Tuesday, March 31, 2009

DEEP THOUGHTS BY STAN NORWALK

Fresh off of labeling parents as segregationists at the Coalition of Concerned Citizens for African American Children, Stan Norwalk is at it again. When we last caught up with Stan at the CCCAAC meeting, he rambled around for about ten minutes incorrectly citing the Leandro decision as the landmark case for the Mecklenburg school system.

And now this.

Leave it to Stan. He doesn't let facts get in the way.

And who is to blame for the reassignment mess? Chuck Delaney, Del Burns, Central Office, an unresponsive school board? Nope. Lo and behold it's

Drum roll please....

The home builders once again. While you're at it Stan, why not blame them for the spread of malaria in Africa as well.

By the way Stan, you cheapen real issues of racism and segregation that occurred 40-50 years ago by trying to put the Bull Connor label on parents justly concerned about the quality of Wake County's public school system.

Might I recommend a book for you? It's called Blood Done Sign My Name by Timothy Tyson. I know you are not from the South originally so maybe you ought to brush up on your Southern history rather than just spouting out self-righteous drivel and throwing labels around. In case you think it's a right wing book, it was chosen by the folks at UNC-Chapel Hill for the Summer Reading Program. The same folks that forced students to read Approaching the Quran.

In Defense of Diversity
Posted 03-28-2009 at 04:11 PM by
StanN

In Defense of DiversityThe rallying cry of the coalition promoting the reversal of WCPSS’ diversity policy is “neighborhood schools” aka “community schools” The coalition consists of three Political Action Committees (PAC’s) involving irate parents who are supporting four candidates for the Board of Education (BOE) in this falls election. Other individuals supporting vouchers and private schools have attached themselves to the PAC’s.The unstated message of “Neighborhood Schools” is “keep your poor kids in their own schools, not in ‘our’ schools.” Rather than re-segregated neighborhood schools we need a new commitment from all levels of government to raise the academic bar for all children. Irate parents have been led to believe that reversing the school board’s (BOE) diversity policy would resolve their legitimate concerns, i.e. the pain of frequent reassignments, lengthy bus rides and the inconvenience of mandated year round schools (MYRS). However, rolling back the diversity policy will not address these grievances and may make them worse. The false choice of raising the funding level for schools with high concentrations of needy children will eventually fail as it require an increase in property taxes - including the 70% of voters who do not have children in public schools.The understandably irate parents are aiming at the wrong target. WCPSS’ diversity policy plays a minor role in their grievances. Rather the BOE’s use of these measures results from decade’s long mismanagement of growth in Wake County. For twenty years both the State and the County have been unwilling to insist that growth must be connected to new school infrastructure (read: an Adequate Public Facility Ordinances) and that growth must pay for growth. (read: impact fees on new residents.) Too few in the State legislature and the County Commission are willing to vote against powerful special interests opposing widely used solutions.As a result, Wake is has over 25,000 seats in trailers, (1170 trailers) over-crowding campuses to the point where schools must be capped and children assigned to more distant schools. Inadequate funding leads to MYRS and lengthy bus rides. Worst of all, taxes from existing residents are used to pay for constructing schools rather than educating the children they house.All students are impacted. Teacher intensive, specialized courses are the first to go when funds for education are tightly restrained.NC is 44th in the nation in support of K-12 classroom education . Likewise, Wake’s schools are 85th (of 115 school districts) in the state (not counting the costs of constructing schools. Source NC DPI). Focusing on reversing the diversity policy will not resolve these deplorable facts. Wake’s children are caught in the crossfire of a blame game between the BOE, the County Commissioners, and state legislators – and now, misinformed parents.Concentrating poor children in segregated schools will not address parents’ grievances. Charlotte-Mecklenburg’s experience in re-segregating their schools resulted in more bussing; abysmally low academic performance in re-segregated schools; “brain flight”; shifting resources from more affluent area schools to pay for education in poor ones and higher property taxes for all. It has taken decades of mismanaged growth to dig the hole for our schools. Especially during a deep recession there are no silver-bullet solutions to undo the damage of those decades. Growth will return and we should remember the need for real reform. For now, let’s avoid taking giant steps backward. Rather we should focus on using limited resources to advance academics.Rejection of funds to advance academics for our growing school population, we result in lower graduation rates. There will be more citizens who cannot find adequate employment. Then we will spend much more money fighting gangs and building jails.Consider that Wake’s success in attracting high-paying jobs is based on its concentration of brainpower. Wake’s competitive advantage needs nurturing. Constantly raising the academic bar attracts quality jobs and prepares the next generation for such jobs. Diversity is a given in the worlds of business and government. Do we really want to teach our kids that diversity is unimportant? Dealing with the challenges in our schools requires leadership with a long range vision and a focus on what’s critically important. It requires courage to resist powerful special interests and the “critical many” rather than the critical few. Leaders need to find common ground across organizational, ideological and party lines.Past great leaders have fought and for diversity in schools. Some even died in the effort. Where will Wake’s citizens stand this fall?Stan Norwalk is a member of the Wake County Board of Commissioners. His views on diversity are his own. He can be reached at stann@nc.rr.com

TUESDAY'S JOURNAL - MARCH 31, 2009

Today's overview:

LOCAL STATISTICIAN SHOWS WAKE ED PARTNERSHIP'S DIVERSITY EMPEROR HAS NO CLOTHES

WAKE SCHOOLS CONTINUE FLAWED YEAR-ROUND BUT MOVE FORWARD TO FIRE TEACHERS

ROSA GILL JOINS PATTI AND LORI - FEIGNS CONCERN FOR WAKE PARENTS

Thursday, March 26, 2009

REV. BARBER - THE NEXT TIME YOU'RE ON JONES STREET...

How about taking time to urge that someone with state government remove this sign.

You did your HKONJ rally right beside a plaque honoring a woman who can rightfully be blamed for the ecological genocide of millions of Africans.

Who is it?





Rachel Carson. Somebody your environmental buddies who participated in the HKONJ march probably worship at the feet of.

She was quite successful in eliminating the use of DDT to fight malaria - particularly in Africa - thus resulting in the deaths of millions of Africans that continues to this day.

Thanks for propping up the leftist environmental movement Rev. Barber. It sure seems to be serving your brethren in Africa well.

DANTE STROBINO AT RALEIGH FIST IS ....

A. Not a good liar
B. Blind
C. Very poor counter
D. Juvenille leftist
E. All of the above

In Dante Strobino's blog post at Raleigh FIST, with the nifty Che Guevara picture clearly identifying them as real socialists, he stated:

Almost 10,000 people gathered in Chavis Park before the march....

If you even had 1000 people down at Chavis Park, that would be stretching it. I guess if you call the rally HKONJ (Historic THOUSANDS on Jones Street) then you can just say 10,000 and assume people won't know better.

You had over 80 leftist groups together with paid activists and you could not get beyond say, 10 - 15 per group?

You can see the real crowd photos here:

Or if you like, you can count below. These photos were taken at the peak of attendance at Chavis Park.








PATTI AND LORI - THE DOUBLEMINT TWINS

After being two of the bigger proponets of disrupting the lives of parents and children through a disastrous reassignment process and trying to force mandatory year-round schools for a flawed socio-economic diversity experiment, what did they have to say about opening school earlier and changing adjournment times?

But the school board is considering the move's potential hardships on families, such as increased childcare costs.

"All of us agree that planning time as a regular commitment is a good thing," said outgoing school board member Patti Head. "But it's all these side issues we have to balance."

Raleigh News & Observer, March 25, 2009

"This is going to be difficult for parents in the community to make this adjustment," said school board member Lori Millberg.

Raleigh News & Observer, March 25, 2009

Spare me.

THURSDAY'S JOURNAL - MARCH 26, 2009

Today's overview:

NEW BOOK CALLS THE WAKE COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM A BEACON OF HOPE

RALEIGH'S COMPREHENSIVE PLAN PUSHES SOCIAL ENGINEERING IN THE WAKE COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM

"BUY" YOUR COPY NOW

Here's a book you can put on your bookshelf right next to Bill McNeal's and Tom Oxholm's "A School System's Journey to Mediocrity."


According to the product description, the Wake County Public School System is a "beacon of hope."

Just check out this review:

In Hope and Despair in the American City, Gerald Grant has written a profound book about American cities and their schools. He combines far-ranging scholarship with lively field research, autobiography, historical narrative, and an expert grasp of demographic data and the winding mazes of legal opinion. The result is a big and ambitious portrait, through the story of two cities, of our nation's greatest educational problems and possibilities for school reform in the metropolitan U.S. today.

--Joseph Featherstone, Michigan State University

Field research? He apparently missed thousands of parents annually outraged by the flippant disregard the Wake County Public School System has shown them and their children.

Demographic data? I would love to know what data the Wake County Public School System provided him to make his case. Nobody in Wake County can seem to get any data out of central office. Maybe he can share it with us.

You can read the review here.

WE COULD ONLY HOPE A DIVERSITY RESOLUTION FROM THE RALEIGH CITY COUNCIL WAS THE ONLY THING

As Meeker, WakeUp Wake County, the Wake County Public School System and others continue to impose transit and diversity agendas upon Wake County citizens, we can only wish that a Raleigh City Council resolution in support of diverse schools was the only thing.

Nicely tucked into Raleigh's Comprehensive Plan is a plan for Raleigh, in conjunction with the Wake County Public School System, to socially engineer Raleigh neighborhoods to "reduce the need for busing."

"The need for busing."

Could Mitch Silver and his illuminati buddies at Raleigh "central" Planning tell us what "need" there is for "busing?" Do tell. What "need" is there to force a poor child to get up excessively early to get on a bus to drive across the county to go to school?

Birds are chirping. Please tell us.

You can read our previous post about it here.

While there might be other legitimate reasons to locating affordable and other types of housing throughout Raleigh, this whole proposal reeks of 1960s nonsense.

1. There is no need for busing. None. Nobody can produce a shred of evidence that all this outrageous nonsense even works - at a time when it saddles Wake County taxpayers with huge costs and disrupts the lives of parents and their children. The Wake County Public School System refuses to study the issue. Refuses.

2. Once again - Raleigh has no business in this. Councilman Isley is apparently the only person who understands this.

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

HOW TO LOSE AN ELECTION - MARY ANN BALDWIN STYLE

How do you lose an election? Well pretty much drag yourself into matters that do not even pertain to Raleigh governance and make thousands of parents across the city loaded for bear. Parents will vote on one issue this fall and that's school reassignment. Period.

That's what Mary Ann Baldwin did at the March 17, 2009 meeting of the Raleigh City Council. Not only did Mary Ann Baldwin vote for the resolution, but she also presented the resolution to the council.

Another school diversity flavor aid drinker, Councilman James West, praised the socio-economic diversity experiment, stating "diversity and those kinds of things proven that they have worked." Of course, he does not offer any proof of this - just like his buddy Chuck Delaney over at WCPSS.

You can watch the video
here. Go to E 3 on the menu.

Also, you should send an email to Councilman Isley, thanking him for his no vote. He appears to be on the sole voice of reason on the Raleigh City Council. He can be reached at
pisley@boyceisley.com. The resolution passed with 7 members (including Mayor Meeker) voting in favor of the resolution with Isley casting the lone no vote.

Any parents that would like to "thank" the Raleigh City Council for turning their backs on you in your battles against an unresponsive school bureaucracy, you can reach them
here. I personally recommend you thank them on October 6, 2009.

Here's the resolution:

RESOLUTION NO. (2009) 842

A RESOLUTION EXPRESSING THE SUPPORT
OF THE RALEIGH CITY COUNCIL
FOR THE WAKE COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM

WHEREAS, the Wake County Public School System has consistently provided our citizens with one of the best school systems in the state and the nation, providing a solid educational foundation for our children and contributing to our County's economic prosperity; and

WHEREAS, the upkeep of our Wake County schools is imperative for our continued educational, economic, and cultural sustenance and growth.

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF RALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA THAT:

Section 1. The City supports the current district elections of the Wake County Board of Education as a means of ensuring minority and district representation, and controlling campaign costs, and the City supports the school's diversity policy to ensure a balanced and equal education for all our City's children.

Adopted: March 17, 2009

TUESDAY'S JOURNAL - MARCH 24, 2009

Today's overview:

WAKE COMMUNITY NETWORK: WHERE YA BEEN BRAD - PALLING AROUND WITH RACIAL GENOCIDE PROPONENTS?

COSTLY LAND DEALS + ARGUMENTS OVER PROPERTY DEED TRANSFERS = YET MORE CUTS FOR WAKE SCHOOLS

STAN NORWALK SAYS DO AS WE SAY, NOT AS WE DO

AFTER RECORD DROUGHTS, MEEKER FAILS TO EVEN PRODUCE A SATISFACTORY DROUGHT PLAN

WAKE COMMISSIIONERS SPEND $25,000 TO STUDY HOW TO DO A FESTIVAL - NOT ACTUALLY CONDUCT AN EVENT

Monday, March 23, 2009

WHERE YA BEEN BRAD - PALLING AROUND WITH RACIAL GENOCIDE PROPONENTS?

--- On Fri, 3/6/09, Cheek, Patricia wrote:


From: Cheek, Patricia Patricia.Cheek@ci.raleigh.nc.us
Subject: Raleigh City Council Meeting---Tuesday, March 17 @ 1:30pm
To:
Date: Friday, March 6, 2009, 9:54 AM

Dr. West has asked that you make every effort to attend this Council meeting if possible. We look forward to seeing you there.

Do you think the Raleigh City Council should make JOBS and NEIGHBORHOOD SAFETY in Southeast Raleigh its FIRST PRIORITY?

Do you want Southeast Raleigh to have access to $$ funds from Obama’s Economic Stimulus Program?

Do you think our community needs LESS CRIME and MORE YOUTH PROGRAMS?

BE THE CHANGE!

Come and support the Southeast Raleigh Quality of Life Coalition!

Where: Raleigh City Council Meeting
City Council Chambers
222 West Hargett Street
When: Tuesday, March 17 @ 1:30pm
E-mail Brad Thompson at bttsr@aol.com
to get more involved!

Patricia Lynch Cheek
http://us.mc01g.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=patricia.cheek@ci.raleigh.nc.us
Community Services Assistant
Community Services Department
831-6100
Community Services Homepage

Dear Brad,

We here at Wake Community like to think we closely follow issues regarding Southeast Raleigh. We've reported on murder after murder on Bragg Street and Tarboro Road. We've criticized Mayor Meeker for his utter "benign neglect" of your community's serious crime issues while pumping millions of dollars into Fayetteville Street for yuppie intellectuals.

One thing that's been missing in all our coverage and the stories we've followed?

YOU.

Haven't heard from you in a while. Where ya been?

We just heard your glowing presentation of passion and concern for Southeast Raleigh. (You can view it here.)

Apparently you've decided to assemble all the Southeast Raleigh groups together for your "quality of life" coalition.

You sure did use a lot of resilient words in your presentation. Very passionate I must say.

You spoke of:

"... common commitment to do whatever we can, to make it stronger."

"... but we don't want to bury our heads in the sand."

"... situation that cannot be tolerated."

"... explosion of crime, particularly violent crime, that is intolerable."

"These problems cannot be left behind."

We just would love to know where this passion was recently as Southeast Raleigh rotted, as violent crime skyrocketed, social ills prevailed and shopping centers like Longview lost businesses.

We can observe one thing though. You seem all about some stimulus cash and making sure your hands are in the cookie jar. Suddenly you're on the scene.

You spoke that the".. stimulus package represents an opportunity for community investment." and that Raleigh should "... aggressively pursue the resources in the stimulus."

You ran through a whole host of social programs and services for Southeast Raleigh. Any of this stuff have a proven track record of working? Or are we burning yet more money on failed social services endeavors. Not sure why we should be too hard on you though - the Wake County Public School System spends millions on this annually and refuses to show any proven track record of success.

Don't get us wrong. Southeast Raleigh faces a lot of challenges and we've made it abundantly clear that Mayor Meeker's "benign neglect" is shameful.

The money was there to address serious problems in your community - but Mayor Charles "livable streets" Meeker chose not to invest in your community, but rather to pump millions of dollars into Mint restaurants, tear up Fayetteville Street and build City Plazas. And he continues to do so.

If you are serious about helping out Southeast Raleigh, then we would welcome your voice in criticizing Raleigh's misplaced priorities. Will you criticize Mayor Meeker?

One last thing. You went to the 1995 Million Man March in DC. Folks like former Sheriff John Baker spoke clearly when they said:

"All right, you are going to Washington. Then what?" Baker said. "What are you going to do the next day?" (Raleigh News & Observer - 10/18/95)

What did you do the next day, and the day after and the day after until March 17, 2009?

It's also interesting who you traveled to DC with for the March.

"It was kind of overwhelming -- a whole sea of people," said Bakari Kambon, who went to Washington with his father, Kamau Kambon, and Brad Thompson, a Raleigh city councilman. (Raleigh News & Observer - 10/18/95)

For those who don't know Dr. Kamau Kambon, he called for the extermination of the white race at Howard University in October of 2005. You can view the video here.

Part of the problem with our minority youth in Southeast Raleigh are the influences they come into contact with.

We would welcome your formal denouncement of Dr. Kambon. Your silence will speak volumes.

MONDAY'S JOURNAL - MARCH 23, 2009

Today's overview:

MINORITY GROUP SEEKS TO PRESERVE SYSTEM FAILING MINORITY CHILDREN.

MEEKER TWISTS FACTS IN SUPPORT OF PORK SPENDING IN DOWNTOWN RALEIGH

BEYOND $10 MILLION FOR THE HILLSBOROUGH STREET ROUNDABOUT, RALEIGH CITY COUNCIL SPENDS ALMOST $400,000 TO PRETTY UP HILLSBOROUGH STREET

LOOK HOMEWARD ANGELS - TEA PARTY FOCUSES ON DC - PLENTY OF MEEKER'S PORK JUST DOWN THE STREET

ROLESVILLE LOOKING TO EXPAND ITS EXTRATERRITORIAL JURISDICTION