2009-02-19, 06:27 PM
Ok, I'm pretty sure this goes here, because I want some real opinions on this.
Anyway, I'm a senior in high school, at a high school called Cato Middle College High School, that is located in a wing of a college campus, Central Piedmont Community College to be exact, in Charlotte, North Carolina. My school began to form when I was a sophomore and I applied and got accepted into the first class ever for the school. The school was to be a class of fifty students for the first year and a staff of seven. We were formed as part of the Governor's Initiative to establish a "middle college" in every school system in NC, in an attempt to raise average testing scores of districts and hopefully move NC out their 49th place in public education rankings.
My principal was the one to take the step up and start this school when no one else would. Her and two other staff, the two counselors, started from scratch making negotiations with the college, writing handbooks, rules, hiring personnel and whatever else is involved. Normally the handbooks and rules would be pretty much copypasta' from other school handbooks within the district, but since we were actually located ON the college campus, actively taking full college schedules, virtually every aspect of life at this school had to rewritten from the norm. Not only that, but every time they made a handful of revisions to the policies, they had to go back and get it approved by the school board, and countless times (even after the school opened, actually) they were sent back to make revisions until it was finally perfected. As I'm sure you can imagine, this took an enormous amount of work with the staff given, which eventually grew to 7, because we have 4 teachers that teach necessary high school classes to graduate.
So here we are, a school year and 3/4 of a year done, only about half a semester to graduate, yeah! But wait - no! About a week ago, the superintendent for my entire school district and two area superintendents came to my school for the first time since it opened, despite my school having THE highest test scores in all of our district, which encompasses at least 20 high schools, if not more. In fact, no one from the central office of my district had ever been here before. So naturally when he told us he was coming, we were pretty excited. Wrong, he didn't come for anything good (in fact, he didn't show up the first two times).
The jist of what went down: They called my principal to a conference room below the school and told her that they were forcibly making her move to another position as the principal of another high school - West Mecklenburg - that needed a principal because there's was being "promoted" and they needed someone to take her place. There was no considerations taken, and no questions asked. The decision was to be final without any hassle. When she came to present this idea to my school (which I was absent for), she couldn't even get the words out through all her tears. After a few minutes, through her sobs she managed to tell us the decision, which actually threw almost the entire senior class into a fit, a good number were crying and the rest were very angry. Basically what this means:
1. Our principal, despite all her hard work, is being moved without any considerations of alternatives.
2. She's forfeiting all the credit of her hard work to whoever takes her places.
3. She's not even going to be at her senior class graduation, the very people she worked almost 3 years to get where they are now.
4. Ultimately, she's being removed from the school SHE built from the ground up, against her own opinion, and that of many others.
My question to you is: Essentially, is the school board within their rights, legally and ethically, to make this choice? Should they be taking considerations, or is probably for the best that they don't let any questions be asked or any opinions thrown out into the open? Is there anything else we as a small class can do to voice our opinion to the public of this seemingly unfair choice?
As opposers to this decision, the senior class has already started working out ways to fight this, including a huge list of us signing up to speak out at the next school board meeting on Tuesday, and going as far as contacting news organizations to get the word out. Our counselor also provided a list of 6 At-Large people who we should contact, including the 3 people that came here to inform our principal and the district superintendent.
TL;DR: Our principal who worked very hard to build my school to what it is today, including forming the school itself, is being forced to relocate against her wishes, and that of the entire school.
Anyway, I'm a senior in high school, at a high school called Cato Middle College High School, that is located in a wing of a college campus, Central Piedmont Community College to be exact, in Charlotte, North Carolina. My school began to form when I was a sophomore and I applied and got accepted into the first class ever for the school. The school was to be a class of fifty students for the first year and a staff of seven. We were formed as part of the Governor's Initiative to establish a "middle college" in every school system in NC, in an attempt to raise average testing scores of districts and hopefully move NC out their 49th place in public education rankings.
My principal was the one to take the step up and start this school when no one else would. Her and two other staff, the two counselors, started from scratch making negotiations with the college, writing handbooks, rules, hiring personnel and whatever else is involved. Normally the handbooks and rules would be pretty much copypasta' from other school handbooks within the district, but since we were actually located ON the college campus, actively taking full college schedules, virtually every aspect of life at this school had to rewritten from the norm. Not only that, but every time they made a handful of revisions to the policies, they had to go back and get it approved by the school board, and countless times (even after the school opened, actually) they were sent back to make revisions until it was finally perfected. As I'm sure you can imagine, this took an enormous amount of work with the staff given, which eventually grew to 7, because we have 4 teachers that teach necessary high school classes to graduate.
So here we are, a school year and 3/4 of a year done, only about half a semester to graduate, yeah! But wait - no! About a week ago, the superintendent for my entire school district and two area superintendents came to my school for the first time since it opened, despite my school having THE highest test scores in all of our district, which encompasses at least 20 high schools, if not more. In fact, no one from the central office of my district had ever been here before. So naturally when he told us he was coming, we were pretty excited. Wrong, he didn't come for anything good (in fact, he didn't show up the first two times).
The jist of what went down: They called my principal to a conference room below the school and told her that they were forcibly making her move to another position as the principal of another high school - West Mecklenburg - that needed a principal because there's was being "promoted" and they needed someone to take her place. There was no considerations taken, and no questions asked. The decision was to be final without any hassle. When she came to present this idea to my school (which I was absent for), she couldn't even get the words out through all her tears. After a few minutes, through her sobs she managed to tell us the decision, which actually threw almost the entire senior class into a fit, a good number were crying and the rest were very angry. Basically what this means:
1. Our principal, despite all her hard work, is being moved without any considerations of alternatives.
2. She's forfeiting all the credit of her hard work to whoever takes her places.
3. She's not even going to be at her senior class graduation, the very people she worked almost 3 years to get where they are now.
4. Ultimately, she's being removed from the school SHE built from the ground up, against her own opinion, and that of many others.
My question to you is: Essentially, is the school board within their rights, legally and ethically, to make this choice? Should they be taking considerations, or is probably for the best that they don't let any questions be asked or any opinions thrown out into the open? Is there anything else we as a small class can do to voice our opinion to the public of this seemingly unfair choice?
As opposers to this decision, the senior class has already started working out ways to fight this, including a huge list of us signing up to speak out at the next school board meeting on Tuesday, and going as far as contacting news organizations to get the word out. Our counselor also provided a list of 6 At-Large people who we should contact, including the 3 people that came here to inform our principal and the district superintendent.
TL;DR: Our principal who worked very hard to build my school to what it is today, including forming the school itself, is being forced to relocate against her wishes, and that of the entire school.
