http://www.standeatherage.com Thu, 9 Sep 2010 11:34:29 EDT http://www.standeatherage.com/post/151/10/the-governor-s-visit-was-plum-embarrassing.html http://www.standeatherage.com/post/151/10/the-governor-s-visit-was-plum-embarrassing.html Governor Perdue came to town Friday. It was embarrassing.

Her handlers couldn't have done a much worse job, all the way around. She visited PAS USA, the Beaufort County Child Development Center and the WDN. She got blindsided.

Tommy Thompson, chief Economic Developer in Beaufort, took the credit/blame for selecting the industry she visited. It is a foreign owned outfit that sends its profits to Germany rather than investing them in the USA. Some would say they are here to exploit cheap labor a... Read More]]> Wed, 25 Aug 2010 08:23:55 EDT http://www.standeatherage.com/post/147/10/imagine-this-judge-a-teacher-by-how-much-improvement-the-students-make.html http://www.standeatherage.com/post/147/10/imagine-this-judge-a-teacher-by-how-much-improvement-the-students-make.html If it catches on and spreads across the USA as it should, a major revolution took place in American public education this week. The way we know it was revolutionary and major is that the teacher's union is doing backflips.

Last Saturday the LA Times published student test data. Obviously that was not what made it revolutionary. But what they did was publish the data by teacher. And that if revolutionary.

But what is even more revolutionary is how they reported the data. They used something cal... Read More]]> Mon, 23 Aug 2010 16:34:42 EDT http://www.standeatherage.com/post/139/10/school-board-adopts-core-sex-ed-curriculum.html http://www.standeatherage.com/post/139/10/school-board-adopts-core-sex-ed-curriculum.html The Beaufort County Board of Education heard a report from its staff on the development of a revision in the Health curriculum required by recent state legislation. After the presentation and a short discussion the Board voted 8-1 to adopt the "core" curriculum from the N. C. School Health Training Center at Appalachian State University. That program was selected by a community-based committee composed of parents, teachers, ministers and others who volunteered or were selected to repre... Read More]]> Thu, 12 Aug 2010 14:33:15 EDT http://www.standeatherage.com/post/136/10/school-board-hears-good-news-at-its-retreat.html http://www.standeatherage.com/post/136/10/school-board-hears-good-news-at-its-retreat.html The Beaufort County Board of Education met in its regular monthly meeting Monday (7-26-10). Among the items routinedly approved was the "consent agenda." The Board meets in committees to handle much of their business and then just approves everything in one vote, calling it the "consent agenda." At this meeting, after approving several items, they explained to the public what they had done.

You will note in the video that the Board is advised that they have a problem with an... Read More]]> Fri, 30 Jul 2010 12:58:30 EDT http://www.standeatherage.com/post/129/10/we-may-just-be-on-the-verge-of-excellence-in-our-school-system.html http://www.standeatherage.com/post/129/10/we-may-just-be-on-the-verge-of-excellence-in-our-school-system.html Over the last few years we know of no one who has been any more critical than have we about Beaufort County Schools. Most of those complaints were directed at the former superintendent. Fortunately in our opinion, he resigned. After a short stint by Bill Rivenbark as Interim Superintendent the Board hired Dr. Don Phipps in December, 2009.

Friday (7-23-10) Dr. Phipps gave something of a "year-end report" and reviewed his plans for the coming year and even dared to dream a bit. We were ... Read More]]> Tue, 27 Jul 2010 16:11:30 EDT http://www.standeatherage.com/post/128/10/school-board-hears-good-news-at-its-retreat.html http://www.standeatherage.com/post/128/10/school-board-hears-good-news-at-its-retreat.html Follows superintendent advice to not spend all its money until a Facilities Study is complete

The Beaufort County Board of Education, meeting in a special "workshop" session Friday (7-23-10) focused its discussion on next year's (FY11) capital outlay budget (facilities, equipment etc.). The board was advised by Superintendent Don Phipps that of the $1,503,066 approved on April 22, approximately half has been committed (contracts, purchase orders etc.). $791,974.77 is unencumbered at t... Read More]]> Tue, 27 Jul 2010 16:02:09 EDT http://www.standeatherage.com/post/127/10/beaufort-county-schools-slides-in-ayp.html http://www.standeatherage.com/post/127/10/beaufort-county-schools-slides-in-ayp.html As the bar is raised, our performance lags

Beaufort County Schools has posted a news release on its website showing that the school system did not meet "Adequate Yearly Progress" (AYP). Only four of the schools met AYP, The Early College High School, Bath Elementary and Chocowinity Primary, as would be expected from previous results. But Northeast Elementary met AYP for a second year in a row, up significantly from its previous results.

Overall, the rate of improvement in Beaufort Co... Read More]]> Thu, 22 Jul 2010 11:53:53 EDT http://www.standeatherage.com/post/97/10/why-the-temporary-classrooms-exist-in-chocowinity.html http://www.standeatherage.com/post/97/10/why-the-temporary-classrooms-exist-in-chocowinity.html In the Beaufort Observer's report of the Chocowinity Town Board meeting on June 1 there is a discussion of the mobile units at Chocowinity Middle School that were granted a three-year temporary "Special Use Permit" under the town's zoning ordinance. Mr. William Warren, the school board member from Chocowinity is asking the Town Board for an extension of the Special Use Permit to allow the temporary classrooms to remain. The Town Board balks because the school system never provided it w... Read More]]> Fri, 4 Jun 2010 09:19:28 EDT http://www.standeatherage.com/post/95/10/how-we-report-on-disciplinary-action-involving-a-teacher.html http://www.standeatherage.com/post/95/10/how-we-report-on-disciplinary-action-involving-a-teacher.html We have received several inquires about the reported resignation of a teacher at Washington High School. Specifically we have been asked why we have not reported on it. So we'll explain to anyone whose interested to read further.

We received all of the information we have on the situation from "third parties." Before we ever print such information we usually seek to corroborate the information with an original source. That is in the typical case. But in a case involving confidential p... Read More]]> Fri, 21 May 2010 11:09:53 EDT http://www.standeatherage.com/post/85/10/doing-the-public-s-business-in-code-so-the-public-doesn-t-know-what-s-going-on.html http://www.standeatherage.com/post/85/10/doing-the-public-s-business-in-code-so-the-public-doesn-t-know-what-s-going-on.html North Carolina law, good judgement and common sense says that the public's business should be conducted in public. More specifically, the law requires all votes taken by a public body, such as a school board, be taken in public so the public can know how each board member voted.

Now the law does allow certain specific things to the discussed in private, such as confidenital personnel information. And example of that would be a discussion of the performance of a principal or other staff member.... Read More]]> Mon, 3 May 2010 11:16:23 EDT http://www.standeatherage.com/post/83/10/school-board-votes-unanimously-to-continue-to-spend-rather-than-cut-as-other-systems-are-doing.html http://www.standeatherage.com/post/83/10/school-board-votes-unanimously-to-continue-to-spend-rather-than-cut-as-other-systems-are-doing.html While other school systems in the state are making plans to cut budgets, including layoffs of classroom teachers, Beaufort County's school board yesterday spent nearly all of its budget "work session" talking about how it can manage to spend more money next year than it did this year.

The board received a proposed local (Beaufort County taxpayers)Current Expense budget that, if enacted, would see the system spend $13,200,886 next year compared to $12,608,736. That was down from $15,3... Read More]]> Mon, 26 Apr 2010 11:27:48 EDT http://www.standeatherage.com/post/67/10/do-early-childhood-pre-k-programs-work.html http://www.standeatherage.com/post/67/10/do-early-childhood-pre-k-programs-work.html At their regular monthly meeting on March 22 the Beaufort County Board of Education heard a report on the PreK program in Beaufort County. The video below allows you to hear and see the presentation by Ms. Teresa Smith, Pre-School Coordinator for BCS.

Ms. Smith reported that there are 11 Pre-K classrooms at 4 sites, Chocowinity Primary (3), Eastern (5), Northeast (2) and Snowden (1). Each class has 18 students so there are 180 students served throughout the county. Funding comes from a combina... Read More]]> Wed, 31 Mar 2010 15:50:49 EDT http://www.standeatherage.com/post/65/10/school-system-seeking-participation-in-sex-ed-program-revisions.html http://www.standeatherage.com/post/65/10/school-system-seeking-participation-in-sex-ed-program-revisions.html The Beaufort County Board of Education, meeting in its regular monthly meeting March 22, heard an update from the administration on the upcoming changes in the system's sex ed. program, euphemistically called a Comprehensive Health Education Program. The school system is soliciting community participation in designing the revised program.

Click here to review an earlier article on this story.

The presentation was an update of what the administration is doing to comply with House Bill 88, pass... Read More]]> Mon, 29 Mar 2010 10:46:33 EDT http://www.standeatherage.com/post/63/10/school-board-discusses-drug-screening-for-students-and-athletes-part-ii.html http://www.standeatherage.com/post/63/10/school-board-discusses-drug-screening-for-students-and-athletes-part-ii.html This is the second of two articles on the School Board's review of its Drug Testing policy. In the first article we reported, including one video clip, on the discussion of how the revised policy impacts athletes vs. non-athletes. Essentially it provides that athletes can be punished for refusing to take the test by being denied participation in athletics for 365 days while non-athletes will not be subject to sanctions for declining to take the test but may be punished (suspended) based on oth... Read More]]> Fri, 26 Mar 2010 12:36:43 EDT http://www.standeatherage.com/post/62/10/school-board-discusses-drug-screening-for-students-and-for-athletes.html http://www.standeatherage.com/post/62/10/school-board-discusses-drug-screening-for-students-and-for-athletes.html The Beaufort County Board of Education, meeting in its regular monthly meeting Monday night (3-22-10) discussed revisions that have been recommended to its Drug Testing Policy 4280. You can hear the presentation in the three videos we present in a series of articles on this subject. We'll more or less allow the videos to provide you with the detailed action being considered by the School Board.

But we would highlight the confusion in the policy, as illustrated by the comments of Chairman Belc... Read More]]> Fri, 26 Mar 2010 12:11:14 EDT http://www.standeatherage.com/post/61/10/beaufort-county-schools-make-the-new-york-times.html http://www.standeatherage.com/post/61/10/beaufort-county-schools-make-the-new-york-times.html Beaufort County Schools has made the New York Times. The Times is running a story on the extensive use of suspensions and expulsions in the nation's schools and the disproportionate impact of these methods of punishment on minority students. The local case they cite is the Southside suspensions in 2008, which have been extensively covered here.

You can review one of the summative articles we did, including a link to view a video of the fight that got the two girls kicked out of school for the... Read More]]> Mon, 22 Mar 2010 11:23:53 EDT http://www.standeatherage.com/post/58/10/non-english-speaking-students-accommodate-or-teach-them-to-think-in-english.html http://www.standeatherage.com/post/58/10/non-english-speaking-students-accommodate-or-teach-them-to-think-in-english.html There is always a danger when one frames a complex issue that oversimplifies the issue that much will be lost. But such is often essential in order to foster a useful debate of that complex issue. Bilingualism is such a case. Having said that we will attempt here to frame that issue in a simple manner in the hopes of contributing to a significant debate here in Beaufort County that seems to only grow as the years go by.

Simply stated the issue is: To what extent must and should we accommodate... Read More]]> Wed, 10 Mar 2010 12:51:32 EST http://www.standeatherage.com/post/54/10/school-board-confirms-it-s-spending-money-like-there-s-no-tomorrow.html http://www.standeatherage.com/post/54/10/school-board-confirms-it-s-spending-money-like-there-s-no-tomorrow.html Facing a multi-million dollar shortfall, they just keep spending

Beaufort County Schools officials (Dr. Don Phipps, School Board Chair Robert Belcher and Finance Officer Laurie Modlin) met with the Beaufort County Board of Commissioners in special session Thursday afternoon to review budget matters and for a "get acquainted" session with the new superintendent.

Most of the time was spent going over details of the financial reports.

On the page at the link above entitled Capital... Read More]]> Fri, 26 Feb 2010 14:35:13 EST http://www.standeatherage.com/post/52/10/new-superintendent-knocks-it-out-of-the-park-on-the-social-studies-controversy.html http://www.standeatherage.com/post/52/10/new-superintendent-knocks-it-out-of-the-park-on-the-social-studies-controversy.html Jury still out on the sex ed. issue

The current controversy in North Carolina with the social studies curriculum was a focus of attention at Monday (2-22-10) night's School Board meeting. Three community members addressed the board in the Public Comment section on the agenda and the Superintendent, Dr. Don Phipps addressed it in his Superintendent's Update.

The controversy has been an on-going one in Beaufort county, long before it boiled over at the state level. Over a year ago Commissioner... Read More]]> Thu, 25 Feb 2010 11:07:51 EST http://www.standeatherage.com/post/51/10/the-charter-school-debate-heats-up-in-n-c-with-significant-issues-for-beaufort-county.html http://www.standeatherage.com/post/51/10/the-charter-school-debate-heats-up-in-n-c-with-significant-issues-for-beaufort-county.html There is a storm coming in public education in North Carolina. We have previously reported on the case of Sugar Creek Charter School et. al. v. CMS. And we have told you about the direction the U. S. Department of Education is headed. Both events indicate that charter schools are poised for a surge.

Charter schools are public schools that are tuition-free to students and supported by the same tax dollars as traditional public schools. And that is what the court ruled. They must get the same dol... Read More]]> Fri, 19 Feb 2010 12:39:57 EST http://www.standeatherage.com/post/49/10/our-schools-are-headed-for-the-perfect-storm.html http://www.standeatherage.com/post/49/10/our-schools-are-headed-for-the-perfect-storm.html School board candidates should tell us how they intend to weather that storm

If there was a Category 5 hurricane a hundred miles off our coast and headed straight for Beaufort County would you expect our School Board to to preparing for it?

There is a "perfect storm" coming for our schools and our local Board of Education is still playing like an ostrich with its head stuck in the sand. As this article documents, the root cause of the impending storm is the exhaustion of Federal Sti... Read More]]> Thu, 18 Feb 2010 13:12:42 EST http://www.standeatherage.com/post/46/10/fox-news-picks-up-on-the-issue-of-whether-our-students-are-learning-u-s-history.html http://www.standeatherage.com/post/46/10/fox-news-picks-up-on-the-issue-of-whether-our-students-are-learning-u-s-history.html N. C. curriculum goes national, in not such a good way

Last week we published an article that was an outgrowth of the December County Commissioner meeting at which Commissioner Hood Richardson raised the issue of whether our students are learning what they need to be learning about American History.

That discussion originated in Hood's concern about a $250,000 grant the Beaufort County Schools has had for three years to teach 25 history teachers from Beaufort, Hyde, Tyrrell and Washington ... Read More]]> Thu, 18 Feb 2010 12:58:22 EST http://www.standeatherage.com/post/45/10/school-board-takes-its-secret-agenda-to-a-new-level.html http://www.standeatherage.com/post/45/10/school-board-takes-its-secret-agenda-to-a-new-level.html The Beaufort County Board of Education often makes many of its decision out of public view. This is a violation of the N. C. Open Meetings law, certainly in spirit if not technically. The intent of the law is that the public have access to the information, discussion and actual vote on any action any board takes.

But if you watch the January 25 board meeting you see that obviously some of their most important decisions are being made out of sight of the public. In fact, it was so glaringly obv... Read More]]> Thu, 18 Feb 2010 12:56:08 EST