Dec. 3, 2009
           

School board charts new course

It wasn’t polished and at times it wasn’t even proper, but the first meeting Tuesday of Wake County’s new school board made it clear the nation’s 18th largest district is about to be scrutinized in a brand new way.

In a choreographed display of political power, the new majority surprised many by immediately naming Ron Margiotta as the board’s chairman and presenting a list of resolutions designed to translate campaign promises into school system policy.

The result was a seven-hour meeting that produced a rare mix of drama, tension, ceremony, public rebuke and some fledgling efforts at compromise.

Due to the nature and importance of the meeting, this edition of In Context focuses almost entirely on the changes requested by the board and the next steps in the process. They topics are pressented in the order discussed. Click on the links to read copies of the original resolutions. The following summaries describe the effects of the proposals following changes negotiated by the new board minority .

Election of a new chair of Wake County School Board

Replacing Kevin Hill as chair with Ron Margiotta, who represents western Wake County, was a surprise to current board members. The position typically changes in June.

Such a change had been speculated, but it wasn’t considered likely until new board member Debra Goldman was elected vice chair. Leaving Hill as chair while Goldman was vice chair would be an odd way to reward Margiotta’s six years of experience.

The change provides Margiotta with the ability to name committee members – or abolish committees – and guide debate. It also places some practical limits on his ability to dive into board debates as school policy dictates that the chair hand over the gavel before getting deeply involved in specific issues.

The challenge in balancing both roles was apparent several times Tuesday when Margiotta lost track of proposed amendments and needed help in making sure motions were handled according to policy and state law.  

The change also freed Hill of the chair’s responsibility and he took advantage by delivering pointed critiques throughout the evening that he typically avoided as leader of the board.
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Resolution to appoint interim special legal counsel

The practical effect of this resolution is to hire Thomas Farr of the law firm Ogletree Deakins to review the system’s legal fees and liability insurance premiums. Ogletree Deakins lists itself as “one of America's leading labor and employment law firms.”

The resolution gives Margiotta the authority to negotiate compensation and make special requests of the firm.

New school board member John Tedesco stressed that the resolution should not be viewed as a criticism of the board’s current attorney, Ann Majestic, who has successfully defended the board’s policies for years. But the tone of the resolution left the new minority board members and many in the audience skeptical of Tedesco’s assessment.

The resolution also revealed a pattern that held for the rest of the evening. New board members took turns introducing resolutions not previously distributed to minority board members until they were read.

That practice, in turn, set the tone for debate where Hill, Anne McLaurin and Keith Sutton immediately questioned the language, intent and perceived flaws of each proposal.

The resolution involving legal fees was approved 5-4 with Margiotta breaking the tie.

Change in student assignment policy

Sensing that each resolution might simply be approved by a 5-4 vote, the proposal to change the assignment policy produced an important break point in the evening. With no copies to share with members of the audience, discipline began to break down as people loudly demanded to see the details.

A copy was placed on an overhead projector in which the sentence “Creating and maintaining diverse student body” was crossed out and the sentence “Promoting neighborhood schools with proximity to home consideration” was among several additions highlighted in yellow. But the back page of the resolution, which could not be seen on the overhead, contained more than a dozen other changes.

Before copies could be distributed, Sutton asked that the resolution be sent to the board’s policy committee for consideration. When Margiotta replied that few board members bother to attend that particular committee, members of the audience heckled him. A vote to send the resolution to committee then failed because some of the new members misunderstood how they had voted. That prompted Tedesco to ask for a five-minute recess.

In an effort to sort through confusion, the four new members gathered around Margiotta’s chair. This immediately attracted a group of reporters questioning why a majority of the board felt it was legal to make public decisions separate from the public part of the meeting. 

Various board members from both groups then gathered in smaller numbers before the board reconvened. Goldman asked that her motion be reconsidered and Sutton’s request be accepted to send the resolution to committee. It marked the first effort at cooperation and the beginning of many changes to subsequent resolutions.

Parental choice regarding year-round schools

Originally proposed by Deborah Prickett as an immediate end to year-round conversions and mandatory assignments, the resolution was changed to give the school system staff 90 days to survey year-round parents about their preferences and collect other information about the distribution and enrollment patterns in year-round schools.

Based on that information and other criteria to be determined by the board, Superintendent Del Burns will be expected to recommend year-round schools that can be converted back to traditional calendars.

End all expenditures on the site for a new high school near Wake Forest

It wasn’t much of a surprise that the new school board ordered a halt to spending any more money on the proposed site for Forest Ridge High School. It also wasn’t necessary to order the staff to work with county and town officials to identify a new site. That process started more than month ago with new recommendations expected within two weeks.

But during the discussion, new board member Chris Malone said he would oppose the current Forest Ridge site even if it was eventually considered the best option. The rest of the board did not necessarily see it that way, agreeing to get rid of the property only if a better site is found. The school is in Malone’s district, however, so his preferences could hold more sway depending on the final site selection.

A resolution to save costs and expenses

Initially proposed as a hiring freeze of all non-teaching positions, this resolution was heavily edited when the new board members were told that would mean freezing the jobs of bus drivers, custodians, mechanics, cafeteria workers and a host of other jobs assigned directly to schools. About 95 percent of all school system employees are based at a specific school.

In the end, the superintendent agreed to provide the board a detailed list of central services jobs that have been held vacant or eliminated. He will also offer an update in roughly 60 days on the budget process. The request prompted a long discussion between the superintendent and Goldman about budget process and policy. Burns warned the board that an expected budget shortfall of at least $20 million could require them to go beyond the current hiring freeze and lay people off.

End early release Wednesdays

During the public comment portion of the meeting, more than a dozen teachers and a few parents tried all sorts of tactics to convince the new board to retain a part of the week where teachers plan together in Professional Learning Teams. Schools end an hour early each Wednesday to create the planning time, a practice that surprised many parents this year and is widely unpopular.

Tedesco tried to find a compromise, suggesting the teams be kept but the early release days be abandoned at the end of this year. The resolution passed 5-4 with the new majority saying they would figure out how to find the time before 2010-2011 bell schedules are released in April.

The board members in the minority, however, said killing the commitment to early release without a replacement would likely doom any effort to keep Professional Learning Teams.

Despite boos from a group of teachers when the vote was announced, Tedesco repeated his intention of finding a way to keep the teams intact based on promising early results.

Schedule a regular meeting for Dec. 15

More of a housekeeping item than a resolution, holding a meeting on Dec. 15th would have been far more important if the board was able to pass the resolution changing student assignment policies. A successful change in the assignment policy on Tuesday would have paved the way for final approval before the end of the year. The timetable for student assignment changes is now unclear.

The item did prompt Hill to rebuke the new board members, however, for concealing their intentions. Having already scolded them for a process where “essentially half the school board isn’t privy to information before the board meeting,” he made it clear that he had asked every incoming board member in November if they wanted to cancel the second meeting in December. “I talked to each of you personally and was told to go ahead and cancel.”

The meeting is scheduled for 3 p.m.

Noteworthy…

…. Another article about Wake’s public schools appeared in the News & Observer on Wednesday. It was written by Wake Education Partnership President Ann Denlinger and VP of Communications Tim Simmons.  The guest column, found here, offers an overview of the Partnership’s work involving world-class school standards and the importance of that goal regardless of how local school board issues are settled.

Wake Education Partnership is a 501(c)(3) non-profit created in 1983 to support public schools, in part by educating the community on current school issues. Most of its financial support comes from local business. Send comments to Tim Simmons, VP Communications, at  tsimmons@wakeedpartnership.org