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GCS officials say this idea to create more school receiving federal funding through the Title I program should be skipped.

Read here to see the specifics.

GCS announced yesterday they're making more job cuts bringing the total to about 375. They've got about 200 jobs that need to be filled so the net loss could end up being about 100 or so jobs. Probably more when you consider some folks won't qualify or want those vacant jobs.
Mark Jewell, local president of the educators union, says he thinks the system is doing the best it can to find jobs for those being laid off.
If you're one of these folks and feel comfortable sharing your experience please do.

I'm curious. Gov. Bev Perdue had a lot of backing from school folks, including the NCAE — the teachers union. Those same folks are holding a rally this week to protest Perdue's cuts to schools.
Some will argue the governor is doing the best she can with the situation at hand. Others, however, now including some who voted for her, would say she ain't.
My question is do you think she has a snowball's chance in Hades of getting reelected?

What does everyone think about this latest decision by Gov. Perdue?

We got an email from a concerned parent this morning about the swine flu. If you've not heard about it please take a second to read over some info here and here.
The parent wanted to know if the school system was surveying students who may have gone to Mexico for spring break like those in this New York outbreak of the flu. GCS officials told me they are not asking students if they went to Mexico nor are they doing anything else specifically to address swine flu but they said the issue is one they will continue to monitor.
That said, the county health department released information today saying no cases have been reported here.
If you hear anything differently or have your own thoughts you'd like to share drop a line below.

Working on a story for later this week but here's what I have so far.

There's been no small amount of contention over the school board's 6-5 vote to permit the county health department to offer free vaccination clinics on school campuses after school hours. The clinics will offer the vaccination against human papillomavirus or HPV. The virus is the most common sexually transmitted disease, though its contraction is not limited to intercourse.

Some types of HPV can cause cervical cancer as well as genital warts, according the Center for Disease Control. Some types of HPV can also cause less common cancers such as cancers of the vulva, vagina, anus and penis.

Some have raised questions about the school board's support for these clinics. The school board made it very clear they were simply allowing the health department access to their facilities and have no other connection to the clinics.

Two things people seemed to be confused about,
1. this vaccination is not mandatory, parents can elect to have their child vaccinated through this free clinic.

2. the school system is not spending any money on this. The clinics are provided by the Guilford County Health Department with a grant from Duke University.

The clinics are an effort to get the vaccine to those students who might not be able to have access to it. The vaccine calls for three rounds of shots at about $125 per dose.

The clinics are the second phase of the health department's program. The first phase, an awareness campaign launched last year in schools that agreed to it, finished earlier this year.

Lots of people are worried about this from several different points. The most common is a fear the HPV vaccination, Gardasil manufactured by Merck, makes some patients ill and even causes paralysis.

Neither the CDC nor Merck have found any connection to Gardasil and the reported cases of paralysis. Others have reported severe and ongoing fatigue after the recieiving the vaccination. Again, both the CDC and Merck found no connection.

Still, the cases have given many parents pause and several board members noted those cases when they voted against allowing the clinics. Many cite this report from conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch.

Others argue the safest way to guard against HPV is abstinence. While health officials agree not having sex of any kind before committing to a monogamous relationship is the best way to prevent contracting HPV it isn't definitive.

Dr. Michelle Horvath, a local OBGYN working with the health department on the clinics, told the board she has seen many married women who contracted the virus from their husbands. Getting vaccinated can protect women from a lot of heartache, Horvath told the board.

The CDC recommends women between the ages of 11 and 23 be vaccinated.

To learn more about HPV and the vaccine Gardasil read here at the CDC website.

A caller accused me of "being in bed" with GCS yesterday for not digging into why the school system is sending employees on trips during these hard finanical times.

Though frustrated by the insult from someone who has the nerve to insult me but lacked the spine to leave a name or phone number, I was curious about the travel so I asked GCS about it.

There is a group that traveled to Washington DC—it's part of a partnership with CISCO—who is paying for all expenses. They traveled by bus.

Another group will travel to Portland for training. All funding is through federal dollars.

Also CFO Sharon Ozment provided this:

"The state budget freeze disallows any travel that is to be funded with state dollars; however, travel may be approved from local and federal dollars.

"All travel requests are reviewed by the respective Cabinet/Council member before plans are made and funds obligated."

If you hear any more about this issue or any other please send it my way. I will do my best to get to the bottom of it.

From the GCS press release:

Greensboro, N.C. — The Kenan Fellows Program for Curriculum and Leadership Development at North Carolina State University selected three teachers from Guilford County Schools (GCS) for the Kenan Fellows Class of 2011. Beginning in June, Aebeyo Abraha, Kathleen (Katie) Eckersley and Gail Holmes will engage in two-year fellowships to develop innovative curricula for use in North Carolina classrooms.

Abraha is a physical science and chemistry teacher at Smith High. He is the science department chair and has taught for 13 years. He has received grants from North Carolina A&T State University to support his teaching and has made several presentations to science teachers on topics such as "green chemistry." Abraha's Kenan Fellows project is entitled "Geophysics."

Eckersley is a chemistry teacher at High Point Central High. She received a Master Teacher Fellowship from Wake Forest University in 2004 and has presented to teachers at the N.C. Advanced Placement/International Baccalaureate/Honors Forum, the regional National Science Teachers Association Convention and in her school district. Eckersley's project is entitled "Atmospheric Chemistry."

Holmes is an instructional technology specialist currently on loan from GCS to the N.C. Department of Public Instruction. She has presented at the Librarian to Librarian Networking Summit and made presentations on podcasting at the N.C. Educational Technology Conference and the N.C. Technology in Education Society Conference. Holmes will complete a Kenan Fellows project entitled "e-teacher Training: 21st Century Training for the Classroom."

During the fellowships, the teachers will work closely with mentors in developing a project, participate in research on inquiry-guided instruction, develop and distribute lesson plans statewide, talk with state leaders at events, train to be a teacher leader and present findings at state and national conferences.

Kenan Fellows are selected through a competitive process. Public school teachers from across the state were eligible to apply for this honor.

So here's some info on lottery money per GCS Chief Financial Officer Sharon Ozment.

Estimated lottery distribution for GCS for 2008-09 = $7,979,864.

2008-09 GCS lottery distributions to date = $2,152,259 (first quarter amount)

"Governor redirected second quarter distribution to state operating budget to help address revenue shortfall. The second quarter distribution was not posted to our account so I do not know the exact figure but would estimate the figure to be approximately $2M. She may opt to do that again given current financial situation at the state level. Also recall that our 2008-09 lottery funds are targeted for debt service on local school bond referendums," Ozment wrote.

Also, there is House Bill 518 which would rename the lottery from the North Carolina Education Lottery to North Carolina State Lottery. It's sponsored by Rep. John Blust, a Guilford County Republican.

The Committee on Education is reviewing the bill.

The school board will be busy Thursday discussing among other things, increasing the number of Title I schools in the system and initiating and increasing fees for the system's after school program.

You can read more about all these and the other board meeting agenda items here.

But just to provide a quick overview of each;

Title I
With at large portion of federal stimulus money for schools being directed at this program to support low-performing, high poverty schools, the school board will consider lowering their percentage threshold for the number of students at each school receiving free or reduced lunches. By doing so they would increase the number of Title I schools, meaning more schools could receive the stimulus cash, which some might argue could help buffer the massive budget shortfalls expected in the 2009-10 budget.

ACES
ACES is the school system's after school care program. Again, with the economy the way it is fewer families are enrolling and its reached a point where school officials are recommending an enrollment fee and increasing participation fees to keep it afloat.
Here's what those look like.
Currently, approximately 4,100 students are enrolled in ACES and there are about 300 ACES staff members. The 2008-09 ACES budget of $7.9 million is funded from fees collected from parents and agencies. The 2008-09 ACES annual fee (10-Month Calendar) is $1,560 per student. The majority of parents choose to pay the annual fee through weekly payments of $40.

ACES fees recommended for 2009-10 are:
 Annual Enrollment Fee $15 per student
 ACES All-Day Activity Fee $8 per child per All-Day
 ACES Tuition Fee (10 Month Calendar) $1,794 per year - $46 per week