Education official delivers ‘fair warning’ on schools

Lee tells Board of Directors that judge in Leandro case isn’t backing down

By Jason King
Assistant Communications Director

State Board of Education Chairman Howard Lee is a former member of Gov. Jim Hunt’s Cabinet and mayor for the Town of Chapel Hill (1969-75). (Photos by Jason King)

While North Carolina has made great strides with its education system over the past two decades and has established itself as one of the nation’s leading states for education reform, underperforming schools are in danger of being closed by order of Judge Howard Manning Jr., according to the chairman of the State Board of Education.

Dr. Howard Lee, who was a driving force behind new school initiatives and reform efforts as a 14-year member of the North Carolina Senate, addressed the NCACC Board of Directors at its Aug. 15 meeting in Cumberland County.

“If [Judge Manning] decides next year – and he very well may do this – that ‘This school is not improving, and I’m shutting it down,’ it’s going to be ugly,” Lee said.

When asked by NACo Director Betty Lou Ward (Wake County) on where Judge Manning expects students to go if he shuts down a school, Lee replied, “He expects me to figure that out. … He’s given me fair warning on where he’s headed.”

The bulk of low-performing schools are in rural areas, Lee said, and the schools’ deficiencies are due in part to those school systems’ inability to retain and attract top-notch teachers.

Another problem, particularly with high schools, Lee said, is population. High schools and classrooms have simply gotten too big for teachers to get to know students on an individual basis. Lee expressed his desire to see high schools transformed into learning centers of no more than 600 students.

Lee touted several of Gov. Mike Easley’s initiatives, particularly the “Learn and Earn” program for high school students. The program provides students with an option of earning a high school diploma and an associate degree from a community college within a five-year period. Aimed at lowering a high school dropout rate that runs at roughly 5 percent, the program seeks to take advantage of the base of emerging industries in North Carolina by giving students a skill set and advanced degree before they enter the workforce full-time.

Vance County Commissioner Terry Garrison presided over the Board of Directors for the final time.

Lee called the program a good example of a “new model” for schools. “It’s not just money – we have to change the culture of how we think,” he said.

“You had better learn well, because somebody in China or India is ready to take your job,” he added, drawing upon an old adage about starving children in China used by parents on children who snub their meals.

In other news from the meeting:

• NACo Director and Craven County Commissioner Lee Kyle Allen announced that he has been appointed to the NACo Health Care Working Group by NACo First Vice President Valerie Brown. Allen is one of 21 appointees nationwide and is North Carolina’s sole participant. The group, which held its first meeting July 17 in Richmond, Va., is studying issues related to healthcare and is working to develop proposed policy guidance for NACo on the issue.
• After adjourning and reconvening as the Resolutions Committee, the Board adopted a resolution in support of a NACo By-Laws Review Committee. The proposed committee would examine whether NACo’s bylaws are in agreement with the printed voting procedures distributed at NACo’s annual business meeting, and would seek to clarify the procedures for credentials registration and proxy-voting by non-attending counties. The resolution was forwarded to NACo President Eric Coleman.
• Staff reported that East Carolina University and Western Carolina University recently received a $35,000 grant from the N.C. Rural Center to evaluate the feasibility of a government-funded property tax support and management center for the NCACC Collaborative Property Tax System (NCPTS). The grant will support a study to evaluate the needs of and resources required for the project. NCPTS is a property tax management system that is available without a license fee to any North Carolina county from the NCACC. For more information on NCPTS, visit www.ncacc.org/services/ncpts/about.html.