Breakfast
Forum
Charlotte, NC
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CMS board members,
superintendent answer
questions about Comprehensive Review
Oct. 12, 2010
CMS Board Chair Eric Davis asked to meet with Forum participants. Speakers attending included Davis, District 3 board member Dr. Joyce Waddell, District 2 board member Richard McElrath, and Supt. Peter Gorman.
The material below represents most of the questions asked. For each question, all of the answers offered by the speakers have been included.
1. Opening statements
Davis
White
2. How does movie "Waiting for Superman" relate to Charlotte?
Waddell
Davis
3 Where are the documents relating to the Comprehensive Review?
Gorman
4. How much federal Race for the Top money will come to CMS?
Gorman
5. Why was the foyer of new Rocky River High left as
raw concrete?
Gorman
6. A child at Rocky River in Mint Hill reported having been
bused in from West Boulevard. What gives?
Gorman
Davis
7. Set aside economic arguments: What are the academic arguments for
creation of K-8 schools.
Gorman
White
McElrath
8. Do cohort studies validate the money being spent on Communities
in Schools, and why was there no broader input than CIS into dropout
prevention programs?
Gorman
9. Has economic downturn halted "strategic staffing" initiatives
that gave excellent teachers a salary incentive to work at
high-needs schools?
Gorman
10. Have you studied the role that the absence of African-American
history in the curriculum plays in poor performance and dropping out
among African-American teens?
Davis
Waddell
11. Who will decide which schools to close. and why aren't CMS's
best teachers teaching the children who need the most help?
Davis
Gorman
McElrath
12. What plans are there for additional career and job training, and
what companies are assisting?
Gorman
13. Has moving away from nontechnical job training contributed to
the dropout rate?
Gorman
McElrath
14. Doesn't research suggest that K-8s should be phased in over
several years rather than the way CMS proposed to do it next fall?
And will federal Title I money move with the children being moved to
K-8s, and will you increase allotments for those children at their
new schools?
Gorman
15. By creating K-8s whole rather than phasing them in, are you sacrificing the children and the academic gains you want to see?
Gorman
16. Why did board members abandon staff proposals to alter
traditional magnets and Montessori?
Davis
Waddell
McElrath
Waddell
17. Did the board seek public-private partnerships to finance
schools that might otherwise close?
Davis
18. Will you encourage teachers to be trained in African-American
history?
Waddell
19. Why did you brush off the question about partnerships, and to
close the academic gap, shouldn't CMS do a much better of
high-achieving principals to low-performing schools?
Davis
20. What is board's commitment to rebuild vocational training
programs?
Davis
21. How many minorities are in the superintendent's top level of
decision-makers?
McElrath
22. What is it about the criteria for school closings that explains why Lincoln Heights was not on the iist, and then suddenly was added to the list?
McElrath
23. Will there be more multi-track (year-round) schools in the
future? University Park parents don't want to be alone because
finding child care will be difficult if very few children countywide
are on that schedule.
McElrath
Waddell
24. CMS's discipline process is among the most complex in the
country. Will you reconsider it, so parents can get their kids back
in school getting an education?
McElrath
Waddell