CCTA Watchdog Report -Craven County Board of Education meeting- 21 March 2013

March 22, 2013

CCTA Members and Friends,


As is usually the case, this evening meeting of the Board of Eduction featured various awards and honors received by staff, teachers and students. Good for morale. The remaining time was mostly taken up with "facilitating" (we used to call it in the military) goal setting, direction, etc. They call it "Strategic Direction Alignment." They did spent a good deal of time on "Communication with Stakeholders" which included CCTA and other community groups, organizations and agencies. I do appreciate their willingness to listen to us.

The only "contentious" portion of the meeting was when I petitioned the Board concerning Transparency. I told them that I had spent 2 or 3 hours on the School Board's website looking for information about textbooks, digital media, and other teaching material to include lesson plans, course outlines, etc.

I found some great links to American and North Carolina history on the West Craven High school site such as Shay's Rebellion and the Making of a Nation, and Learn North Carolina, a history of North Carolina by era.

Unfortunately, I also found a lot of bad links and empty folders. MORE IMPORTANTLY, I FOUND TOO MUCH OF THE MATERIAL I WAS LOOKING FOR WAS "PASSWORD PROTECTED."

At the end of the meeting (actually, to my surprise) my concerns were taken up by the Board and Staff. I was thanked graciously for my input and told that they were in a transition sort of period and all agreed with me that the information I was seeking should be on line on their website and available for everyone to access.

I did also observe that there is a high tolerance for poor English at the board meeting. I hope that can change, too.

I was accompanied to the meeting by Lillian Kraiger, who lives in Stately Pines. Lillian is very concerned about the impact of the "Common Core" Standards Initiative. We all should find out more about this. Lillian will keep us appraised of what she is able to learn about these federally driven standards.

Respectfully submitted: Hal James, CCTA Watchdog Chairman