I was JUST coming to post this. It is NOT a done deal and I've been getting email after email on this the past day or so. The vote is next week.
I have one email from one of the school board members who explains in a bit more detail what happened;
>> From: "Donna White" <white_donnam@hotmail.com>
>> To:
>> Sent: Monday, August 06, 2007 11:11 PM
>> Subject: RE: Letter AGAINST Proposed New School Hours
>>
>>
>>> Eric and Laura,
>>> Thank you so much for your concern and for your letter. I need to
>>> share the rest of the story with you. First of all Dr.Parker came up
>>> with this idea and did not share this with any of the school board
>>> members except the chair Fred Bartholomew. Last Wed. when I got up I
>>> had several emails that had been sent around 1:00am that morning from
>>> irrate parents who were very concerned about the 3 tiered bus schedule.
>>> Until that moment I did not know anything about this. I called other
>>> board members and all that I spoke with said they were also getting
>>> calls and emails and we none knew what the situation was about. One
>>> member called the chair and he was told that the chair was about to
>>> tee off and that he really didn't have time to talk about it. He said
>>> the superintendant had mentioned it briefly to him about a month ago
>>> and he told him it was ok and he thought that it was an insignificant
>>> issue and hadn't thought anymore about it.
>>>
>>> I called the superintendant Wed. and finally was able to speak with
>>> him around 5:00PM. He confirmed that he had leaked his proposal to the
>>> principals and also asked them to share it with their parents and
>>> teachers. I asked him why he had not bothered to wait to a school
>>> board meeting to talk about it with the duly elected board members
>>> and/or to at least call us before making such a suggestion public
>>> information. He of course does this kind of action all the time so he
>>> really didn't have an answer except that he knows how to count and
>>> thus far he has a yes board that lets him do anything he wants
>>> irregardless of the difficulties that it places on families or the
>>> teachers. He also told me that he had told folks that it was because
>>> the county commissionerns had not given us money to buy school buses.
>>> That is not true. The county commissioners have given us the money to
>>> buy school buses. What they didn't give us is enough money to hire a
>>> CPA currently working in a school system to work for us next year to
>>> shadow our current financial officier who is retiring next year.
>>> Therefore we will be paying two financial officers next year. Our
>>> current financial officer is great but the new CPA that Dr. Parker
>>> hired and then informed the board should not have to shadow the
>>> current FO for a whole year at top dollar to learn a job he has
>>> already been doing in another system. It is this type of situation
>>> that requires Dr. Parker to "need" a 20 % increase in his budget, not
>>> new school buses that were allocated.
>>>
>>> The county commmissioners have nothing to do with Dr. Parker's
>>> proposal and at this time the school board doesn't either since it has
>>> not been mentioned at any of our meetings to date. By board policy
>>> this type of change would require a code change and to do that we are
>>> suppose to hear it as a first hearing and then wait 30 days for public
>>> comment and then at a second reading be prepared to vote. Dr. Parker
>>> not only released new information to the public first but he has also
>>> said he is going to propose that we implement this at the beginning of
>>> school in August. He will have to request the board to change code
>>> 3100 regarding school start time and he will have to simultaneoulsy
>>> ask us to override our own policy to not have a month for public
>>> opinion and to vote it in on first reading for it to be ready to
>>> implement by August school start date.
>>>
>>> I will vote against this on August 14th if it is on the agenda. I do
>>> hope that we can keep this off the agenda by calling other board
>>> members including those up for reelection in 2008 including Jack
>>> O'Hale, Mr. Kay Carroll, the chairman, and me. Dorothy Johnson is also
>>> from Clayton and I hope that she will step up to the plate and join
>>> the other two board members who are planning to vote against this
>>> along with me.
>>>
>>> I really appreciate your letter and for you allowing me to share the
>>> rest of the story. Please call or contact me if I can be of service.
>>> Donna White 919-889-1239
And here are some other board member numbers to call if you are concerned about this. My kids get home late enough....with this change it'll be somewhere around 5-5:30. Since I'm guessing they won't be lightening the homework load all this means is that my children will no longer have time to play and be children.
Andrea Dublin, Dr. Parker's (Superintendant) Assistant
andreadublin@johnston.k12.nc.us
And an email from Butch Lawter who is running for Clayton town council;
From: Butch Lawter
Sent: Tuesday, August 07, 2007 11:27 AM
Subject: RE: new school schedule*
Dorothy Johnson called me this morning and suggested that we need to talk to the board members from outside Clayton.* She has gotten about 15 calls.* So keep reminding people to call her.*
I also talked to Fred Bartholomew this morning. *He was very diplomatic and admitted they had a lot of things to consider regarding the schedule change.* He told me of a few good things that Jerry Smith had come up with for the High School.* I told him that there are probably a lot of good things that could be done “if†we had time to plan for them not react at the last minute.* My gut feel is that he will vote for the change.* He will say that if they don’t cut money some where (school buses) they will have to cut students and classroom supplies.
Here are the other phone numbers.
Fred Bartholomew, Chairman***936-2301 home
Jack O’Hale**934-6021 office (Dorothy said that this was the best place to call)
Kay Carroll**934-7164 office (Dorothy said that this was the best place to call) 934-5882 home
Dorothy Johnson**553-5527
Donna White*** 889-1239 you know where she stands
Larry Strickland *********************** 965-9366 home (he will vote with Donna)
Butler Hall******************** *********** no phone # yet, but I understand that he is against proposed change
Also, from what I can gather the school system emails are filtered through staff before/if it gets to board members; and, responses may not be from the board members either. **So, calling is probably the best option.* I would concentrate on Dorothy, Fred, Jack, and Kay.* We just have to sway one. I still believe that Dorothy is the key vote.* I think she is feeling some heat.
I will call Jack and Kay later today.* I left two messages with Jack last week. I have not attempted to contact Kay yet.
Please pass along to everyone else.*
Remember, this is just one person’s opinion.
R. S. (Butch) Lawter, Jr.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
These are the hours that I heard they were changing to;
School times would change this year for the Elementary
school (9am-4pm), Middle school (8am-3pm) and High school (7am-2pm)
for the Clayton area schools of Johnston County.
Honestly, who are these ELECTED school board members that would approve something without parental notice or involvement?? I'm miffed.
Lauren
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School Time change info
