http://www.queens.edu/pdf/upload/aca...yNoExcuses.pdf

The above limk will take you to the executive summary of a recent research report from Queens College at UNC Charlotte.

Please note the distinctly superior performance of Wake graduates vis-a-vis other large, countywide systems in the state ...several of which spend more per student than WCPSS, e.g. Guilford and CMS. There is plenty of room for WCPSS to improve but we should build on the strengths that have resulted in above average performance rather than look for silver bullet solutions..especially from highly flawed models.

---------------

At our joint meeting with the BOE today Dr. Burns clarified the WCPSS outlook for the 2009-10 budget. Despite the availability of $30 million in federal stimulus money (over two years), it appears that the system will have to reduce the number of teachers by800. The exact amount won't be known for several weeks as the NCGA goes through its budget process. IMO the cutback could be even worse as the State has to deal with an unprecedented $4.6 billion shortfall, about 20% of this years original budget. There is no way this magnitude of cut can be adsorbed without hurting the education of Wake's children.

(Note that the stimulus money is limited to students from poor families and those with learning handicaps. It must be spent in addition to rather than instead of existing funds and it is not permanent financing. WCPSS has no guarantee it will be continued after two years and will largely spend the money to increase teacher competence.)

The County Managers proposed budget for school operations...95% spent in classrooms...and about the same level as this year, does not allow for the continued, albeit slower, growth in student population...no less support for upgrading academic performance.

I find this unacceptable. Although the largest part of the problem comes from the state, WCPSS is OUR school system. Consider that the County has only a 4% gap to close in the coming year. I, along with some other commissioners, will be doing my best to find added sources of revenue (w/o raising taxes) from all stakeholders to retain more teachers. My guiding principal will be to increase support for services and "tilt"away from construction spending.

Please spread both the good news and the bad news. Emails from you and your circle of friends to me and the other commissioners expressing your thoughts about the cutback are invited. See http://www.wakegov.com/commissioners/contact.htm for addresses.

Also note the public hearings on the budget which will be held on Monday, June 1 during the afternoon at the Courthouse and at 7PM at the Commons building off Poole Rd. See http://www.wakegov.com/commissioners/schedule.htm. I hope you will be there and speak out to the commissioners, your fellow citizens and the media.

In addition to the teachers cutback please consider speaking out about the proposed closing of the Athens Drive Public Library, the Duraleigh Library and the major cutback in the human services budget at a time when the needs of the disadvantaged are rising rapidly. A summary of the proposed budget can be found here http://www.wakegov.com/NR/rdonlyres/..._fy10_memo.pdf

Keep my "mantra" in mind as you read it: must do - should do and could do.

Brighter days are ahead.

Stan Norwalk
Wake County Commissioner
H (919) 363-4685

http://www.queens.edu/pdf/upload/aca...yNoExcuses.pdf

The above limk will take you to the executive summary of a recent research report from Queens College at UNC Charlotte.

Please note the distinctly superior performance of Wake graduates vis-a-vis other large, countywide systems in the state ...several of which spend more per student than WCPSS, e.g. Guilford and CMS. There is plenty of room for WCPSS to improve but we should build on the strengths that have resulted in above average performance rather than look for silver bullet solutions..especially from highly flawed models.

----------------------------------------------------------

At our joint meeting with the BOE today Dr. Burns clarified the WCPSS outlook for the 2009-10 budget. Despite the availability of $30 million in federal stimulus money (over two years), it appears that the system will have to reduce the number of teachers by800. The exact amount won't be known for several weeks as the NCGA goes through its budget process. IMO the cutback could be even worse as the State has to deal with an unprecedented $4.6 billion shortfall, about 20% of this years original budget. There is no way this magnitude of cut can be adsorbed without hurting the education of Wake's children.

(Note that the stimulus money is limited to students from poor families and those with learning handicaps. It must be spent in addition to rather than instead of existing funds and it is not permanent financing. WCPSS has no guarantee it will be continued after two years and will largely spend the money to increase teacher competence.)

The County Managers proposed budget for school operations...95% spent in classrooms...and about the same level as this year, does not allow for the continued, albeit slower, growth in student population...no less support for upgrading academic performance.

I find this unacceptable. Although the largest part of the problem comes from the state, WCPSS is OUR school system. Consider that the County has only a 4% gap to close in the coming year. I, along with some other commissioners, will be doing my best to find added sources of revenue (w/o raising taxes) from all stakeholders to retain more teachers. My guiding principal will be to increase support for services and "tilt"away from construction spending.

Please spread both the good news and the bad news. Emails from you and your circle of friends to me and the other commissioners expressing your thoughts about the cutback are invited. See http://www.wakegov.com/commissioners/contact.htm for addresses.

Also note the public hearings on the budget which will be held on Monday, June 1 during the afternoon at the Courthouse and at 7PM at the Commons building off Poole Rd. See http://www.wakegov.com/commissioners/schedule.htm. I hope you will be there and speak out to the commissioners, your fellow citizens and the media.

In addition to the teachers cutback please consider speaking out about the proposed closing of the Athens Drive Public Library, the Duraleigh Library and the major cutback in the human services budget at a time when the needs of the disadvantaged are rising rapidly. A summary of the proposed budget can be found here http://www.wakegov.com/NR/rdonlyres/..._fy10_memo.pdf

Keep my "mantra" in mind as you read it: must do - should do and could do.

Brighter days are ahead.

Stan Norwalk
Wake County Commissioner
H (919) 363-4685

In Defense of Diversity


The rallying cry of the coalition promoting the reversal of WCPSS’ diversity policy is “neighborhood schools” aka “community schools” The coalition consists of three Political Action Committees (PAC’s) involving irate parents who are supporting four candidates for the Board of Education (BOE) in this falls election. Other individuals supporting vouchers and private schools have attached themselves to the PAC’s.

The unstated message of “Neighborhood Schools” is “keep your poor kids in their own schools, not in ‘our’ schools.” Rather than re-segregated neighborhood schools we need a new commitment from all levels of government to raise the academic bar for all children.

Irate parents have been led to believe that reversing the school board’s (BOE) diversity policy would resolve their legitimate concerns, i.e. the pain of frequent reassignments, lengthy bus rides and the inconvenience of mandated year round schools (MYRS). However, rolling back the diversity policy will not address these grievances and may make them worse. The false choice of raising the funding level for schools with high concentrations of needy children will eventually fail as it require an increase in property taxes - including the 70% of voters who do not have children in public schools.

The understandably irate parents are aiming at the wrong target. WCPSS’ diversity policy plays a minor role in their grievances. Rather the BOE’s use of these measures results from decade’s long mismanagement of growth in Wake County. For twenty years both the State and the County have been unwilling to insist that growth must be connected to new school infrastructure (read: an Adequate Public Facility Ordinances) and that growth must pay for growth. (read: impact fees on new residents.) Too few in the State legislature and the County Commission are willing to vote against powerful special interests opposing widely used solutions.

As a result, Wake is has over 25,000 seats in trailers, (1170 trailers) over-crowding campuses to the point where schools must be capped and children assigned to more distant schools. Inadequate funding leads to MYRS and lengthy bus rides. Worst of all, taxes from existing residents are used to pay for constructing schools rather than educating the children they house.

All students are impacted. Teacher intensive, specialized courses are the first to go when funds for education are tightly restrained.

NC is 44th in the nation in support of K-12 classroom education . Likewise, Wake’s schools are 85th (of 115 school districts) in the state (not counting the costs of constructing schools. Source NC DPI). Focusing on reversing the diversity policy will not resolve these deplorable facts.

Wake’s children are caught in the crossfire of a blame game between the BOE, the County Commissioners, and state legislators – and now, misinformed parents.

Concentrating poor children in segregated schools will not address parents’ grievances. Charlotte-Mecklenburg’s experience in re-segregating their schools resulted in more bussing; abysmally low academic performance in re-segregated schools; “brain flight”; shifting resources from more affluent area schools to pay for education in poor ones and higher property taxes for all.

It has taken decades of mismanaged growth to dig the hole for our schools. Especially during a deep recession there are no silver-bullet solutions to undo the damage of those decades. Growth will return and we should remember the need for real reform. For now, let’s avoid taking giant steps backward. Rather we should focus on using limited resources to advance academics.

Rejection of funds to advance academics for our growing school population, we result in lower graduation rates. There will be more citizens who cannot find adequate employment. Then we will spend much more money fighting gangs and building jails.

Consider that Wake’s success in attracting high-paying jobs is based on its concentration of brainpower. Wake’s competitive advantage needs nurturing. Constantly raising the academic bar attracts quality jobs and prepares the next generation for such jobs. Diversity is a given in the worlds of business and government. Do we really want to teach our kids that diversity is unimportant?

Dealing with the challenges in our schools requires leadership with a long range vision and a focus on what’s critically important. It requires courage to resist powerful special interests and the “critical many” rather than the critical few. Leaders need to find common ground across organizational, ideological and party lines.

Past great leaders have fought and for diversity in schools. Some even died in the effort. Where will Wake’s citizens stand this fall?

Stan Norwalk is a member of the Wake County Board of Commissioners. His views on diversity are his own. He can be reached at stann@nc.rr.com

We are now fully migrated to a VPS provided by Tranquil Hosting of Cary. The environment is a little different from I've used before and Joomla has some permissions issues that needed to be worked around but everything is now up and running and seems to be operation smoothly. Next up is to update the forum software to version 3.8. The upgade is in hand and needs to be installed. After that, perhaps I can catch up on posting of CTC video.

In attempting to prevent circumvention of CP's language filter, admin inadvertently deleted every 'c 'd' 'e' f' 'k' & 'u' from the *entire* CP database. All because a user insists on using language they know is prohibited. I guess I'll stick to manual edits until I can figure out a better system for handling such nonsense.

Just complete upgraded to 3.7.2. Please let me know if there are any problems.

It turns out that the AJAX-based news feed that I had on the front page for a couple of days was causing IE to fail to load the page properly about half the time. The fade in effect was nice but I'm guessing people would rather just have something that works. I've replace with a newer scroll news feed that I've tested on everything I easily have access to. Please let me know if you see any problems.

Well, once again, Thank you, Don. I appreciate the chance to post my own thoughts on things that interest me.

It is a good feeling.

Well.... Things are moving along albeit slower that I'd like. Article comments seem to be working and most login / logout issues seems to be resolved. There are still issues with banner placement on <1280x1024 screens and ability for users to submit articles for front page publication is still in the works.

Well folks, it wasn't nearly as straightforward as I had hoped and there will continue to be a few lingering issues but the new site is up and working. Syncing users between Joomla and vBulletin is quite a task and I finally resorted to modifying a version of the jFusion Login Module to make it all work. Uploading the forum database after converting to vBuletin proved especially tedious due to the size of the sql file involved. Conversion of articles from the old site also required modifying a module called ezphpnuke (which wasn't so easy) and then cleaning up the articles after they were imported because the Joomla article editor is much more strict about the internal markup of the document. Though there is still work to be done, this has proved to be an educational and worthwhile effort. I'd like to thank everyone again that donated to help make this part of the Cary Politics happen. As an aside, I can tell you that much of the work would have been considerably easier if I was dealing only my own dedicated server. Moving large sql files around in a shared hosting environment is problematic at best.