South Providence update

Here's my belated update on Rick Giarla's rooftop fundraiser from a couple weeks ago. From an Elizabeth Belk update over at the Waxhaw PTA Facebook page over a week ago:

THANK YOU to everyone who was able to help support Rick in his effort to raise money for South Providence School this past weekend. He raised right around $5000.00!!!! What a great thing for this school and the kids.

A little way off from the $30000 goal, but in this economy it is still a significant chunk of change I bet South Providence appreciates immensely.

The fundraiser web page is still up, so I imagine you can still contribute if you haven't already done so.

School uniforms at Parkwood Middle?

I've been too busy to follow this closely, but apparently Parkwood Middle School is planning on implementing some sort of uniform policy.

I was added to the following Facebook group, Rescind the PWMS Uniform Policy!, an apparent online gathering spot for parents who are against the currently proposed changes.

I'm not clear on all the details as I've been slightly busy the last few weeks, but it's definitely something worth checking out, especially if you're from one of the feeder schools.

As a parent of a Waxhaw Elementary student, I don't recall hearing one iota about the changes for what it's worth.

No more elementary school Spanish

We heard from our oldest yesterday that there will be no more Spanish classes at Waxhaw Elementary. The Enquirer-Journal has the story:

The elementary Spanish program will be absent from Union County Public Schools curriculum next year. The school board voted on the move Tuesday.

UCPS has 27 elementary Spanish teachers. Some rotate between schools, offering weekly lessons on language and culture.

This sort of stinks, but given the budget problems, something needs to be cut. Back in my day, we didn't learn different languages in elementary school, so I think the kids can overcome this.

Be forewarned: school lunches rising

Brian Carlton has an article in the latest issue of the Union County Weekly on the $0.15 increase in school lunches.

Next fall, it will cost 15 cents extra for a student to eat lunch at a public school in Union County. The price hike is due to a federal mandate, which requires the cost to climb.

...

The increase affects students at all schools. This means beginning July 1, elementary school lunches will increase to $1.95 while middle and high school lunches will cost $2.05.

On first reading, I thought this was just do to rising prices of oil, which is increasing the price of all food if you hadn't noticed. After a second look, I see this is due to a federal mandate requiring the cost of school lunches to increase.

It appears this is compliments of the child nutrition bill that was pushed through by President Obama and the Democrats.

And to think I thought the major disadvantage of this bill would be to eliminate the cheese stick dippers, which I hear are rather good. Good enough that I plan to try them myself before the year is out since I am not confident they will be back next year.

Sherwin Williams grand opening today

Sherwin Williams is having their grand opening today; I think at the old Movie Gallery location if I'm not mistaken. A little birdie on Facebook claimed Butch Kelly and his BBQ will be there as well.

Speaking of BBQ, today is pickup day for the Waxhaw Elementary PTA BBQ fundraiser. It runs from 10am - 4pm; don't forget to being your tickets. If you haven't already purchased some, I'm not sure you can just show up and buy some.

Parkwood teacher arrested

Technically speaking, she was no longer a teacher at the time of her arrest as she apparently resigned Wednesday. But let's not split hairs here.

Per Tiffany Jothen of the Enquirer-Journal:

A Parkwood High School teacher was arrested just before 11 p.m. at her home Tuesday and charged with sexual activity with a student.

Melissa Janet Bitz, 27, of 3100 Fairington Drive, Indian Trail, was a Spanish teacher at the school, where she has worked since Sept. 23.

“She’s no longer an employee with the school system,” Union County Public Schools spokeswoman Luan Ingram said.

...

A student reported to school administration Friday “possible inappropriate activity between a teacher ... and a student,” Ingram said. “We immediately called law enforcement.”

On the off-chance you cannot follow this link (Note: this non-subscriber can access it with my free E-J account) to the E-J article, WSOC and WBTV have small articles on the story as well.

On a side note, while doing my research for this post, I discovered there's an entire website devoted to teachers who violate the student-teacher relationship - badbadteacher.com. Who knew that was out there? For what it's worth, Melissa Bitz's page is already up.

Direct a $5 donation to Waxhaw Elementary

If you make Bing your home page (temporarily if you want), you can get a $5.00 donation code to use at DonorsChoose.org to benefit schools. Click on the orange “Help Now” to get started.

I searched the DonorsChoose.org archives and there is a project to get a Flip camera for Mrs. M at Waxhaw Elementary. I just got done donating $5 to this project and it only took a couple minutes of my time, so if you've got a few minutes, it'd be nice if more of this money can be directed to a local school.

Alternatively, there are tons of other projects around the country you can contribute to if you'd rather assist one of them, all compliments of Bing. They're trying to donate $2 million in total by mid-January, so if you've got a couple minutes, take a few moments and earn a small slice of this money for Waxhaw Elementary.

Waxhaw's schools to be federalized

But not until 2012 so I gues there's still time to turn this around. The article:

Raleigh, N.C. — The state Board of Education on Thursday unanimously approved new universal standards for reading and math classes in public schools, becoming the fifth state in the nation to do so.

North Carolina is part of a 48-state consortium that is working toward developing and adopting the "Common Core" standards for grades K-12 to help improve analytical thinking.

The nationwide goal is to build a stronger education system, where students, regardless of where they live, receive the same quality of education.

I can't for the life of me cannot see how this is good for the students of North Carolina. If the worry is that NC education standards are not high enough to meet whatever national standards are developed by the educational bureaucrats of the consortium, then North Carolina should just make their own standards better than the national standards.

Heck, they can even use very same standards without binding themselves to this program. In the latter case, of course, they wouldn't get the federal funding involved, and therein lies the rub. The powers that be in NC want the federal funds.

And while the current standards only apply to mathematics and English, the State Board of Education Chairman conveniently informs us they plan to adopt even more national standards. Hooray! How soon until health, history, and social studies are added to the mix?

State Board of Education Chairman Bill Harrison said that the state plans to adopt more national standards within the next two years.

Under the changes, which will take effect in 2012, he said parents and students would see more "rigorous" testing standards, as well as an "authentic" way of learning, with a curriculum that deals with real-world problems.

Too bad he didn't clarify the more "authentic" way of learning Waxhaw's children will get to participate in because it sounds curiously like meaningless fluff to me.

Given the state government's inability to control their spending, this clearly is one way Bev Perdue and the state government are able to get additional federal funding. I've been unable to find any information on exactly how much federal funding is involved, but if I can ever get my hands on that info, I'll share.

For more information, here's the Common Core website. Given their investment in these standards being adopted by more than just the five states who've currently opted in, I'd recommend taking what you read here with a grain of salt.

For example, I learned here that the federal government has nothing to do with the implementation of this program. A couple lines below, they include the following, which I would argue directly contradicts that claim.

However, the federal government will have the opportunity to support states as they begin adopting the standards. For example, the federal government can

• Support this effort through a range of tiered incentives, such as providing states with greater flexibility in the use of existing federal funds, supporting a revised state accountability structure, and offering financial support for states to implement the standards.
• Provide long-term financial support for the development and implementation of common assessments, teacher and principal professional development, and research to help continually improve the common core state standards over time.

What are the odds that this program would've been implemented here if we weren't going to be on the receiving end of additional federal dollars? Slim to none methinks.

The federal government is essentially bribing cash-strapped states into joining a program that I suspect will be very difficult to extricate ourselves from once we've spent the money. And unfortunately, I imagine the money's already been spent.