Despite Budget Shortfall, WCPSS Board Fills Tech Chief Position at $139K a Year

Posted on September 9, 2016 by A.P. Dillon

In June, the Wake County Board of Commissioners unanimously approved a 1.2 billion dollar budget for Wake County school systems.  The Wake County School Board had wanted an additional $35.7 million, but the request was denied.

The school budget, which went into effect this past July, represents nearly a $57 million dollar increase over the prior year’s budget. That translates to roughly a 6.6% increase in per pupil spending, but comes at the cost of an income tax increase — the second one in two years.

MoreWithFourNotOneCentBackWBOC14This year’s tax increase will be a 1.35 cent property tax on every $100 in property value. Last year’s property tax rate was increase by 3.65 cents per $100 in value.

Combined, it’s a tax hike of 5 cents which doesn’t sound like a lot, but for lower and middle class families, it adds up.

Yet, even with such a large and expanded budget, the Wake County School Board has been struggling with a nearly $17 million dollar budget gap.

In order to combat this gap, Wake County School Board had previously announced cuts to school bus routes, classroom cleanings and adjusting thermostats in classrooms as measures to save money. In addition, breakfast and lunch prices were raised for the first time in 5 years.

In an email obtained exclusively by this site, Wake Superintendent Jim Merrill outlined plans to cut certain services, including classroom supply allotments. The email also included a, “3% salary increase for all support staff and a half-percent bonus after combining state and local resources.”.

The email also alluded to central office hiring freeze of 90 days, yet at the September board meeting the Wake County School Board decided to fill a vacant position. At that meeting, the board announced the hiring of Stacy Lee to fill the role of Chief Technology Officer for the school system.  Lee will be hired at $139,000 a year.

Though it’s hard to tell how long the position of Chief Technology Officer has been vacant, it appears the role has been unfilled since at least prior to Tony Tata’s term as Superintendent of Wake County Schools.  Tata’s tenure spanned from January 2011 to September 2012.

According to the News and Observer, Lee has been serving as Chief Technology Officer for Onslow county schools. There was no information available as to what Lee’s salary in the Onslow position was.

The board has apparently moved forward with a questionable multi-million dollar land purchase for a future high school site. The purchase would require the sign off of the Wake County Commissioners.

Last month, Wake County Commissioner John Burns seems to think students in the future will have to ‘get over’ not having athletic fields and parking lots.

“We’ve got to start doing something else other than anticipating that every school’s gonna have a football field, every school’s gonna have a baseball field and every school’s gonna have a major parking lot,” said Commissioner John Burns.
– News and Observer, 8/16/16

The Wake School board had already been looking into various building sites to at an estimated cost of $2 billion dollars.

Related Reading:

Posted in A.P. Dillon (LL1885), EDUCATION, Wake County School Board | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

New McCrory Ad Hits Cooper on His #HB2 Push

Posted on September 8, 2016 by A.P. Dillon

In my article at Breitbart, I examined how Attorney General Roy Cooper was leveraging House Bill 2 (HB2) to further his campaign.

In that article, I pointed out how Roy Cooper had been conspiring with businesses to cripple the North Carolina economy over HB2 and cited the Wall Street Journal’s revelations on Cooper’s activities.

Excerpt:

The Wall Street Journal article revealed in May that Cooper called Marc Benioff, the CEO of Salesforce.com, to talk about the transgender dispute. The call then led to an early April meeting between Benioff and one of Salesforce.com‘s customers, Deutsche Bank AG. On April 12, Deutsche Bank AG then announced it’s decision to stop an expansion that would have brought 250 jobs to North Carolina. The Wall Street Journal also reported that Benioff contacted the CEO of the Charlotte-based Bank of America to bring economic pressure to bear on HB2.

Cooper also refused to enter into a multi-state amicus brief in 2015 which centered around blocking the Obama administration’s Department of Education’s from forcing open facilities in schools.

In a new ad, while not naming Cooper, McCrory takes aim at these push to endanger our children’s privacy in school settings.

WATCH:

Transcript:

Pat McCrory: You know, when we were raising average teacher pay, creating new jobs and cutting taxes, other folks were actually pushing to make our schools allow boys to use the girl’s locker rooms and showers. Are we really talking about this? Does the desire to be politically correct outweigh our children’s privacy and safety? Not on my watch. Our kids and teachers are my priority. This is North Carolina. Let’s do what’s right.

Posted in A.P. Dillon (LL1885), ELECTIONS, LGBTQ Issues, Pat McCrory, YWBMTC | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

NC Grade 3-8 EOG Results Show only 46.7% are College Ready

Posted on September 6, 2016 by A.P. Dillon

The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (NC DPI) has released student achievement data for the 2015-16 school year. Data includes school level, district level, and student achievement information.

Continue reading →

Posted in Common Core, EDUCATION, NC DPI, Testing | Tagged , | 2 Comments

The Actual Graduation Rate In NC Isn’t 85.8%

Posted on September 2, 2016 by A.P. Dillon

North Carolina Superintendent June Atkinson was recently cited in a WRAL article about the state’s graduation rate.

RALEIGH, N.C. — North Carolina released its latest public school performance data Thursday, showing the state’s graduation rate and school grades improved last year.

he state’s graduation rate increased slightly, from 85.6 percent in 2014-15 to 85.8 percent last school year. This marks the 11th consecutive year that the rate has improved. In 2005-06, the state’s graduation rate was 68.3 percent.

“If I could do a back flip about the graduation rate, I would do that,” State Superintendent June Atkinson told reporters Thursday. (WRAL, 9/1/16)

The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (NC DPI) also put out a press release touting the increase in graduation rates.

As this site has previously pointed out, this rate is not the actual graduation rate when one factors in the now famous “career and college readiness” that Common Core was alleged to bring.

The question on last year’s numbers posed by this site was, “how are we graduating nearly 86% when the NC School report card  shows NC students who are “career and college ready” at 47.9% and grade level proficiency at 57.9%?”

The same question should be applied to the current graduation numbers.

The proficiency scale by which students are judged was changed in 2013. As such, according to the data via the NC DPI Accountability model, students who score a 3, 4 or 5 are now considered proficient. Only students scoring a 4 or 5 are considered ‘career and college ready’.

English II Proficiency Career and College Ready 2015-16

English II – Proficiency Rates – Career and College Ready

According to the data for 2015-16, the number of NC students scoring a 4 and 5 for English II was only 50%.

Black students had a proficiency rate of 31.1% and Hispanic students had a rate of  38.9%.

Over 40% of NC students were not at grade level proficiency for English II.

Turning to math, only 48.6% of NC students in the Math I category were considered ‘career and college ready’.

Math 1 Proficiency Career and College Ready 2015-16

Math 1 Proficiency Career and College Ready 2015-16

The grade level proficiency results for Math I was only .2% higher than that of English II, coming in at 59.8%.

Only 26.3% of Black students and 37.1% of Hispanic students were considered ‘career and college ready’ in Math I.

 

The rate for ‘career and college readiness’ for Black students increased 1.5% from the previous year;s 24.8%. The rate for Hispanic students from last year’s rate of 35.9% by just 1.2%.

The percentage of Black students considered grade level proficient was reported at 38.1% . Hispanic students came in at 49.7%.

The previous year, Black students had a proficiency rate of 38.5%. Compared with this year’s results, that’s only a .4% increase. Hispanic students the previous year had a proficiency rate of 50.1%. Compared with the current results, that’s a decrease of .4%.

So again, the question is asked: How are we graduating at a reported rate of nearly 86% with proficiency rates in English II of 50% and 48.6% for Math I?

What is the actual graduation rate using ‘career and college readiness’ and proficiency as a key factor?

English II Career and College Ready 2015-16

English II Career and College Ready 2015-16

Math I Career and College Ready 2015-16

Math I Career and College Ready 2015-16

Posted in A.P. Dillon (LL1885), EDUCATION, EXCLUSIVE, June Atkinson, NC DPI | 6 Comments

Texas AG Files Amicus Asking for Hold on North Carolina #HB2 Suit

Posted on September 2, 2016 by A.P. Dillon

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed an Amicus brief on August 31st in asking for the courts to put the House Bill 2 (HB2) suit on hold.

Texas is joined by 10 other state attorneys general and two governors in the filing. The Amicus specifically asks U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Schroeder to put the U.S. Justice Department’s current challenge to HB2 on hold while other related cases move forward.

This filing comes in the wake of Judge Schroeder allowing for three transgender individuals to use the facilities of their choice within the University of North Carolina system.

The Amicus cites an injunction issued on August 21st, 2016 by Texas and several other states brought against the Obama administration’s pro-transgender guidelines as the main reason for Judge Schroeder to issue a stay. The injunction was meant to be applied nationwide.

The  third point of the Texas Amicus hits upon the previous accommodations already present in Title IX as noted in the dissenting opinion from the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals:

Third, the Injunction confirms that the text, structure, and legislative history of Title IX and its implementing regulations (34 C.F.R. §§ 106.32, 106.33, 106.61) plainly allow the separation of intimate areas on the basis of “biological and anatomical differences between male and female students as determined at their birth.” Injunction at 31. Additionally, the Injunction concludes that the Title IX regulation primarily at issue (34 C.F.R. § 106.33) is not ambiguous and, thus, no deference is warranted to the various federal agency interpretations of those regulations.
Id. at 30–33

Read:

Posted in A.P. Dillon (LL1885), EDUCATION, LEGAL, LGBTQ Issues, YWBMTC | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Texas AG Files Amicus Asking for Hold on North Carolina #HB2 Suit

Non-Profit Co-Founder Blasts Wake Board of Commissioners over WCPSS Diversity

Posted on August 31, 2016 by A.P. Dillon

Calla Wright, co-founder of the Coalition of Concerned Citizens for African-American Children (CCCAC) recently sent emails to members of the Wake County Board of Commissioners complaining about the current student assignment plan in county’s school district.

The emails obtained by this site show Wright’s outrage over an article that appeared in the News and Observer. The article was about detailed a study by the Brookings Institute on diversity issues in Wake and Charlotte-Mecklenburg school districts.

Excerpt of the findings via News and Observer:

“Most CMS black students were in majority black schools, while most Wake County black students were in majority white schools,” writes Armor, a critic of busing for diversity. “The chart below shows very clearly that Wake County black students did not have higher test scores than CMS students, after adjusting for a student’s socioeconomic background.

“Moreover, the black-white gap was virtually identical in the two school districts.”

With regard to these findings by Brookings, Wright’s emails decry the Wake School Board’s demand for, “MO MONEY?!” and blasts the board over this “public embarrassment”:

“This article is a public embarrassment for those of us who marched and were apart of the earlier demonstrations to maintain diversity and balanced schools when republicans were in control of the school board.
WE sit back and say nothing about the school assignments now that we have a democratic school board!!?? Schools have reverted back to segregated student population, high poverty schools and have an increase in our low performing schools and low academic performance for black and brown children!  More MONEY, Mo Money from the County Commissioners! Is it all about MONEY! Show me the MONEY!
Who is accountable for this?!
This did not happened under the leadership of former superintendents Bill McNeal and Del Burns!”

 

Ms. Wright’s email mentions nothing about the boom of school choice in Wake County and in Charlotte-Mecklenburg school districts.  Nor does wright mention how the Wake School Board has ignored the big increase in students choosing to leave the traditional Wake county public school system under the current administration.

This site has previously reported on a group known as the Coalition of Concerned Citizens for African-American Children (CCCAAC) as it pertains to the ‘school to prison pipeline’ narrative playing out in Wake County schools.

Calla Wright, alongside Moral Monday leader William Barber and a host of activist groups,  is one of the plaintiffs suing Wake County Schools and area sheriff’s over an alleged, ““a pattern of discrimination and unlawful criminalization” in Wake Schools.

As previously reported, the CCCAAC was founded by Calla and Gerald Wright in 2006.

The organization’s filings with the North Carolina Secretary of State show the CCCAAC is a 501(c)3. Despite the CCCAAC utilizing PayPal to collection donations, attempts to locate a single IRS 990 filing for the organization were unsuccessful.

CCCAAC has partnered in the past with WakeEd Partnership and are promoters of Common Core. CCCAAC also supports Common Core, which has been shown to have a possible racial bias inherent in the standards.

Over the last three to four years, Common Core test scores across the country over  have shown that scores for minority students have declined and the achievement gap has widened.

Left leaning political activists, Ajamu and Rukiya Dillahunt, are actively involved with the CCCAAC.

In 2014, CCCAAC pushed the idea of basically letting kids at ‘risk of failing’ have multiple bites at the apple, in part by getting rid of zeros in grading. This idea was spearheaded by Rukiya Dillahunt and the WCPSS board ate it up. Less than a year later, the Wake County School board withdrew the idea.

The CCCAAC member page has aligned itself with Black Lives Matter:

Please leave your name and contact information and someone will get back with you. Black Lives Matter Please get involved!

It should be noted that Ms. Wright is one of the plaintiffs who sued over the Wake County voting maps.

Selective OutrageThe 4th Circuit Court of Appeals recently ruled in that case’s favor. The result was the Wake maps used this Fall will be the old maps from 2011 — the same ones which saw the current Wake County Board of Commissioners flip to 100% Democrat held and assisted the Wake School Board to become majority Democrat held.

Posted in EDUCATION, Wake County School Board | Tagged , | 1 Comment