Essentials: Latest grades for schools underscore severity of problems

Gov. Roy Cooper visited a couple of Wayne County schools Wednesday, the same day we learned that two other of the county's schools are being threatened with a state takeover.

Cooper's intentions were to bring school supplies to classrooms in which the teachers -- like most others these days -- are paying out of pocket for materials, and to assure teachers he was in their corner.

On that front Cooper was successful. But while his gesture was mostly symbolic, being that he is outmanned and outgunned by the GOP-led legislature, the state's intentions are anything but.

Based on a 2016 law, Brogden Primary and Eastern Wayne Elementary, the two elementary schools on the state's list -- along with 46 others statewide -- are faced with being reassigned from under the auspices of the county school system to a state charter school under the Innovative School District program.

We have no doubt the state will act on the law it passed last year, but preventing that from happening, for now, is up to the district.

Superintendent Michael Dunsmore called the measure a "roadblock" placed by the General Assembly in the path of county school systems working to improve the low-performing schools in their districts.  

Meanwhile, the state board of education grades for schools around the state were also released and Wayne County is now home to three failing schools -- Dillard Middle, Brogden Middle and Carver Heights Elementary -- versus two just a year ago.

And while there are charter schools that have succeeded, we have also seen many fail to meet standards and others forced to fold due to mishandling of funds. If this school district wants the best for its students, and we believe it does, it has its work cut out.

For all its recent efforts, Wayne County Public Schools is still facing an uphill battle. Only two schools in the district earned A ratings, and 15 were given C's, while three others earned D's.

So while both Cooper and Dunsmore seem eager to lay the blame at the feet of the state legislature -- and they are right when it comes to teacher pay and classroom size constraints -- some accountability has to come locally.

Our county commissioners opted not to fund a teacher supplement last year that would have at least put Wayne County on par as far as pay with some surrounding counties to which some teachers have departed. We fail to see the commissioners' logic.

The school district itself took the administrator they brought in two years ago as the school system's innovative schools coordinator charged with training principals in school reform, education leadership, and academic best practices, and moved that person over to be the principal at Goldsboro High School.

That is great for Goldsboro High, and we wish the principal and the students there nothing but success, but what does that mean for the rest of the school system?

And then there is the county school board. Arnold Flowers, the board chair, said at one recent school board meeting that he wasn't a fan of the Wayne School of Engineering or Wayne Early Middle College High School -- the two A schools in the county -- because the students who attend them become "elitist children."

So succeeding academically ought to be done with an outward sense of humility? Or is full-on shame a necessary prerequisite?

From where we sit there is enough blame to go around, beginning at home with the school system and spreading out in concentric circles from bodies of government from the county courthouse to the state capitol and the governor's mansion.

Shouldn't our focus be on those in the classroom?

Published in Editorials on September 14, 2017 10:41 PM