No Surprise Here

I am not into sarcasm as a general rule, but… SURPRISE, SURPRISE, SURPRISE!! Now the School Board is saying they might have to convert at least half of the elementary schools to mandatory year-round. Notice how many of us remained quiet after the vote on Tuesday night? That’s because we were waiting for the “real” decision. Well, the Wake County School Board must be on another planet if they think a bond has even the slightest chance of passing in November. I have openly shared my opinion all along that a bond is doomed unless the school board does TWO things: 1) Drop the threat of forced year-round school attendance and, equally important, 2) Take steps to at least stop the perpetuation of the intense mistrust that citizens have had for their board for as long as I can remember. They have done neither. In fact, with their latest “wishy-washy” discussions, they have just blown the slightest hope of instilling trust right out of the water. In doing so, they also turned real hopes of passing a bond for much-needed school construction into nothing but a dream.

Is it too late for them to salvage anything? Hard to say. The year-round threat still remains, plus they just succeeded in alienating those who might have been on the fence in regard to trust. Not too smart. A reporter for the N&O indicated that the School Board wanted to present a “united front” for their recent proposal. Thank goodness that Ron Margiotta is not the type to compromise his beliefs. He was willing to take the heat as the lone dissenter because he has never stopped fighting for our cause. By the way, he needs all of the encouragement he can get, and I urge you to let him know how much you appreciate his boldness. His email address is rmargiotta@wcpss.net.

As for a united front, the School Board must quickly join together on the following actions if they expect anyone to change their minds on supporting a bond for school construction. In my opinion it’s their only hope – and very slight at that. They need to:

1. Abandon the mandatory year-round conversion threat once and for all – for everyone


2. Conduct their own research on filling year-round schools voluntarily. Find out the volume of interest, where it exists, how (and if) it affects F&R ratios, etc. Don’t just speculate! They’ve got hundreds of parents, etc. willing to volunteer their time and effort helping with this.


3. Go back to Governor Easley and request a temporary reprieve on the requirement to lower class sizes in third grade. Go as a board – don’t just rely on the Administration to ask this time. As a former third grade teacher, I’ll be the first to say that the lower class size would help in so many ways. But we are not in a position to carry that through right now. This would not increase class sizes, just keep them at status quo temporarily.


4. Lobby, as a board, for help from the General Assembly!!!!!


5. LISTEN to their constituents, be open and honest, and get a grip on reality!

Unless ALL of these steps are followed, I have very little hope that a bond will pass. It’s “iffy” even so.