I attended the Vance County Board of Education meeting of March 12, 2012. This was the first board of education meeting I have attended and what an education they offered. My notes are in reverse order of the agenda because the ending concern is so far from the opening issues.
Board of Education Standing Committees
It appears that each board member is assigned a specific standing committee and prepares a report of their committee’s latest meetings. Mr. Cash appeared to speak off the cuff first of what sounded like typographical errors in the curricula handbook. Chairman White stressed that future handbooks would be in an electronic format making corrections easier to make. Then Mr. Cash talked about the curricula not stressing cursive writing. According to Mr. Cash the State requires driver’s to sign not print their signature. Oh, contraire mon amie, my signature and all handwritten work is in a form of block printing. Cursive is worth learning and trying then again so is printing. Mr. Cash seemed more interested in fostering either the nearly 140 year old Palmer method or the 170 year old Spencerian style of cursive writing. What should be emphasized is the ability to express your thoughts in writing regardless of writing style.
Building & Grounds
Big issue on this was the maintenance of the fire extinguishers. Ms. Oxendine was concerned that the fire extinguishers were not being adequately serviced. Mr. Woods assured Ms. Oxendine that the three certified fire extinguisher technicians were aggressively checking and testing all the fire extinguishers using the school’s own equipment. Most importantly all fire extinguishers tested worked.
2012-2013 Middle School STEM Proposal
Mr. Gregory made his presentation to the Board for approve to start the STEM project at Eaton Johnson school building. His presentation was not included in the board packet and his voice did not carry into the peanut gallery so it was very difficult hear what he was saying. What was clear was Ms. Hartness’s questions about the proposal. Ms. Hartness asked what will this proposal accomplish, can we step back and look at this project before advancing, and can a 63 year old building that has been idle for several years actually be used. Her questions were attempts to counter the Fire, Ready, Aim mentality of the other board members. Mr. Gregory said if this is done right it will be an example to the nation. In the end the vote to proceed was unanimous.
AP Exams
The discussion centered on the schools providing lunch for the students taking the AP exam. Apparently the AP exams are more than three or four hours long and students might need some nourishment to recharge and successfully complete the exams. Mr. Gregory specifically said there is no data supporting a correlation between lunches and passing the AP exams. Mr. Gregory also stated that Vance County needed to improve the passing rate on the AP exams. Lunch will be provided.
The chairman of the curriculum committee is worried about styles of handwriting while those taking AP course are unable to fill in enough right answers to have a high passing rate.
As usual Mr. Bobbitt has offered the reader a well written and informative article. Thank you.
Personally, my vote is in favor of implementing STEM over at E.J. Our local system needs to try something different. Well over the majority of students at our public schools rely on government assistance for their lunch. That tells me that many of the parents who send their kids to public school cannot provide for them without help from us, the tax payers. If this effort is successful then hopefully it will drive and inspire a young mind towards breaking what could possibly be the family and neighborhood trend of relying on Uncle Sam for the rest of their lives.
I hate to sound harsh but that is the reality of many of the low income homes in Henderson. Dwellings where character building is not towards the top of the house rules.
Mr. Mojo Risin,
Thank you for the kind words.
Thank you Mr. Bobbitt for reporting to us on the schools. I stand to differ on how STEM will impact our students. STEM will only add to the many things kids already have. From what I can gather from parents…they tell me that students are already reqired to do in 3rd grade what I was required to do in 7th grade 30 years ago. Kids are already smarter than we are in too many areas. If this knowledge is not applied after they leave school, it is of no use to our social system. Unfortunately, kids do not get taught in their homes to appreciate an education nor to offer a hard days work for a hard days pay. They are not taught respect, integrity, nor loyalty and those are not something that are the responsibility of our teachers, our teachers are to instill intellectual skill in our children through academics.
Yes…I agree with Mr. Gregory…our schools need to be able to offer something that Charter schools and Private schools cannot offer. If they don’t have something to attract all interests of society, they will continue to get the blame they don’t deserve, and thus the bad label that doesn’t represent them in their total capacity.
Thanks again, Mr. Bobbitt.
Brakeman,
Thank you for pushing this decision.
Last week I worked with some high school students in another county. Those high school students in that other county dislike the STEM program in their school. According to those students STEM is a school within a school. Like ourselves these students have opinions on effective and ineffective educational methodologies.
Of the local education methodologies, I have encountered in the past few weeks, the one understand the least is the early college. It was explained to me that those attending early college can earn a high school diploma two years of college credit. How can that be? I was told it helps reduces cost for college. I did not hear that those in 9th to 12th grade are so far advanced intellectually they can academically perform at the collegiate level. I did not hear that the college criteria was lowered to be compatible with high school academic criteria. I understand Advanced Placement; I do not understand early college.
The public system does offer what the charter and non-public schools do not offer; education for people who were excluded from the “system” when I attended all public schools.