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Last summer I wrote about the hiring of retired administrator Travis Ragins to help address discipline problems at Eastern Guilford High School. I knew then that Ragins wasn't the only "princpal coach" to have a contract with the district, but it took until January to get all of the documents that I requested.

Those documents showed that the district paid a dozen retirees $342,543  for school support services in 2011, more than five times what it spent in 2009. The cost of principal coaching — a subset of that amount — increased about seven-fold from $23,618  in 2009 to $179,441  in 2011.

A story explaining that trend should run later this week. In the meantime, check out the list of principal coaches and their contract amounts from 2009-2011.

I encourage you to check out Friday's story on principal turnover in the Guilford County School, which will provide context for the school board's discussion during its retreat on Saturday.

You can find most of the numbers in that article, but I link here to one spreadsheet that lists all of the principals by board member district and they years of experience they have.

The retreat agenda has a few other interesting items that I will write about proposed magnets at McNair and Irving Park elementary schools; an update on the land purchase for the southeast area elementary school; new policies regarding booster clubs and donations, and an update on a proposal to produce biodiesel in the district. Check out the related documents at the link.

I just got word that Parents for Educational Freedom, which advocates for school choice in North Carolina, will hold an event at the International Civil Rights Center & Museum next Tuesday at 6:30 p.m.

The event will celebrate recent state education initiatives, such as the elimination of the charter school cap last summer, and feature keynote speaker Dr. Howard Fuller, professor of education and director of the Institute for the Transformation of Learning at Marquette University. Fuller was a grassroots organizer during the civil rights movement of the 1960s, a superintendent of Milwaukee Public Schools, and founder of the Black Alliance for Educational Options.

He was recently named to Forbes Magazine's top educators list and was featured in the documentary "Waiting for 'Superman.'"

The event is free but people need to register online at www.pefnc.org or by phone at (888) 97-PEFNC.

Update: It's only fair that I point out that Mendenhall Country wasn't the only school with cross-representation or families ties. With College Preparatory and Leadership Academy of High Point, three of the board members are family members by marriage (Michelle Johnson, the Rev. Tacuma Johnson and Simon Johnson). Simon Johnson also would serve on the board of directors and as temporary executive director of the school.

Three advisory council members also abstained from voting on the Howard and Lillian Lee Scholars Charter Academy because of conflicts of interest.

Second, I talked to Paul Norcross and he said the Mendenhall board of directors, which includes him as a member, plans to re-apply in April.He clarified that has his wife, Kim, would only draw one salary as superintendent of the two schools. The board would hire two other princpals.

Third, the proposed Triangle Math and Science Academy will be modeled after the Triad Math and Science Academy in Greensboro. Ali Tombak is a founding board member with both schools.

Find all of the applications here.

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Nine proposed charter schools are another step closer to opening in the fall after the state charter school advisory council interviewed applicants this week.

Two Guilford applications were recommended to the State Board of Education, which will discuss them next month and vote in March: Cornerstone Charter Academy in Greensboro and The College Preparatory and Leadership Academy of High Point. You can read more about those recommendations in a story that ran in Wednesday's paper (not online).

Other proposed schools forwarded to the state board:

• Bear Grass Charter School (Martin County)
• Corvian Community School (Mecklenburg)
• The Howard and Lillian Lee Scholars Charter Academy (Orange)
• North East Carolina Preparatory (Edgecombe)
• Research Triangle High School (Durham)
• Triangle Math and Science Academy (Wake)
• Water’s Edge Village School (Currituck)

(I find it interesting that Guilford could potentially have more new charter schools this year than any other county.)

Mendenhall Country Day School in Jamestown did not make the cut. Council members had substantial concerns about how the school would operate and they questioned the board's budget, educational plan, bylaws and potential conflicts of interest. For example, Kim Norcross, who is principal of Phoenix Academy, would run both schools as superintendent and she would oversee Mendenhall's management company, Phoenix Systems (which doesn't yet exist). Plus, her husband, Paul, would serve on boards of both schools. He already sits on the advisory council and chairs a pro-charter schools group in the state. (See update above for clarification.)

Keep in mind that the Mendenhall group could re-apply in April to open in 2013. Joel Medley, who oversees the Office of Charter Schools, said he expects another 50 to 55 applications at that time, based on the level of interest. More than 100 people from across the state registered to attend a related training last week and some of them were turned away because there wasn't enough room.

The council did spend some time discussing the whole issue of conflicts of interest. This is important because the council will be recommending policies to the State Board of Education as well as legislation related to charter schools. I listened in on the meetings so I could not identify every speaker, but I believe council member Alfred Dillon said, "I think we're going to be under a lot of scrutiny. We have to maintain arms length from anything that smacks of conflict of interest."

We'll see.

The charter school front got more interesting last month when the N.C. Alliance for Public Charter Schools split into two groups, apparently a result of internal disagreements between Eddie Goodall, the former president, and Paul Norcross, who chairs the alliance's board of directors.

A story about the split ran today; it's not online, but here is the gist: Norcross says the board got rid of the president's position as part of a restructuring that had to do with saving the organization money and serving member schools better. Eddie Goodall says he resigned and started another similar organization because of his concerns about Norcross's potential conflicts of interest. (Added note from me: Is this the pot calling the kettle black?)

From my article:

Norcross serves on a new charter school advisory council that recommends to the State Board of Education which charters to approve and revoke ... .

"I felt like our work was compromised because of the work of Paul Norcross," Goodall said. "The members (of the advisory council) shouldn't be the same people who represent an association of existing charter schools."

Norcross co-founded Phoenix Academy, a charter school in High Point, and he hopes to open another charter school in Jamestown this summer. Members of the advisory council will interview him about the proposed Mendenhall Country Day School next week.

Baker Mitchell, a charter school founder from Wilmington, also serves on the state advisory council and joined the board of directors for the alliance in December.

Norcross denied that their representation on both groups is an issue. He recused himself from voting on his application when the advisory council met last month... .

"There's too much at stake right now," Norcross said. "(We're) not going to do anything to jeopardize what's been done. It's suicide."

(You can also read a similar article from The Progessive Pulse blog here.)

This will be something to watch. The state advisory council has a lot of members that represent charter schools and it's fair to wonder if Norcross might have his hands in too many charter school pots. And Baker Mitchell was on the subcommittee that recommended that Mendenhall's application move forward.

(Moreover, Goodall pointed out that the application for Mendenhall Country Day School (p. 24) has the exact same language in its educational management organization agreement as the application for Howard & Lillian Lee Scholars Charter School (p. 32), even down to the amounts of the board's annual budgets. Is this a case of outright plagiarism or an appropriate use of legal boilerplate? Keep in mind that the advisory council did screen out two applications last month because they had the same wording throughout.)

Is this a non-issue to you or something to be concerned about?

... are now out, courtesy of the National Center for Education Statistics. No surprises in the numbers, which are as recent as 2010.

I am in training today and don't have time to go into detail, but the district released the results of a diagnostic report this week. The evaluation was partially funded by the Broad Foundation, which awards the prestigious Broad Prize for Urban Education each year. It's the largest education prize in the country.

(By the way, chief of staff Nora Carr told me there were a few minor errors in the report that are being updated.)

I've written a story for Friday's Monday's paper and may add my thoughts on this to the blog tomorrow. In the meantime, take a look at the report and happy holidays.

I've read the report and wanted to highlight a couple statements from it. Interestingly, the district's largest weaknesses are in the areas of teaching and learning.

"Teachers report that they will promote students to the next grade even when students have not mastered course content because they believe this is district policy."

"(Educators) do not have a common language or set of expectations aroudn rigor, academic engagement, expectations for student mastery to be promoted to one grade to the next, postsecondary readiness, acquisition of 21st century skills, global awareness, or understanding of the Common Core. Formative assessments are not used consistently, common planning time is not accompanied by consistent expectations and instructional approaches and differentiation vary widely. The response, 'it depends' was provided in many of the areas explored, from resource allocation to support for teaching and learning to instructional expectations, assessments, teacher evaluations, instructional materials, knowledge of school or district improvement plans and more."

Please note that I will be on vacation next week and will return on Jan. 3.

Late last week I wrote about the three charter school applicants that have advanced to the interview stage with the state's advisory council. The application for the Global Leadership Entrepreneurial Academy didn't make the cut.

All together, 11 of 27 applications are moving forward through the fast track process. The Guilford applicants that are up for interviews are: 

• The College Preparatory and Leadership Academy of High Point, which would serve about 600 students in kindergarten through 12th grade, and target children from minority, low-income households. The group changed its original name from High Point College Preparatory Academy to distinguish itself from High Point University. Organizers hoped to buy the former Evergreens Nursing Home on Greensboro Road, but they are pursuing other sites in High Point, said academy spokeswoman Michelle Johnson.
• Mendenhall Country Day, which would serve as many as 600 students in kindergarten through eighth grade on land adjoining the 200-year-old Mendenhall Plantation, a historic site in Jamestown.Educators will emphasize hands-on learning and use historic figures to teach the values of patriotism, hard work and integrity. Paul Norcross, co-founder of Phoenix Academy in High Point, serves on the advisory council and recused himself from a vote on his application.
• Cornerstone Charter Academy, which would provide a “back to basics” education for up to 728 students in grades kindergarten through eight.

About a week ago, I asked Nora Carr, GCS's chief of staff, if the district had plans to apply for a charter and she said staff hasn't gotten that far in its discussions about the implications of the new charter school law. Mo Green told the N&R in a late November visit that he would have preferred a cap on charter schools as a way to weed out poor performers and at least a limit on the number of charter schools operating in a county.

"I was in favor of the way North Carolina did charter school legislation," Green said. "It needs to be somewhat limited.... When I see us lifting the charter school cap completely, that concerns me."

By the way, the Miami Herald recently published stories about the charter school industry in Florida. The package includes a story on how other states rein in charter school abuses, but North Carolina wasn't mentioned.

Perhaps you read in today's paper about the school board's decision to approve an assignment plan for McNair Elementary and postpone the adoption of modified boundaries for Colfax Elementary.

Note that there were additional maps presented Tuesday night that would have added Rankin Elementary to the group of schools losing students to McNair. The board eventually rejected those maps, as well as another attempt by Darlene Garrett to keep ESL students at Jesse Wharton.

"We've got to start eliminating, putting some things in and some things out or we'll be here all year," an exasperated Ed Price said at one point.

I didn't mention in my story that the board also decided not to approve the last phase of a 2006 assignment plan for Madison Elementary, Rankin Elementary, Eastern Middle, Northeast Middle, Eastern High and Northeast High (the hour was late and my computer keypad was acting up). The board will revisit that piece at a later time.

I also didn't report that the board held back on declaring its property next to the Miracle League athletic complex as surplus. But it did authorize staff to explore the board's options as it selling the property to the city of High Point.

I reported on Tuesday that High Point wants to obtain 9.8 acres on Shadybrook Road to expand parking and fields at the athletic complex. High Point Mayor Becky Smothers told me that Ed Price suggested the city look into it since the district has no plans for the land.

Price, a key supporter of the athletic complex and a member of High Point's parks and recreation commission, had to recuse himself from voting on the matter. Alan Duncan, whose law firm represents High Point, also recused himself.

Kris Cooke expressed concerns about declaring land as surplus when there is no guarantee the county commissioners will sell it to High Point anyway.

"It's a piece of land that we own and I hate to give it up," she said.

One other thing: Alan Duncan and Amos Quick were again appointed chairman and vice chairman of the board last night.

Check out my story tomorrow on the level of success Guilford County Schools had with its summer school program this year. Background here.

In summary, the online-only approach adopted this year yielded mediocre results, so administrators are considering adding back a classroom component. Fewer students participated than last year, the district didn't save as much as it anticipated and passing rates for the credit recovery classes and end-of-course exams were low. Find here a chart of the district's expenses and participation levels (note that the district hoped to spend less than $100,000 on summer school this year, but increases in the cost of the N.C. Virtual Public School and a goof-up at Southern High had some impact on that). 

I'm sure you'll have questions about this report; read my weekend story for the answers.