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AHS to become a magnet school?

Originally posted by WMFootballFanatic:
Buddy, A part of me still thinks it was put out there to see how big the fight would be. I don't think it is a done deal by any means. I agree with improving academics. That is a necessity everywhere, not just Stanly County. America is falling behind what used to be (and in many ways still are) third world countries like India and China. But there has to be a way to do that without wiping out the rich tradition of 2 Stanly County High schools. There has to be other alternatives. It is possible to have a district and a magnet concept at a school.

TW, If they put ALB and NS together, they should be better than WM. It would be a 3A school. And WM would be playing them non-conference I would assume. How in the world would that work next season?
WMFF,

Because AHS is actually being split three ways, NS would play the schedule already set for this season but the newly named school could be moved up in classifications the next year when actual numbers are determined & certainly when realignment happens again the following year. With 570 students going to the Magnet school, right now the projected size would keep them in 2A (2AA for football)

TW
 
The fireworks should begin this coming Tuesday night when the board meets for their feb meeting. I understand there will be a large turnout of concerned citizens. I plan to go and hear what the board members have to say. This is suppose to be another discussion meeting with the actual vote coming at the March meeting. They are moving mighty fast folks maybe trying to get a done deal before any opposition can get off the ground. Just a thought.
 
Maybe grade pros prediction of the Bull Comets wasn't that crazy afterall. Buuut I agree with Footnatic on this one. I believe the school board is testing the waters too see what kind of reaction they get and boy they are getting one!!!!!
 
We have been talking for a long time about Albemarle and North Stanly becoming One School. With the shape of things in Stanly County maybe this is the option, Memories of Toby Webb and all His wins and Jack Gaster and a couple other great Coaches may just have to be that. I also have a Petition on My Facebook page. We will see what happens with what We share and in getting the word out
 
How can it be done properly when they haven't even looked at all the options? Additionally I said this once already there are no schools in this county above avg rated. I haven't heard one thing in this plan that is about academics except the stem program which will cost a whole lot more than what AHS costs due to the fact those teachers get paid double or triple of a normal teacher in AHS. They have a 75 million dollar budget for the schools and could do some good things with that money.

I am still in favor of ACS splitting into it's own city school district putting on the ballot a 1% school district tax and setting a plan forth with academics as te #1 priority.
 
I was thinking about Grade Pro and how He feels about this. You Warriors have so much Talent coming back next year. I just wonder if combining Albemarle with North together and having a deeper Team would make Us have a better chance You Guys beat Us combined by a large amount last year
 
Stanly County is vastly different than it was even 10 or 15 years ago. Alcoa is gone. There are virtually no textile or large
manufacturing plants left. The city and county have settled on a new vision for the future that leans more toward tourism, small business, and technology than on manufacturing. That's a good and logical goal, but it won't come about overnight. Meanwhile, our children graduate from high school and head off to Charlotte, Greensboro, Winston, Raleigh, etc. never to live here again. The cities are starting to boom again, but this once thriving area is stagnant at best and dying in some ways.

Communities tend to rally around schools, and any time change is mentioned, it pushes a lot of 'hot buttons.' It's only been a couple of years since Ridgecrest Elementary and North Albemarle Elementary were closed. Prior to that, the last time any school in Stanly County was closed (except for desegregation in 1966-67) was at the end of the 1961-62 school year when
the high schools at Aquadale, Badin, Endy, Locust, Millingport, New London, Norwood, Oakboro, Richfield, and Stanfield consolidated into North, South, and West Stanly High Schools. Even then, these ten schools remained open as elementary schools (and yes, I'm that old). It's not something we Stanly Countians have gone through very often.

The fact of the matter is that Stanly County is no longer big enough, and no longer has the tax base, to operate the number of school facilities it does...especially when some of them are barely 50% full. BR has said he perceives a bias on the school board against Albemarle, and he is certainly entitled to that opinion. But I don't believe they have set out to target AHS or SSHS for any reason. And I have gained GREAT respect for this new school board in that they are finally taking some action to do what has needed to be done for the last 20 years! What they are doing is attacking a problem that is
draining the school board and county budgets of resources that can be better utilized by combining facilities and reassigning students...even though it will create some controversy and quite likely cost some of them re-election.

If the previous school boards would have taken action on the multiple re-districting studies that have been done over the years, then sat unused on the shelf, we might not be in a situation today where such drastic action is needed.

This post was edited on 1/31 9:29 AM by new_dawg

This post was edited on 1/31 9:40 AM by new_dawg
 
Originally posted by bulldog nation2014:
I am still in favor of ACS splitting into it's own city school district putting on the ballot a 1% school district tax and setting a plan forth with academics as te #1 priority.
Albemarle City Schools were consolidated with Stanly County Schools in the mid 1990's. The NC General Assembly has pushed for more consolidation of school districts in the past. A new Albemarle City District could only be formed by action of the General Assembly, and there is no way they would allow a new district to be de-consolidated from an existing one, especially when it had so recently consolidated into the larger county system.
 
Originally posted by bulldog nation2014:
How can it be done properly when they haven't even looked at all the options? Additionally I said this once already there are no schools in this county above avg rated. I haven't heard one thing in this plan that is about academics except the stem program which will cost a whole lot more than what AHS costs due to the fact those teachers get paid double or triple of a normal teacher in AHS. They have a 75 million dollar budget for the schools and could do some good things with that money.

I am still in favor of ACS splitting into it's own city school district putting on the ballot a 1% school district tax and setting a plan forth with academics as te #1 priority.
The information that was put out is linked in a previous post in this thread. It appears part of the reason for closing schools is to have more money for academics and to have more academic options. That is what I got from reading through it.
 
Bulldogsfollower I just tried to find your Facebook page and nothing. What do you go under, shoot me a message...........
 
new_dawg you are correct on everything except one and I will give you a mulligan. Ridgecrest was the eleventh school that moved its 9-12 students to the new county schools.

I got some good info regarding the city / county merger and some ideas from a few folks. Very interesting and I will post later today.
 
bango I enjoy your post for one reason. You are not as emotually involved as some of the rest of us. Sometimes I let my emotions get the best of me and that can cloud my decisions. However emotions can be a good thing at times like this. We just have to try and control them.
 
Btango I was told last night that the actual savings from this move would only have a true net savings of $225,000 a year. Those of us in the business world know that there is Net which in this case they are saying is 2.6million and true net of $225,000. So when you put this into a contrast I seen a number of $75million and change is the stanly county schools budget that's really pennies in the scope of things.

Additionally from 2000 to 2012 the gross median income has increased around $2000 dollars.

I am looking forward to the new things you have found. We all agree there needs to be changes but let's make sure it is geared to academics and our focus are ALL the kids and not just the higher income kids.
 
Thank you and Yessir very tough week. Apparently west mont is saying they are going to give us a a** whooping lol. So it should be a good one.
 
Originally posted by bulldog nation2014:
Btango I was told last night that the actual savings from this move would only have a true net savings of $225,000 a year. Those of us in the business world know that there is Net which in this case they are saying is 2.6million and true net of $225,000. So when you put this into a contrast I seen a number of $75million and change is the stanly county schools budget that's really pennies in the scope of things.

Additionally from 2000 to 2012 the gross median income has increased around $2000 dollars.

I am looking forward to the new things you have found. We all agree there needs to be changes but let's make sure it is geared to academics and our focus are ALL the kids and not just the higher income kids.
BD Nation,

I am curious as to what level/$ amount you consider to be higher income & exactly how many Stanly Co students fall in that group? Knowing the average income of Stanly Co., this is probably not a high number. There are plenty of "freebies" given & existing programs offered to the low income students that have produced less than satisfactory results.The group that gets slapped in the face on a monthly basis is the middle class working family that can't afford private or homeschooling but that is a whole different topic.

Supposedly (I use this term often), this consolidation movement isn't about one group of kids or even about saving money. Its more about being more efficient with available funds or as they have labeled "re-investing" so the system can produce better results (actually "save" this dying system). Is it perfect? No! Are there people with ulterior motives? Without a doubt.

I do not mean to come across as trying to argue with you. You have given some valid points & I really do want to hear what ideas local business people/"non-educators" think. I hear enough of that from my wife on a daily basis! How do you suggest fixing this broken system? Also, where did you get the idea that the Magnet School will be staffed with people getting paid 2-3 times the regular teaching salary?

TW
 
There was an earlier post about the qualified teachers of the STEM program and what they get paid due to the education required to teach. I just used that as a tough figure. Keep in mind that this is a magnet stem program not every kid in the county can just go there you must qualify through testing for Math and science is what I was told.

I am in the business world. In the business world typically you want to look at all options on the table before making a decision as drastic as this. There are other options. What I suggested was an idea I thought should be as a option. I actually asked one person in a authoritive position about it and they never even thought about it.

When I speak of low income families you can also put the middle class families in that as well. A lot of these families are struggling to pay their current bills and spending a extra $2600 for gas to just goto to extracurriculars is IMHO crazy. Then you have the kids that struggle to get to AHS and home from for extracurriculars let alone going to south north or west everyday.

I personally believe there are better options and if everybody removes the bias and focuses on the goals at hand and that is to get our schools academically better we will find a solution. But this mess that's going on is crazy and to me as a parent does not build my trust at all in the system.

We have the ability to make the schools great. We have some fantastic teachers in our county that love these kids and these schools. Why don't we instead of just immediately closing a school and being drastic, put together a group and have them look into some of these schools that have been rated as excellent and see what we can do to improve. Then prioritize that and set forth goals to achieve that.
You cannot just got from below avg to excellent overnight.

I have said before my team won the team academic scholar award it is something I am very proud of. It is a expectation that my kids attend all of their classes, get to tutoring regardless of grades if they begin struggling in a class even it means showing up late to practice. Priorities are family school practice. My parents support me and the kids because that is the expectation. I have a kid who was struggling before the season and this semester got honor role. Simply because that is the expectation it is a norm for the kids to go to tutoring all they are required to do is bring me a slip to get into practice so I know that's where they been. Also if they are struggling in a class they are not allowed in practice until they bring me a slip showing that they attended tutoring.

If we set the expectations of greatness these kids will rise. Never under estimate what a kid can achieve.
 
I hear you guys have a pretty good basketball team this year. I don't follow much basketball maybe i should start.....
 
Originally posted by bulldog nation2014:
How can it be done properly when they haven't even looked at all the options? Additionally I said this once already there are no schools in this county above avg rated. I haven't heard one thing in this plan that is about academics except the stem program which will cost a whole lot more than what AHS costs due to the fact those teachers get paid double or triple of a normal teacher in AHS.
Nearest STEM program to Albemarle that I could think of is Kannoplis AL Brown. STEM teachers are paid no differently than regular teachers.

Other schools may do that differently.

I do not know anyone at Berry but a CMS guy looked up their STEM personnel and said that they did not appear to be paid any differently. Hard to tell because you do not know how many years they may have in the system.

This post was edited on 1/31 2:39 PM by btango
 
Our boys are really good. They are undefeated and playing really good basketball. The girls are pretty good as well but have struggled at times with everything as girls tend to be more emotional so it's been challenging plus the injuries the girls have had made it difficult.
 
Your west mont girl are doing well this year. They are undefeated this far. Albemarle plays at West Mont Tuesday and west mont plays at Albemarle Wednesday.
 
Originally posted by WMFootballFanatic:

TW, If they put ALB and NS together, they should be better than WM. It would be a 3A school. And WM would be playing them non-conference I would assume. How in the world would that work next season?
I feel confident there will be no changes to conferences until the 2017-18 NCHSAA realignment.
 
Originally posted by Buddy Rich:
bango I enjoy your post for one reason. You are not as emotually involved as some of the rest of us. Sometimes I let my emotions get the best of me and that can cloud my decisions. However emotions can be a good thing at times like this. We just have to try and control them.
I understand the emotion but you have to take that out of it. You must look at this from all angles and toward the future. It is like a business laying off people to keep from going under. Sometimes the worse of two evils must be selected for long term success. Not saying that is what we face but to remain status quo is not an option.

I watched Indy send 40% of their students to a new school with almost all of them coming from their best football producing areas. Rocky River was planned while Indy was still on their winning streak.

Fayetteville South View played in a state game the year Jack Britt was opened changing their student body completely around.

Buddy, if Albemarle was struggling like they so often did for years playing 3A and even 2A football I bet this would not hurt as much. It still hurts to see "your" school in turmoil but a failing school is also not a positive.
 
Originally posted by bulldog nation2014:
Btango I was told last night that the actual savings from this move would only have a true net savings of $225,000 a year. Those of us in the business world know that there is Net which in this case they are saying is 2.6million and true net of $225,000. So when you put this into a contrast I seen a number of $75million and change is the stanly county schools budget that's really pennies in the scope of things.

Additionally from 2000 to 2012 the gross median income has increased around $2000 dollars.

I am looking forward to the new things you have found. We all agree there needs to be changes but let's make sure it is geared to academics and our focus are ALL the kids and not just the higher income kids.
Is that $225k after they implement new programs? If so does that tell us you are getting more options and saving $225k? Does that include paying for things that they do not currently have that would be impossible to get? These are the questions I have.

From what I can tell the reason to close schools is not only to save money as a bottom line but to put money into having more programs and options. That is from the information I linked to here.

An increase of $2,000 in the median income over a twelve year period is probably not a very positive stat. Median means half the people make less and half make more. One issue is always that there are people making a lot less than median and median is often not a enough to sustain a quality life style.
 
No sir from what I was told last night that $225k was without adding new programs. Additionally avg median household income is a average of yearly gross incomes per households. So of course you will have some with greater and some with smaller lol. And an increase is an increase and for a small area like this to have a increase of nearly 10% in 12 years is pretty good. What you don't want to see is a flat line or decrease.
 
I have been told that this board is more Albemarle friendly that some past board, especially when it had Mr West Stanly on it. Since he is gone I can see how it would be a little more Albemarle friendly than some. I think now we have reached a point that some hard decisions have to be made and this board is the chosen one. I hope they just look at all the options out there before they make a rash decision. I think they will. No matter what they decide there are going to be some really mad people, but that's the way it is with tough decisions. I just hope they will take into account the hardships it will impose on the poorer and underprivileged kids. But aren't they the ones that always get hurt the worse. I hope this decision is an exception to that.
 
I agree Buddy. I believe we all want our schools to rated a school of excellence. I don't believe closing a school is going to accomplish that task atleast closing immediately without a firm plan of action. Closing a school does not set a higher expectation or increase academics.

I mean let's look at our academics critically and see where we can get better.

- let's make it mandatory if you are struggling in your classes we expect you to be in tutoring.
- let's take a look at the teachers who are not being successful in the classroom and find out why. Is it that the teacher is not properly planning, is it the teacher is not reaching out and taking the time to answer questions.

There are more questions and information we can get to add to this but this is where the conversation should be.

I know the elementary school in ohio my kids attended that was a blue ribbon award winner was really big on reading and phonics early on starting in K.
They were very involved with parents and had great communication with parents on what there kid needed to work on for school and where that child was academically. (This is something that our schools really could get better at). If our kids were struggling in an area we knew immediately and were asked to work on a certain thing at home.).

There are ways to improve and it starts with the expectations of our kids parents and teachers. Parents want their kids to be successful and if we had open communication with these parents on where they need help and work with them on getting them into tutoring it would increase where we are.
 
Interesting article from a paper up close to where I am from in regards to additionally funding for a school about like South stanly. This school actually I believe was a school of excellence. Maybe this is a mentality we should have for the better of our schools. Maybe if the schools asked for additional funds for our schools only instead of pairing it with emergency communications we would have better luck.

http://www.highlandcountypress.com/main.asp?SectionID=4&SubSectionID=87&ArticleID=26103
 
Just another thought then I'll shut up until the actual decisions are made. In addition to revisiting the decision to not have sports at the new Magnet school, I do wish the planners & decision makers take another look at the timeline for these moves and possibly do it all at one time even if they have to delay it another year. As it looks now, if Plan A passes (all inside info indicates that it will), 11th graders who spent the last three yrs at AHS will officially be graduates from one of the other three county high schools. 9th & 10th graders being sent to South Stanly will attend 3 different high schools, & 10th grade football players sent to SSHS will have 4 diff HFC's in 4 yrs. I'm sure there are many other odd scenarios. Just food for thought.

TW
 
That's a very good point TW. This all feels to rushed and I don't feel all the pros and cons have been fully investigated to see which is the right way to go. Too any kids will be affected by this to rush this drastic of a option.
 
Originally posted by Trench Warrior:
Just another thought then I'll shut up until the actual decisions are made. In addition to revisiting the decision to not have sports at the new Magnet school, I do wish the planners & decision makers take another look at the timeline for these moves and possibly do it all at one time even if they have to delay it another year. As it looks now, if Plan A passes (all inside info indicates that it will), 11th graders who spent the last three yrs at AHS will officially be graduates from one of the other three county high schools. 9th & 10th graders being sent to South Stanly will attend 3 different high schools, & 10th grade football players sent to SSHS will have 4 diff HFC's in 4 yrs. I'm sure there are many other odd scenarios. Just food for thought.

TW
I agree with this 100%. When a school is being redistricted normally the seniors remain in their school but if a school is being closed that is not an option. Unfortunately there has to be starting point.

My understanding was that South and Albemarle would close the same year and Albemarle would remain closed for one school year. I will read back over that tonight.

Trench keep reading the posts and replying. Were you in Stanly County when the county/city merger took place? If so can you post about some of your memories please! I still have to post from my conversations with a few folks.
 
Btango,

I'm not a native of Stanly Co so I don't have a clue about the earlier consolidations other than what I've heard over the last few years. Doesn't appear that it was done on the "up & up" but those moves are rarely made without hard feelings. You are right in that they have to start somewhere & there will be an initial group of students who will endure the change.

As far as the plan is concerned, AHS will be split into 3 groups the first year with students heading to SS, WS & NS. The actual numbers are in the presentation you linked earlier. Year two has the Magnet school opening & SS will close. Those SS students are being sent west & north leaving the two larger schools to "re-brand". Hope this helps.

TW
 
I knew people from norwood and albemarle that went to WM during my high school years. If AHS & SS really do close I would not be shocked to see a increase in enrollment at West Montgomery. I spoke with someone about this today....
 
Was able to speak with two people that had some insight into the city/county school system merger. Discussed items in general about that and the current situation. They are both extremely knowledgeable about the topics and education in general. I was not able to confirm by going to the library or speaking with additional people but each had more or less the same info but did get some info on other systems from people I know in those counties after they mentioned them. What they told me I accept as factual or very close to the actual truth. People obviously remember things different after twenty years and may have different views.

Lets start with the football part. Per the Jack Gaster kicking every one's ass, remember that had not kicked into full effect at that time. West Stanly had beaten Albemarle the two previous seasons and three of his first four at Albemarle.

The City of Albemarle had a supplemental tax in place that helped pay for the schools. At the time of the merger ACS had over $1-2 million in reserves and SCS had very little.

At the time there were more split school districts in the state.
Albemarle was in the top 30 for dollars spent per student. SCS was right at 100.

The Stanly Board of Commissioners was the party that instigated the merger. ACS was against it but realized that there were issues they would be facing and SCS was not sold either way but they did see the ability to get some of the $1 million war chest.

The state was pushing for school systems to merge to one per county. This has happened again a couple of times and in 2007 Davidson County started a study to bring their three systems together. Many expect this to happen as Thomasville and Lexington are facing the same struggles that Albemarle has faced as a municipality.

The merger was finalized July 1, 1997. The previous year Alamance County Schools merged into one entity. Two years later Cleveland County followed but that was held up when Kings Mountain challenged the merger in court. Shelby had agreed to the merger with Cleveland County. There were/are four high schools in the county with two in the county system and one each in the two city systems. Kings Mountain was the largest system while the smallest Shelby was the one with financial issues (much like Albemarle with the tax and the expected issues) and also had a very high minority enrollment of well over 50% while the county and KM were below 25%. The merger was upheld in court and redistricting was done and Shelby schools were brought up to the same amount spent child as the county. All four city school system had a supplemental tax to fund the system in place at the time of the mergers. In two cases, Shelby and Albemarle, sustainability appears to have been part of the reasoning for merger.

The Stanly Board of Commissioners was the party that instigated the merger. ACS was against it but realized that there were issues they would be facing and SCS was not sold either way but they did see the ability to get some of the $1-2 million war chest. It appears ACS and SCS eventually agreed to it.

Some of the reasons for merging that Albemarle faced was the fact that the student body enrollment was dropping as the population of Albemarle grew older and did not see increases with young adults. Due to numerous factories closing and the drop of real estate values and the change in tax assessment for senior citizens it was thought that the system could not maintain the budget that they had and would eat away at the reserves requiring a merger later when the city would have less negotiating strength. In addition the city was not generating as much money from its utility systems which would also cause budget issues for the city as a whole.

The state has regulations / statutes in place for school systems merging including to cover when one system does not want to merge or based on what local authority will handle the merger. Davidson County has concluded that the State General Assembly may require them to merger their three systems although that was several years ago and has still to happen although as noted one city system may request it. One of the statutes states that there will not be a vote of the public but the determination must be made by the convening authority which sends the findings to the State Board of Education for approval. Not sure in Stanly County if that was the school systems and boards or the County Commissioners. In Cleveland County it was the Commissioners.

I may be off on this as there was some confusion. If one school system spends more per student than the other the highest system would be used but that could cause some issues in taxation as the county often funds items the city does not in the budget (outside of the schools). Albemarle appears to have discontinued the tax as allowed by law in thirds for three years in order to come to the same expenditure as the county.

One thing that has been mentioned is the funding for disadvantaged students that a school receives. This is based more on the percentages of a school system as a whole and not a particular school although there are some funds that are spent on under performing and disadvantage student populations at schools.

One thing that has been mentioned is that Albemarle's district has decreased geographically. That is false, it has actually increased since the merger and that was one of the reasons in the merger. In the last several years Albemarle has seen an increase in its district but the areas have not been the ones most expected which would be west of town. The County Commissioners saw Albemarle's population dwindling and had been told by businesses looking at Albemarle as a place to move their business (due to the abundance of cheap and available space with factory closures) that there were concerns with the school system and they would have a hard time hiring personnel to live there. This is still an issue today as professionals often opt to live outside the city and / or county due to concerns with the system.

I did mention the possibility of the systems splitting again and the taxation to allow the city schools to run as one again. Was told one that the state would 100% never approve it which would be required. One, a major entrepreneur with a focus on education and politics, also stated that going back to the city system would probably be a negative and would be most likely a losing battle as the state would be going backwards on what it wants to do.

Both think Albemarle High School is a shell of what it once was and as one stated, it is a "mini snapshot of America today. It has budget issues, facility issues, and people issues." Each expects the school to deteriorate further unless something severe is put in place while both said they would like to see the school remain as a community both said they would look at other options in addition to AHS if their children were in school. Both commended Greystone for what it has accomplished and each agreed that it has hurt all of the county schools especially North and Albemarle. They both said that what we face now is a result of a lack of communication and working together of previous school boards and that this board has an obligation to look at options. One thinks there is push from a higher level and has been in the works for a longer period than the board has been in office. The other thinks it is not being pushed from the outside although it has been worked on inside the administration for a period fearing that it would be worse than what the board can do now and summed it up, "it is a person's responsibility to take care of their own house."

Take all of that for what it is worth. Most of it probably does not have a lot to do with what we have in front of us at this time.
 
Thanks btango. I for one appreciate the time and effort you put into this. I now remember that the merger was not a happy event for ACS. As far as going back to a city system, as much as I hate to say it is not an opition. The SC board of education has not in my opinion been able to work together as a unit since its conception. Each little group in it has only been interested in their own part of the county. Example: The fussing and fighting over the middle school vs K-8 concept. So we ended up with 2 middle schools and 2 K-8's. All in one school system. Now how dumb and stupid was that. But as you concluded btango, all of that is water over the dam. Now what to do? Being a staunch Bulldogs fan for over 60 yrs. it looks like that may become nothing but memories. Seems this board is not interested at all in athletics and I for one think that is a mistake. While I agree education comes first I also think that athletics is also a part of a kid's experience in school and for some a very positive experience. You are taking kids in Albemarle that have played together since the first grade and when they get to HS they are moved to another part of the county. This to me is not a positive experience. Hope I am wrong but I don't see the academics improving that much by this action. Along with budget issues is'nt that the main reason for this action. However I don't think we can continue to maintain 4 HS's in the county. There just isn't a plain and easy answer to this. We are now paying the price for people not being able to work together for the good of all concerned. This board will get the rap for what is about to happen, but all of the previous boards have let us to this point in time. Hope they make the right decision.
 
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