Dot to Retire?

BREAKING NEWS…

Doug Clark at the News & Record is reporting that at-Large GCS Board member Dot Kearns will step down and retire off the Board at the conclusion of her term.

This is big.

Clark:

Like many High Pointers, I’ve known Dot Kearns for a very long time as a lady with a tender heart and tough hide. Except for a couple of years, she’s held public office since 1972 — on the High Point Board of Education, Guilford County Board of Commissioners and consolidated Guilford County Board of Education.

Kearns is announcing today she won’t run for another term this year. At 76, she’s ready to slow down and devote more time to visiting her out-of-state grandchildren.

This news will prompt celebrations among her critics, but not me. Although I’ve disagreed with her about a number of issues, I’ve always admired her honesty, her courage and her devotion to the causes she values. After all these years, it’s time for someone else to take her place on the school board, but I’ll rank her as one of the most dedicated elected officials I’ve ever encountered.

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This changes very little. I’m still going to file before the end of the week, if not before. My strategy may change somewhat, now that it is an open seat, but I’m looking forward to the race.

Ms. Kearns has served the citizens of Guilford County for a number of years. I wish her the best. I think she made the right call in stepping aside and making way for new (hopefully younger) leadership on the Board. It’s the right time.

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UPDATE…

This staff report in today’s N&R:

Dot Kearns not seeking another term on school board

Dot Kearns has decided not to seek another term as an at-large member of the Guilford County Board of Education, according to an e-mail sent to friends and the media today.

Kearns, 76, has been on the 11-member board since its 1992 inception. Prior to that, she served for 10 years on the High Point school board and eight years on the county’s Board of Commissioners.

“In truth, I had not planned to run the last two times,” Kearns said Monday. “But I wanted to be sure there were others (planning to run) who had some of the same hopes and aspirations for the school system that I do.”

Kearns said there are candidates running for the seat who fit that description – “one in particular” – and that made her decision easier. She would not name her choice, but said “perhaps we could revisit that later.”

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Hmmmm…wonder who that could be…

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Further, from Doug Clark:

She issued this statement a little later this afternoon:

Many of you with whom I’ve worked over the years:

This message is to share with you my intentions not to file for another term on the Guilford County Board of Education.

Over the last weeks I have been in conversation with several potential candidates whom I find to hold similar beliefs about the imperative power of public education in a democracy and who hold similar hopes for building a strong effective Guilford County School System as I hold. With that knowledge, I am comfortable to leave the At-Large Seat in new and vigorous hands.

I am indebted to the citizens of High Point, Greensboro and all of Guilford County for allowing me to serve as their representative on a Board of Education and the County Commission for many years.

We have an especially wonderful county. Nonetheless, there are on-going challenges – many of which can be best met by the continuing development of a vibrant public school system – designed and implemented to meet the needs of all our diverse student and family populations.

My hope is that county wide, citizens will give the new At-Large School Board member feedback and positive support as so many have given to me.

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It’s going to be one heck of a race!

E.C.

Michael McKinney files for at-large

From the up-to-date election filings over at the Guilford Co. Board of Elections…

High Point resident Michael McKinney filed today as a candidate for the at-large seat on the GCS Board. The seat is currently held by Dot Kearns, who still hasn’t announced whether she will run again or not.

Greensboro resident David Crawford filed for the at-large race two weeks ago. If one or more persons file in this race (me? Kearns?), there will be a May primary.

McKinney, currently, is listed as a sitting member of the Guilford County Planning Board.

E.C.

Bond recap stories from the Enterprise

Here are links to some good recap stories the High Point Enterprise inked both yesterday and today:

Bond talks wrought with political wrangling (today)

BOND$ (yesterday)

Earlier bond issues helped ease growing pains (yesterday)

E.C.

Less time for arts is detrimental to students (N&R)

Yesterday’s Guilford Record, inside most of Sunday’s N&R editions, featured this op-ed from Guilford Education Alliance executive director Margaret Arbuckle.

She’s spot-on here.

Less time for arts is detrimental to students

By Margaret Arbuckle
Contributing Writer

Sunday, Feb. 24, 2008 3:00 am

The discussion regarding the importance of arts education in our public schools has been heightened recently. Teachers, parents, students, arts faculty from our colleges and universities and arts advocates have all spoken before the Board of Education. The basic premise is that lessening time for arts education has a tremendous negative impact on students’ academic success, their comprehensive education and their potential to be creative responsible citizens as adults.

This conversation is a reaction to the decrease of time for arts education in a number of elementary schools as a result of two decisions:

• The Board of Education provided a daily planning period for every teacher in elementary schools for the 2007-08 school year. Teachers indicated that this was needed to collaborate with each other and to lessen the pressure to “get it all done” in the course of the school day. To provide the planning period, another class taught by another teacher had to be included in the day.

• Including another instructional period achieved another school board goal: providing foreign language instruction so that students graduate with knowledge of a second language. Spanish was re-introduced into the elementary grades.

The impact of these two changes resulted in an unintentional reduction of arts education.

The requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act complicate things. Although art and music are core subjects listed in the law, they are not tested. In Guilford County they are categorized as “encore” subjects taught by specialists, not classroom teachers.

Across the country, time devoted to arts education has been decreased as the pressures have mounted to meet the proficiency levels in math and reading as measured through No Child Left Behind. Schools whose students do not meet proficiency levels in these subjects are sanctioned.

According to one study, there has been a 16 percent decline in time devoted to social studies and arts, and increased time devoted to reading and math, sometimes equal to doubling the time for reading and math during a school day.

The impact of less time devoted to arts education is clear. Last month, Education Week reported:

• Youth are disengaged from society, leading to increased youth violence, gang activity and sense of hopelessness. Arts education is not the only means of addressing this but with arts education comes collaboration, increased respect for cultural differences and a greater sense of positive self-esteem.

• The arts are a universal language, deepening understanding and communication in our global economy.

• Arts education provides opportunities for innovation and creativity, the hallmarks of our economic success.

• Arts education provides the opportunity for students to seek deeper meaning in their work, enhancing their spiritual development and leading them to defining values that connect them to humankind.

There is consensus that the positive impact of the No Child Left Behind legislation is full disclosure of the performance of our public schools. However, most agree that to meet the expectations of the law, we are teaching “to the test,” limiting our students’ development of critical thinking skills, and are basing our education system on theories that related to the Industrial Age, not the 21st-century global economy.

We are challenged to educate our students to achieve proficiency on tests but also develop the capacity to think creatively. Arts education is one means of achieving this.

The facts of the current status of arts education appear to be evidence both locally and nationally that meeting the measurement expectations of the law has resulted in decreasing the opportunities to teach our students through the arts.

The goals of creating a truly educated public have been lost in the demand to reach some level of proficiency on required testing, and we have sacrificed arts education in the process.

A re-examination of our total curriculum is necessary.

The Guilford County Board of Education is examining alternative scheduling proposals to identify ways to provide a more comprehensive curriculum for our children’s education.

Let’s hope that is achieved.

Margaret Bourdeaux Arbuckle is executive director of Guilford Education Alliance.

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E.C.

School Violence Task Force Reports Tonight

How timely is this report, coming on the heels of last week’s CBS-2 report, and GCS’ pitiful response to it.

Don’t forget that this evening at 6pm, the GCS Board will hear from the School Climate Task Force and their final report and recommendations. I can’t wait.

E.C.