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State Board Plans to Keep Schools Open

Posted on: Friday, 10 March 2006, 12:00 CST

By Brandee Hayhurst, Times-News, Burlington, N.C.

Mar. 10--Howard Lee, chairman of the state Board of Education, said he is taking a Wake County judge's demands to improve the performance of schools like Cummings High School seriously. "We certainly think that some of the points he makes are very valid," Lee said Wednesday. But Lee said his board plans to "step up" and help struggling schools, not shut them down. "There's a little bit of panic setting in out there," Lee said. "I expect all of these schools to open in the fall." On Friday, Superior Court Judge Howard Manning Jr. issued a severe letter demanding immediate action in high schools he says are failing students. The judge presided over a 2002 case that mandated a sound, basic education for all school children. He said that schools that finish this spring with a fifth year of poor performance on tests must make changes in leadership and curriculum before opening in the fall. The judge set the standard at 55 percent of students passing tests, a figure that Cummings might have surpassed by 2 percent in 2003-04. The local school system is trying to determine why the judge's figures are lower than theirs.

BOTH THE SCHOOL system and the judge agree that Cummings had a 51 percent passing rate last year. Lee interpreted the letter as a warning shot. The local school board characterized it as a call to action. "I don't think Judge Manning really wants us to close any schools," Lee said. But, "I fully understand that if the judge feels like we're casting off his letter, not taking any consideration, he could issue an order." Lee added that he is forming a work group to talk about how schools can meet the demands. He said he would consider the reforms already in place as plans are developed for each school. "I may not be comfortable with just sweeping principals out," Lee said. "We need to see what we can do to get plans into place and get a strong leadership in place." THE NEWS THAT schools could be closed or principals replaced caught many off guard. At a lunch meeting Wednesday, members of the Alamance-Burlington Board of Education rallied around Cummings, telling Principal Charles Monroe that they will do what it takes to support the school. "People that have approached me, I have asked them to join us and jump on the bandwagon, so to speak," said Brenda Brown Foster, vice chairwoman of the school board. "I've been asking for their input because I think it's going to take the whole community.""I hope you will convey to your staff and students that we are behind you 100 percent," echoed board member Jackie Cole. The principal has yet to grant the Times-News an interview, but at the meeting he said that he has received support from parents and an offer of help from Elon University. The Alamance-Burlington School System and officials in Raleigh were largely silent earlier this week, saying that they were analyzing the details of the judge's letter. But local school board members said from the first that they have long known of the problem and already taken steps, including bringing a new principal to Cummings this year. "A lot of the changes (the judge) recommended and in fact demands we have already put into place," chairman Tom Manning said. Denise Morton, director of secondary and career-technical education for the school system, said Thursday that the school began making changes after receiving a grant in 1999. More recently, Cummings was granted a third assistant principal to help with discipline problems and an interpreter to help with the growing number of Spanish-speaking students. Morton said the school also added a freshman seminar and a class to help with reading skills. Next year, the school will add a ninth-grade academy and a program to encourage students to go to college. Cummings will look at adding a career academy in 2007-08. "You can't ever relax," Morton said. "You just have to always stay on your toes for a school that has that kind of atrisk population." CUMMINGS HAS more students with limited proficiency in the English language than any other high school in the district, according to school system figures. Next to Sellars-Gunn Alternative, Cummings also has the highest percentage of students on free and reduced lunch at about 65 percent. Cummings has a primarily minority student body at around 85 percent. A few parents and students cried racism when they heard about the threat of a closure. Others talked about the challenges of working to bring home enough pay and help a child with school work. A FEW CRITICIZED the less experienced teachers at Cummings, but most defended the principal and teachers, saying that committed students find a good education there. They also had plenty to say on what hurts student performance, most often citing discipline problems or social distractions for today's youth. School board members said that Cummings has had a tough time keeping its teachers. Board member Steve Van Pelt, a former assistant principal at Cummings, talked earlier this week about the challenges the school faces. "One of the factors that holds Cummings back is they have a great turnover in teachers," he said. "Also, because Cummings has a high proportion of economically disadvantaged students, many of those students' parents don't place a premium on reading skills." All schools bemoan a lack of interest in some parents. Now, a few parents are calling for more involvement at Cummings. "It's like the parents don't really care whether (children) get it or don't get it," said Alice Ferguson, a Cummings parent and a member of booster clubs. "It's up to us as a whole. We need to come together." Ferguson and others offered wide-ranging suggestions to school leaders: Give teachers financial incentives to teach at Cummings, put prayer back in the schools, require school uniforms, make classes more interesting, or even redistrict so that there isn't as large a group of struggling students in one school. Chairman Lee said he plans to investigate whether teacher incentives could help schools that lag behind do better. "It is incumbent upon the state board -- how do we make it happen?" he said. Brandee Hayhurst can be reached at brandee_hayhurst@link.freedom.com

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