Please remember this when I am passing my petition around to get the needed signatures to replace Mr. Burr. Nipit for Senate... Donations are welcome.
Breaking News!!
- Thread starter Buddy Rich
- Start date
Ascuitto stated a few weeks ago if the people want the schools to stay open the BOCC should come up with the money but the question is where does it come from. He has been blasted for spending money by Burr but he was against fighting Alcoa (I was opposite) which was costing huge sums of money and he was against the sheriffs uniform funds request because the budget is in place for this fiscal year. He felt that should come in next years budget instead of mid year. It appears to me Rep Burr picks and chooses what he wants to call Ascuitto out on. Seems he fights along party lines more than anything. I think that is one reason the BOCC did not support Ascuitto, it was all party lines. Burr could have attempted dialogue but he went for the political grenade and big news.
The two party system is somewhat losing its appeal and I do not like the idea that we now need to associate people that run for the school board with a party. I really think that is the political spot where a citizen that is not a "political" person can get involved and make a positive difference.
I went back and listened to some audio and video of the people on the school board when they were running and almost all of them said there were issues that needed to be addressed. I think they should have went at it a different way but it has got people to wake up. Unfortunately many think Stanly County Schools are fine except for AHS, AMS, and East ES. I think they are very wrong.
The two party system is somewhat losing its appeal and I do not like the idea that we now need to associate people that run for the school board with a party. I really think that is the political spot where a citizen that is not a "political" person can get involved and make a positive difference.
I went back and listened to some audio and video of the people on the school board when they were running and almost all of them said there were issues that needed to be addressed. I think they should have went at it a different way but it has got people to wake up. Unfortunately many think Stanly County Schools are fine except for AHS, AMS, and East ES. I think they are very wrong.
It's been to quite this week. Thought the BOE met this week, but I checked and it's next Tuesday. Then we should see some fireworks. lol.
By the way nipit. If you should decide to run for the legislature you can count on the wholehearted support from the NCC. That should turn the tide in your favor!
I have decided to run. I might need a loan. Any chance we can sell the copper from the old still? I'll pay it back in corruption worthy of the club as soon as I get to Raw-lee.
I was up at the high school this past weekend watching my father participate in The Senior Games and went in the locker room to look around and looked at the trophy case outside the gym. There is a lot of history and memories in that building and I would hate to see it shut down. The locker room even had the same smell about it as it was when I went there many years ago.
"The locker room even had the same smell about it as it was when I went there many years ago." (Now that in itself is reason to shut the thing down!) lol
Actually not a totally bad idea btango. Would it be 3A or 4A? I'm now on facebook hoping to get some news from the board meeting tonight. I'm sure either SCARF or ACES will post something.
Buddy the school board is not closing any schools because the BOCC is going to put forth a vote for a sales tax but I am hearing that will not be until 2016. No idea why they cannot have that on the November ballots.
Some people are saying what I said, that was the goal all along while others think they really wanted to input Plan A or B.
The state is cutting school funding again so the people of Stanly County need to make sure there are funds for schools or there will be no choice but to close some or make drastic cuts somewhere.
If Albemarle and South continue to see a decrease in enrollment there will have to be some adjustments or a closure. You cannot have a four high school county with two around or below 400. Does not make financial sense.
The problem is there will be no redistricting of the West Stanly district to bolster Albemarle. People complained about the students riding a bus from their town school to a school six to eight miles down the road. You have West Stanly Middle School students riding nearly twelve miles to a school that 128% of permanent structure capacity when they could be going four miles or less to AMS. Why are they not complaining about that bus ride???
Some people are saying what I said, that was the goal all along while others think they really wanted to input Plan A or B.
The state is cutting school funding again so the people of Stanly County need to make sure there are funds for schools or there will be no choice but to close some or make drastic cuts somewhere.
If Albemarle and South continue to see a decrease in enrollment there will have to be some adjustments or a closure. You cannot have a four high school county with two around or below 400. Does not make financial sense.
The problem is there will be no redistricting of the West Stanly district to bolster Albemarle. People complained about the students riding a bus from their town school to a school six to eight miles down the road. You have West Stanly Middle School students riding nearly twelve miles to a school that 128% of permanent structure capacity when they could be going four miles or less to AMS. Why are they not complaining about that bus ride???
OK btango I can buy that. What I still don't get is why no redistricting? Is WS the only ones holding it up?
That would be a big 4A school with about 2,300 students. A little bigger than Richmond County.
I think leaving West Stanly by itself with future growth is the way to go. Look at building a high school off the Connector for the other three schools which would be a 1,400 student school. That puts them as a big 3A bordering on 4A.
If it looks like North is going to have growth while Albemarle and South drop in enrollment a new school building past Rock Creek a few miles would be a 2A school.
The issue is there will not be funds to build new schools and if they did you then have vacant buildings although moving EAES to AMS and AMS to AHS would be very sensible. Norwood ES to SSMS and SSMS to SSHS.
Hopefully Stanly County is going to pick up economically bringing growth!
Tango/Buddy I guaranteed that they will not be closing Albemarle let alone SS, but I did expect that some schools would be on the chopping blocks. I'm going to put one more guarantee our there. "There will be redistricting of the schools" in Stanly County. Tango do some research and tell me how many schools in the Charlotte area school district lines make no sense....I don't think there is one because their school board "THINKS"...even though they are going on the 4th Superintendent in the last 10 years I believe.
Any news on albemarles nonconference schedule. Saw where someone posted they r not playin thomasville or mount. If they concord what week will it be? i know its not week 1 bc concord plays kannapolis. Does albemarle still play west stanly week 3 like last yr?
This is my understanding KW. Orginially it was Thomasville, Mt Pleasant and as always WS in the third game. The WS game is written in stone so that will not change. I heard that they told Thomasville to try and find someone else for the first game of the season. Then they replaced MP with Concord, so according to you that would have to be the second game. If they did cancel the Thomasville game I guess we don't have a first game opponent. Who's on first! lol
From the snap this is what I gathered from the school board meeting last night. The transportation study will be complete in the next two weeks. The facilities study is going to take several months to complete. However the board seems to be moving towards closing some schools. In their budget they left out EA, Oakboro, and Norwood elementaries for funding. However they want a joint meeting with the county commissioners about their proposed sales tax to be used for the schools only if they agree to not close any schools. The board could vote after the busing cost data is in in 2 weeks and not wait for the facilities assessments. Mike Barbee still seems to me to be the only holdout against consolidation and redistricting. Be damned if I know what their going to do. Don't think they do either. We shall see.
If the school board came out and said we are keeping all schools open but students in over capacity schools that live closer to another school that is under capacity will now attend the under capacity school Barbee would be the only one to say no. Everyone complains about long bus rides when the potential of a school closing came up but no one says anything about the West Stanly Middle School fiasco.
From what I am reading about Tuesday night's board meeting I find one thing that is very disturbing to me. During the public comment part of the meeting whenever someone in the audience would ask a question the board members response was always "No Comment". That tells me that the battle lines have been drawn. I hate to say it but I don't think these board members care what the people have to say. They are hell bent on moving forward with their agenda. When the lines of communication are severed that is a very bad thing. All that tells me is that we the citizens had better prepare for total war with this board. However hard this battle may be I really believe that the people will win in the end. I think the BOCC are listening to the people but the BOE is not. It is well past the time when we the people need to take back our communities and our country.
To all the people on this board who want to save our community schools in stanly county, please read the following: Scarf has been an organization that has been at odds with the school board for some time. You can find them on facebook. However there is a new group called "ACES". Advocates for Communities and Excellence in Schools. This group is mainly about saving our community schools but also about providing our children with a better education. They are on facebook but have recently obtained a website. www. Aces of Stanly.org. Since the school board want listen to anybody the people are taking matters into their own hands. I would advise anyone on here to check out their website. This seems to be a well organized and deciated group. You might want to become a member. I am.
Buddy at the BOCC meeting on the 6th, a former school teacher asked questions of the Commissioners. Ascuitto attempted to answer some questions. The chairperson stated it was a public forum but not a Q&A. Normally, questions are not allowed to be asked at these in most places I have been to.
One thing I have noticed from the beginning many of the "community school" supporters have attacked people personally and aggressively. Melvin Poole has been extremely aggressive at some meetings. Too much grandstanding for me. Although I lean more to the community school side Poole and Burr have disappointed me greatly but I expected it to some degree.
One thing I have noticed from the beginning many of the "community school" supporters have attacked people personally and aggressively. Melvin Poole has been extremely aggressive at some meetings. Too much grandstanding for me. Although I lean more to the community school side Poole and Burr have disappointed me greatly but I expected it to some degree.
OK btango as the school board awaits the transportation data to come in any day now, I assume this data will be based on the closing of some schools. Right!
Buddy I am not sure but I think you may see them point out that currently we have children riding a bus right at double the miles to go to WSMS than any elementary student districted from Oakboro would travel to get to Aquadale ES.
The issue in Oakboro to me is students that live closer to Oakboro ES are going to Endy and Stanfield. The more I look at the last school closings, geographically Endy should have been the elementary school that was closed sending those students to Ridgecrest and Oakboro. Oakboro being in a town makes more sense to keep open due to being located there than Endy. Also, North Albemarle may should have been left open as we see Central at 103% capacity and East at 98%.
They may can keep the schools open this go around but I think that in five years we will have no choice but to close some schools unless we get growth in areas other than the far western end. The state is going to cut money to schools again next year and the money from the sales tax of .25 cents per $1 does not appear to be enough to do the things they want to do and keep the schools open.
The issue in Oakboro to me is students that live closer to Oakboro ES are going to Endy and Stanfield. The more I look at the last school closings, geographically Endy should have been the elementary school that was closed sending those students to Ridgecrest and Oakboro. Oakboro being in a town makes more sense to keep open due to being located there than Endy. Also, North Albemarle may should have been left open as we see Central at 103% capacity and East at 98%.
They may can keep the schools open this go around but I think that in five years we will have no choice but to close some schools unless we get growth in areas other than the far western end. The state is going to cut money to schools again next year and the money from the sales tax of .25 cents per $1 does not appear to be enough to do the things they want to do and keep the schools open.
Buddy back to your question which I got off track from somewhat.
I would like to see them show the districts and mileage with the current routes and the show newly drawn lines for the county moving students closer to the schools that they live. Also, look at Locust which needs to shift some students with Stanfield being logical due to being 54% of permanent structure capacity.
Allow students to continue at Endy through fifth grade but the new lines would send Endy students to Albemarle Middle and then AHS starting at some point east of Endy ES.
You will see the plan pushed for adding onto West Stanly MS and HS due to capacity issues but you will not see a push to send students that live closer to other schools that are under capacity.
If North Stanly sees growth in the Highway 49 corridor it would be wise to shift their lines further outside the city. I would not do that without some growth there because they have dropped down very low.
The school system blew it when they allowed the western Stanly contingent to keep them from going to the middle school concept earlier. A new high school should have been built where the middle school is and the high school could have become the middle school. The middle school was built as an elementary school because they were having issues with capacity because the schools were K-8. I am a 100% believer that a student needs a buffer between elementary school and freshman year. If our schools were large enough I would be ok with a freshman academy at the high schools but we are too small for that although I believe the best option is middle school but I would be ok with that being only 7th and 8th.
I have thought that Albemarle would have been better to go to two elementary schools that served the complete city with a K-2 and 3-5. More busing but it is less than two miles from East to Central.
I would like to see them show the districts and mileage with the current routes and the show newly drawn lines for the county moving students closer to the schools that they live. Also, look at Locust which needs to shift some students with Stanfield being logical due to being 54% of permanent structure capacity.
Allow students to continue at Endy through fifth grade but the new lines would send Endy students to Albemarle Middle and then AHS starting at some point east of Endy ES.
You will see the plan pushed for adding onto West Stanly MS and HS due to capacity issues but you will not see a push to send students that live closer to other schools that are under capacity.
If North Stanly sees growth in the Highway 49 corridor it would be wise to shift their lines further outside the city. I would not do that without some growth there because they have dropped down very low.
The school system blew it when they allowed the western Stanly contingent to keep them from going to the middle school concept earlier. A new high school should have been built where the middle school is and the high school could have become the middle school. The middle school was built as an elementary school because they were having issues with capacity because the schools were K-8. I am a 100% believer that a student needs a buffer between elementary school and freshman year. If our schools were large enough I would be ok with a freshman academy at the high schools but we are too small for that although I believe the best option is middle school but I would be ok with that being only 7th and 8th.
I have thought that Albemarle would have been better to go to two elementary schools that served the complete city with a K-2 and 3-5. More busing but it is less than two miles from East to Central.
I agree btango. Without some substantial grown in other parts of the county other than the western end, school closings lie ahead. With money becoming more and more if an issue, or I should say a lack there of, not closing some schools will not be an option. I'm sorry but I see no signs of economic growth in the county any time soon. In a county that's drying up I don't think keeping 4 HS's open will be an option.
A couple of things I think that need to be made a priority.
1. A plan that has some ideas in place for the future if growth does not come to the non western areas. If Norwood and Aquadale lose more students there will need to be more study on what to do in the South district. They will be limited on redistricting due to the low density on their out district lines with North and West while Albemarle already struggles and the line is much closer to Albemarle HS and MS.
2. Redistricting now which does not mean necessarily closing schools but using sensible mapping and planning.
3. Get community and parents very involved especially from the minority communities to include a citizens group at each school that is informed of discipline issues and what goes on inside the schools daily in addition to being transparent with the cost to run a school and the budget issues.
4. Push discipline very hard. Students that are unruly and cause issues in the school need to be dealt with severely!
5. Put more emphasis on increasing the academic offerings but look at several areas such as elite academics, academics that will prepare a student for college, academics that will prepare a student with job skills and basic life skills, and academics that will teach the absolute basic fundamentals.
6. Spanish should be taught every day in school if only for 15 or 20 minutes. Every American should be able proficient in a second language! When they reach high school I would like to see students move toward non Spanish languages (Portugese, Mandarin, Indo Aryan, Russian, and Latin being other possibilities) as their Spanish would be very strong from being introduced to it as children. The student that moves toward a job skills curriculum or basic education could continue with Spanish or not require further foreign language.
7. Teachers need to be heard more and may be they are but most definitely they need a better county supplement. With the current situation I would like to see every teacher have the opportunity to anonomously give their ideas with either a questionnaire and / or written thoughts.
8. Hiring the best possible teaches and retaining them. Look at some type of program that would get a long term commitment from teachers such as a longevity bonus in the system or a program like the ones that help law enforcement officers, EMTs, and teachers buy houses in Charlotte. Housing is fairly low in Albemarle. Once a teacher has been in the system three or more years they would have some type of financial incentive to purchase a home or pay off a home they have bought while teaching. They would need to live in it for a certain period of years as a primary residence and remain at certain underperforming schools unless the system moves them to another position. This would be need to be a tax free program so less is needed as the gross is the net.
9. Raise the teaching supplements and bring the coaching supplements back to at least what they were before being cut 20.5%.
10. Stop hiring teachers out of college that went to school in Stanly County. Have them go outside the system for a minimum amount of years. Also, look at not allowing them to teach in the schools in the district they attended until they have a set number of years in the Stanly County system.
Add to this with other ideas or present a basic idea of why these would not work or why they are just crazy.
1. A plan that has some ideas in place for the future if growth does not come to the non western areas. If Norwood and Aquadale lose more students there will need to be more study on what to do in the South district. They will be limited on redistricting due to the low density on their out district lines with North and West while Albemarle already struggles and the line is much closer to Albemarle HS and MS.
2. Redistricting now which does not mean necessarily closing schools but using sensible mapping and planning.
3. Get community and parents very involved especially from the minority communities to include a citizens group at each school that is informed of discipline issues and what goes on inside the schools daily in addition to being transparent with the cost to run a school and the budget issues.
4. Push discipline very hard. Students that are unruly and cause issues in the school need to be dealt with severely!
5. Put more emphasis on increasing the academic offerings but look at several areas such as elite academics, academics that will prepare a student for college, academics that will prepare a student with job skills and basic life skills, and academics that will teach the absolute basic fundamentals.
6. Spanish should be taught every day in school if only for 15 or 20 minutes. Every American should be able proficient in a second language! When they reach high school I would like to see students move toward non Spanish languages (Portugese, Mandarin, Indo Aryan, Russian, and Latin being other possibilities) as their Spanish would be very strong from being introduced to it as children. The student that moves toward a job skills curriculum or basic education could continue with Spanish or not require further foreign language.
7. Teachers need to be heard more and may be they are but most definitely they need a better county supplement. With the current situation I would like to see every teacher have the opportunity to anonomously give their ideas with either a questionnaire and / or written thoughts.
8. Hiring the best possible teaches and retaining them. Look at some type of program that would get a long term commitment from teachers such as a longevity bonus in the system or a program like the ones that help law enforcement officers, EMTs, and teachers buy houses in Charlotte. Housing is fairly low in Albemarle. Once a teacher has been in the system three or more years they would have some type of financial incentive to purchase a home or pay off a home they have bought while teaching. They would need to live in it for a certain period of years as a primary residence and remain at certain underperforming schools unless the system moves them to another position. This would be need to be a tax free program so less is needed as the gross is the net.
9. Raise the teaching supplements and bring the coaching supplements back to at least what they were before being cut 20.5%.
10. Stop hiring teachers out of college that went to school in Stanly County. Have them go outside the system for a minimum amount of years. Also, look at not allowing them to teach in the schools in the district they attended until they have a set number of years in the Stanly County system.
Add to this with other ideas or present a basic idea of why these would not work or why they are just crazy.
Interesting point made last night at the BOCC meeting by the president of "ACES". Capacity of the schools in stanly county. The 4 high schools are at 79%. The 4 middle schools are at 88% and the 11 elementary schools are at 80%.
The guy that spoke from ACES is a good guy! AHS Class of 1981.
The capacity may be 79% but it is not spread out very evenly with West at 98% of permanent building structure and North in the high 80's at least.
West Stanly MS is at 124% of permanent structure. Not sure but I think Endy and Oakboro are probably right at 80% with Stanfield not quite at 60%. Locust is near 100%. Central is over 100% and East is probably near 90%. They have closed some elementary schools over the years, Ridgecrest, New London, and North Albemarle while turning Running Creek into the middle school for West. The West elementary schools were previously K-8, then K-6 for one year, before going to K-5.
The capacity may be 79% but it is not spread out very evenly with West at 98% of permanent building structure and North in the high 80's at least.
West Stanly MS is at 124% of permanent structure. Not sure but I think Endy and Oakboro are probably right at 80% with Stanfield not quite at 60%. Locust is near 100%. Central is over 100% and East is probably near 90%. They have closed some elementary schools over the years, Ridgecrest, New London, and North Albemarle while turning Running Creek into the middle school for West. The West elementary schools were previously K-8, then K-6 for one year, before going to K-5.
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Thanks my friend. So if West s at 98% and North almost 90% capacity and the board I think in plan B want's to close Albemarle and SS, so tell me where in the hell are they going to put these students. HUH.
A concerned citizen posted on facebook what I thought was a great idea. This thought has crossed my mind before. If the people really want a magnet school, why not Ridgecrest Elementary School. Fairly new school which to me seems about the right size. Here is a building just sitting empty with about 1.4 million dollars still owed on it, cost of upkeep, utilities, mowing, etc. It even has a new boiler just installed. The only concern might be the fact it is not centurally located, but it's not that far of a drive from anywhere in the county. Look at the distance some kids have to drive to get to Graystone. Just seems like a logical answer to having a magnet school in Stanly County.
"It's not that far to drive to Ridgecrest from anywhere in the county" but your earlier argument was that closing AHS would cause all the long distance travel for those kids. Which is it? Can't have it both ways. AHS was the logical choice for a Magnet but too many old die hards in this county are against change no matter how good the idea is.
I'm not totally against Albemarle being a magnet, I just think Ridgecrest is a better option. They're talking about 540 students in the magnet school. I just don't see this happening. I think Ridgecrest would be about the right size. Probabl;y if the county commissioners come up with the money to keep all the schools open, that is what will happen. JMO.
Buddy Plan B would leave SSHS open with only AHS closing. Plan A closes South and AHS becomes a magnet.
I do not agree with Ridgecrest as a magnet. The people that push that are usually people from western Stanly. If you have a magnet school it should be more centralized. I am not so much sold on the magnet school concept as I am two, three, or four high schools enrolled more evenly. Look at it this way though, Ridgecrest would be the same driving distance for some students that attend WSMS.
I hear people say they were crazy to close a school that still has money owed. I do not see what that has to do with it. You will owe the money regardless and have general maintenance. With Endy, Oakboro, and Stanfield failry low in enrollment why have another elementary school open. Locust is overcapacity due to the closing but they could bring that under control somewhat with redistricting. Why have a school with 150 to 180 in six grades which requires principal, assistant principal, janitorial, and the costs to run it which I am sure are more than the cost to not run it.
I do not agree with Ridgecrest as a magnet. The people that push that are usually people from western Stanly. If you have a magnet school it should be more centralized. I am not so much sold on the magnet school concept as I am two, three, or four high schools enrolled more evenly. Look at it this way though, Ridgecrest would be the same driving distance for some students that attend WSMS.
I hear people say they were crazy to close a school that still has money owed. I do not see what that has to do with it. You will owe the money regardless and have general maintenance. With Endy, Oakboro, and Stanfield failry low in enrollment why have another elementary school open. Locust is overcapacity due to the closing but they could bring that under control somewhat with redistricting. Why have a school with 150 to 180 in six grades which requires principal, assistant principal, janitorial, and the costs to run it which I am sure are more than the cost to not run it.
I expect students are being bused further to WSMS, some over eleven miles, than any student being moved from Norwood or Oakboro to Aquadale would be or Oakboro to Stanfield. Why is no one complaining about the WSMS students riding the bus? They are complaining about space. Simple solution, send students to the school nearest to where they live.
Good read!
I wouldn't listen to the popular opinion of any area that would elect a fool like Rep. Burr. He's fooling a lot of people with the way he's butted his head into a local issue when he should be dealing with state issues. If anyone looks at the numbers, you would know that some serious improvements must be enacted in that school system. Your enrollment is down, tax revs are in a rut, and you have too many schools.
Just because I know that area, I know that West Stanly is not at all representative of the county at large. I won't call it racism for why this is the case because some of ya'll don't like hearing that word, but I'll call it narrow-minded on some powers in that county. That Melvin Poole has pulled the wool over many of eyes in your county. It's time, make it past time for ya'll to redistrict.
Ya'll need to listen to btango. His comment are easy to read and to the point and I agree with his view. He sounds like he understands the issues much better than anyone I know.
I wouldn't listen to the popular opinion of any area that would elect a fool like Rep. Burr. He's fooling a lot of people with the way he's butted his head into a local issue when he should be dealing with state issues. If anyone looks at the numbers, you would know that some serious improvements must be enacted in that school system. Your enrollment is down, tax revs are in a rut, and you have too many schools.
Just because I know that area, I know that West Stanly is not at all representative of the county at large. I won't call it racism for why this is the case because some of ya'll don't like hearing that word, but I'll call it narrow-minded on some powers in that county. That Melvin Poole has pulled the wool over many of eyes in your county. It's time, make it past time for ya'll to redistrict.
Ya'll need to listen to btango. His comment are easy to read and to the point and I agree with his view. He sounds like he understands the issues much better than anyone I know.
