Talking with and about teachers

With the 2014 legislative session less than three months away,  State Rep. Tricia Cotham is launching a series of forums to talk with teachers about supporting schools and shaping state policy.  The first will be at 2 p.m. Saturday,   Feb. 22,  at the Plaza-Midwood library branch,  1623 Central Ave.

Cotham

She'll hold another session for teachers at 6:30 p.m. March 11 at the Matthews library,  230 Matthews Station St.,  and a third for students and teachers on March 16 at the Independence library,  6000 Conference Drive.  That session starts at 1:30 p.m. for students and 2:30 for teachers,  according to Cotham's web site.

Cotham,  a Mecklenburg Democrat,  was a teacher and administrator in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools before joining the General Assembly in 2007.  She notes that the sessions are not limited to CMS employees;  all teachers are welcome.

Jeter

At 8 a.m. March 6,  MeckEd will host a community conversation on  "Valuing N.C. Teachers,"  with Cotham,  state Rep. Charlie Jeter,  a Huntersville Republican,  and Eric Davis,  an unaffiliated Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board member.  Click here for details and to RSVP.

And while you've got your calendars out,  here are a couple more education-related events coming up.  You can be one of the first to catch the CMS 2014-15 budget overview from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Feb. 26 at West Charlotte High,  2219 Senior Drive.  More sessions around the county will be held through April;  click here for the schedule.  You can also take the CMS online budget survey through Friday.

And for those with an interest in services for students with disabilities,  the N.C. Department of Public Instruction will hold a public hearing on proposed changes to state policies from 5:30 to 7 p.m. March 19 in Davidson.  Click here for details.

Little money in school board race so far

Eric Davis,  who's seeking re-election as the District 5 representative to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board,  has the fund-raising lead by a long shot in the early financial reports that were due Friday.  As of June 30,  Davis reported he had raised just under $7,700,  including $500 from former N.C. Board of Education Chairman Howard Haworth;  $500 from John Belk,  president of Belk Inc.;  $250 from current state Board of Education member John Tate;  and $500 each from Anna Nelson of the C.D. Spangler Foundation,  co-chair of Project LIFT,  and her husband Tom Nelson.

Davis

Davis'  mid-year tally falls far short of the $27,767 he had at the same point in 2009,  as he was gearing up his first political campaign.  He said Tuesday he now has $15,000 lined up.  "I intend to run as vigorous and successful a campaign as I did in 2009,"  he said.

But it's definitely a different scenario this time,  with five of six incumbents seeking re-election.  Four years ago five of six elected incumbents had either decided not to run or resigned to become county commissioners,  clearing the way for a five-member majority of newcomers to be elected.

Byers-Bailey

Thelma Byers-Bailey,  seeking the D2 seat,  is the only other candidate who filed a report disclosing fund-raising before June 30.  She reports having $2,755 as of that date,  including $675 from herself and smaller contributions from a number of donors.

Davis' D5 challenger,  Edward Donaldson,  is one of two candidates who filed statements saying they don't intend to raise or spend more than $1,000,  which frees them from having to file additional reports. The other is Doug Wrona,  one of three D6 candidates.

None of the other incumbents  --  Rhonda Lennon in D1,  Richard McElrath in D2, unchallenged Joyce Waddell in D3 and Tom Tate in D4 -- has filed a midyear finance report,  an indicator that they hadn't started their fund-raising by June 30.  McElrath and Tate haven't even filed organization papers to create a campaign committee.

Likewise,  candidates Queen Elizabeth Thompson in D4 and Bolyn McClung in D6 have yet to file organizing reports.  Paul Bailey,  the third D6 candidate,  reports giving his campaign a $500 start-up loan.  Christine Mast in D1 reports having $160,  including $100 from herself.

Longtime Elections Director Michael Dickerson says it's not unusual to see a slow start to school board campaigns.  The nonpartisan race has no primary before the Nov. 5 election,  and tends to be overshadowed by city races until the Sept. 10 primary is over.

Two newcomers in CMS board race

Byers-Bailey

Thelma Byers-Bailey filed for the District 2 seat on the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board today, bringing the total to four incumbents and two newcomers.  It's only Day 2 of filing,  which runs through July 19.

Byers-Bailey,  a lawyer,  CMS grandparent and daughter of the educator whose name graces Walter G. Byers School,  is the first candidate to file for the westside District 2 seat.  Incumbent Richard McElrath hasn't said whether he'll seek a second term.

Bailey

Paul Bailey, mayor pro tem of Matthews,  filed Friday to run for the south suburban District 6 seat.  Amelia Stinson-Wesley, appointed to that seat two years ago when Tim Morgan won an at-large seat,  also hasn't revealed her plans.  Like Morgan,  Bailey is active in Boy Scouts.  He has spent 16 years on the Matthews Town Council  (he doesn't have a campaign web site yet,  but his bio is on the town site).

As expected,  the incumbents have filed for re-election in the other four districts:  Rhonda Lennon in District 1, Joyce Waddell in District 3,  Tom Tate in District 4 and Eric Davis in District 5.  Keep up with filings at the Mecklenburg Board of Elections web site.  See a map of voting districts here.

CMS school board race starts today

Filing for the six district seats on the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School board opens at noon today.

Four years ago,  most of the incumbents stepped aside,  leaving new members to claim five seats on the nine-member board.  This year four of the incumbents  --  Rhonda Lennon, Joyce Waddell,  Tom Tate and Eric Davis  --  say they plan to run again.  Richard McElrath in District 2 said this week he still hasn't decided,  while Amelia Stinson-Wesley,  an appointee to the District 6 seat,  says she's not ready to tip her hand.

For a $60 filing fee,  contenders can take a shot at one of the toughest jobs in town.  Board members earn about $12,600 a year  --  far less than Charlotte city council members or Mecklenburg County commissioners  --  for overseeing one of the area's biggest organizations. Members need to keep up with rapidly changing trends in education;  understand a tangle of federal,  state and local regulations;  and have a working knowledge of such fields as construction,  technology and transportation.

Candidates should be prepared for anything.  The folks who got elected in 2009 didn't expect to be plunged into teacher layoffs and school closings,  but that's what dominated their first couple of years.  Then came a superintendent search.

For those of you who decide to take it on,  please shoot me a link to your campaign web site,  some bio information and a good head shot (ahelms@charlotteobserver.com).  I'll try to make it easy for blog readers to stay up to date on the campaign.

The boundaries have changed slightly since the last district election.  See the district map here,  and click here to see which precincts have been assigned to different school board districts.

School board chair defends CMS reforms

I called school board chairman Eric Davis this morning to ask about the two workshops the board has scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday (both at 1 p.m. in Room 527 of the Government Center, 600 E. Fourth St.). The workshops center on the search for a new superintendent -- more particularly, finding the right search firm to lead the hunt for one. Makes for a busy week for the school board, which will also meet Tuesday evening (6 p.m. at the Government Center, Room 267) for one of its regular monthly meetings. It plans to talk then about redistricting, the opening of schools and the board's Strategic Plan 2014, among other issues.

Mention of that last topic prompted Davis to offer a brief but impassioned defense of the educational reforms driving the 2014 plan, the board's roadmap for improving local schools. As much as former Superintendent Peter Gorman was vilified for the dozens of controversial new tests CMS rolled out this spring, the impetus behind those tests came more from the board's 2014 plan than from Gorman. Gorman was carrying out the board's orders. Interim Superintendent Hugh Hattabaugh says he'll do the same. Davis said that, as the board begins looking for a new superintendent, he feels it's doubly important for the community to understand the 2014 plan. He said Hattabaugh and other staff members will take time during Tuesday night's meeting to spell out what the plan is, what it does, and the rationale behind it.

Davis called the plan "fundamental" to the selection of a new superintendent. He noted that about five or six years ago, the school board shifted its overarching philosophy of reform from a focus on "managed instruction" (i.e., a regimented system centered on making sure all kids were getting lessons) to "managing performance" and "empowerment" (that is, not just making sure lessons get delivered, but making sure the lessons are delivering results and that the educators delivering the lessons are held accountable). Thus, you get the current drive for dozens of new tests, and the push toward performance pay for teachers. "It's about the end result, whether the child's learning or not," Davis said. "So much of that gets lost in the individual tactics, what it means to me as an employee, or the impact on my child's school." He wants people to look not just at the new tests, but at the 2014 plan overall. He seems to believe if they do, they'll see the validity.

Obviously, critics of CMS' reform program see things differently. They want the board to rethink its direction -- or, more accurately, they want to elect three new board members this November who will force a move away from the test-heavy approach CMS is employing. Davis doesn't sound like a man who's thinking the school board needs to change course. He said: "When there's criticism about the direction we're going in, I think a valid question is, 'What's the alternative?'"

It will be interesting to see how the tensions play out in the upcoming school board race, and in the selection of a new superintendent.

On Coach, Trent, Eric, Pete and Rupert

It's a wrap-up at the end of a crazy week. Just think -- at noon Wednesday, it looked like the announcement that Trent Merchant wouldn't seek re-election was going to be the week's big talker.

Politics and personalities aside, the departure of Merchant and Coach Joe White from the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board will be a tragedy of epic proportions for local reporters. Let's face it, the former actor and the retired coach are quote factories. Both have strong views and delight in using plain, vigorous language. Sometimes they come up with the perfect metaphor to capture the essence of complex issues (if it's from Coach, you know that metaphor will involve sports). Sometimes they leave listeners with jaws dropped and heads shaking. Either way, they make covering education more fun.

Board Chair Eric Davis is a good bit more buttoned down. So I was delighted to hear him pull off a good one-liner when several of us talked about Superintendent Peter Gorman's departure on Charlotte Talks on Thursday:  "We burn out good superintendents faster than we can burn a song on a CD."

And speaking of burnout, the superintendent who launched weekly media briefings and was widely lauded for his skill with the media left a lot of questions hanging with his abrupt resignation Wednesday, followed by departure for a pre-scheduled vacation. But spokeswoman LaTarzja Henry said today he left one very clear instruction: He will do no more interviews before his mid-August departure.

Finally, when it comes to lively speech, it's hard to beat Gorman's new boss, Rupert Murdoch. If you've got a little weekend time to kill, it's worth reading Murdoch's recent speech to G-8 leaders explaining his vision for the new education division that Gorman will help him launch. It's long but fascinating, and gives the clearest idea I've gotten yet of what enticed Gorman to make the leap (besides money, which I assume is pretty darn good).