Great post Wow71. Unfortunately, the things you site as issues at THS are common in many "city" schools across the state. Whether they are stand alone systems like T-ville or Lexington, or are part of a larger school district like Carver or HP Andrews, the concerns you cite are universal. Many of these schools have seen their enrollments dwindle and in turn their ability to field teams and garner community support has followed. Now with Covid I fear things may never be the same.
Thirty+ years ago the heads of public education in this state followed the national trend of "bigger is better" and merger of many districts followed. Right away we started to see negtive impacts. One of these was the loss of community identity yet we continued to promote this idea that merged systems saved money by cutting administrative costs and streamling services. Resources would be shared more equally. It was all done in the name of progress and with an eye toward the future. "This is what our young people need" we were told.
Fast foward to present day. Since this is an athletic forum many will say this discussion is off base but I contend that it is all relative. Can the school systems that merged honestly say that the move has turned out to make education better? If they are honest they must say it has not. Admistrative costs did not go down. In fact, in many cases they have gone up as LEA's have become massive bureaucracies. Services may have been stremlined but they were also watered down as funding for positions within systems has gone for administration instead of "footsoldiers." Resources are often not equally distributed but equally denied as one school within a district is allowed to have something unless all schools can have the same.
The result of the above have had a domino effect on athletics. I also don' think it a coincidence that the move to create more charter schools and the trend toward home schooling is not also related to this matter. Athletics is important to us or we wouldn't be here, but so is the overall education of our children. Too many are falling through the cracks in whe large educational factories we call school systems and many parents and educational leaders recognize this. Their solution has been to exit the model of the traditional public school.
It seems I heard last winter that the mayor of High Point had called for a study to determine if students in High Ppoint had truly benefitted from being merged with Greensboro and Guilford County Schools. The pandemic hit around the time I heard about this. The story has disappeared from the news but my thought then was as it is now. Bigger has not turned out to be better for all and it was good to hear that someone in a position of authority was questioning it. Will Covid 19 drive more people to think this way?
Thirty+ years ago the heads of public education in this state followed the national trend of "bigger is better" and merger of many districts followed. Right away we started to see negtive impacts. One of these was the loss of community identity yet we continued to promote this idea that merged systems saved money by cutting administrative costs and streamling services. Resources would be shared more equally. It was all done in the name of progress and with an eye toward the future. "This is what our young people need" we were told.
Fast foward to present day. Since this is an athletic forum many will say this discussion is off base but I contend that it is all relative. Can the school systems that merged honestly say that the move has turned out to make education better? If they are honest they must say it has not. Admistrative costs did not go down. In fact, in many cases they have gone up as LEA's have become massive bureaucracies. Services may have been stremlined but they were also watered down as funding for positions within systems has gone for administration instead of "footsoldiers." Resources are often not equally distributed but equally denied as one school within a district is allowed to have something unless all schools can have the same.
The result of the above have had a domino effect on athletics. I also don' think it a coincidence that the move to create more charter schools and the trend toward home schooling is not also related to this matter. Athletics is important to us or we wouldn't be here, but so is the overall education of our children. Too many are falling through the cracks in whe large educational factories we call school systems and many parents and educational leaders recognize this. Their solution has been to exit the model of the traditional public school.
It seems I heard last winter that the mayor of High Point had called for a study to determine if students in High Ppoint had truly benefitted from being merged with Greensboro and Guilford County Schools. The pandemic hit around the time I heard about this. The story has disappeared from the news but my thought then was as it is now. Bigger has not turned out to be better for all and it was good to hear that someone in a position of authority was questioning it. Will Covid 19 drive more people to think this way?
