Board asked to focus on Goldsboro High School
By Steve Herring
Published in News on March 10, 2017 9:57 AM
Three speakers, including a member of the Goldsboro City Council, Tuesday morning appealed to Wayne County commissioners to focus more attention on the needs of Goldsboro High School.
Their pleas included a need for more funding and for the community to come together to address issues at the school.
They spoke of a lack of books, a sense of hopelessness and the need for innovative teachers.
Similar pleas were made Monday to the City Council and the county Board of Education.
Commissioners did not comment on the remarks made during the public comment portion of their meeting.
"I am here on behalf of our citizens and young people from Goldsboro High School," City Councilman Antonio Williams said. "Last night (Monday) we had our City Council meeting, and it was packed because people are very frustrated with the conditions that they are going through at the school. They don't have any books. They don't have things that they need in place.
"I think that the City Council, as well as the commissioners, we have to come together. We cannot just throw it on the commissioners. We cannot just throw it on the city of Goldsboro. So we have to come together, meet and decide what we can do to better this school."
The parents who were at the council meeting attended the school, and they had books to take home, Williams said.
"It doesn't make any sense," he said. "If we want these kids to do better. If we want them to be a part of this community, to make a difference in this community, we really have to do something to ensure their education."
Williams said he hopes that all of the boards could put something together and come up with a timeline to focus on the school.
Community activist Ravonda Jacobs said she has been mentoring at the school for five years and has done after-school programs for the past 10 years.
Students recently had a history assignment to study the progressiveness of American history in which they had to write newspaper-style article, she said.
Some of the articles were titled "Miseducation of Goldsboro High School; The Great Depression of Goldsboro High School; Don't Write Me Up, Lift Me Up; Is This School or Is This Prison?; Where is the Love?"
Ms. Jacobs said copies of the articles were emailed to commissioners.
"As a parent and community citizen, we are asking that all parties come together," she said. "Goldsboro is about 60 percent African-American. Goldsboro High School is about 95 percent African-American. The disparities in our community are very serious.
"We are working as a community to do more. But we need those in leadership to actually take a hold of what we are actually going through. We need you guys to really take the time to understand where these children are and put proper funding to help them at Goldsboro High School."
At the Wayne County School of Engineering that shares the campus with the high school, students have laptops, books and security, she said.
Yet just across the breezeway, Goldsboro High School students do not have science books to take home, Ms. Jacobs said.
"That makes you hopeless," she said. "A lot of the time you are looking at these students as if they are bad students. They are not bad students, they are hopeless students because no adult has given them what they need to have the hope they need to go forward."
Commissioners, she said, are being asked to be very considerate when looking at the school and to consider the students who are there.
She asked that the board not look at just policies and not just at what people in the community want, but rather listen to what the students want and need.
"They need innovative teachers -- teachers who understand them," she said. "Parent-teacher relationships are a big issue. Another big issue is also the books. The curriculum, they don't have proper curriculum. They took all of the vocations out of Goldsboro High School."
The students can go to Wayne Community College for those classes, but they must have a certain grade point average even if they can get there, she said.
Ms. Jacobs urged commissioners to look at the budget to find the money to ensure the students have what they need.
Shaquila Rouse, a 2009 graduate of Goldsboro High School, said she attended Monday's City Council and Board of Education meetings.
A lot of issues were discussed that students and parents have, she said.
One issue is the lack of adequate teachers who care, she said. A lot of teachers who have been there for a long time have been transferred and do not have adequate replacements, Ms. Rouse said.
In some many cases, classes are being taught by substitute teachers so students are not learning, she said.
Other issues are not having books to take home and a lack of teachers who have built relationships with the students, she said.
Students need to know that the teacher cares, she said.
"It really takes a village," Ms. Rouse said. "It takes everybody to make adequate decisions, to make adequate progress. So we are really looking for everyone to get involved no matter what is you can do or how you can do it.
"We are just looking for support. We are looking for feedback, We are looking communications. We are looking for whatever it is you can do to help the city, the students at Goldsboro High School, the parents, the teachers, the administration, the school board and the City Council."