Friday Report – October 28, 2016

After three weeks off, students in the Public Schools of Robeson County will return to class on Monday.

All Robeson public schools have been closed since October 10 in the aftermath of Hurricane Matthew. Several schools were flooded, while others suffered tree damage and served as emergency shelters for those who were displaced by the storm.

All students will resume class on Monday, although some will report to different locations.

Students at West Lumberton Elementary, the hardest hit by flooding, will go to Lumberton Junior High School. Students at W.H. Knuckles, which was also damaged by flooding, will attend class at that school but students who would normally go to the kindergarten and first-grade wing, which was flooded, will go to the school’s main building. Lunches will be transported to the school because of flood-damage in the cafeteria.

The return to school has been delayed as Robeson county officials assessed damage to school facilities and to Robeson County roads. With 81 roads still affected by storm-related closures, bus routes and bus stops will be changed. According to the school system, principals will contact parents to let them know if their students’ stop or route will change. The Public Schools of Robeson County Transportation Department is working on a bus route plan.

Gov. Pat McCrory signed an executive order calling on legislators to give schools that were closed because of the storm some leeway on the state requirement that students be in school at least 185 days or 1,025 hours each year. The governor also requested that school boards not schedule makeup days until after legislators reconvene in January.

In a meeting at the White House last week, former Attorney General Eric Holder announces launch of

“Changing Minds” campaign to increase awareness of, and reduce, childhood violence and trauma.

Photo Credit: David Sckrabulis, Office of Justice Programs.

Many who study crime believe that those who become criminals were exposed to violent or lawless behavior in childhood, not to mention the long-term psychological or physical damage such trauma can cause to all children. In 2015, the Justice Department’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention published a survey which found that about 58 percent of all children in America had either witnessed or been a victim of crime in the previous year, to include not only violent acts but property crimes, sibling abuse and bullying. Then-Attorney General Eric Holder launched a program in 2010 called Defending Childhood, and last week Holder announced the launch of “Changing Minds,” to help adults heal children exposed to trauma. The former attorney general explains further:

Text below by Eric H. Holder, Jr.

Imagine that in a given year, more than half of American adults – let’s say three in every five – experience violence, either as victims or as witnesses. What would be your reaction? My guess is that it would fall somewhere on a scale between skepticism (that violence could be so prevalent) and outrage. It would motivate us to action. We would pass laws. We would commission research to determine causes. We would take steps to make our homes and communities safer. In short, we would – I hope – do something.

So how would you respond if you learned that it isn’t adults who are exposed to violence at these rates, but children? The most recent National Survey of Children’s Exposure to Violence found that, in fact, 58 percent of children in this country have encountered some form of violence, abuse or trauma during the previous year, either directly as victims or indirectly as witnesses. Almost half report suffering more than one type of direct or witnessed victimization. Almost one in six report six or more experiences with violence. And one in 20 have encountered violence 10 or more times. Nearly one in 12 children have seen one family member assault another.

These statistics are deeply troubling and should be unacceptable in a country so rich in opportunity and generous with its blessings as the United States of America. Sadly, exposure to violence is a reality for far too many of our kids, and it affects them physically, emotionally and psychologically. It causes both immediate distress and long-term neurological harm. Exposure to violence reshapes the brain and can cause damage that lasts far into the future.

Thankfully, beyond this dark reality is a brighter prospect. Children are remarkably resilient. The malleability of their brains gives them an advantage in recovery, and they are capable of bouncing back from even the most traumatic experiences as long as they receive proper care and support. And every one of us can play a role in helping them heal. A new national public awareness campaign launched last week will show us how.

A legislative mandate for experimental public schools at UNC is moving forward, but not without anxiety about the time line and questions about how the new schools would operate.

Last week, about 70 university and public school officials met in Chapel Hill to try to hammer out a plan for the schools. The state budget required eight UNC campuses to establish so-called lab schools – essentially charter schools that would serve kindergarten through 8th grade students.

The lab schools would have to be located in districts that have at least one-quarter of their schools classified as low-performing, to “expand student opportunities for educational success through high-quality instructional programming and innovative instruction and research by using the resources available at the constituent institution,” according to the budget language.

The directive from the Senate was included in the final budget compromise, but was not sought by UNC. Leaders in the UNC system’s Faculty Assembly called the legislation an unfunded mandate, an intrusion into curriculum and “an unprecedented and unjustified overreach into the management of UNC institutions.”

There are also practical concerns. Last week several members of the UNC Board of Governors said the time line was too aggressive. The law requires that four be established for the 2017-18 school year and four more in 2018-19.

“To get a school up and running in eight months is mind boggling,” said Anna Spangler Nelson, who chairs the UNC board’s committee on education planning, policies and programs.

Others have raised questions about the governance of the schools. University boards of trustees would oversee the schools and hire teachers and employees, who would become university employees. Trustees would also appoint an advisory board made up of faculty, the education dean, parents, a community member and a student. The legislation requires university trustees to establish school calendars, the standard course of study and other policies, yet most members don’t have experience in running public schools. Trustee boards only meet four to six times a year.

Gabriel Lugo, a professor at UNC Wilmington and head of the UNC Faculty Assembly, said the legislation puts boards of trustees in the position of operating as school boards, something they aren’t prepared to do. “I think we should push back really hard and create something that is constructive,” he said.

Such schools would operate outside of the local school district, but the districts would pay out money to support the students and would have to provide meals and transportation. Frank Gilliam, chancellor of UNC Greensboro, said he was a fan of lab schools, explaining that his children had attended them in another state. But he cautioned that there’s been no time for collaboration with school districts.

To continue reading the complete article, click here. 

Excerpt from: 

Stancill, J. “Concern grows about lab schools at UNC.” The News & Observer. 10/20/16.