Wake Co. School Board Sued For Blocking Freedom Of Speech & Segregation

A copy of the lawsuit documents filed against Wake County for violating Freedom of Speech and N.C. Open Meeting laws can seen on PDF at this link.










Lawsuit Filed Against Wake County School Board



A group of Wake County residents filed a lawsuit this morning asking the court to throw out recent votes ending the diversity policy on the grounds that the school board violated N.C. state law.

In the lawsuit filed in Wake County Superior Court, the residents say the Wake County school board violated the N.C. State Open Meetings Law by not holding the March 23 meeting at a large enough venue and by requiring people to get tickets to attend.

During the meeting, the board passed by a 5-4 vote a resolution calling for the creation of community-based schools and the end of the district’s socio-economic diversity policy.

The lawsuit asks the court to throw out the March 23 vote.

The lawsuit also asks that the court throw out Tuesday's initial board vote on changes to the student assignment policy that would make family proximity to school a priority while also eliminating socioeconomic diversity. The suit contends that Tuesday's vote has been tainted by the board's continued refusal to move meetings to a larger venue.

"This is about democracy and the way we make decisions in this country," said Swain Wood, the lead attorney for the plaintiffs.

A final board vote on the student assignment changes is scheduled for May 18.

School board chairman Ron Margiotta said the lawsuit was merely a tactic by opponents who couldn't accept that the elected board has the right to move forward.

"I think we bent over backwards to allow people to speak," he said. "If they want to just bring us into court, all this will do is take more money from the children of this county. Accept the wishes of the people of this county."

Wood said that a 2 p.m. hearing has been scheduled for the case on Wednesday in courtroom 5B of the Wake County Courthouse.

The citizens are represented by the ACLU of North Carolina, Southern Coalition for Social Justice, NC NAACP, UNC Center for Civil Rights, NC Justice Center and multiple private lawyers.

Citing security and crowding concerns, the school district had required people to get tickets for a seat in the board room.

The overflow crowd at the meeting stretched into the hallways and outside the building. Three people were arrested at a protest.

The lawsuit cites the offer by The News & Observer and Capitol Broadcasting to pay for the cost of relocating the meeting to a larger site. Citing logistical concerns, school board chairman Ron Margiotta turned down the request.

The civil rights groups representing the people filing the lawsuit had also raised concerns that day about the ticket policy.


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Sources: ACLU, McClatchy Newspapers, WRAL, Youtube, Creepygif.com, Google Maps

Charlotte Public Schools Cuts Bus Routes Of Black Students

Charlotte School Bus Cuts Put Strain On Black Parents

Just as the debate over millions in cuts to Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools is winding down toward a vote, conversations about changes to Transportation for Magnet School students is winding up.

Tuesday night, a passionate group of parents and students spoke to the CMS Board of Education. Wednesday, those passions weren't any lower at Piedmont IB Middle School, one of four schools that may see its bell schedule changed next year.

"It still hurts me, because I had to tell her, 'You won't able to go back to Piedmont if this happens,'" mother Francelia Andrade said, choking up during an interview with NewsChannel 36 outside the school.

She and her daughter, Bryana, got a round of applause after their comments at the BOE meeting Tuesday. Andrade, a mutual funds trader at Wachovia, is a Single Mom who is due at work no later than 8 a.m. Bryana walks to her bus stop each morning, and returns home to her ailing grandfather each afternoon.

The district's proposal would eliminate regular bus stops, and replace them with shuttle stops for magnet middle and high schools. Four middle school magnets -- Piedmont IB, Davidson IB, Smith Academy, and Marie G. Davis Academy -- would see their bell schedules pushed back by at least 1 1/2 hours to allow buses to run an extra route after having picked up other students earlier in the day.

Andrade says she cannot take Bryana to the shuttle stop that's been established for her because she has to be at work at the time Bryana would catch the bus.

Other parents and students expressed concerns about time for extracurricular activities and homework after school.

The Andrade's acknowledge that they've chosen the more complicated magnet school lifestyle, but resent the idea that they'd be forced to change schools before Bryana graduates.

"We told them they could get into the school and they could have transportation, and then we told them that we were changing the start time, and then we told them they couldn't have buses. That's a lot of change," CMS board member Tom Tate said. "I really am hopeful we are going to find the money some other way, but that's the problem -- I don't know that we are going to be able to find the money."

Superintendent Dr. Peter Gorman expressed a similar concern in a one-on-one interview with NewsChannel 36 after his Wednesday morning press conference.

"We don't have another way to make up those funds. If we would not do that, we would have to cut something else, and right now we don't have something else on the list to cut," Gorman said.

Throughout the budget process, board member Trent Merchant has suggested that magnet students who use buses may be asked to pay some sort of fee. The idea is similar to the "pay for play" concept the board looks poised to adopt for middle school sports. There is not sufficient support for the idea in the short-term, board president Eric Davis expects it will be seriously considered during tough budget times next year.

For more information on how changes will affect each school visit: http://www.cms.k12.nc.us/cmsdepartments/transportation/magnetinfo/Pages/default.aspx




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Sources: CMS, McClatchy Newspapers, WCNC, Google Maps

Charlotte Parents Oppose, Protest Against Racially Segregated Schools

Anger, Anguish At Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Budget Hearing


Angry teachers, tearful parents and students who worry about leaving schools they love bombarded the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School Board Tuesday night with complaints about Superintendent Peter Gorman's budget-cutting plans.

Plans to lay off hundreds of teachers, eliminate neighborhood bus stops for some magnet schools, and group the district's highest-poverty schools in separate administrative zones generated 2 1/2 hours of complaints, along with some urgings to push state and county officials for more money.

Later in the meeting, school officials rolled out a proposed "pay-as-you-play" plan to save some or all middle-school sports. It would charge $50 fees to play in middle school and $100 in high school.

In recent years, CMS budget hearings have been ho-hum, drawing only a handful of employees and advocates. Tuesday night, emotions ran high.

"You can be replaced; we can't," East Mecklenburg High teacher Gariann Yochym said, as board Chair Eric Davis tried to gavel her comments to a close and the audience applauded and cheered.

Gorman and the board are planning a 2010-11 budget that could require more than $70million in cuts. CMS does not have taxing power, so the board can't control how much it spends on education. Instead, members figure out how to use the money provided by state, county and federal governments.

Among the cuts is the $1.3million CMS now spends on middle-school sports.

The plan the administration recommended Tuesday night would fill that gap by eliminating middle-school soccer, golf, baseball and softball, as well as charging participation fees and adding a $1 surcharge to high-school sports tickets.

Middle-school football, basketball, track, cheerleading and volleyball would survive.

An alternative plan would save all middle-school sports, and some board members said they'll push for that. That plan does not require additional fees, and there was no explanation Tuesday of why the main proposal calls for eliminating the less-popular sports.

The board did not vote Tuesday.

Private donors have offered to pay scholarships for students who can't afford sports participation fees, Chief Operating Officer Hugh Hattabaugh said.

While a couple of middle-school students spoke about the value of sports, other proposed cuts drew more heat.

Teachers told the board that this year's cuts have already created large classes and undermined discipline. They warned that laying off an additional 600 teachers and 160 assistants would create more problems for students.

"Say no to letting go of teachers who do so much and get so little," said East Meck teacher Kenneth Willis.

Francelia Andrade, mother of a Piedmont Middle student, choked up as she told the board that later hours and the loss of neighborhood bus stops would make it impossible for her daughter to continue her eighth-grade year at Piedmont.

Bryana Andrade-Williams, the daughter, told the board: "I want to be able to come to the school that I love, the school where they push us to do our best."

Several speakers objected to a cost-cutting plan to streamline area administrative offices, with two of the new offices serving only high-poverty schools. Speakers said that smacks of segregation.

Board members were divided on that plan in a later discussion. Some wanted Gorman to do more to reduce administration, while others said he's doing a good job of cutting central-office costs.

Vice Chair Tom Tate said if the perception of segregation is false, CMS needs to convince the community. If it's not, "we're in real trouble down the road," he said.

The CMS Board will vote on a budget May 11.


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Sources: McClatchy Newspapers, WCNC, Google Maps

America Eyes Texas Textbook Controversy...Conservatives vs Liberals

Texas Textbook Battle Has National Impact


Battle lines are being drawn in Texas over what content should be put in school textbooks. And the decision of the Texas Board of Education could be felt in New Jersey, New York, and other states.

So who should get the final word on what students learn?

The issue now before the Texas Board of Education: proposed changes in textbooks for every school in the state.

Liberals, for example, want to eliminate Christmas, Independence Day and Gen. George Patton.

Conservatives pushing a religious line, such as teaching that George Washington was saved from death in battle by divine intervention or replacing Susan B. Anthony and Shirley Chisolm with Phyliss Schlafly.

As the Texas Board of Education prepares for hearings on what to put in the curriculum, fox news wanted to know who Americans think should have the final say on textbooks.

A Rasmussen Reports poll shows 34 percent say teachers, 24 percent say parents. Only 15 percent say local government, while 9 percent say the federal government, and another 9 percent say state government.

The Texas Board of Education is scheduled to make its decision in May. Whatever the vote, the textbook controversy could end up in court for years.



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Sources: Fox News, My FoxNY, Youtube, Google Maps

Charlotte-Meck's Segregated Schools Are The Shame Of Our Nation...Where's Arne Duncan??

(Johnathan Kozol: Segregated Schools are the Shame of the Nation)




School lines intact, but new fights loom


The Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board pulled the plug Tuesday on a plan to reassign the Cotswold Elementary zone from Myers Park to East Mecklenburg High.

But officials will move ahead with other student-assignment proposals that have riled public-school supporters in east and central Charlotte.

"This has been an incredibly divisive issue in our community, and I'm afraid it's not going to end tonight," board chair Molly Griffin said at an overflow meeting that drew hundreds of families in outfits color-coded to stake out their positions.

Superintendent Peter Gorman said he'll release a schedule of public meetings today on proposals to reduce crowding at Eastover Elementary and shift students from Myers Park to East Meck, including possible changes in the International Baccalaureate magnet program.

But he said he'd remove the Cotswold option after hearing Joe White, Trent Merchant, Kaye McGarry, Larry Gauvreau and Ken Gjertsen say they wouldn't vote for it.

Kimberly Mitchell-Walker, who made no comments during the two-hour discussion, raised her hand to indicate she agreed with them.

The board voted unanimously on Aug. 11 to consider options for moving students from Myers Park High, which has almost 3,000 students, to East Mecklenburg High, which will drop to about half that size next year when a new high school opens in Mint Hill.

Cotswold families have been holding meetings and bombarding board members with e-mails for more than a month, since the possibility surfaced of reassigning them from Alexander Graham Middle and Myers Park High to McClintock Middle and East Meck.

"If we allow this to continue, it's going to get nastier," Merchant said. "It's going to raise expectations. It's going to raise anxiety levels."

After the Cotswold decision, dozens of audience members streamed into the lobby at the Government Center. Cotswold families, wearing white tops, hugged and exchanged congratulations.

"I think the support of the board in recognizing stability shows how much they do care for the students," said Durral Gilbert, whose wife teaches at Cotswold Elementary and whose son attends Myers Park High.

East Meck backers looked grim, and some waved away reporters. Some said board members seemed to care more about Myers Park than their school, which they fear will lose good teachers and high-end courses.

"East Meck has the lowest teacher turnover in the system - until next year," said Cindy Carpenter, mother of an East Meck senior.

Top administrators told the board the drop in enrollment shouldn't cripple East Meck's academics, though it may create scheduling challenges. And they said Myers Park is crowded but not in crisis.

Board members gave various reasons Tuesday for not wanting to redraw high school boundaries.

"The issue has become one of neighborhood schools vs. social engineering. I'm in favor of neighborhood schools," McGarry said.

White noted that many experts believe smaller high schools boost achievement and graduation.

"I'm not sure I can buy into the (idea) that we're killing East Meck by putting it into a smaller situation," White said.

Board member James Ross said a system as big as CMS can't promise families stability. But "we can guarantee you some sensible rules that we're going to use to decide where your children go to school," he said, urging the current board not to delay until after the November election.

The board took no formal votes, and as Gorman summarized what he'd heard on the high-school plans, board member Tom Tate asked Gorman whether he believed the board had nixed all possibilities for redrawing boundaries.

"No," Gorman said, "I didn't hear that."

Families also turned out in force to weigh in on the elementary-school plans, even though no public comments were taken. Those from Myers Park Traditional, an elementary magnet school near Eastover, wore red to oppose a move to swap their building with Eastover's. They wore "Stop the Swap" buttons and waved "Save MPTS" signs.

Meanwhile, families from the Dilworth neighborhood backed that move, saying it makes more sense than moving their neighborhood from Eastover to First Ward Elementary. They handed out "No Band-Aids" T-shirts outside the Government Center.

Several board members said they're not crazy about any of the Eastover options outlined so far, but hope better ideas will arise from the community meetings, expected to start next week.

Gauvreau asked why Gorman is asking the board to rush into changes for Eastover, with just under 600 students, when schools in the Huntersville area are larger and more crowded. "What's the crisis?" he asked.

Gorman said close-in Eastover has no land for mobile classrooms and had to create two classrooms in the auditorium this year.

"A year from now if we don't address it we will be back," Gorman said. "We think when you're using the stage for classrooms, it's time to address it."

The board must vote by November for any changes to take place in 2010-11.




Emotions complicate equations behind student reassignment plan


On the surface it looks like basic math:

If Myers Park High has 3,000 students and East Meck is about to drop to half that size, move some from one school to the other.

"This is one plus one equals two," Lou Trosch, a district judge and East Meck father, told a sanctuary packed with supporters.

But as the furor over Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools' proposal to shift students shows, the calculus of families, neighborhoods and schools is never simple.

Some of the city's most fiercely committed public-school families are battling over a plan to move about 200 students. Each side says CMS risks toppling years of work to preserve fragile schools, alienating the very people who could save Charlotte from the fate of cities that have abandoned public education.

School board members, buried under e-mails, say the angst and fury from some of Charlotte's most prestigious neighborhoods threatens to eclipse even the months-long strife this year over boundaries for a new Mint Hill high school.

Families in the Cotswold area, targeted for a possible move, say they've spent more than a decade building ties between their neighborhoods and public schools. Reassigning them from Alexander Graham Middle and Myers Park High to McClintock Middle and East Meck, where poverty levels are higher and achievement lower, could undo it all, they say.

"There's a point at which people get tired of starting over," says Laurie Weddington, mother of a Myers Park freshman and two grads. "You don't take what somebody has built and make it someone else's fix."

But East Meck backers say they have a diverse school with strong academics, teachers and community support. They say CMS will undo that by leaving East with too few students and teachers to sustain high-end classes.

"Speaking for all students, we are not willing to lose any more teachers or AP courses," said 15-year-old Radhika Kothadia, one of two International Baccalaureate students who spoke at this week's community meeting. A shrunken East Meck "will be nowhere near as great as it is today," she said.

Leaders of both groups are generally keeping their messages positive. But fear and resentment ripple just beneath the surface.

Some Cotswold families use terms like "war zone" to talk about East Meck and McClintock, and swap tales of neighbors trying to sell their houses before property values plunge.

East Meck folks wonder how much race shapes those fears - Myers Park is about 60 percent white, East less than 30 percent. And they worry that the school board will cave to pressure from an influential part of town.

This is all playing out in a school-board election year. The current board could make a quick decision for 2010-11, or wait and hand off to a board where most members will be rookies.

Seeking stability

"Stability" has become a rallying cry, with politicians and families saying CMS sabotages itself with constant change. But growth and stability are incompatible, and this controversy began with plans for a new high school in booming Mint Hill.

A drawn-out battle over those boundaries left East dropping from almost 2,100 students this year to around 1,500 next year.

Tom Tate, who represents East Meck's voting district, asked the board to consider moving students in from Myers Park, and got unanimous support to move forward. Faced with the outcry that followed, many board members have since wavered, suggesting they wait to take a more in-depth look at student assignment after the election.

Families like John and Evelyn Walker were stunned by the Aug. 11 vote.

The Walkers recently moved from Stonehaven, in the East Meck zone, to a 50-year-old "fixer-upper" on Providence Road so their oldest child, 13-year-old Carol, could go to Myers Park next year. They believe it offers more challenging academics and a better debate team than East, and say they chose Myers Park over options such as Catholic schools or moving to Union County.

The Walkers have six children, and Evelyn home-schools most of them. John Walker, who works for Wachovia, says moving into a too-small house on a noisy thoroughfare is a "sacrifice we are willing to make in exchange for the opportunity for my children to attend Myers Park."

The Walkers monitored the Mint Hill boundary discussions, but when Myers Park was left out of the mix, they sold their old house in June. Now the board may rezone their new home back to East Meck.

Board member Ken Gjertsen, who represents the southern suburbs, says closer-in neighborhoods are getting a taste of what his constituents have already experienced, with boundaries drawn not just to fill seats but to balance poverty, as measured by free and reduced lunch eligibility.

"Now that they've run out of suburban kids to help balance FRL numbers, they're coming for your kids," Gjertsen said. "Welcome to the fight."

Tipping points

CMS doesn't assign students explicitly to balance poverty, although diversity is one factor the board can consider. Since court-ordered desegregation ended in 2002, the number of schools with very few middle-class or white students has surged.

Some that were racially and economically mixed at that time have tipped. Prime example: McClintock Middle, which had roughly equal numbers of white and black, poor and non-poor students in 2002. Since then it has lost about 250 students, poverty has risen to around 75 percent and white students make up only 13 percent of enrollment.

That flight, most agree, was accelerated by a former principal who clashed with parent leaders. The principal's job has changed hands four times in the ensuing six years. Many parents, current board members and candidates say no matter what happens with boundaries, CMS must do more to revive McClintock.

But East Meck remains more balanced, in part because families and alumni have fought for their school. One point of pride: an alumni drive that has raised $1.3 million to support East Meck teachers - some of whom, boosters fear, will be reassigned when enrollment drops.

Radhika and her friend Becky Rodriguez, both sophomores, came to East knowing no one. They say they've found a friendly school with teachers who care and racial diversity in the most challenging courses.

The newly organized East Meck Action Community - made up of parents, teachers, alumni and neighbors without kids in public schools - is arguing that CMS endangers the east side and its own future if it lets East Meck bleed students and staff. They're asking the school board to move Cotswold to East, saying it will help both schools.

"This is a critical time for both East Mecklenburg and Myers Park," Trosch said. "If you lose the inner-ring schools, and then you lose the middle-ring schools, it's only a matter of time before you lose the outer-ring schools."

Fighting flight

Cotswold families say reassigning them will only accelerate flight. In the mid-1990s, they say, CMS redrew lines that left Cotswold Elementary with about 60 percent poverty.

"People ran from this school like it was on fire," Weddington recalls. But some parents in the surrounding middle-class neighborhoods knocked on doors and held recruitment parties, gradually winning over neighbors. Strong principals and teachers restored confidence, they say, as did the school board's 2002 decision to send the Cotswold zone to Alexander Graham and Myers Park.

Cotswold's poverty level was 46 percent last year, and the school boasts a cadre of neighborhood parents who volunteer even after their children move up. Students from the impoverished Grier Heights neighborhood get extra support because of that involvement, they say.

Parents doubt they could replicate their success for McClintock.

"I would go look at (McClintock), but I don't know," says Kyna Savedge, who has children at Cotswold and Alexander Graham. She and others say neighborhood support must grow from grass roots, not be forced by officials drawing lines.

"This," Savedge says, "feels like a hostile takeover."



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Sources: Charlotte Observer, Dept of Education, C-Span, WCNC, Wikipedia, Youtube, Creepygif.com, Google Maps