School meeting becomes heated
By Phyllis Moore
Published in News on June 17, 2016 1:46 PM
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News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
Sterling Hamm-Jones, a recent Goldsboro High School graduate, speaks during the special called meeting of the Wayne County Board of Education Thursday night.
The special called community meeting Thursday night to discuss the school district's regrouping plan started out with the Wayne County Board of Education and the audience comfortably, and calmly, in neutral corners.
As it unfolded, it became at times a sparring match as speakers and the audience took jabs at the board and administrators.
Several times the crowd erupted for various reasons -- in support of speakers, in frustration when the sound system failed and at the process by which the proposed plan had been made public.
At the outset, Carol Artis, director of elementary education, gave an overview of the regrouping plan.
The plan calls for K-2 students to be moved from Carver Heights and School Street elementary schools to North Drive Elementary, with grades 3-5 students from North Drive and Dillard Middle schools shifting to Carver Heights Elementary. School Street would then become an "early learning center," expanding its preschool program to increase kindergarten readiness and allowing North Drive to take a stronger literacy program to help young readers become more proficient.
North Drive would become a K-2 school and Carver Heights, which received a Connect Ed technology grant from Apple this year, could concentrate on grades 3-5.
Ms. Artis also addressed the question on many lips, "Why change?"
She explained that the district was responding to the fledgling scores and 11 low-performing schools in the district, a concentration of them in the central attendance area.
"The performance level is not where we need it to be," she said, with sanctions already imposed from both the state and federal directions. "We've got to meet the mandates.
"In order to do that, we've got to do something different than what we're doing. What we're doing is not working to the level that we need it to."
"It's not so much that the community opposes what you're doing. It's the 'why,'" said audience member Shirley Edwards. "Many times the parents in the community don't know the why of what you're doing. Tell them why so they can engage in your process. We want to be part of the process."
Dr. Michael Dunsmore, superintendent since July 2015, said part of the impetus behind the seemingly hasty effort is to thwart the potential threat of the state coming in and taking over schools if the district does not make needed changes.
Ms. Edwards said she agreed that was not ideal, but maintained her desire for the district to be more forthcoming with the public.
"Openness, transparency is what we're seeking," she said.
Audience member Keith Copeland said he has not seen any research showing that bringing all low-performing schools into the same building will improve things.
Ms. Artis said the reason the district is starting with this group of schools is partly because they have been designated poverty schools, which means the "time clock" on turning them around is much shorter than for other areas.
"We want to try something that's different from what we've been doing," she said.
"We're on a timeline," Dunsmore said. "One of my biggest concerns is if the state comes in and takes over, we lose all local control so there's some urgency on our end."
Audience member Sterling Hamm-Jones, a recent graduate of Goldsboro High School, asked why good teachers who are qualified keep getting removed from GHS and sent to other district schools, allowing students there to bank more AP courses.
"Why are we not offering AP courses at the same level as Charles B. Aycock and Eastern Wayne?" she said. "Why remove (teachers) from a school that's already looked at as low-performing. I have seen that very often, from band teachers to math teachers. Why take out the teachers that are used to this environment?"
Dunsmore said the district is looking at the data and the scores, as well as the impact of the teachers and making efforts to "get the best people for long-term."
Miss Hamm-Jones said she was advocating for students still at GHS, with her desire being to make the school better and offer comparable opportunities for them to succeed.
"You're exactly right," he said. "We have got to increase the offerings."
Audience member Iris Robinson asked why parents and the community were not included in the process from the beginning.
"I will admit the timing's not as good as I would like it to be," Dunsmore said. "I hope to have more meetings like this to include everyone in the discussion."
There was polite applause initially for the superintendent, more zealous applause for speakers whose message reflected the sentiment in the auditorium.
But as the meeting continued, more than a few times the audience resorted to catcalls.
When a speaker stepped to the mic and was muffled, those in the back would cry out, "Can't hear you!"
When the superintendent's mic was inaudible or he would pause before answering, comments went from, "Can't hear you" to "Why don't you answer?"
At times the audience did not even wait for comments to contribute their own -- "They're not going to answer," "Their minds are already made up," and "They didn't expect all of us to show up tonight," were just a sampling directed at the board.
Ms. Artis, who attended central attendance schools and then returned as an educator, including a long stint as principal at North Drive, said her passion for that community matched that of the audience, especially those concerned about the shifting of teachers from their base schools.
"The teachers will not be displaced. Every teacher was given the opportunity to say, I want to work and stay with (teacher) and this group of students, or I want to work with K-2," she said.
"Only at School Street are we moving students to another school. All of our resources are the same, but they're spread out for the number of children in a building."
She also said that central attendance schools are not being "targeted because they're bad," but were the only schools in a feeder pattern where this type of plan could be done.
Charles Wright, president of Wayne Citizens for Better Schools, was having none of it.
"I think it's disingenuous to turn around less than 12 hours later and take a vote," he said, referencing the school board's called meeting for this morning (Friday) to vote on the regrouping.
Sylvia Barnes, president of the Goldsboro-Wayne branch of the NAACP, also pointed out that only four of the seven board members turned out for the community meeting -- Dwight Cannon, Arnold Flowers and Jennifer Strickland were absent.
She said she was very concerned about the quick turnaround and suggested that in the future, the board be more inclusive of the public.
"We need to know year by year what you all intend on doing," she said. "We as citizens of this county need to know what you have in your minds or in your heads."
Len Henderson, former board member who is running unopposed for the District 2 seat, said he had studied the plan and liked its intent to improve the quality of education for children.
But he still had some concerns, he said, proposing that the board postpone action, taking a year to study it further before putting it to a vote.
"I know many of the parents feel like this is a rush-rush deal," he said. "Let's take it slow. Let's take it easy. But let's be comprehensive about what we do."