation’s top schools and selected for their records of achievement and leadership – working in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools. One of my top priorities is to ensure that these teachers lead their students to achieve at the highest levels, not only for their students’ sake but also because if they have a successful experience teaching in Charlotte, they are likely to stay and continue to work to expand educational opportunities for kids here. Today, there are nearly 200 Teach For America alumni living in Charlotte and 70 percent of them are working in education.
“In our city today, our students are doing their part – showing up to school ready to learn. Unfortunately, we, as a community, are not doing our part – providing all students with an excellent education. With a continued focus on recruiting talent – along with strong district leadership, support from businesses, and public will – we can ensure that every school, in every neighborhood, holds up its end of the bargain.”
Steve Johnston
Member of the nonprofit Swann Fellowship education advocacy group
“The CMS we all deserve would make every school a place where every local elected official, every top CMS administrator and every business executive would be delighted to have their child or grandchild enroll tomorrow morning.
“The CMS we all deserve would have twice the economic resources that it has today, because the adults of this community would have ended the centuries-old North Carolina legacy of vastly underfunding public education.
“The CMS we all deserve would not teach to the test but test after teaching.
“The CMS we all deserve would focus its energy on the child at the back of the room, the child at the front of the room, and every child in between. Personal education plans would not be an ignored legal mandate but a fundamental teaching tool for preparing every single child for what parent and child decide is appropriate for that child – whether college, trade school, work or military service.
“The CMS we all deserve would have nurses in every school treating illness first, knowing that every child must be healthy to learn.
“The CMS we all deserve would honor students as the first and best teachers of other students, whether their siblings or their struggling peers. And until the day that all children enter school equally prepared, it would ensure that every school contained the range of preparation found in the county’s population, so that all classes would contain students ready to teach. And of course if that’s the case, there will be inspired adult teachers delighted to be in every classroom in the system, bonus or no bonus.
“The CMS we all deserve would sacrifice its own convenience and once again hold board meetings in school cafeterias for the convenience of the people it serves. It would prevent the Jim Crowism in neighborhoods from poisoning school assignments. It would make every school a magnet school – one chosen by a parent as the best place for her child. And by capturing parent involvement that way, it will have made every school as strong as CMS magnet schools have traditionally been.
“The CMS we all deserve could be so easily made out of the CMS we have. Let’s get about the task.”
By Steve Harrison
sharrison@charlotteobserver.com
Posted: Thursday, Dec. 02, 2010
Nearing his one-year anniversary in office, Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx took questions Wednesday night from a mostly friendly crowd of 150 residents at the Charlotte Museum of History, discussing the prospects of landing the Democratic National Convention, school closings and efforts to end homelessness.
In perhaps a nod to next November, in which Foxx will be up for re-election, the Democratic mayor listed some of his accomplishments at the start of the forum, including a bailout for the county’s libraries and efforts to consolidate city and county government.
Foxx said that if the City Council hadn’t given the libraries $1.4 million, as many as 16 branches could have been closed. After the bailout, all but three library branches were kept open, at least for a year.
“That is a lifeline,” said Foxx, who has not yet drawn an opponent for the election in 11 months.
When asked about prospects for landing the convention, Foxx declined to handicap the race between Charlotte, Cleveland, St. Louis and Minneapolis. He jokingly compared the contest to the TV show “The Bachelor,” but said the city “shows well” to visitors.
The mayor received at least two questions about east Charlotte, especially when compared to more successful areas such as uptown.
Foxx said a key to reviving east Charlotte is how Independence Boulevard is rebuilt, and how the surrounding neighborhoods adapt to the highway becoming a freeway. Foxx said he recently was awarded a fellowship from the Urban Land Institute, a national group that once worked with the city on a plan to remake Eastland Mall. He said he was allowed to study any city related issue, and chose to study the Independence area.
Foxx said that a streetcar would do much for east and west Charlotte economically. The city earlier this year won a $25 million grant to build a 1.5-mile streetcar line on Elizabeth Avenue, but the project is years from reaching the more struggling neighborhoods in east Charlotte. The Charlotte Area Transit System has said it can’t pay for the line, meaning the city will have to rely on a federal grant.
One resident asked Foxx about how the city is helping low-income residents, including immigrants and refugees. Foxx said a $15 million bond approved by voters last month will help build more homes. He also said he’s trying to bring all groups together to make sure the efforts of nonprofits, philanthropies and governments are coordinated.
Mayor Anthony Foxx at the Charlotte Museum of History Wednesday.
Dec. 2, 2010
Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx, above, casts a shadow in this community. People will listen to him.
He’s got a lot on his mind, so he doesn’t have to take on the task of rebuilding community accord to sustain public education. But it sure would be splendid if he gathered together all those who are respected by the people, and had them literally stand behind those who take on this centrally important task of rebuilding community accord to sustain public education.
Earlier this week the mayor hosted a screening of “Waiting For Superman,” a movie with lots of messages, among them that a community dare not wait for Superman to fix their children’s educations.
But this community is regularly driven to do extraordinary things when its leaders ask for sacrifice to achieve a goal that makes good sense. So, Mister Mayor, stand behind a Superwoman or whomever it takes to rebuild community accord to sustain public education.
Wednesday’s Town Hall, conducted by Mayor Foxx at the Charlotte Museum of History, was dominated by economic development topics of deep concern to those who live on the east side. The Observer’s Steve Harrison’s story on the event is here. A text cache is here.
But as Harrison noted, the mayor did address some education issues Wednesday. A number of questions from the floor led Foxx to talk about education.
He said, for example, that when parents fail to read to their infants, the public cost of teaching those children to read rises. Adults, he suggested, don’t want to pay more for education, which leaves their children at a disadvantage as students in other societies spend far more time in school and leave school better prepared.
Indeed, Foxx said, low U.S. rankings on quality of education compared to other developed nations “suggest that we’re going to have to rethink our whole approach to education…. Some of it is being relentless in expecting children, regardless of what they bring into the schoolhouse, that they be successful… and doing what it takes to get them there.”
Foxx said he had publicly and privately suggested that the school board delay decisions about school closings that they made amid deep controversy in November. But Foxx said he had not taken a position on the details because the rest of a very much larger revenue shortfall situation was not then known, and won’t be until May or June. But he added this:
“What I’m really concerned about is that, in an environment in which you are looking at the possibility of $100 million in cuts, the issue of facilities, even if you resolve that one, you’ve got a hundred million other issues to get resolved. It’s a really really broad set of issues, many of which we don’t even know about what they are.
“I personally don’t feel I have the luxury to just focus on one aspect of this. It’s the whole thing. And at the end of the day, I do believe that our school board, our superintendent, I do believe that what they’re trying to do, trying to do, is get to a place where we can preserve academic gains. But it’s just a brutal situation with respect to resources.
“And if the resources ultimately end up being different, [and it is] between a kid having a chance to go to college, and to have a life dependent on society, then this community really needs to spend some time wrestling with whether $100 million in cuts is palatable.
“I really think that is a question we may end up having to ask: Can you accomplish what we want to accomplish in that kind of environment?”
John Cleghorn casts a shadow in Charlotte. Will people listen? Will they follow?
Some know the Rev. Cleghorn because he once wrote speeches for banker Hugh McColl. Today, more know him as the pastor, in a town with hundreds of vacant buildings, who made something happen to allow his flock to host a shelter for homeless women.
Caldwell Memorial Presbyterian stepped up this fall to answer a community problem. With volunteers from across the city, they spruced up an unused part of the church campus and are now hosting an overflow shelter for homeless women served by the Salvation Army’s Center of Hope.
This morning, the Observer Viewpoint page carried an edited version of his Nov. 14 sermon in which he addressed another community problem: the “scab” pulled off by the recession that has been covering up race and class divisions over public schools, and how budgets should be balanced during this recession.
Rather than replace the scab, Cleghorn seems to be leading in another direction.
He writes that “we have only just begun a very difficult process,” that “a full and frank dialogue” is needed, that “we should not pretend there is not anger and frustration,” that the “anger is justified,” that we “must ask whether we have really made the kind of commitment to all of our children to provide an education that prepares them for the world they will inherit, much less, more fundamentally, to earn a decent living or get a job at all.”
From the pulpit, the pastor’s message was one of hope, built on the foundation of Isaiah. Perhaps that hope got muted by the editing necessary to fit the piece into the the Viewpoint space. The Observer column was perhaps more didactic:
“We must reach even deeper inside ourselves and our community to do the hard work that gets past emotions and delivers us all to a place of reconciliation across race and class and neighborhood, where we can stop shouting and start working together.”
John Cleghorn casts a shadow in Charlotte. Will people listen? Will they follow?
CMS should scrap unfair closings plan and start anew
By James Ferguson
Special to the Observer
Posted: Saturday, Nov. 06, 2010
The ill-conceived, hastily and clumsily-drawn Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools proposal for closing schools and shifting academic programs must be halted and scrapped before it does even greater damage to the rapidly eroding public trust and confidence in the school board and school administration.
Quite apart from its profound racial implications, the proposal appears to be unfair, unprincipled and unnecessary – unfair in that it places an inexplicable onus on schools with a certain demographic make-up; unprincipled in that no objective criteria have been articulated for the choices of which schools to close and which programs to shift; unnecessary in that the projected savings are at best meager and no showing has been made that this is the only or best way to cut projected costs.
The CMS board is in the best position to recognize its own folly and halt and scrap the plan. But if the board is unwilling to change course, the community must greet the plan with even greater massive resistance than we have seen and must consider available legal options, though costly for both sides.
This newspaper’s editorial last Sunday noted the superficiality of the board’s community forums. It suggests a town hall approach.
Perhaps a town hall led by the mayor could help. But before any serious discussion can take place, the board must give the community full information about its reasoning and its finances and put all budget options on the table, including the use of under-utilized inner city schools to relieve over-crowding in suburban schools. We will all be better served by having an honest community discussion rather than a protracted community fight.
Without question, the board’s proposal has profound and damaging racial, as well as economic, implications. Even though it is not necessary to address these issues to oppose this plan, they are worth noting for future reference.
The board has a long history, dating from the days of segregation, of providing inferior educational opportunities, resources and facilities to African American and economically disadvantaged communities and, dating back to its early desegregation plans, of placing the burden of busing and school closings on the backs of African American children and parents.
Historically, CMS has located new schools and new school construction in white, more affluent communities, contrary to the mandate of school desegregation orders requiring schools to be built at midpoints to serve both black and white communities. More recently, the board has adopted “neighborhood schools” as its number one priority in school assignment, apparently forgetting that “neighborhood schools” was a rallying cry for opponents of school desegregation and oblivious that a return to neighborhood schools means a return to racially and economically segregated schools, a reality we see every day.
Against this background, it is no surprise that the local NAACP president and others would view the board’s proposal as highly racially suspect. The only surprise is that the community reaction was not even stronger.
The board missed an opportunity to have meaningful community input into its concern over projected budget shortfalls. It could have offered the community a chance to talk about educational priorities rather than presenting a predetermined school closing plan that has only limited budget impact but huge community impact.
There is still time to have a real community discussion about our school priorities including the importance of cultural, racial and economic diversity. No court has said that a school board cannot engage the community in a discussion about community values including diversity. The courts have simply said that students cannot be assigned on the basis of race. If we are to move beyond our sorry racial past, we must be willing to have an honest discussion about race, something we have never had as a community.
Over and above pure racial considerations, we must, as a community, require more of our school leaders than a myopic view of the budget for the next year. We must require of them a broad and bold vision for the education of our children for the next decade and the next century. We must insist that they prepare our children to live in a multicultural, multiracial globalized world. We must demand that they see our schools not as neighborhood possessions serving a neighborhood, but as community assets serving the community as a whole.
The current plan must be halted and scrapped. We must start afresh.
James Ferguson is president of the Charlotte law firm Ferguson Stein Chambers Gresham & Sumter. His firm argued for litigants in the 1969 Swann case that desegregated CMS schools using busing and in 1999 against an end to court-ordered desegregation in CMS.
4 commissioners urge CMS to postpone vote They say closings would hit poor areas hardest. CMS board chair says Tuesday vote can’t wait.
By Fred Clasen-Kelly
frkelly@charlotteobserver.com
Posted: Saturday, Nov. 06, 2010
Four Mecklenburg County commissioners, including Chair Jennifer Roberts, said Friday they want school leaders to postpone next week’s vote on plans to close schools and revamp others, citing a new report that suggests low-income neighborhoods will bear the brunt of the impact.
The report, which the county released this week, shows seven of nine school buildings that might be closed are located in “fragile” and “transitioning” neighborhoods in west Charlotte and other urban areas.
Severe cuts in library service and the closure of recreation centers earlier this year also hit those areas especially hard, the report says.
Roberts said she urged the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board to delay Tuesday’s vote until December to help commissioners and citizens obtain more information about the plans. The county provides the district roughly $300 million a year, which the school board decides how to spend.
“I continue to feel that this is happening way too fast for the community, the staff, the students and the parents to absorb and to weigh in on some good options,” Roberts wrote in a Oct. 26 e-mail to school board members.
On Friday, school board chair Eric Davis said the district had no plans to postpone the vote.
Davis said the board won’t wait because it pledged to make a decision by Nov. 15 and give administrators enough time to work on next year’s budget and school-assignment plans for students. “We’re in a financial crisis,” he said. “We cannot afford to delay.”
School officials are considering an overhaul as part of budget cuts projected to reach as high as $100 million next year.
CMS’ proposed closings would affect almost 5,000 students, who are mostly black, Hispanic and low-income.
The plan has sparked protests from parents, students and the NAACP, which has accused CMS of discrimination. Anger grew when the board voted to keep some suburban neighborhood schools and magnet schools off the list of potential closures or other changes.
State and local NAACP leaders said they are planning a rally next week in advance of the school board vote.
“All this suffering and all this sacrifice fell on the minorities,” said the Rev. Kojo Nantambu, president of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg branch of the NAACP. “It should be shared sacrifice.”
Superintendent Peter Gorman has said the schools were targeted for closing because they have empty classrooms or low student performance. The moves will help the district save teacher jobs, he said.
But Friday, county commissioners Harold Cogdell, Dan Murrey and George Dunlap joined Roberts in saying the district should postpone a decision. Two days earlier, commissioner Vilma Leake complained that the proposed changes are unfair to blacks and the poor.
Commissioners said the school board should review the county’s report before taking a vote.
The report shows that if the school board approves its proposals, more than 50 schools, libraries and recreation centers would close or have reduced hours or service. Slightly more than half are in neighborhoods struggling with poverty, blight, crime and other problems.
Multiple facilities could close in some neighborhoods. For example, the Villa Heights neighborhood north of uptown is home to a library branch that shut down, as well as Villa Heights Elementary, which has been proposed for closure.
County Manager Harry Jones said he is concerned closed schools and other empty public buildings could attract crime. He said the county should look for an alternative use for the buildings.
“It always seems to be my people and poor people suffering,” Leake said. “They are the ones who carry the brunt of these problems in the community.”
But Commissioner Bill James said commissioners are “hypocritical” when they criticize CMS because county commissioners approved deep budget cuts earlier this year. The votes forced library and recreation center closures and pushed CMS to reduce its budget, James said.
“We did the exact same thing in the exact same areas,” he said. “You could say that CMS got the idea from us.”
James, a Republican, contends Democratic commissioners are using the issue as a political ploy to quell complaints. He said the calls for CMS to delay a decision came just before last Tuesday’s election, when Roberts and Cogdell won re-election.
Democrats denied they were motivated by politics.
Commissioner Dan Murrey, who lost his seat in the election, said he asked the school board about delaying a vote because residents constantly raised the issue while he was campaigning.
Murrey said he does not believe school board members are singling out minority areas for cuts, saying some of the schools targeted for closing are old.
He and other commissioners said they want to find a way for city, county and school officials to discuss the potential impact of their decision on neighborhoods, particularly impoverished areas.
It’s always hard to get everyone to the table. CMS needs to do a better job than it did during the “comprehensive review” to make a place at the table for everyone who eventually wants to come.
“Eventually” — because people will come at different times and on their own schedule. Organizations that achieve success in this area plan around that fundamental human behavior.
I won’t rehash the failures of the last months. I’d rather encourage people to look forward to the next time that we as a community need to thoroughly discuss something. The lessons learned from your comments might help community discussion happen. They might even be used quickly if CMS scratches the school-closings still on the “comprehensive review” table.
Thorough discussion may not, of course, lead to consensus. But consensus is a strong basis for action, and it rarely forms in the absence of discussion. In a democracy, anyway.
This community has tools at its disposal to have a far broader discussion about CMS’s future than those used in the last months.
Perhaps my favorite is a series of video booths scattered throughout the city, open during business hours of the locations that shelter them. The booths would allow people on their own time and with their own friends to enter the discussion. A monitored time-delay loop onto the mothballed CMS TV cable channel would allow civic discussion with immediacy.
There’s a casserole dish in the Levine Museum’s collection to remind us that pot-luck dinners were a key listening tool used when a citizens committee was helping the U.S. District Court find desegregation solutions. A similar committee should be in place quickly today to do a similar kind of work on a different issue.
We don’t have a District Court today, actively watching over the rights of groups without power, that could create the committee. But we do have a mayor, a county commissioners chair and a Chamber of Commerce leader who know that this kind of work needs to be done.
What if a lawyer went to court – N.C. Superior Court Howard Manning’s court, say – and said:
Your Honor:
CMS is under court order not to use race in assignment of children.
In most of its school assignment decisions, CMS uses commonly acknowledged boundaries like major streets, highways, creeks and such that define its neighborhoods.
The vast majority of the neighborhoods defined by this method are racially identifiable.
When CMS creates neighborhood assignments, it has used neighborhoods as a proxy for race and ends up using state power to revive Jim Crow.
Citizens need immediate relief from this violation of the court order.
Please issue an order barring further assignment of children based on neighborhood boundaries, and order CMS to file with the court within 90 days for court approval a new method of assignment of children to its schools that will ensure that no child’s assignment is determined solely by her or his place of residence.
A friend sent me a link to the YouTube video. The video is a promotion for a book written by Steve Johnson, no relation to the current writer. But it is an eye-popping visual experience, and may help some folks re-imagine some school issues that are the focus of this website. Happy viewing!.
