The new school superintendent will apparently be announced Thursday evening.
[Promoted to front page. See the news in the comments below. -Ed.]
Issues:
About Us
OrangePolitics is a not-for-profit website for discussing progressive perspectives on politics, planning, and public policy in Orange County, NC. Opinions are those of their authors. Learn more.
Community Guidelines
By using this site, you agree to our community guidelines. Inappropriate or disruptive behavior will result in moderation or eviction.
Content license
By contributing to OrangePolitics, you agree to license your contributions under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 United States License.
Zircon - This is a contributing Drupal Theme
Design by WeebPal.
Design by WeebPal.
Comments
Dr. Thomas Forcella
From http://www.guilford.k12.ct.us/
Unanimous pick
1 / 1
1
special education
I don't know much about the man beyond the CHCCS press release and the WCHL story, but I'm encouraged by the fact that he started his career as a special education teacher. Also, one always wonders why someone leaves a part of the country where they've made their mark for a reasonably equivalent job -- are they running from something? -- but it turns out his adult children live in Nashville, Savannah, and Orlando, so Chapel Hill is in the neighborhood.
noticed that too
I figure Atlanta would have been even more central for him, but what Connecticut Yankee wants to go to Georgia? :) Notice in the WCHL interview he mentioned "progressive" -- maybe NC voting for Obama helped us here.
Tough Job
I wonder if Dr Forcella was aware of what's going on here at this time, that we fondly call the budget problem?We are drifting into a vortex of massive pressure on the CHCCS by: crushing reductions in state funding for local schools; a paralyzed BOCC with tapped-out funds; a reliance on residential property taxes that is weakening support for any new facilities, challenges or programs among Chapel Hill, Carrboro taxpayers; a demanding parent base that wants smaller classes, more special programs and services, and close the achievement gap.All I see is a terrible desire on our Superintendent's part not to want to wake up in the morning. Dr Pedersen has chosen well when to lay this burden down. It's going to be godawful.
I don't think the pressures
I don't think the pressures on CHCCS are that different from the pressures faced by other school districts. Everywhere state funding is being cut (see, for example, Texas); local authorities are strapped; and residents want more from their schools.
Another aspect of the problem
Hopefully Dr. Focella also learned that a large portion of the problems facing our local schools is due to the unwillingness of the school board to exercise their SAPFOR rights and tell the town and counties officials that our schools are full. He should also know that while we may be able to pony up the funds to build new facilities, we do not have the funds to maintain our existing buildings and that county residents voted down a tax increase that would provide those maintenance funds in the last election. While that tax increase is back on the slate for this year, there are also residents clamoring to re-allocate those funds away from the schools.
Ms. Buckner, it also depends
Ms. Buckner, it also depends on how many bells and whistles you add to those buildings and that applies to both school systems. I agree that the older buildings are forgotten but that buck stops with the school boards and how they communicate with there customers, taxpayers, and BOCC.As for the sales tax, yes those of us in the county voted against it but you folks in Chapel Hill township have 60% of the register voters and you passed it by a slim margin. Maybe you missed the memo but there are alot of us trying to keep our heads above water in these tight times. You are not only one to miss the message our Commissioners want to spend $84,500.00 to open the polls in the county for the sale tax vote in 2011. Add to that the "education funds" for the vote which was $40,000 just last year and the county manager cannot find any more funds to cut. What a load of bull manure.
WCHL welcome interview
Nice, in-depth interview with Dr. Forcella. He continues with a lot of right answers, IMHO, and that's good for our schools. http://www.chapelboro.com/pages/10311450.php