As printed in the Chapel Hill Herald on Saturday, April 14th:

My very first column last spring dealt with my concern about the lack of young black leadership in our community.

I'm still concerned but the good news is that help is on the way. Local NAACP leader Jesse Gibson has brought forward a great plan for a Youth Council that will help to engage teenagers of all races in serving their community. He and the rest of the organization's leadership have successfully seen the creation of such an organization through Chapel Hill's lengthy approval process, and it's now official.

Chapel Hill/Carrboro NAACP President Fred Battle, who has been a fierce advocate for young people as a long time activist and former school board member, says that frequently the reason they are reluctant to get involved in the community is that they don't feel adequate to the task. He sees a primary function of the Youth Council as helping these folks to build leadership and become confident in their abilities to help guide the community.

For someone without kids in the school system (although I hope to someday), I try to follow local school issues. But there's just so much detail! I understand that there are four proposals for elementary redistricting accompanying the opening of elementary school #10 in the CH-C system, and that the superintendent has endorsed one.

In making the decisions, the board's agenda calls for members to consider contiguity, travel and stability, among other criteria.

In Pedersen's selected proposal, elementary school enrollment across the district would range from 406 to 596. Elementary school No. 10 would enroll 481 students.

[School board member Jean] Hamilton acknowledged that the redistricting will not come without negative effects.

"Many students will have to change schools," she said. "Not some - many."
- Board to decide redistricting - Daily Tar Heel, 4/12/07

Congratulations to Hillsborough on naming its first Poet Laureate, and to He's Not Here owner Mike Troy for serving in that post.

I Wish
By Mike Troy

There is a place where poets walk

And talk the talk that poets talk.

It isn't far or hard to find --

It lives in every heart and mind.

It's near a little hardware store

That always has an open door;

And from the door it's just one hop

To a magic coffee shop.

And while we're wishing, let's just say,

Next door we'll have a French cafe.

Out back, a bookshop on an alley

Completes our local Place Pigalle.

At sidewalk tables, people natter

Of anything that doesn't matter

In a dusky limelit time

Where dogs don't bark and poems rhyme.

Feel the pleasing rhyme and rhythm

Of human living that's filled with them.

Through all seasons, in all weather,

Living is what we do together.

So grab a table, take a cup,

Pull up a chair and fill a dish;