Todd Paris, RFP Staff Writer and Salisbury Attorney
♦ I have read Chuck Hughes May 6, 2016 article where he decries “people with self serving agenda” and claims that he and other members had not “embraced the overreach of what is now known as Scenario #1.”
I note that I do not live in his district and can not run against him. I also do not want to criticize him too harshly, since he voted to protect the 4400 elementary school children to be effected by this “Nightmare Scenario” actually published on RSS’s own site. I would like to thank Chuck Hughes, for in the end, voting to protect rural schools.
Since RFP can not post links to the local “fish-wrapper” about what Chuck was saying about this plan before the vote, I could not refute what he says, even if I wished. As grandpa says, “What’s done is done.”
I will say this. There are now over 5,000 members of a “secret” FB site committed to rural schools. It’s secret only in that members must invite other members. A political action committee has been formed. Questions have now been asked of a board and administration that has seen little outside inquiry over the years. A sleeping giant has been awakened. This giant may yet march on the Cohen Building.
Our school’s ratings have slipped, both in the county and the city. The Board’s “1 on 1” idea has failed because many children of all races, both urban and rural, are too poor to have internet access at home and can’t complete their homework. There already was a great deal of unrest and anger in the parental community.
School Board is not an exciting job. It pays “next to nothing.” To serve, you either have to “care about the kids” or just see this as a stepping stone to higher office. In many ways, it is a thankless job.
Spending 100M plus for new schools in a system that has “over-capacity” made no sense to us. Our Salisbury friends are attacking us now because they somehow thought that busing rural kids in would “solve all our problems.”
The obvious complaint is that it’s easy enough to point out problems and harder to suggest solutions. I will now stick my head out with some ideas:
Paper homework MUST be provided to children with no internet access.
Why not build a “right-sized” new Woodleaf Elementary, leave the kids at Cleveland where they are and save tens of millions and use the savings to rebuild Knox Middle which is the worst facility in the county and formerly the number one school for replacement?
Why not build a new magnet or gifted school for kids in Salisbury/Spencer where kids with decent grades and good behavior of all races and socio- economic levels can attend? This school would “lift those students up” and allow folks to enter and remain in the “urban core.”
If it’s great and acclaimed, rural folks will drive their kids to it and the City of Salisbury could alter their bus routes in the mornings to help qualified poor inner city kids to attend. If you can’t behave or make progress, it’s back to the sufficient, but normal schools. Momma said you get more flies with honey, than with vinegar.
Admissions must not be racist or elitist but must be based upon scholastic merit and good behavior. This school would be something we all could be proud of. We could focus it on basic skills and learning 21st century skills such as writing code and computers. It could create a Salisbury downtown full of IT start-ups and we could finally start to utilize the 10G capacity that the City subsidizes to the tune of 3M dollars per year from the general fund.
We could put it in the “Empire Hotel” and Salisbury could donate that otherwise worthless shell to the cause. It’s owned by Downtown Salisbury Inc., which is just a part of the City. The county, with a much larger budget, could pay the tab to rehabilitate this structure. If we can spend 30M on the mall, why can’t we afford this? Our current school bond will be paid off around 2017 and citizens would probably all vote to support this.
This is the idea. Call it the “Greg Edd’s School for Exceptional Salisbury Children” if you wish. Name it for Moody or Chuck or whomever. The carrot works better than the stick, right?
Oh, and finally, stop asking an architectural firm in the business of building schools if we need to build more schools. Folks just cackled about that.
