Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Clarity in CMS boundary skirmishes?

Superintendent Heath Morrison will get a live demonstration of one of the sources of frustration with Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools next week.

Jeremy Stephenson and his neighbors from the Crown Colony neighborhood in southeast Charlotte will come to the school board to make their case for being rezoned from East Meck to Providence High School,  which is closer  (click here for a map of the neighborhood and the two schools).  They'll talk about how the number of students is so small it won't make a difference to either school,  and how no one can give them a clear explanation of a boundary drawn many years earlier.

The board will listen without comment or reactions,  standard procedure for public comment time.  Later in the meeting,  they'll hear a staff update on student assignment that will focus on the boundaries for a new elementary school opening in 2013-14.  Almost certainly,  the board won't take up the Crown Colony question,  and the families who want a response before the Nov. 15 deadline for 2013-14 boundary changes will leave angry.

To longtime CMS-watchers,  this is a familiar dance.  The board and planning staff hold a hard line on boundaries,  lest they by nibbled to death by time-consuming and emotional pleas to move the lines one neighborhood at a time.  Families who believe they've got a logical case feel like they're batted between staff and board members,  with no one giving a better answer than,  "That's the way it is."  The subtext is inevitably the quest to get into  "better"  schools,  and all the racial and class tension that carries with it.  I've never seen families push to get zoned for a closer school with higher poverty levels and/or lower academic results.

Let's be clear:  None of this is unique to CMS.  Boundary battles are universal in public education,  though the fact that CMS encompasses a mix of urban,  suburban and so-called middle-ring schools may intensify the jostling.

After a long and difficult student assignment review in 2010,  the board adopted a set of guiding principles that say the board will consider a districtwide review every six years.  Parents like Stephenson counter that nothing in those principles eliminates the possibility of smaller changes between reviews.

Morrison took the corner office at CMS this summer,  and is scoping the scene before crafting his long-term plan.  He has repeatedly said one of CMS'  problems is a lack of clear processes for difficult decisions.  Spokeswoman LaTarzja Henry says Morrison has been asking staff and board members how neighborhood rezoning requests are handled,  and he'd like to be able to give better answers than people get now.  "It is a healthy conversation to have,"  she said.

But next week,  she said,  is probably too early to have it.

69 comments:

Anonymous said...

How about people only complain if they are told that there is no school for their child to attend.

Wiley Coyote said...

My opinion would be for these parents to hire a lawyer and sue CMS.

It's the only way you will ever get the attention of any Board of Education.

Use CMS' own guiding principals against them in court, especially the diversity aspect of it.

Anonymous said...

Use mapquest to check out the distances to the two high schools from Crown Colony Drive. East Meck--6.5 miles, 15 minutes drive (during rush hours?). Providence--1.5 miles, 5 minutes drive (it's practically just around the corner). So could we cut the parents a break and skip the class and race thing? Which assignment makes the most sense?

If a neighborhood is equi-distance from two schools, or has maybe a mile or at the most two miles variation in distances, that's one thing. But come on--5 miles and heavy city traffic. Why wouldn't the parents want their children at the closer school? It's fine to say that no one asks for a change to a lower performing school but I think it is unfair to taint these parents' request with that comment. The media and advocates making assumptions like that is what has created a lot of the ugliness over school assignments.

BolynMcClung said...

HERE'S HOW THE BOARD SOLVED THE LAST BIG BOUNDARY ISSUE.

Several years ago District 6 board member Ken Gjertsen couldn't get enough votes for a request just like the one being heard this time.

The board had previously voted to deny the request several times. The community was unrelenting. They hounded CMS and the board without relief.

Ken found an opportunity when the District 5 member, who was the chair, couldn't attend a board meeting. Now he only needed two changed votes. Ken pulled in some favors and breezed the change through.

The board chair wasn't happy. But the deal was done.

That's how it has to be done.

If this board approves a change for this year's request based on clear and obvious logic, they'll have to do that for everyone. Oops! So if the request is to be granted, it has to be done in a fashion that no other group can use as a basis for their boundary changes.

This group needs a better reason than logic and good math. They need a Machiavelli.

Bolyn McClung
Pineville

Anonymous said...

"The subtext is inevitably the quest to get into "better" schools, and all the racial and class tension that carries with it. I've never seen families push to get zoned for a closer school with higher poverty levels and/or lower academic results."

Gasp--an Observer reporter painting a group with the race card no matter how sensible their request might seem. Perhaps when the families in Crown Colony read that statement they'll feel akin to Kevin Siers after the Cam Newton cartoon--sideswiped by the implication of racism.

Wiley Coyote said...

Anon 7:34...

Common sense eludes many boards of education.

When I lived in Columbia, I could stand at the end of my street, throw a tennis ball accross 4 lanes of traffic and have it land on high school property.

The problem? The high school for the zone I was standing in was 2 miles away, while the closest high school from my house was essentially just across the street.

That was a little over 25 years ago. Not much has changed in the diversity driven education world.

Anonymous said...

Like dude, the entire Piper Glen area is closer to Ardrey Kell High AND Providence High than it is to South Meck.

Google Earth Strawberry Lane!


According to CMS, "Dead End" Strawberry Lane is a "major natural boundary" line that separates the Providence High zone from the South Meck. zone.

The Myers Park zone includes a neighborhood across the street from Calvary Church on Highway 51. No kidding. Look it up!

Where do these CMS newbies come from?

NEXT!

Anonymous said...

Anyone remember "Old Farm". God bless Old Farm.

Moo

Anonymous said...

And Blueberry Lane. Anyone remember Blueberry Lane? God bless Blueberry Lane.

Moo

Anonymous said...

DId Thornhill punk the school board, or what?

God bless Thornhill.

Anonymous said...

I loved a comment a father once made at an assignment hearing. "If you can hear the band playing you should be staying". I suspect the Crown Colony folks can hear the PHS band on Friday nights.

Anonymous said...

Oh, and "The Pineville Boot".

God bless The Pineville Boot.

Moo

Anonymous said...

God Bless Crown Colony.

Moo

Anonymous said...

I always get a kick out of driving past Old Farm off Providence Rd. God bless Old Farm.

A neighborhood across the street from the Arboretum is assigned to Myers Park. Shouldn't they be assigned to Providence High? The number of kids from THIS neighborhood wouldn't make a smidgen' of difference at Providence High and would relieve overcrowding at Myers Park!



Anonymous said...

Why not rename Ardrey Kell High School to Providence High School while we're at it?

God bless Ballantyne.

Anonymous said...

Wiley,

Ken actually DID something while serving District 6. He even finished out his term!

God bless Ken.

Anonymous said...

It's gonna be a good day.

God bless Scott McCully. Why not?

Anonymous said...

Why should parents and kids get a break when teachers do not. HR is completely unfeeling about locating teachers clear across the county even when there is an opening nearby. It seems almost like an ego thing..you know, shut up and take the job we give you. It is not only an unnecessary burden on the time and money resourses of underpaid teachers, I cannot help but think that a long commute affects their ability to perform their job.

Bill Stevens said...

Many a past and present school board member said they would fight to the death (or court or Department of Justice Office of Civil Rights) the attempt to draw school boundaries on the basis of distance.

Like others have said recently, one, school boards of education are not known for their common sense and two, do you get the sense how uneducated many of our educrats are?

Every teacher, every year needs a Congressional Medal of Honor.

Anonymous said...

Quail Hollow Country Club backs up to (surprise!) Quail Hollow Middle School. This is where Gorman lives.

But, if you live in Quail Hollow Country Club your kids go to Carmel Country Club Middle School, well, because Quail Hollow Middle schoolo is a Title 1 school and we don't want country club kids hanging out with Title 1 kids - now do we?



Anonymous said...

Nobody wants to go to school with poor blacks and Latinos -lets not do the I'm not racist dance /what we should really focus on is improving the schools that these children attend these schools -that is going to take parents , courageous teachers and a a strong CMS . But please let's not pretend this isn't about whites wanting to get far away from the minorities as possible and that is ok. It's their choice -but let's improve our " low performing ,poor schools

Anonymous said...

What's CMS' FRL (ED) population this year?

Anonymous said...

We live about a mile from Myers Park (Madison Park neighborhood) and are zoned for Harding. I see MP signs on front yards of homes miles from here.

Anonymous said...

Quail Hollow has barely improved in 20 years despite all sorts of reform efforts. It's poor, but not poor enough and in the "wrong" section of town stuck between a rock and a hard place. Ask "The Middle Ring". Are we going to be hearing from "The Middle Ring" folks?

Anonymous said...

God bless Madison Park.

Anonymous said...

I don't feel like blessing Susan Agruso or Molly Griffin.

Anonymous said...

Are we still "Saving" South Meck.?

"Save Our South". Forgive me for not wanting to send my kid to a school that needed saving while illegal immigrants get a free pass to ANY school they want to attend.


Anonymous said...

I'm still trying to figure out the short lived alliance between The Middle Ring and Myers Park. Fair weathered friends, indeed.

Anonymous said...

The Holy Trinity:
Myers Park, Providence, Ardrey Kell.

God Bless The Holy Trinity.

Anonymous said...

Too big of a system, too many competing interests, too many assumptions made on every side.

Anonymous said...

Simple solution to the issue at hand. Walk every kid that wants to change to another school in front of board with their own individual request. If the board says not then hire a lawyer and take it to state BOE. CMS will never say no to this (see Kojo) . Have 1 valid reason for the kid to change schools and they cannot say no. They have these meetings once monthly.

Anonymous said...

The more things change, the more they stay the same....At what point will common sense and logic finally kick-in...Just because something was always done this way doesnt mean it's the right way to do it.

Anonymous said...

My Providence kid drove a kid who lived in Pineville home from school all the time - he lived in Pineville, and he was asian. I drive past a house in the Lansdowne Neighborhood every day and see the Providence High Senior sign proudly displayed in the front yard. Why do I see it, because I am driving my other kid to Providence Day School...and THAT is worth the drive.

Ann Doss Helms said...

FRL/ED/poverty numbers come from a 40th day count, which will be later this month. I'm still waiting for details on the 20-day enrollment count. Last year's poverty level was 54 percent, and it's been going up by about one percentage point a year recently.

Anonymous said...

Ann, Obama's USDA "upped" the FRL cutoffs for this year. I am not sure how publically this message was made. Expect a big jump.

Wiley Coyote said...

Last year's poverty level was 54 percent, and it's been going up by about one percentage point a year recently.

..and so does the fraud.

We'll see what the USDA does next.

March 2012:

For 2 of 16 high-risk programs, USDA reported improper payment estimates of greater than 10 percent. Specifically, FNS’ NSLP and SBP reported estimated improper payment percentages of 15.98 and 24.96, respectively. NSLP and SBP significant improper payments resulted from the nature of the program, and FNS’ previously limited authority to conduct more thorough reviews and implement measures to tackle some of the causes of errors in the programs.
Congress recently enacted the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, which includes provisions to improve the management and integrity of child nutrition programs. For instance, the Act (1) increased the frequency of administrative oversight reviews of NSLP from once every five years to once every three years; (2) further strengthened direct certification for school meals by rewarding States for improvement in direct certification rates; (3) provided alternatives to paper application systems in low-income areas, i.e. on-line application alternatives to the standard Program application process to reduce the number of paper applications that are processed manually; and (4) established additional review requirements for school districts that demonstrate high levels of administrative error.
FNS officials stated they are aware of the significant improper payment rate in NSLP and SBP, and continue to work with State partners to develop initiatives and practices to address this problem. Further, FNS stated that the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 included new tools and strategies that will help reduce errors in NSLP and SBP. Officials with FNS are aware that its baseline for estimates of improper payments may be unreliable. FNS developed the formulas that it has used to estimate improper payments rates from a previous study. Since the study examined program figures from school year 2005 only and cannot provide confidence levels for other years, we cannot rely on estimates projected from this study. Recently, FNS has scheduled a study to update data used to determine FNS current improper payments. FNS officials believe this September 2012 study will reflect NSLP and SBP current improper payment rates and account for corrective actions implemented since the last study.

NSLP = NAtional School Lunch Program

FNS = Food Nutrition Services

SBP = School Breakfast program

Anonymous said...

The scariest thing about MeckCo is getting your property zoned into one of these schools populated by low performing students.

It's one reason I refuse to look at property that isn't far away from the "problem".

I can't blame anyone for not wanting their kids to go to school with the losers in our society.

Especially since so many have shown for so long that they really don't care to improve themselves no matter what you do for them.



Anonymous said...

Competing interests? Public education, social services delivery system, or government indoctrination schools, what do you want? And this is not multiple choice.

Ann Doss Helms said...

10:12, you're right that there are new income cutoffs, but the changes are fairly small. For instance, eligibility for a reduced-price lunch for student from a family of four went from $41,348 to $42,643. But that will be worth noting when the 2012 numbers land. Here's this year's chart: http://www.ncpublicschools.org/newsroom/news/2012-13/20120806-01

Jeremy Stephenson said...

The "process" is structured to fail, to give cynical lip service to community requests. The Boundary Change Report will be anounced by the Planning Department on 10/9/12, but Policy requries formal vote, after public hearing, law dep't preparation of "motion", etc., all by 11/15/12. The boundaries are screwy and illogical; too bad.

The "Guiding Principles" promise that "every student will be GUARANTEED an opportunity to attend a home school within proximity to where he or she lives." http://www.cms.k12.nc.us/boe/ComprehensiveReview/June%20Work%20Session%20Documents/Guiding%20Principles.pdf

What is this "guarantee" if you hear the band on Friday night but are zoned 8 miles away?

The Guiding Principles also say that "the Board shall consider undertaking a comprehensive district-wide review of teh student assignment plan every six years." Not that they WILL do such a review, but that they will CONSIDER doing a review. Easy enough. Considered: should we look into rationalizing the crazy boundaries? No. Ok, Policy satisified.

To raise the bar CMS needs broad community support beyond just K-12 parents. Schools are the core of our community and WE ALL need them to succeed. You cannot marshall such vital support while structuring a process designed to exclude the public.

Anonymous said...

Judging only by the numbers, it would seem that all FRL applications that do not come through DSS, are the ones in question. Maybe CMS's FRL policy should be to accept only those through DSS.

Secondly, poverty roles have jumped in many parts of the US since Obama lifted the "work for welfare" requirement. Maybe someone from the county commmission can see if that happened here.

Anonymous said...

I like the band sound and football crowd noise as a standard. CMS still does screwy with their standard schoolhouse construction sizes. 800 students for elementary schools, 1200 for middle schools and 1600 for high schools.

Anonymous said...

District is too big for itself. See todays example of LIFT needing year round daycare for their kids. Wont happen on East side so the heck with those kids. LIFT cannot do this as it would break the district apart even more. None of this makes sense thats what scares me CMS will most likley let LIFT do it. To make NAACP happy after closing their schools.

Wiley Coyote said...

10:53...

The USDA overpaid $1.5 Billion dollars nationally in 2011.

There are no poverty numbers nationally or in Mecklenburg County that come close to the percentages of students within CMS who receive the benefit.

The last 3% sample audit I know of found 60% of those respondants did not qualify based on responses given.

That is a similar trend across the country.

....A number of federal audits found vast discrepancies between the census counts of low-income households and the number of students receiving free and reduced-price lunches.

A study five years ago in New York City's school district, only one larger than the LAUSD, found about $100 million in potential losses.

Anonymous said...

I'm serious.

If someone can send me all the CMS student assignment maps over the past 10 years, I'll wallpaper my bathroom with them and contribute the "come-sit-on-my-pot" proceeds to a worthy CMS cause. Number 1 - $1.00. Number 2 - $2.00.

A list of the various "Guiding Principals" get you a discounted flush.



Anonymous said...

God bless all the Asian kids who don't care about a football eligibility college scholarship, live in Pineville, and attend Providence High.

Anonymous said...

Let the battle of the bands play on!

OK, which school has the most "effective" band director based on a pay-for-performance standardized test?

1.Ardrey Kell
2. West Charlotte High

I gotta vote for West Charlotte High on this one, folks.

Anonymous said...

Begging, pleading and legal action takes time. Parents can't "wait" a year or two as their requests wind through the system. Their child is in school "now."

When parents get tired of hitting the brick wall, they seek options.

After finding so few options, or even sympathy from school board members, parents did what they had to do in the north and northwest part of the county... they flooded the charter schools with applications.

You'll soon see the same thing in south mecklenburg.

Anonymous said...

Charter schools, a Mr. Tate (Mecklenburg native) sits on the state school board that approves charter school applications. No charter school applications were approved in this last term that would benefit suburban students in Mecklenburg County. A couple were approved in neighboring counties that one could drive to. CMS despite the court order from the NC Supreme Court still plays games with sending state and county money to the charter schools for Mecklenburg students.

Anonymous said...

The largest exiting group of families from CMS is the black middle class. CMS white population is in the low 30's while the county white population is still in the 60's.

Anonymous said...

Break into 3 districts ASAP.
3 kids, 8 years apart:
Assigned to 3 different Middle Schools.
Assigned to 3 different High Schools.

As one previous BOE member said:
We are busing kids past each other north and south on Monroe Rd for no reason.

Anonymous said...

God bless kids along Monroe Rd.

God bless every family and child who've been subjected to The Great Forced Diversity Experiment. Free lab rats to all who've participated.

Anonymous said...

And let's not forget "We (still) have to have the important conversation about race".

Anonymous said...

My neighborhood backs up to Crown Colony, and we also go to East Meck. Which is crazy, because the nieghborhoods to the left and right of us go to Providence! If you follow my road up 1/4 of a mile into the next neighborhood, they are zoned differently than we are. And yes, I CAN hear the Providence band. Not just on game days, but at practice, too. It's actually one of the reasons I have to have a noise machine in my newborn son's room!

Anonymous said...

There are lots of things I like about East Meck--many good teachers, alumni support, dedicated parents, etc. But those dedicated parents have always been ruthless where other people's children are concerned. First assignment hearing I ever attended back in the 90's when Butler, "the Matthews" high school, was being populated. East Meck PTA president stood up and suggested the Matthews kids be sent to East Meck (they were at Providence) rather than to Butler. Next thing you know, it's done and Butler is not the Matthews high school (much later this was undone when busing ended). Who attempted to orchestrate the moving of Cotswold neighborhoods to East Meck (causing a large uproar)? Who got Myers Park and Independence's IB programs? Yep, East Meck.

Jeremy Stephenson said...

Please all come to the 10/9/12 Board meeting and be heard on this issue. 600 East 4th Street, 6 p.m.

More on the "guarantee" of home schools from the Guiding Principles:

Decision Matrix

While the Board will be mindful of our Mission, our commitment to Equity, and all aspects of our Guiding Principles when making student assignment decisions, only certain components currently can be measured objectively. Therefore, in order to provide fact-based starting points, the Board directs the Superintendent and staff to include the following prioritized decision-making rubric in any proposed changes to the student assignment plan.
1. Home Schools – Proximity will be based in priority order on:
A. travel distance from home to school,
B. keeping entire neighborhoods assigned to the same school (staff shall use its discretion in considering commonly accepted neighborhood boundaries, zoning decisions, covenant agreements, HOAs, etc) and
C. to the extent possible, keeping whole elementary zones intact in middle and high school feeder patterns.

Anonymous said...

12:55
This isn't about how "great" individual schools are compared to other CMS schools because EVERY school in CMS has some remarkable kids who will go there and will eventually head out into the world and make a significant contribution to society. It's NOT a damn competition!

For decades, our entire public school system has been wallowing in grief as we try to find our way to acceptance and healing for wrongs committed in the past in addition to addressing present day realities that have NOTHING to do with previous injustices.

It's time to rip off the painful band-aide and design a student assignment plan that is CONSISTENT, fairly PREDICTABLE, and STABLE across the board. It won't be possible to do this without significant anguish, conflict, upheaval, and controversy. Of course, the alternative is to continue along the same miserably failed path we've taken since 1972. Any sane person looking at a current CMS student assignment map can easily see the inconsistencies. We basically have two assignment plans: 1. A true neighborhood school assignment plan. 2. A highly manipulated/gerrymandered school assignment plan.

G-- D--m it. Choose one or the other and be done with it. Allow our citizen's to understand a consistent and stable student assignment plan and then allow us to grieve, heal, accept and eventually move on with the goal of improving educational opportunities and advancement for everyone.

Wiley Coyote said...

2:02...

Please refrain from using logic, common sense and facts when commenting on public education.

It only muddies the water.

Bill Stevens said...

2:02, there are too many people here that wear the Swann vs CMS BOE banner and want this school system to return to race based busing. They are as usual, living in the 60's, living looking in the rear view mirror and fully unaware of how the demographics have changed.

Clearly it has become impractical to operate a single public school system with this many competing public interests.

Anonymous said...

You can call the school zone boundaries "diversity experiments" or "neighborhood schools" or any other number of false names. Anyone that has ever looked at the zone maps can see that school placement is solely done by home values. The highest value homes go to MP. The next tier to Providence and so on.

Anonymous said...

My neighborhood balances the poverty at the local middle school, even though not a single child attends that middle school.

Anonymous said...

ANN

Based on your numbers a (1-4) Teacher with a family of four is on government assistance and FRL for their children

How sad!

All the risks and few to no rewards.

BolynMcClung said...

To: Jeremy Stephenson

Subject: Guiding Principles

You’re putting a lot of faith in the Guiding Principles.

On the night it passed, the vote was 5-3. That’s not very good. And not very good at all if you’d want to create a lasting policy. You have to ask, what would the vote be today?

Why do I ask that?

Because while you’re asking the board for a ruling, you’re really asking the board to reaffirm the Guiding Principles. You’re asking the board to reaffirm neighborhood schools.

The direct descendent of the battle over the Guiding Principles was the closing of the urban schools. I find it difficult to see how the board would be sympathetic to the inconveniences of a few families when it took such draconian action that greatly changed historic communities and schools.

You started the chess game but you may be but a pawn in a very big issue.

Best wishes on a difficult task.

Bolyn McClung
Pineville

Anonymous said...

Believe me, Tom Tate will take the entire area and more the next redistrictring. How dare any one not want to attend East Meck. Get ready

Anonymous said...

Bring them all over to Providence and AK. We will then have 50 in a classroom with a 1/3 of the spending per pupil. GREAT JOB

Anonymous said...

When planning for stability in the future, remember that CMS has grown over 40% since 2000. One might not expect this high growth rate to continue, but we can expect to continue to grow.

Wiley Coyote said...

9:30...

Yes, growth but not met with smart decisions to adjust to it.

EE Waddell, Whitewater School, etc.

CMS was just coming off a ruling to stop busing so they had to retrofit a busing system to a neighborhood/school choice system.

Bonds were passed for all that growth yet we were still able to close schools.

Hopefully at some point, the BOE will "get it" and start building schools where they are currently needed and have sites in place for future growth using facts instead of income and diversity as drivers.

Anonymous said...

You dont have a highly qualified teacher in every classroom now. What are you going to do when the growth returns again. Only a small few want to put up with the mess that is CmEs. Growth brings better jobs with greater benefits. CmEs has insulted and overworked teachers to the point that a great percentage of highly qualified are leaving without any hope of quality replacements. The future is not bright so take what you sowed CmEs.

Anonymous said...

If the boundaries made sense, we would not be having this conversation. I live in this neighborhood, and out of my four neighbors, two of them are zoned Providence High, and no one seems to know why. We not only hear the band at PHS, but I can tell you the score of the games on Fridays.

This has nothing to do with race and everything to do with the disgraceful way the school district is run. They should be less concerned with their bottom line and consider the children and teachers their first priorities.

East Meck has real problems, so forgive me for trying to separate my children from these exposures. Our neighborhood schools are cutting art, music, drama and sport programs because they need more room/funding for ESL classrooms. Students frequently only show up on campus for the free lunch, and they stay in school until the maximum age of 22 for this reason. Drop-outs are free to wander campus because there is no security. Families abusing social programs sport iphones, expensive headphones and designer clothing. My daughter has access to every drug you've heard of and a lot you haven't, including a game they play with prescriptions. So forgive me if I want something better! Wouldn't you?