February 2008 Update
Mike Dudgeon, Forsyth County Board of Education District #2
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Rumors
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I would like offer to be a source for you to check rumors about our school system that your hear or forward via email. I am on email constantly and can usually get you a reasonably quick answer. Redistricting put the mill into overdrive. Many of these rumors are false just like the other email urban legends you get, so please feel open to checking with me. That leads us to...
Redistricting
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As most of you probably know, the first draft (of 3) for the redistricting map is available for comment over the web at www.forsyth.k12.ga.us/forsyth/cwp/view.asp?A=3&Q=674019. These comments are due by this Thursday and will be aggregated and given to the parent/citizen committee who is working on the lines. Draft 2 will be issued next Wednesday March 5th. Later in the spring after draft 3 the Board will own the process and there will be public forums for direct communication to Board members. I have had the pleasure to observe two of the three committee meetings and they seem to me to be approaching the task with an unbiased mindset and lots of energy. They are basing much of their work on balancing school numbers, geography, and traffic patterns. They are not making decisions on price or composition of a neighborhood. The committee is also trying to minimize the number of feeder school patterns. Please comment on Draft 1 if you have an opinion- good or bad. If you like the draft, still put in your feedback, or the committee will only see the negative side
Lambert and South
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There have been rumors that Lambert will open overcrowded, South will be replaced with a new building, etc. None of those are true. However, there is a challenge in the school system to decide how to staff a full set of programs at the high schools in the first years after the split. The current redistricting draft best estimates are 1750 kids at South and 1273 at Lambert in 2009-10, with Lambert adding ~400 more kids as it has a senior class in 10-11 and South losing ~350 in 10-11 as the senior class size will go back to normal. Both schools have a nominal capacity of 2000. One option that was kicked around is only opening Lambert without 11th graders (only 9th and 10th ) to allow South to have critical mass for programs- a few school systems have done this with new high schools in the past. However, that is unlikely to happen with us and alternatives are being pursued. Before that would happen there would be a Board decision and community input.
Grading System
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At the January 17 board meeting we discussed my agenda item to author a policy on grading. In a school system, policy is set by the Board and must be followed by the superintendent and staff. Procedures are made to follow policy and are written by the staff. Currently we do not have a policy on grading, though other systems in our area do, including Atlanta, Fulton, DeKalb, and Hall. I wanted for the Board to debate the pros and cons of the standards based vs. regular grading, what age levels they were appropriate for use, and then establish policy. However, my colleagues passed a procedural motion that said we would not have a policy at all. This essentially preempted debate and leaves the decision at the superintendent level. I obviously did not agree with the Board's reasoning, but I respect the decision. I am now moving on from this issue as the Board has spoken and it is now time for me to support the direction of the system. Dr. Evans has done a tremendous job as superintendent so far and we will look to the leadership of he and his staff on this issue moving forward. I encourage everyone to work with their kids to understand their classroom performance and needs with grades, teacher conversations, and simple attention to their work.
Calendar
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The Board finalized the calendar for the 2009-2010 school year – it will start August 10 and end May 29 with an entire week off for Thanksgiving. This was “draft 3” of the latest calendar items. This draft was heavily favored by local school councils and staff over “draft 4” which did not have the long Thanksgiving break and ended a week earlier. For those of you who thought the “later August start” calendar was going to happen, in a previous update I explained how the Board received the majority of its feedback opposing that change, though in the months since then I am not certain that truly reflects the majority viewpoint of the entire community.
At our February meeting I suggested that the Board pursue an expanded process for the next calendar. I think the “draft and react” model does not best capture the preferences of the majority of the parents and staff. I believe we should conduct a comprehensive but not too long survey before we issue a first draft. Drafts tend to get mostly negative feedback since people who don’t like something are more motivated to take the time to complain. Also, drafts do not allow easy comparison of multiple preferences. With a survey, we could get people to rank the items that they think are most important in a calendar, for example fall break, start date, length of Christmas holiday, exams before the break, etc. Then perhaps the 1st draft will reflect more of what people want. I am hopeful my Board colleagues will consider this extra step next time we set a calendar.
Thanks as always for your support of Forsyth County Schools.
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