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Uh NO. Are you familiar with the GA has done to districts in the last few year. I will mention just a couple of items. The class size mandate with came with no funding to implement. It required extra classroom space with no budget for capital improvements. The GA has also been deferring the bulk of school funding to counties which creates inequities across the state. All the while they are approving charter schools at an alarming rate. Guess who gets those tax dollars of your too, charter schools. Oh and guess what they do not have to follow, things like the class size mandate. Since we have started at our elementary school, we have seen it reduced to a skeleton staff office staff, TAs, counseling and resource teachers have been reduced. I am the last person who would say the WCPSS is perfect, they have failed to plan and bow to pressure from a feather, but the lack of funding is the result of the State neglecting public education. The fact that PTA money is needed to buy technology at schools should make everyone angry because that causes disparity among schools. We do not have a nurse every day at each school and we are going to bring kids back during a pandemic! Again, look at all of the education bills and funding for education from the GA in the last 10-12 years and you will find the root cause of WCPSS financial problems.
As far as lending computers you are seeing this very black and white and there is a lot of gray in between. There are plenty of families who are not the couple you described above and they are not qualifying for free and reduced lunch who have multiple kids in the system and need and extra computer. I see that we are not going to agree on this point.
I don't think I said that WCPSS was 100% to blame for budgeting issues. However our school system likes to spend lots of money on equity/diversity programs and teams, equity/diversity consultants, third party curriculum programs and consultants required to analyze their poor performance, unnecessary reassignment of students to achieve diversity goals, laptops and hot spots to anybody that wants them, providing meals to anyone in the county that wants them (not just WCPSS students), etc. The primary focus under the current school board and superintendent is social justice, not education. This all costs lots of money - money that could be directed toward actually educating children, fixing schools, paying bus drivers, paying nurses, etc. Not saying the social programs above are unimportant, but when budgets are tight other things should take priority. Watch any of the school board work sessions prior to Covid, and see how much time was spent purely on social justice. Hours and hours and hours working with consultants to come up with plans for the unattainable goal of making every school "equal".
We are in the default plan and just recieved our teacher assignments. I peeked at VA scheduling for middle school. With the final numbers of VA enrollement at 50% they could run VA and remote learning the same then transition into an every other week schedule (if numbers permit)and they would not need any additional teachers if they follow the A/B schedule. The teacher would alternate between A/B students each day. For those who do not have kids in middle school, they are putting subjects on an A/B schedule. Between core and electives kids have 6 subjects and will alternate having 3 subjects each day.
This does not clear up how they would handle elementary (or high school) but it does seem like this could be a feasible plan for when the time comes. I am not sure this is what they are doing since sometimes WCPSS feels the need to defy logic.
I don't think I said that WCPSS was 100% to blame for budgeting issues. However our school system likes to spend lots of money on equity/diversity programs and teams, equity/diversity consultants, third party curriculum programs and consultants required to analyze their poor performance, unnecessary reassignment of students to achieve diversity goals, laptops and hot spots to anybody that wants them, providing meals to anyone in the county that wants them (not just WCPSS students), etc. The primary focus under the current school board and superintendent is social justice, not education. This all costs lots of money - money that could be directed toward actually educating children, fixing schools, paying bus drivers, paying nurses, etc. Not saying the social programs above are unimportant, but when budgets are tight other things should take priority. Watch any of the school board work sessions prior to Covid, and see how much time was spent purely on social justice. Hours and hours and hours working with consultants to come up with plans for the unattainable goal of making every school "equal".
Yes, because the job of the board is to educate every child in the district equally not just the rich ones whose PTA can afford to buy technology. If they do not try to level the playing field then they are not doing their job. For all those who want the board to stop working on bridging the achievement gap then you are asking them to only serve your child - talk about Karen and Chads.
Yes, because the job of the board is to educate every child in the district equally not just the rich ones whose PTA can afford to buy technology. If they do not try to level the playing field then they are not doing their job. For all those who want the board to stop working on bridging the achievement gap then you are asking them to only serve your child - talk about Karen and Chads.
I don't think there's anyone who doesn't understand the importance, but when you have schools falling apart, students struggling with certain curriculum, major bus/transportation issues, kids being shuffled around between schools unnecessarily, lack of nurses, etc, etc, social justice should take a back seat because when you look at it from a realistic lens, it's literally impossible to "level the playing field" - school systems across America have been attempting to do it for decades and failing. So until the more urgent issues are funded, it doesn't make a lot of sense to be spending boatloads of money on a goal that has proven to be pretty much unattainable. You can work and work and work and spend and spend and spend to make schools "equal", but due to human nature that work will always be reversed.
Just went to try to watch a webinar put on by my district about special education and it said “Note: Due to an untimely internet outage, our tech team was unable to capture the first ~15 minutes of the presentation.†so it seems michgc and I aren’t the only ones having connectivity/tech issues. This is going to be a fun year!
I don't think I said that WCPSS was 100% to blame for budgeting issues. However our school system likes to spend lots of money on equity/diversity programs and teams, equity/diversity consultants, third party curriculum programs and consultants required to analyze their poor performance, unnecessary reassignment of students to achieve diversity goals, laptops and hot spots to anybody that wants them, providing meals to anyone in the county that wants them (not just WCPSS students), etc. The primary focus under the current school board and superintendent is social justice, not education. This all costs lots of money - money that could be directed toward actually educating children, fixing schools, paying bus drivers, paying nurses, etc. Not saying the social programs above are unimportant, but when budgets are tight other things should take priority. Watch any of the school board work sessions prior to Covid, and see how much time was spent purely on social justice. Hours and hours and hours working with consultants to come up with plans for the unattainable goal of making every school "equal".
While Wake has its own unique challenges, these issues are not unique the district. Most districts in the area have a similar focus probably for some of the same reasons like a history of segregation and a current concern of growing inequity and so on.
I hear what you’re saying about schools not being able to fix all of the problems in society, but they have to at least put forth a solid effort to address issues that impact the educational outcomes of at risk students. If they can’t do that, they may as well just shut down in my opinion. Of course to be successful schools need more work to be done on a societal level. Instead of asking schools to do less, I think the answer is to ask for more to be done outside of schools.
While Wake has its own unique challenges, these issues are not unique the district. Most districts in the area have a similar focus probably for some of the same reasons like a history of segregation and a current concern of growing inequity and so on.
I hear what you’re saying about schools not being able to fix all of the problems in society, but they have to at least put forth a solid effort to address issues that impact the educational outcomes of at risk students. If they can’t do that, they may as well just shut down in my opinion. Of course to be successful schools need more work to be done on a societal level. Instead of asking schools to do less, I think the answer is to ask for more to be done outside of schools.
I don't disagree - my point is there are much more pressing issues in regards to the physical condition of schools, transportation issues and lack of bus drivers, curriculum issues, reassignment issues, etc that should take priority.
I don't disagree - my point is there are much more pressing issues in regards to the physical condition of schools, transportation issues and lack of bus drivers, curriculum issues, reassignment issues, etc that should take priority.
It certainly is a challenge to find the right balance.
We are in the default plan and just recieved our teacher assignments. I peeked at VA scheduling for middle school. With the final numbers of VA enrollement at 50% they could run VA and remote learning the same then transition into an every other week schedule (if numbers permit)and they would not need any additional teachers if they follow the A/B schedule. The teacher would alternate between A/B students each day. For those who do not have kids in middle school, they are putting subjects on an A/B schedule. Between core and electives kids have 6 subjects and will alternate having 3 subjects each day.
This does not clear up how they would handle elementary (or high school) but it does seem like this could be a feasible plan for when the time comes. I am not sure this is what they are doing since sometimes WCPSS feels the need to defy logic.
The high school schedule has gaps between class periods, I guess so teachers can manage both in-class and virtual students when and if the time comes.
Yes, because the job of the board is to educate every child in the district equally not just the rich ones whose PTA can afford to buy technology. If they do not try to level the playing field then they are not doing their job. For all those who want the board to stop working on bridging the achievement gap then you are asking them to only serve your child - talk about Karen and Chads.
That's not the only thing m378 mentioned, and the money they have wasted on the MVP curriculum (which HURTS economically challenged kids) along with the consultants they had to pay to give lip service to their agenda, could have been better spent on their "social justice" initiatives. And quite frankly if the PTA at Davis Drive, Mills Park or Green Hope elementaries bought an ipad for every kid at an economically disadvantaged school it would not help one iota. If anyone thinks otherwise you're delusional. Problems start at home and can only partially be solved by the schools. The answer to those kids' problems is not sticking a screen in front of their face.
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