November 8, 2011 Guilford County Schools Board of Education Meeting

I did not make it to the meeting because I had class on the November 8th so I watched the meeting online on November 9th.

The meeting starts off with Chairman Duncan speaking and calling for the Pledge of Allegiance. The Board then started the meeting off with recognitions. Those that were recognized were as follows:

 The GCS Employee of the Month was Kimberly Eason, who has worked at Smith High School for 17 years. She currently works at Smith as a technology assistant and is an important part of the school community.

 The GCS Volunteer of the Month was Jen Mitchell, who volunteers at Jones Elementary School and organized the 1st and 10 Reading program, which is a program Mitchell put into place which allows volunteers to spend the first 10 minutes of each day reading with the first graders at the school.

 The Board recognized the United Way of Greensboro for donating a large conference table to be put in the PTA Conference room which is located in the main administration building on Eugene Street.

 The Elementary and Secondary School Counselor of the Year (which is named by the NCSCA [North Carolina School Counselor Association) were Vandalia Elementary School counselor Kelly Ingram and Andrews High School counselor Cory Notestine.

After GCS Board did recognitions, they allowed public speakers to come to the floor to speak. According to Mr. Duncan, the speakers have 3 minutes a piece to speak and the floor is only opened to 2 speakers per meeting. The first speaker to speak was a man named William Heasley (from Greensboro, NC). Heasley was concerned about money that he felt was going down the drain because the school board was refusing to allow the building that is to be demolished at Carver Elementary School to be sold instead in order to save tax payers from having to pay for the actual demolition itself. He felt like instead of GCS having a Public System way of doing things that they instead were being run and lead by a Political System and he said he felt GCS Board of Education should reconsider their options on the matter. He then walked off without a response from the board which shocked me because I was under the impression that if someone from the Public speaks at the school board meetings that they would definitely get a response, but I was seriously mistaken!

The second speaker that came before the board was Allen Hawks (also from Greensboro, NC). Mr. Hawk was concerned about the current cap that is on the Charter Schools here in Greensboro. He says he feels like the caps should be lifted off of the Charter Schools and with the lift then GCS can possibly then be able to control the overwhelming flow of applications coming into the very few Charter Schools that are offered here in Greensboro. Mr. Hawks ends his statement by stating his opinions on possibly changing some of the regular public schools that we have to actual Charter Schools.

After the speakers, the GCS Board began to discuss items on the Board to approve and revise. The Board approved to discuss the American Education Week Proclamation, Personnel Reports, Budget Amendments and Transfers, and Education Supplemental Service Providers for the 2011-12 school year. The big discussion that they had during this part of the meeting was about the $150,000 Table to Teach grant that, if I understood correctly, was suppose to go to the local HBCUs. From what I got out of the discussion, the Board was trying to figure out exactly where the funds had been or were going to be disbursed to and whether or not the funds could be used to go to research departments at non-HBCUs. The Chairman felt that more time was needed to be used to handle this matter accordingly and the Board as a whole decided to “table” this Transition to Teach grant item from the agenda for the night.

Next the Board discussed local options for Alternative Schools and they approved the 2011-12 school year focus areas and goals for the Guilford County School’s 3 Alternative Schools, which are High School Ahead Academy, SCALE Pruett, and SCALE of Greensboro. The faculty and staff members that were here for this discussion were Michelle Hayes, Terry Warrell, and Kenneth Wheat. Michelle Hayes, which is the principal at High School Ahead Academy, an academy which MAINLY focuses on sixth graders who will be 14 or older entering into the seventh grade, stated that she is very concerned with the way in which parents are able to interact with the teachers and their kids in the classroom and she would like to put a plan in place which would increase parent involvement by 15%. She said that 15% increase would include parents coming to sit in their children’s class when they have a concerned issue, as well as the standard before and after school parent-teacher conferences and meetings. I loved that idea and had to wonder why this has to be proposed to the school board; in my opinion what Mrs./ Ms. Hawks is or was trying to do should be an action already done across the board at all schools when it comes to parent involvement with their kids.

The next item that was up for discussion was the renaming of Southwest High School’s Gymnasium. Nora Carr, the chief of staff, presented a recommendation to the Board to rename the gym the James E. Coggins Gymnasium. The Board did approve the proposal. They then talked about the High Point Central High School Construction Project and they voted to terminate the contract that they had in place with Miles Builders Inc. for a breach of contract on the High Point Central High’s gymnasium reconstruction project which was not finished (very shocking!).

The Board then discussed the Student Assignment Boundary Modifications. The Board discussed a proposal about the boundaries surrounding Ronald E. McNair Elementary School. After briefly discussing the issue, the Board decided to (and voted to) keep options (and they kept saying and using the word ‘Option’) 2B, 3B, and 5 and they asked that GCS staff create an Option 9 so that there could be an area in that zoning district that had a high concentration of ESL Families to remain at and around the Jesse Wharton Elementary School. The Board agreed that at the November 28, 2011 meeting they would introduce this proposal of new school zoning assignments to the public.

After that discussion, the Board meeting kind of picked up in pace. The Board briefly discussed and then voted to adopt Option 3 regarding Colfax Elementary School changes for the public to further comment on. They voted to accept the proposal on a shift that would move the Oakhill Elementary School boundary to the Parkview Elementary School zone. They had a slight disagreement and rejected a proposal to shift Reedy Fork Elementary and the Madison Elementary school boundaries to the Monticello-Brown Summit School zone. The last thing to be voted in was to get the Board’s authorization on a letter to be sent to Guilford County’s local legislative delegation to ask for some flexibility on the implementation of 5 extra instruction days to be included in the start of the 2012-2013 school year, as well as requesting additional funds that would help to support the additional days that they were asking for, if approved. The Board meeting ended with the closing remarks from the Board Members and the meeting was adjourned.

This meeting reminded me of a couple of things that we have read and discussed in class this semester. I can relate this meeting to the Paulo Freire article: Pedagogy of the Oppressed and the Chafe book: Civilities and Civil Rights readings. The thing about the meeting that reminded me of the Paulo Freire article was the way in which the GCS Board Members ran their meeting. I felt like they were doing exactly what Freire describes as ‘Banking Education by maintaining and stimulating contradictions through attitudes and practices that mirror oppressive society as a whole and how banking education begins with a false understanding of men and women as objects and produces necrophily. I used Freire’s article as an example because I absolutely felt the same way Mr. Hawks did when he gave his opinion to the Board that he felt like instead of the Board having a Public System of doing things, they are running the GCS system like a Political system. In politics and congressional meetings, we rarely see any speakers speaking at all, so I felt like the Guilford County Board of Education is basically saying to the public, “Hey..you people should be glad we’re allowing you to come up and voice your opinions. We don’t have to respond; as long as we’re allowing you to voice your little opinions should be all that matters”. Now of course I’m hoping that wasn’t what they were saying or insinuating by doing that, but it that’s definitely the impression that I got. I also used Freire’s article as an example because of the way both speakers were only given 3 minutes to speak on their issues a piece. If you’re not going to give them a response anyway, then why not at least give them 5 minutes a piece? To me, by the Board doing and treating public speakers in this manner, it just gives a sense that what the speakers are saying or concerned about are not really valid arguments to bring towards the Board and that they [public speakers] are just mere time consumption instruments to be used to possibly take up some of the extra meeting minutes that may be left over when they’re done with their [the Board’s] meeting. To me, because of how the Board handled(s) Public Speakers, it just shows the GCS School Board as being oppressors and the public as being the oppressed society and how GCS basically and possibly had a false understanding of the 2 speakers that came to the meeting to give their opinions and their points across but left with no answers and not even any responses.
I felt the meeting reminded me of the Chafe readings because of all of the discussions on the rezoning of some of the school districts here in Greensboro. No, the rezoning issues that came up in the meeting were not on rezoning because of segregation, but I do remember at some point they discussed that they wanted to make sure that they kept the ESL families near the Jesse Wharton Elementary School. (I didn’t know what ESL families really meant so I looked it up and found out that ESL stands for English as a Second Language, so in contrast they were speaking about children that are in public schools that come from English as Second Language families). I don’t know if I took what they were trying to do in the wrong way or not, but from what I do know, the majority of ESL Families are either of Latino, Indian, Asians, and African-America descent and to me with the zoning proposal, it just appears that they are trying to keep ESL Families isolated in one distinct area instead of allowing them to expand out. To me (and again, in my opinion) this was and is a form of desegregation and I feel if they would have gone more into depth about this particular proposal, I may not feel this way.

In conclusion, the meeting was a good one dealing basically with recognitions and approving, revising, or deleting of proposals. Other than what I’ve mentioned, I can’t really relate the GCS Board meeting to anything else we have spoken on in the class. I can say it was a form of democracy in the way in which the meeting was held. I think the main thing they need to work on is more talk time for public speakers and they definitely need to work on giving responses back to the public because after all, the speakers make up for the parents that have concerned and they are definitely not just wasting their time coming or going to the Board Meetings; they’re definitely coming to get answers about things that are concerning them at their children’s schools! THEY WANT ANSWERS, and I and a lot of other parents are thinking that’s where to come to get them!

Calista Phair- Contact Person- calistaphair@yahoo.com
Felicia Lawerence
Randi Burks
Rachel Stanley
Evette Barnes
Ed LeHanks
Denisha Williams

School Board Meeting
On September 29th 2011 the Guilford County School System had one of their regular Board of Education meetings. This was a normal school board meeting. In attendance were:
J. Carlvena Foster, District 1
Ed Price, District 2

Darlene Garrett, District 3

Alan W. Duncan, Chairman, District 4

Paul A. Daniels, District 5

Jeff Belton, District 6

Kris B. Cooke, District 7

Deena A. Hayes, District 8

Amos L. Quick, III, Vice-Chairman, District 9

Nancy R. Routh, At Large

Sandra Alexander, At Large
After going through all of the protocol, they recognized a teacher from Ferndale Middle School. Her name Kimberly Forbes and she lead her students to a victory at the First Lego League Team Regional Competition.
One of the main, no the main topic of the night was the budget and what should be spent where. While they put it out into more simple terms I found a few articles saying that they may need more.
HIGH POINT — Officials believe Guilford County Schools needs to spend as much as $1.2 billion over the next decade to upgrade existing schools and accommodate future enrollment growth. But it could be years before taxpayers can stomach paying for another round of construction. Voters authorized three bond programs totaling $957 million since 2000, all before the onset of a crippling economic recession. “I don’t think there’s going to be any bonds for a good long time,” said Darlene Garrett, member of the Board of Education. “I just don’t see that happening.” The board discussed early proposals for addressing those challenges Saturday during its fall retreat in High Point. The daylong meeting included updates on a new busing schedule, black male student achievement, and budget projections for 2012-13. Members learned that one-fourth of the $1.2 billion would pay for new schools and classroom additions, with the bulk going toward renovations. The district expects to add 6,300 students over the next 10 years. That growth would cause a shortage of about 4,000 classroom seats, even after the district completes its 2008 bond program.
Officials suggested the district:
* Expand Sedgefield, Millis Road, Madison, Kirkman Park, and Oak View elementary schools; rebuild Morehead and Hunter; and build a total of two new elementary schools in the northern and western regions.
* Expand Northeast, Mendenhall and Southeast middle schools; rebuild Guilford; and build a new middle school in the airport area.
* Renovate Northeast, High Point Central, Grimsley and Western high schools.
“This is not an approved plan,” said Andy LaRowe, the district’s chief operations officer. “It’s truly a concept and an idea that came out of this data.” The board won’t begin serious discussions about future large-scale construction projects until it completes the $457 million bond program approved by voters in 2008. However, the board suggested meeting with the Board of Commissioners over the next nine months to discuss the district’s long-term needs. The board also will hear a presentation Thursday about what maintenance projects the district plans to complete this year. The school board should keep residents informed of the district’s needs, Chairman Alan Duncan said. “There will come a time when we have to do that,” he said about future bonds. “I still want to have that optimism because our citizens have given it to us in the past.” In other business, the board heard about but did not discuss a preliminary budget forecast for the 2012-13 school year. Sharon Ozment, chief financial officer, said the system could face a shortfall of $12.4 million, even after it rolls over $10.7 million saved during the current fiscal year. The deficit does not factor in the loss of state funding for pre-kindergarten. The board learned the district expects to save $1 million this year from a new busing system that reduced the vehicle fleet by 23 buses. Jeff Harris, transportation director, also shared an early proposal to partner with a company to produce biodiesel for buses using waste vegetable oil. The initiative could trim fuel costs and provide learning opportunities for high school students, Harris said. Superintendent Maurice “Mo” Green said staff will continue to research the proposal and update the board. “This is something intriguing to us so we’re going to continue to pursue it,” he said.
GREENSBORO — Guilford County Schools said Friday that it has cut 432 positions over the past three years because of budget cuts. The district also has eliminated 802 workdays for assistant principals and 936 hours of work for noncertified staff since 2008-09. The position cuts do not include layoffs. Local schools started the 2011-12 school year with 100 percent of its classroom teaching positions filled. The announcement follows survey results released last week by the N.C. Department of Public Instruction that showed school systems have eliminated more than 16,000 positions since 2008-09. The state report did not include Guilford County Schools because the district did not respond to the survey. The omission was an oversight on the district’s part, according to Chief of Staff Nora Carr. Guilford County Schools sent its data to the state department on Sept. 1; it is available here. During the past three years, the system has cut or redirected $57 million from its budget, primarily because of significant reductions in state funding. The district employs 10,339 full-time and part-time workers. Teachers account for 5,040 of this total; another 1,007 are teacher assistants
I added this second article because it shows that we always need more money then we think. And the school thinks the best way to get that back is by laying off teachers. But who is really effect by these lay offs. To me, the people who are being most effected by this situation are the kids. We are putting money ahead of their education and we are willing to make short cuts in their education to save a nickel and dime. That is just wrong in so many ways.
I feel that this can relate back to what we have read with Gene Sharp. If we keep asking for more money and keep cutting teachers it will have to eventually lead to some sort of protest. The quality of education will go down and we will keep spending money on things we do not need. This in turn will not only make the teachers strike but also the students and parents. The best way to get their attention will be walk outs, sit-ins, and basically a stop in education. But as Sharp would say that is the only way to get their attention. What will happen is a shut down of school all together and education will become more about money then about learning. The other reading that I can think of that would best describe what is going on is the book we are reading by Chaffe. The one word that actually sticks out to me from all the chapters is “progressivism.” When you look at this word at first glance you see the word progress. And that is something that GCS prides itself on, that it is a very progressive school system. But when you really look at GCS, progressivism is a better way to explain the school system. When you are on the out side looking in it would see that they are progressive. But if you really look at the school system you would realize that, that is just a façade and that they have issues too. They have schools in their system that don’t have textbooks or don’t even give money to. The first school that came to my mind was Dudley High School. They actually do not get much funding and they also do not have books for every student and their library is so bare. Now while GSC gives off this front of progress we see from my and other examples that what they are experiencing is not progress its progressivism.
Through going to this school board meeting I have really realized that I do not want to be a teacher. Also that when I have children I want to be as active as possible in their school to make sure that they get a quality education. But for sure I know that I will not be going to another school board meeting for a very very long time.

Guilford County School Board Meeting September 13th, 2011 6:00-8:10pm

I attended the first hour of the meeting in person and have since watched the second hour online. The first section of the meeting started promptly at 6:03 as Chairman Duncan called on a member of the board to lead in the Pledge of Allegiance. At that point the board began its recognition of various parties related to the Guilford County Schools community. This was my first experience ever attending a school board meeting, and I was both surprised and relatively impressed by the amount of time and attention paid to recognizing efforts of those who facilitate the function of the institution of public education in Guilford County. I found this to be an effective and positive practice at least on a small level. Susan Phillips was recognized as Employee of the Month for her work as the induction support coach or mentor for new teachers at the beginning of the school year. Next the Volunteer of the Month, Zella Poole, was recognized and thanked for her role. Finally the Guilford County School had been awarded 10 national awards for outstanding communications and was recognized very warmly by members of the board as all of the members of the Relations Department were presented with big thanks from what seemed to be a very grateful Board of Directors. The floor was then opened up for 45 minutes of public commentary. A mother of a child in a Guilford County elementary school spoke about an initiative towards educating the whole child. She explained that this program recognizes that education should focus on the cognitive, social, emotional, and physical needs of a child. This philosophy places emphasis on the process of education not just the product, said the community member. She has been to various meetings speaking about the Whole Child Initiative and asking for a mandate that requires at minimum of one 20-minute recess per day. “Students are not just about numbers,” she said, “we cannot only quantify but instead must qualify aspects of a child. Schools are also about community and individuals. “We will continue voicing our support in hopes of enacting real change. It will take much work, but it is wonderful and worthwhile.” Amy Hansen then spoke, continuing the discussion for a required, scheduled daily recess period. Spoke about her hopefulness to hear that the Guilford School Board is working towards the Whole Child Initiative, empowering teachers with the ability to give children much needed breaks even in the middle of literacy. However, she commented that she is disappointed that the daily recess is not being required or even specifically recommended, easily allowing teachers to make discretionary decisions against allowing children this vital time. Online there is a petition for daily recess in Guilford County Elementary Schools which on September 21st, 2011 had 614 Signatures of guardians of students at the school or Guilford County community members, who believe that “daily recess has a positive impact on learning and will benefit the physical, social, and emotional development of our children.” This is one aspect of the initiative of various stakeholders who are calling for structural change in Guilford County schools that would facilitate a more holistic teaching style. In Paulo Friere’s Chapter 2 of his book The pedagogy of the Oppressed, he posits,
“Education as the practice of freedom—as opposed to education as the practice of domination—denies that man is abstract, isolated, independent, and unattached to the world; It also denies that the world exists as a reality apart from people. Authentic reflection considers neither abstract man nor the world without people, but people in their relations with the world. In these relations consciousness and world are simultaneous: consciousness neither precedes the world nor follows it.”
This argument, in the context of mandating breaks or recesses, illustrates other more philosophical reasons to encourage playtime for young kids. Many who have experienced recesses during elementary school can attest to the importance of interacting with one’s peers and the knowledge gained from those experiences. None live or experience the world in a vacuum and non-banking, liberation education system, argues Friere, would not try and pretend that we do. Educating the “whole child” as these mothers are calling for would mean fostering the learning experience and including every aspect of a child in that process. The kind of experience interacting with others in your class in a time of respite might afford.
One of the later speakers was a woman by the name of Lisa Clapp. It was obvious that Clapp seemed very comfortable speaking and at the meeting and that she had many times before. She began to speak regarding Eastern Guilford High School and a movement of parents wanting transparency and communication regarding issues of safety in schools. As a voting member of the School Improvement Team, the day after it had been rumored that a gun had been taken off of a student she was enraged to hear that the administrators and Board denied such occurrence. However the sheriff’s office confirmed that there had been a petition for arrest of a student, Clapp remarked “What I am telling you as a board, is we are not transparent at Eastern Guilford High School. And I’m not real sure about what its going to take to get behind an effort to keep kids and their parents safe but we need to be real serious about what we’re doing. I’m assuming Amos that if I get moved to your district we’re gonna join hands because whether I run for School board or not I’m not going away.” In research completed after attending the meeting I furthered my understanding of Lisa Clapp’s civic involvement regarding public education in the area. On September 1st, of 2011 the Rhino Times writer Paul C. Clark wrote in the article entitled “Clapp Issue In School Board Redistricting.” This article discusses Clapp’s long-standing importance as an education activist particularly for the school district her kids are students in, District 4. One member of the community said about Clapp “she is fighting our fight. She is here for us. She is one of our rural locals. We relate to her.” One important question that is brought to light regarding Lisa Clapp’s role is this: are their not more parents who want to be as involved in their children’s education? Can and should Lisa Clapp have so much clout standing by herself as she would if there were the rest of the parents actively involved even a fraction as much as she has been. In Warren’s article “Building a Political Constituency for Urban School Reform,” he stresses that efforts need to be community wide and encouraging of all parents to get more involved in their child’s education. The author recognized that low-income parents, typically work long hours and it can be particularly difficult to engage them in political action. However a system focused on an organization (or a single particularly passionate person) advocating instead of an involving the community in their own avocations is one that inherently dis-empowers these families and results in widening inequality in political participation. Though, Lisa Clapp’s continual involvement and civic engagement is to be commended, however it seems that to truly make democratic change that is representative of all the stake holders hopes regarding issues of structural change, full parent involvement as well as institutional cooperation is paramount.
There were many issues to be dealt with at this meeting, as surely is true in most bureaucratic meetings of this kind. One issue intense importance was that of redistricting, an issue that has many complicating factors. This issue was the remaining discussion, I believe for the rest of the hour and 45 minutes that the meeting continued.
What rang true in this experience for me was the possible power of Warren’s recommendation; the absolute necessity of political constituency in efforts to reform education at a structural or pedagogical level. This small meeting represents many of the ways in which the people of this country must first understand the meaning of a representative government, and upon that understanding recognize the importance of full community involvement, empowerment, self-authorization and agency necessary for said “representative government” to be made truly representative. That process of gaining consciousness, however, will have to pass so many structural barriers that demand that the oppressed remain complacent, and the privileged ignorant. One question we must ask is what are the ways we can collectively debunk the myths of America’s meritocracy and enlighten our communities to the injustices abundant that oppress so many?

Clark, Paul C. “Clapp Issue In School Board Redistricting.” Rhino Times, September 1, 2011, sec. News. Accessed September 21, 2011.
http://greensboro.rhinotimes.com/Articles-c-2011-08-31-209423.112113-Clapp-Issue-In-School-Board-Redistricting.html.

Friere, Paulo. Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New York: Continuum, 1970.
Guilford County Parents for Recess. “Petition for Daily Recess in Guilford County

Elementary Schools.” Accessed September 21, 2011. http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/recessinguilfordcounty/.

Warren, Mark R. “Building a Political Constituency for Urban School Reform.” Urban Education 46, no. 3 (2010): 484-512.

On September 13, 2011, I attended the Guilford county school board meeting. The meeting started off with the Pledge of Allegiance, and then two teachers were given awards for their service in education. Then the floor opened up to the public for citizens to speak at the meeting. Anybody could speak at the meeting, but you had to tell the board ahead of time that you were speaking. The speakers at this meeting brought up some very good points.
Julie Bowie and Amy Hanson both spoke about the Whole Child Initiative. Basically, this plan is to boost test scores in schools all over the United States. A downfall to this plan is that students wouldn’t have recess anymore. Both Bowie and Hanson disagreed with this part of the initiative and I agree with them also. Kids need to have recess so that they can run off that excess energy that it found in every child around the world. It also used as a break from learning for the kids. Everybody needs at least a small break for every block of class. Also, the teachers need a break from the kids and that is what recess is for. Speaking from experience, I had to work with kids for extended periods of time and I looked forward to the break times, the times where they could just run around and I could just relax. If we take recess away, we would have teachers that are way more stressed out than they are now, and students would be too jumpy and excited to pay attention in class. Lisa Clapp brought up a very controversial point about violence in schools and the communication between home and school. Apparently, a gun was brought into a high school in Greensboro and the administrators did not tell the parents, or anybody, about the incident. Clapp had to go to the students to find out if this was true. She believes that the parents should know what is going on in the schools that their children go to, especially when it comes to their children’s safety. Clapp used the term “transparency” meaning that parents should be able to “see through” the school and know what happens in schools. I believe in Clapp’s theory of transparency and that schools should communicate more with their parents. Linda Welbourne talked about rezoning school zones to accommodate a new school that hasn’t been built yet. She argued that you can’t rezone for a school that hasn’t been built yet and could take two years to build anyway. This debate has been going on for months and is still a highly debated issue inside the Guilford County School Board. Many parents feel the same as Welbourne and don’t agree with the new zoning plans. School board officials are on the opposite side of the argument. I agree with the parents. To me, it doesn’t make sense to start zoning for a school that isn’t built yet. Judd Stafford argued that new teachers working for Guilford County Schools shouldn’t be paid as highly as they are and that the whole school system should cut back on expenses to lessen taxes. He argued that we are still in a bad economy and that we need to save money in order to survive. He argues a good point since our economy is still fragile and we should try save money in case the inevitable happens and our economy totally crashes.
My analysis from this meeting is that it was very organized and that the school board really cared about the opinions of the public. Most school boards don’t really care what the public thinks, as long as they get their money for their time with the students. Parents feel as though their voices aren’t being heard in schools. This is seen especially in urban areas. According to Warren, Parents in urban communities do not have the clout to effect change in schools while parents in privileged communities do have the clout (485). Also, Lisa Clapp expressed the qualities of the justice oriented citizen according to Westheimer and Kahne. She went ahead and found out if there was a gun brought to the school and asked why the parents weren’t notified about the situation. She plans on rectifying this situation quickly and establish a transparency between parents and schools. Another issue that was discussed was the demolition of Craven Elementary School. Most citizens were for it and a $270,000 grant was given for the cost of the demolition. A small news article was written by a FOX8 staff writer about the demolition.
References
Kahne, Joseph, Westheimer, Joel. “What kind of citizen? The Politics of Educating for Democracy.” American Education Research Journal 41.2 (2004)
Warren, Mark. ”Building a Political Constituency for Urban Political Reform” American Education Research Journal (2010)
“Greensboro’s Craven Elementary School to be Demolished” Web. FOX8News 14 Sept. 2011

Works Cited
Anyon, J. (1980). Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work. Journal of Education
Kahne, Joseph, Westheimer, Joel. What kind of citizen? The Politics of Educating for Democracy.
Nye, Christopher. “What Is Whole Child Education?” The Whole Child Initiative. The Myrin Institute. 15 Sept. 2011.
Positive Behavior Support and Community.” Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports. 2011. 18 Sept. 2011. .
Sharp, Gene. The Politics of Nonviolent Action. Boston: Porter Sargent Publishers. 1-48.
West, Cornel. Democracy Matters. New York: The Penguin Press, 2004. 1-62.

The Guilford County School board meeting I attended took place on Tuesday, September 13, 2011. The meeting began with the Pledge of Allegiance, followed by a moment of silence. After, two women were recognized for their great work within Guilford County schools. First, the employee of the month was awarded to Susan Phillips. Then, Zella Poole received the award for volunteer of the month.
When the floor was open for public comments a variety of emotions came into play. Both Julie Bowie and Amy Hanson made comments about how important daily recess is for elementary school students. Hanson talked about how she feels physical education is just as important as emotional and mental education for elementary age children. This tied into what Bowie stated about the “whole child” initiative. An elementary student should not be forced to sit in a classroom all school day and not be able to use their “whole body”.
The public comment from Lisa Clapp is when the meeting, in my opinion, began to get “heated”. Clapp expressed deeply how parents want more transparency at Eastern Guilford high school. She was told a student had brought a gun to school on September 12th and she and other parents were not notified. Clapp asked two school officials was the alleged action true and they told her no. Once receiving that news, she received information from a student at Eastern Guilford high school that a student did bring a gun to school. Parents want their children to be safe at Eastern Guilford high school and Clapp feels transparency would help this action come into play.
My favorite part of the meeting was the staff report. Chief operations officer, Andy LaRowe, began with bringing up the demolition of the Craven elementary school building. This building has been vacant since the late 1990s. It is in poor conditions due to water damage and is recommended to be torn down at a cost of $270,000. Different board members were afraid of what would happen to the property once the building was demolished. Board member Sandra Alexander stated how the building should have been sold years ago for the more that the $1 million that was offered. The end result was a ten to zero vote to demolish the Craven elementary school building.
The other staff report that seemed to get the board members “heated” was the Dudley high school athletics facilities upgrade. This report was given by Robert Melton, executive director-facilities. At the previous school board meeting it was said the upgrades could be done with $5.1 million. The upgrades consist of a new concession stand, new bleachers, a track, security fence and additional landscaping. But since the last meeting, Melton had met with contractors and designers and saw the amount needed to be increased. Board member Amos Quick feels that nothing has been done to get a jump start on the upgrade. He expressed how the job can be done with the $5.1 million they agreed on previously and be complete by the beginning of the 2012 school year (August). The vote for this was seven to two to the upgrades, and one member abstained.
One connection I made between this meeting and the readings which we have discussed in class came from Joel Westheimer and Joseph Kahne “What kind of citizen? The Politics of Educating for Democracy”. Lisa Clapp displayed that she was a justice-oriented citizen. During the public comments she not only told the problem(s) she noticed at Eastern Guilford high school but gave ways of how to fix the problems. She seemed to be aware and understand the social forces, which Westheimer and Kahne said is a trait of a justice-oriented citizen.

References
Kahne, Joseph, Westheimer, Joel. What kind of citizen? The Politics of Educating for Democracy.

Delpit, Lisa. Other People’s Children: Cultural Conflict in the
Classroom. New York: The New Press, 12-17. Print.
Melvin, Lauren. “Hundreds of Families Affected by School Redistricting.”
(2011): n. page. Web. 18 Sep. 2011. .
North Carolina. GCS Redistricting. Greensboro: Guilford County Schools,
2009. Web. .
West, Cornel. Democracy Matters. New York: The Penguin Press, 2004. 1-
62. Print.

On September 13, 2011, the Guilford County School Board met to discuss a varying array of topics as it related to the betterment of our local school system. The meeting started at 6pm with a short moment of silence and then the pledge of allegiance. I was very happy to see that both of these gestures were made at the beginning of the meeting. All but two of the board members were in physical attendance. Chairman Alan Duncan, Carlvena Foster, Ed Price, Paul Daniels, Jeff Belton, Kris Cooke, Amos Quick, Nancy Routh, and Sandra Alexander. Darlene Garrett was absent while Deena Hayes attended via phone for the meeting.
The first procedure the board took was to recognize the induction support coach, Susan Phillips, as the GCS Employee of the Month. Secondly was the award of Volunteer of the Month given to Zella Poole. She is a volunteer at McLeansville Elementary school and was joked as to all but being recognized as an unofficial paid employee of the Guilford County School System. At the conclusion of each award, the award recipients were greeted and congratulated, along with their family and friends, by each of the board members. The last of the board recognitions was offered to the GCS District Relations department. Chairman Alan Duncan went into detail on the staff and their contributions they make in helping GCS function in a positive manner. The GCS District Relations department received 10 awards in various areas as recognition of their communication skills. Each member of the team was called out by name and received a great round of applause for their efforts.
After the recognitions and awards were given, an open forum was offered to the public to address the school board with their concerns as citizens. Alan Duncan explained the rules of engagement to give guidelines to the participants prior to their beginning their statements. The first to speak was Julie Bouie. Mrs. Bouie spoke on the topic of Educating the Whole Child organization and was then supported further by the next speaker, Amy Hansen. Mrs. Hansen also talked on the needs of recess but it is not being required nor recommended by the existing curriculum. This was also addressed by the Whole Child initiative that Mrs. Bouie spoke of earlier. This initiative was in question because the children are in the class rooms for 6 ½ hours and need time to “run around and use some energy”. The discrepancy seems to be between the teachers and the parents on how much time they need in the classroom versus the welfare of the children and their ability to take a break from their studies and exercise a little. The next speaker was William Easley who spoke on the new bowling option for students in the GCS system. He spoke against the act of “taxpayers who will be stuck with the bill on transportation of the children back and forth to the bowling alleys. The next topic was that of “transparency” given by Lisa Clapp. She spoke as it directly related to past and present safety at Eastern Guilford High School. Mrs. Clapp went on to discuss the most recent infraction at the school, the possession of a gun on the school bus. The hot topic was that no one from the school system would admit to their being one and it was not until contact was made to the Guilford County Sherriff’s Department that the truth came out. The Sherriff’s department had to confirm that a student’s arrest order was petitioned for. It was this lack of transparency that really concerned many of the parents that were there to support this topic. This is not the first time that this topic has been raised. Back in May of 2011, Fox 8 reported on the fact that Jon Dowell, who has two children at Eastern Guilford High School, came with documents that contained 20 reports of incidents at the high school from March alone. (FOX 8, 2011) As a result, board member Paul Daniels stated, “there needs to be tougher consequences for repeat offenders.” He also stated, “We need to start listening to our principals when they recommend long-term suspension for somebody.” (FOX 8, 2011) Next was the discussion on the School Counseling Association and the Ramps program by Martha Stilson. Mrs. Stilson spoke of the organization and what work was already being done at Stokesdale Middle School. She spoke on how it worked with bullying, academics, and self esteem building. The board then went on to sign off on the allowance of the program to be utilized in the school and signed the necessary paperwork to implement it. The next topic was on the request by Linda Warfield to postpone the vote on redistricting the attendance zone for the new Southeast Middle School project. She felt that it was premature to designate new school lines when a new site location was not even determined yet. This topic then addressed again later in the meeting. The last speaker was Joe Stafford. He spoke on the wastefulness of taxpayer dollars and the wastefulness of spending as it related to the demolition of Craven Elementary School. He felt that because of overspending that the brunt of the board’s missteps would have an affect on the raising of property taxes in Guilford County. He also brought to light that Guilford County has the highest starting salary for new teachers as it relates to the other wealthier counties in the state.
The meeting changed in context as it moved into contract award bids for the various projects being considered and implemented throughout the community. The topic of redistricting and the drawing of new attendance lines throughout the county. This brings up the topic of how to implement this without alienating the minority community. With the new lines, it would split the African American community and as a result, could strengthen parts of the community while decreasing the voting power in others. A lot of this can be blamed on politics and socio economics. Jean Anyon writes on the “Relationships between People”. She states that relationships as they relate to social class is “the relation one has to authority and control at work and in society.” (Anyon, 1980) This speaks to the fact that if you weaken a certain group’s voice in a certain environment, then you control the strength of their voice. This can directly affect the choices that parents in the school system have control over in the best interest of their children. Lisa Delpit carries this step further with her views on the impact of voice and stereotypes in the African American school community. She states that even in predominantly black school districts teachers find themselves stereotyping certain children in their classrooms. She goes on to say, “middle-class African-American teachers who do not identify with the poor African-American students they teach may hold similarly damaging stereotypes and as a result are not limited to whites.”(Anyon, 1980)
One of the last heated topics of the board meeting revolved around the proposed athletic program renovations at Dudley High School. The conflict in this proposal was the use of MBE’s (Minority Business Enterprise) in the construction processes of the contractors being considered. Deana Hayes felt that she did not want the board to approve the contract due to the disproportionate number and lack of MBE’s in the construction process. The use of MBE’s is a big topic in the GCS systems procedures in hiring general contractors to do work. Amos Quick spoke up to also share concern about the lack of MBE’s, but felt that it would be doing a disservice to the community to hold up the proposed improvements for another year as they are on such a tight deadline to beat the August 2012 deadline for completion. The board went into great discussion on the topic and was somewhat assured that the general contractor was working hard on having more MBE’s be included in the process to satisfy the requirements. A vote was then taken by the board and passed the resolution to proceed with the work.
I found that the board worked respectfully and with guidelines in place to keep the meeting moving in a positive and productive format. I was also able to notice some of the tensions that different members have with each other. It was most evident on the topics of race and appropriation of money and projects in certain areas. It was interesting to see a strong mix of concerns expressed by the various members of the board. Most of the meeting included the response and participation of most board members, but there was just a small amount of input from the superintendant, Mo Green. I thought to myself that he would have added more input to the meeting, but realize that he is not directly on the board of education and is there to observe and reflect on the concerns of the Guilford County community.

Sullivan, R. (2011, May 13). FOX 8 News [Television broadcast]. High Point: WGHP TV.
Anyon, J. (1980). Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work. Journal of Education, 67-89.
Delpit, L., (2006) Other People’s Children: Cultural Conflict in the Classroom. New York: The New York Press, 10-17.