On 16 April 2010, around 10:45 a.m. a gunshot rang out on a Chapel Hill High School bus.

Within hours of the arrest, the non-Progressive, regional broadcast media reported that the arrrested culprit was bringing a gun to school to get revenge for a lost fight with an “ABP” gang member. Friends of the arrested student said, ”The suspect had kind of lost the fight. So he came back to school with his own weapon and decided to get revenge and shoot back at the student. We didn't know when he was going to do it, but he said he was going to do it…That he was going to get revenge.” (See TV11 Broadcast.)

Gang member? What gangs are infiltrating city school? According to a city school spokeperson, they aren't aware of any gang members operating in their schools. Ignorance is bliss.

Here's a Pulp hint for the city school board members. Read the two most recent 2008 and 2009 reports from the Governor's Commission on gangs in North Carolina. Even for Progressives, sometimes ignorance isn't bliss.

City and county school systems in Orange County receive not only county funds, but state funds as well. With Governor Perdue kiting state finances by holding back on paying tax refunds, one can see how bad the current state economic conditions is. (Across the country, 2008 federal income tax revenues are down 34% from 2007.)

The ripple effect continues. With state tax revenues reduced, state funding of school systems must be reduced. According to Dr. Neil Pedersen, city school superintendent, state budget cutbacks could cost the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools about 100 positions.

So how many teachers in classrooms may be cut?

Interesting question, perhaps the Pulp should review some of the current city school numbers. For this school year, the student population is 11,389. Teaching those students in the classroom are 616 teachers, or about 18 students per teacher. Supporting those classroom teachers are an additional 317 teachers, or about 1 other teacher per 2 classroom teachers. That total of 933 teachers spreads out over the 11,389 population at about 12 teachers per student.

How much “certified support staff backs up the teachers? According to the proposed 2009-2010 budget, the 933 teachers are backed up with 216 “certified support staff”. In turn, teachers and certified support staff are backed up with 630 “other staff”. That means that for each classroom teacher there are about 2 other school employees. It also means that for each teacher, there is another school employee.

Pulpsters may also want to know that of the about $89,000,000 spent on teaching support and teachers in school, about $51,600,000 comes from the state and about $37,000,000 comes from the county tax revenues. How much does the city school system pay on administration? This year it’s about $37,000,000 or about 40% of the cost of teaching students and operating the schools.

Back to the question, of the 100 jobs due to be cut from state funding reductions, how many are teachers? According to Dr. Petersen, 48 will be teachers, 40 will be certified support staff (teaching assistants). That leaves a total of 12 administrative positions eliminated. Yes, the mighty administrators have only visited 12% of the proposed cuts on the vital school administration.

So what’s the hue and outcry from the city school administration? One of the city high schools (Chapel Hill High) may be left without a basketball coach!

In the inspiring words of the great administrator, Dr. Pedersen, ”Everyone recognizes that the General Assembly has difficult choices to make. The universities have the advantage of being able to raise tuition rates to help with their budget woes, while many local school districts like ours are faced with reductions in their local appropriations.”

Invoking images of hope and change, Dr. Pedersen continues, “In effect, [the state House cutting school funding] is going to benefit other sectors of the state government as well by reducing their cutbacks. President Obama and the Congress made it clear that these stabilization funds were to go to schools and universities to prevent the kind of layoffs that the House's budget would require.”

The answer? Why more taxes, of course! Dr. Pedersen “[knows] that increasing taxes is unpopular, but these cuts in education are too big of a step backward for a state that sees its future dependent upon quality educational systems.” (See the Chapel Hill Herald City School Cuts Story.)

Most jurisdictions having the option to charge new residential construction impact fees (for capital costs like upgraded school capacity) would strive to keep those fees current. By doing so, the trust fund containing those fees would grow in anticipation of the next new school occasioned by the residential growth associated with those fees. By doing so, much of the public school capital spending wouldn't come from property tax increases.

However, Orange County isn’t like most places in North Carolina. Having fought to get local authorization for residential impact fees, Orange County Commishes have been lax in keeping those fees set to the maximum allowed by state law. As reported earlier by the Pulp, Commishes have only recently raised impact fees from rates set back in 2001. Moreover, rather than raise them to the maximum, Commishes have settled for a fraction of the permissible rates. Developers have been underpaying impact fees by 77%, paying only 23% of what they could be charged by the county for a city district infrastructure impact fee. For the county, developers have been underpaying impact fees by 68%, paying only 32% of what they could be charged by the county. The difference has been paid by taxpayers, almost $15,000 per house.

How much did the Commish raise the fees?
The commishes approved $7616 for the city school district and $3749 for the county school district. However, the current maximum allowable support impact fee of the city school district is $19,039. For the county district, that fee is $9,372. (Pulp readers should keep in mind that the city school district has built nearly twice as many schools as the county district in the last 20 years.) In other words, even with the increase the Commishes are foregoing $11,423 (or over 150% of the raised city impact fee) in the city school district and are foregoing $5623 (again over 150% of the raised county impact fee).

(Pulpsters should remember the school equity/merger debate of several year ago when Commish Mike Nelson, then Carrboro mayor, spoke about the free ride of city school district residents. With current impact fees, the “free ride ” of city district residences pay almost twice as much in impact fees as county district residents.)

Such developer largesse has its financial consequences.

On 28 April 2009, the Commishes told the board of the city school district some “shocking” news. They don't have enough money to build the 11th elementary school in the city school district, scheduled to be opened in Fall 2011. The projected Northside neighborhood school, home to the Greenbridge gentrification controversy, must be put on hold immediately.

According to city school board chairperson Lisa Stuckey, ”It really does come as a shock tonight that we need to lay off our architect and everyone involved with that project.”

Shock doesn't overcome empty pockets. “None of us want to change the direction in which we were headed for Elementary 11. The county’s ability to do it right now is just uncertain.” (See N&O School Fund Bankrupts.)

How much money left on the table?
If you figure that OWASA has gained 3100 users since 2001 in the city school district area, and that $15,000 has been left on the table for each user, then the total missing moneys from the school construction trust fund is over $46,000,000. That's enough money to pay for about two elementary schools.

Current Chapel Hill High School (CHHS) Principal Ms. Jackie Ellis has submitted her resignation in January 2009, effective 20 March 2009. She is the sixth principal in the last decade for CHH, having served about two years. Ms. Ellis replaced Ms. Karla Eanes, who served for just a year and a half. In the past decade, the longest term of being a principal at CHHS belongs to Ms. Mary Ann Hardebeck She served for six years.

In Ms. Ellis words, ”It’s probably one of the most difficult decisions, and yet at the same time one of the easiest decisions … of course because it’s going to be much better for my family. I get my life back, and my family gets me back. There are some things that almost make the high school principalship humanly impossible.”

Superintendent Neil Pedersen responded to Ms. Ellis saying, “Speaking in general terms, I believe that high school principalships are very challenging jobs and turnover in those positions is not unusual.” He couldn’t explain how East Chapel Hill High School has had the same principal, Mr. Dave Thaden, for thirteen years. Demonstrating his sagacity and his outstanding ability to select executive talent, Dr. Pedersen said, “Frankly, I don’t know how that’s possible”, a great assurance that such talent won't be discovered again. (See Carrboro Citizen CHHS story.)

As a result of much heralded municipal “open sanctuary” policies for the towns of Chapel Hill and Carrboro, the “Chapelboro” city school district has undergone dramatic demographic changes in its student population. As shown in the table below, Chapelboro schools are close to realizing the vaunted goal of reaching minority Euro-Caucasian status.

According to the Chapelboro schools, “98 Korean students enrolled in the district. These students were, for the most part, from families of refugees who had been relocated to our community by a local church or immigration service. Chapel Hill was identified as a community that would be supportive of the needs of these families because of the availability of many services, including free public transportation.”

The school system embraces increasing the cosmetic diversity of the student population as a sign of a better educational experience, at least so long as “diversity” means eliminating a majority Euro-Caucasian student population.

In a tribute to the management skills of the Chapelboro school system, its latest elementary school, Morris Grove suffers from poo in its drinking water pipes. Yes, Morris Grove has “pootable” water. Built at the inflated “hospital pricing” of over $200 per square foot, Morris Grove comes with a stunning institutional concrete block finish. The greenest of Chapelboro schools, with reclaimed rainwater (brimming with coliform bacteria), has turned brown.

According to the Daily Tar Heel water fountains were put off limits in November. School officials have been scratching their heads on how coliform bacteria was contaminating the potable water supply. Too bad, they didn’t listen to free advice from a local citizen-buildings engineer who reviewed the plans for free. Potential problems with the potable water supply were pointed out and dutifully ignored. Another wonderful example of how government agencies can ignore helpful advice without fear of recourse.

In the interim, Chapelboro school system is spending multiple times their Morris Grove drinking water budget on importing bottled water.

No word on who tested the pipes before issuing a certificate of occupancy and what the test results were.

City Schools

Local politician love to brag about the Chapelboro city school system, a system with one of the highest expenditures of instructional money per pupil in the state. Unfortunately, the system failed to maintain having even one of the 33 “School of Excellence” evaluations given in the state.

Twelve city schools gained “Schools of Distinction” status. The remaining four have “Schools of Progress” status. Three achieved expected growth, with the rest achieving high growth. The district lost the four “Schools of Excellence” ratings it had last year and gained three more “Schools of Progres” rankings, an overall substantial lowering of the system performance evaluation.

According to Ms. Diane Vilwock, city schools executive director for testing and program evaluation, ”It's difficult to help educators and parents understand that our students improved their reading skills last year when the percent proficient looks so dramatically lower. In raising standards, we may make students better readers in the end, but the presentation of the results the first year with new standards can be demoralizing to students and staff.”

Hopeful of better results next year, longtime city school superintendent Neil Pedersen says, ”The challenge, then, is for us to make the necessary instructional improvements that help our students meet these higher levels of performance.”

Orange County Schools

Ten of 13 schools in the Orange County district met high growth. The remaining three achieved expected growth. There were no Schools of Excellence and no Schools of Distinction. See the Herald Sun School Performance Story.

No word on any connection between the change in the socio-economic background of incoming students and performance.

No word on how much more money will be needed to stop the bleed.

No word from the local realtors on how this “good news” will be spun.

City schools have received a $30,000 grant (about $60,000 to taxpayers when overhead on both ends is considered) from the state owned North Carolina Virtual Public School (NCVPS) to assist students in online learning courses. Southern Village’s Culbreth Middle School administrators have earmarked their half of these funds for a pilot program to give the popular entertaiment player, the Apple iPod Touch, to a select group of students in the school's AVID program.

As reported by the Herald Sun, nurturing and conciliatory Culbreth Principal Susan Wells says, ”We're obviously pleased and looking forward to moving ahead with our AVID students.” AVID students typically are those identified as being the first generation in their families to attend college.

According to Principal Wells and her staff, an iPod provides easy, unchallenging access to engaging learning material, as well as entertainment. ”We believe the educational potential of this tool is clear. We are excited about this pilot [program] and believe it will be an outstanding, engaging tool for our students. Our hope would be to extend this tool to all students within Culbreth if private, state or federal funds can be secured.”

No word on why administrators didn’t choose to give more robust, challenging, and versatile notebook PCs to the students.

Seven schools in the local city system and eight schools in the county school system failed to meet the federal No Child Left Behind math standards last school year. However, this performance is considered good news because according to city superintendent Neil Pedersen ”[t]he number of schools that made AYP [adequate yearly performance] in our district in math increased,”

City schools not meet the math standard are Carrboro Elementary, Frank Porter Graham Elementary, McDougle Elementary, McDougle Middle, Culbreth Middle, Phillips Middle and East Chapel Hill High School. Three of these schools have failed to meet AYP in reading or math for two years in a row - Carrboro, Frank Porter Graham and McDougle elementary schools

In the local county school system only four of 12 schools made math AYP, down from six out of 12 the previous year - Central Elementary, Hillsborough Elementary, Pathways Elementary and C.W. Stanford Middle.

*EDS = Ecomonically Disadvantaged, LEP = Limited English Proficient, SWD = Students with Disabilities

* EDS = Ecomonically Disadvantaged, LEP = Limited English Proficient, SWD = Students with Disabilities ++ Less than 95% of students tested, failed participation standard (Sufficient numbers of Asian student were indeed tested; there were coding errors on placeholder records.)

(See Herald Sun School Performance Story.)

Chapelboro school officials met with local legislators at their annual legislative breakfast on 7 April 2008. Cries were made for more money from you, but not from developers. The demand side was elaborately described from the standpoint of use (added pupils) with absolutely no mention as to how those new pupils arrived at the Chapelboro school doorstep.

Here are the expensive facts. Over the next decade, Chapelboro schools will need $199,000,000 in capital spending. Although only $14,000,000 was spent on Rashkis Elementary School in 2003, Chapelboro schools are spending $25,000,000 for Morris Grove Elementary (a duplicate school of Rashkis), scheduled to open in 2008. In 2010, elementary school No. 11 is needed, projected cost of $33,000,000, or an annual inflation rate of about 15%. By 2013, elementary school No. 12 will be needed, projected cost of $44,000,000, also at an annual inflation rate of about 15%.

Each elementary school handles about 500 students, so Chapelboro schools is projecting about 1500 new students each year as a steady demand in only five years. Part of the demand is created by a legislative mandate for smaller class sizes. However, another part is described as a demographic trend for families moving into Chapelboro rental housing. This coded phrasing is an Orange Progressive obfuscation of the fact that Chapelboro illegal immigration sanctuary policies are attracting immigrants with families now, hence the dramatically rising Hispanic population in the Chapelboro schools.

New student demand will show up in other parts of the system by 2013. By that time a new middle school and new high school are required. Cost? Over another $100,000,000 is needed.

Not one word was said about implementing a $12,000 per new housing unit impact fee such as Currituck County is seeking.

Not one word was said about how a local transfer/home equity tax doesn’t apply to renters who are creating this new demand in substantial part.

Not one word was said linking residential growth to net negative municipal revenue flows and the need for financial impact statements for developments.

See DailyTar Heel New School Story.

Once more school superintendents Mr. Patrick Rhodes (Orange County Schools (OCS)) and Mr. Neil Pedersen (Chapelboro City Schools (CCHS)) sashay out on to the governmental dance floor. They have presented new school budgets to their respective boards of education.

On 17 March 2008, Mr. Rhodes recommended a $1.8 million (8.35 %) increase to the OCS school board over last year's budget. The increase would go mostly toward expected state increases in teacher pay and benefits and a change in the state's requirements for the number of exceptional children's program positions. Other expenditures include $25,000 to expand the AVID program for underachieving students into high school, $25,000 to offer an educational alternative to suspensions, summer recruitment for dropouts, and a high school transition program, $25,000 to enhance the district's gifted services, $66,000 for one gifted teacher position, and $132,000 for two English as a Second Language teacher positions.

As a result of the proposed OCS school operational budget increase, all county residents would pay a 0.000139 increase in their base county tax rate of 0.0095 per $100 assessed value (or about a 2% increase).

For perspective, Mr. Pedersen has recommended a $6.8 million increase next year to his board for Chapelboro schools. That increase could be paid for by adding 0.000262 cents to base county tax rate (or about a 3% increase).

The OCS board will hold public hearings on both the operational and capital budget proposals at 6 p.m. April 7 and 7 p.m. April 10 in the auditorium of A.L. Stanback Middle School, 3700 N.C. 86 South, Hillsborough.

No word on when Orange County elected officials will call for financial impact statements on proposed residential development in the county before issuing an approval.

No word when a commish may start fully funding board of education approved budgets, thereby putting financial governance responsibility on those boards.

See N&O OCS School Budget Story.

The Chapelboro real estate industry, the largest for-profit business in Orange County loves to laud the performance of Chapelboro schools, as top of the heap in North Carolina. But where does that heap stand next to other educational heaps? Is it a mountain, or a molehill?

A recent international test of 10th graders (PISA) shows the USA dead in the middle of the academic high school pack at 29th out of 57 countries, behind Croatia. (See PISA Exam List.)

So who's the winner? Finland!

How do they do it? They don’t use government-mandated curriculum. Teachers aren’t well compensated with bonus programs. Oh, kids don't start school until age 7.

For more interesting reading, see WSJ Article on Finnish Education.

Chapelboro schools administered the state writing exams for the fourth, seventh, and tenth grades on 4 March 2008.

Parents report another record “stress out” for the unlucky students. Teachers have been teaching to the writing test since school opened, or rather teaching to the bonuses they’ll get if their students pass. The students are well aware of the financial incentives to their teachers.

While students are able to regurgitate the writing test rubrics, paradoxically, they now graduate from Chapelboro schools with an unprecedented paucity of basic writing knowledge and skills such as basic grammar, communication, sentence structure, punctuation, spelling, vocabulary et cetera.

No word on why Chapelboro guidance counselors are still at a loss as to why less and less students enjoy their school experience.

In a demonstration of “Mark Twain” public relations, the foundation of facts about the cheating incident and the lost master school building keys keep shifting as fences are erected and mended around the cheating scandal. Despite the best efforts, some local colleges have contacted Chapel Hill High (CHH) requesting the names of students involved.

According to the latest from CHH Principal Ellis, the number of students accused either of cheating on a mid-term exam (for seniors, most of who have already been accepted to college) or of entering the school to obtain cheating materials is not four students, but twelve.

In a related brilliant security move, Chapelboro school system administrators discarded all security images from CHH during 2007 when an “upgraded” video security system was installed at CHH in January 2008.

Readers should note that Principal Ellis is the latest in a string of over five principals at CHH in the last decade, as the Chapelboro school system practices revolving door administration, and thus, has little personal knowledge of how CHH operated prior to this school year.

No word on the bonuses, the security whizzes at Chapelboro schools will receive for creating an “eighteen minute gap” (a’ la Watergate) in the CHH security image files.

No word on whether or not the lost master key opens teachers’ drawers as well as doors.

See N&O Cheating Update Story.

See WRAL Cheating Update.

Chapelboro prides itself on the performance of students at its high schools. In a positive feedback loop, schools where students perform well attract more students that perform well. “Good schools” mean higher housing prices, ergo more profits for the real estate industry, the third industry after UNC and city schools in southern Orange. The school system has even gone so far as to cooperate in the production of a video for real estate interests.

So imagine the chagrin when the Chapel Hill High (CHH) Principal had to report to parents that CHH students had obtained a master key to the CHH campus. Being bright students going to the nation’s finest collegiate institutions, they passed the key down from class to class, creating a legacy of cleverness. These master keys were used to rifle through teachers‘ desks and to obtain copies of tests and answer keys.

The next generation of entrepreneurs even sold these answer keys using the latest generation of wireless communication devices. In Chapelboro, cell phones can be used for scholastic profiteering, as well as closing drug deals and getting internet access under the new city school social justice program.

No word on whether realtors will be updating their promotional material to reflect the latest accomplishments of Chapelboro students.

No word on how “up close and personal” some of the entrepeneurial, scholastically enhanced students were to the teachers of the answer keys that were “borrowed”.

No word on who got immunity and who didn't.

In related business news, shares of Societe Bic rose slightly in heavy trading.

A PTSA Board Meeting has been set for Tuesday 12 February 2008 at the Media Center in Chapel Hill High - 6:30 PM. There will be an opportunity for Q&A (questions and answers, not quips and accolades).

Reason- Steve Scroggs, Assistant Superintendent will speak about past CHHS renovations, as well as his “visions”.

Real Reason – Damage control.

The Chapel Hill High School Booster Club sent a letter to Superintendent Neil Pedersen in November 2007 outlining a “long and growing list of hazardous conditions at the school”, including mice and cockroaches in the gyms and filthy locker rooms.

Local media hasn't highlighted the meeting, citing that “those problems have been addressed”, vindicating a local public policy of keeping embarassing matters quiet until after “solutions” are applied.

No word on the acceptance of the new school mascot cheer… Roaches Scatter!

No word on if the Roaches will invite the Dirty Dancing county commissioners (responsible for funding the upkeep on this over 40 year old school facility) to share the love of vermin.

(See Booster Club Letter.)

As the Chapelboro city school system gets ready to open a new elementary school in Carrboro at old NC 86 and Eubanks Road, questions arise from outside observers. How environmentally friendly, how “green” is the school?

In Fall 2008, the new Morris Grove Elementary School (also referred to as ES10) will open in the Chapelboro city school system, no doubt to some self-congratulatory fanfare in view of the pre-building advertisement of Morris Grove as a “green” school. However, a professional engineer and facilities manager at a local university (John Kramer) has looked beyond the hype to the substance. Mr. Kramer recently helped spearhead a water-savings initiative at the local university that saved 40,000,000 gallons (about 1000 home swimming pools) a year, earning the thanks of the local city water system.

Mr. Kramer passed on (as his personal opinion) the following observations to the Chapelboro school system about the Morris Grove plans (all suggestion subject to review and approval by the school design team):

1) – Morris Grove uses 32 watt fluorescent lamps in lieu of more efficient 25/28 watt lamps. Add them up and run them for the operating life of the school. That may be as much carbon loading as Carrboro mayor Mark Chilton spends driving his kids to private school, not to forget a payback period of less than Mr. Chilton’s term.
2) - Condensate from air conditioning units is dumped to drain instead of recycled. That’s more wasted water.
3) - The emergency generator is diesel fueled instead of cleaner burning natural gas. That’s more carbon loading. Also, biodiesel isn’t an option as a generator fuel.
4) - “Standard” 1 gallon per flush urinals are used in lieu of 1/8 gallon “high performance” ones.
5) - The potable hot water recirculating system is designed such that it will waste water.
6) - The “green” solar water pre-heating system, which would be required to contain glycol or other antifreeze means to avoid freezing under no load conditions, appears to have no monitoring system for cross contamination with the potable (drinking) water system. Glycol (antifreeze) is a poison.
7) - The air conditioning system appears to leave the building negatively pressurized, which will cause mold and other indoor air quality issues. That’s “engineerese” for sucking in unconditioned air from the outside.
8) - The air conditioning system is designed such that, if the principal comes in on the weekend to work in their office, a cooling unit large enough to run the whole building will have to run. It’s like driving to work in a dump truck.
9) - The “green” heat recovery feature of the air conditioning system is designed so that semi-conditioned air is fed to the entire building, regardless of occupancy status. So the commuting dump truck is loaded and hauling a trailer.

No feedback has been received from the Chapelboro school system.

Rock Haven isn’t rocking to the latest rock beat, but to the racial tensions arising as “whiggas” clashes intensify.

The BOA held the Chapelboro city school system hostage on its building permits in the recent past in order to force Chapelboro’s third high school to be named “Carrboro High”, paying little attention to the structure and composition of the high school program itself. In keeping with the “Keep Carrboro Weird” mantra, the BOA foresaw no problems with having a substantially less than full service high school as its flagship, “high school lite”. Observers note that no BOA member has supervised a child attending a city high school, many following mayor Mark Chilton’s lead, preferring distant private school education for their children.

Unfortunately, high school students aren’t interested in political dogma. They want real bands, real orchestras, real sports programs, real art classes, and fake surveillance cameras. Unable to vote in local elections, they vote with their feet. An increasing number of students are leaving Carrboro High. They recognize the nature of a town that imbues itself with the shroud of anarchistic, usufructing freedoms, while attending a police state surveillance campus. They have seen their parents’ peers support Alderman-elect Dan Coleman’s attack on a volunteer Carrboro High School track coach with his vehicle by rewarding him with their support, the support of every other BOA member, and the support of all major local political organizations.

See N&O Carrboro High story