The WakeCARES group is comprised of parents with children who face much suffering as a result of MYR. This group has no corporate sponsorship, and is fighting for thousands of Cary/Apex families. Someone on Cary Politics described them as "Hobbits challenging Darth Vader," a fair and witty analogy given the BoE's overly abundant powers, and their support from FOWC'ers who have deep pockets.
The lawsuit they are filing against WCPSS can only bring about good things. First and foremost, a direct legal challenge will force WCPSS to release and explain all their data, and to do it without all their self-serving spin.
WakeCARES needs our financial support to move this forward. Even cheapskates like me have donated, so please consider doing so. To learn more more about this group, their actions, and how to donate, please visit the WakeCARES website.
2/14/07
2/12/07
Cary Metropolis
Quite the article in Sunday's N&O regarding urbanization of Cary. Most of the conjecture on growth was based on what developers plan on doing in Cary. One mealy-mouth comment from CTC on making sure building projects are 'good' for Cary. Our Mayor proudly beat his chest in his State of Cary address, taking credit for the long-overdue road widening projects which are finally coming to completion. Now we're going to build high-rise condominiums and large-scale commercial/residential complexes so that we can fill up these new roads with more traffic.
One read of this article is enough to show who is really running Cary -- the developers. They fund the campaigns for our elected officials (of their choice). They fund bond issues so that we may build more schools (which means they can build more houses), and so that those very same tax dollars are used by WCPSS to buy their property at more than 50% profit in less than a one-year period -- See R.Beckwith's blog on that one.
Erv Portman is the newest addition to CTC. Hopefully his wealth keeps him above the influence of the development community.
The CTC has 4 positions including Mayor up for reelection this Fall. The only hope I see for preserving the Cary we know is for a slate of candidates to run under a "Take Cary back from the developers" theme.
The big question is where these candidates would come from, and how to give them a fighting chance against the developer/CTC allies.
One read of this article is enough to show who is really running Cary -- the developers. They fund the campaigns for our elected officials (of their choice). They fund bond issues so that we may build more schools (which means they can build more houses), and so that those very same tax dollars are used by WCPSS to buy their property at more than 50% profit in less than a one-year period -- See R.Beckwith's blog on that one.
Erv Portman is the newest addition to CTC. Hopefully his wealth keeps him above the influence of the development community.
The CTC has 4 positions including Mayor up for reelection this Fall. The only hope I see for preserving the Cary we know is for a slate of candidates to run under a "Take Cary back from the developers" theme.
The big question is where these candidates would come from, and how to give them a fighting chance against the developer/CTC allies.
2/8/07
Great News !!!
What a great way to start the day, turns out I won the lottery. Here's a copy of the official email notification I received:
UNITED KINGDOM LOTTERY
The Lottery Company
P O BOX 1010
LIVERPOOL, L70 1NL UNITED KINGDOM
Ref Number: UKNL/05/8256/53219/QE327
Batch Number: UKNL5/A115-07
YOU HAVE WON £1,500,000 POUNDS STERLING
Our Dear Winner,
You have won the sum of £1,500,000 (One Million Five Hundred Thousand Great British Pounds Sterling) from BRITISH LOTTERY on our 2007 New Year Charity Bonanza.
The winning ticket was selected from a Data Base of Internet Email Users,from which your Address came out as the winning coupon.We hereby urge you to claim the winning amount quickly as this is a monthly lottery. Failure to claim your win will result into the reversion of the fund to our following month.
You are therefore requested to contact immediately out Claims Department below quoting winning number: WINNING NUMBER:05-08-10-18-20-46-{43}.TICKET NUMBER: 56475600545 188
For security reasons, you are advised to keep your winning information confidential till your claims is processed and your money remitted to you .This is part of our precautionary measure to avoid double claiming and unwarranted abuse of this program. Please be warned.
I want to share this new-found wealth with my community, so I'm announcing a couple of projects which will immediately help our Town Council achieve their goals for 2007.
Much has been made of the new aquatics center being built, and people have asserted that this is a redundant investment. I now see it differently. Cary is a large and growing town, and I'm just not sure whether a single aquatics center will provide fair and equal access to all citizens. Building centers across Cary is something I cannot afford to fund (even with my newfound wealth), so instead I will be funding the new Cary Roving Aquatics Palace (CRAP) which will be a state-of-the-art mobile aquatics center. Here's a sneak peak:
Since I don't have drive to work anymore and can now afford to send my kids to the very best private schools like Bushwood Academy, I can just relax at home while the boys hang out with Biff and Tad. I'm going to invest some of my new money on real estate and embrace the rapid growth rate sponsored by our Town Council. As such, my second initiative will be to give something back to the town government who has served me so faithfully. I will fund construction of new drive-thru building permit centers.
With these centers, applicants won't even have to get out of their car to get their building permits approved. Anticipate a new 'speedpass' improvement in the future.
Look for one of these new drive-through building permit centers near you...
I just knew this was going to be a great day when I woke up !!
UNITED KINGDOM LOTTERY
The Lottery Company
P O BOX 1010
LIVERPOOL, L70 1NL UNITED KINGDOM
Ref Number: UKNL/05/8256/53219/QE327
Batch Number: UKNL5/A115-07
YOU HAVE WON £1,500,000 POUNDS STERLING
Our Dear Winner,
You have won the sum of £1,500,000 (One Million Five Hundred Thousand Great British Pounds Sterling) from BRITISH LOTTERY on our 2007 New Year Charity Bonanza.
The winning ticket was selected from a Data Base of Internet Email Users,from which your Address came out as the winning coupon.We hereby urge you to claim the winning amount quickly as this is a monthly lottery. Failure to claim your win will result into the reversion of the fund to our following month.
You are therefore requested to contact immediately out Claims Department below quoting winning number: WINNING NUMBER:05-08-10-18-20-46-{43}.TICKET NUMBER: 56475600545 188
For security reasons, you are advised to keep your winning information confidential till your claims is processed and your money remitted to you .This is part of our precautionary measure to avoid double claiming and unwarranted abuse of this program. Please be warned.
I want to share this new-found wealth with my community, so I'm announcing a couple of projects which will immediately help our Town Council achieve their goals for 2007.
Much has been made of the new aquatics center being built, and people have asserted that this is a redundant investment. I now see it differently. Cary is a large and growing town, and I'm just not sure whether a single aquatics center will provide fair and equal access to all citizens. Building centers across Cary is something I cannot afford to fund (even with my newfound wealth), so instead I will be funding the new Cary Roving Aquatics Palace (CRAP) which will be a state-of-the-art mobile aquatics center. Here's a sneak peak:
Since I don't have drive to work anymore and can now afford to send my kids to the very best private schools like Bushwood Academy, I can just relax at home while the boys hang out with Biff and Tad. I'm going to invest some of my new money on real estate and embrace the rapid growth rate sponsored by our Town Council. As such, my second initiative will be to give something back to the town government who has served me so faithfully. I will fund construction of new drive-thru building permit centers.
With these centers, applicants won't even have to get out of their car to get their building permits approved. Anticipate a new 'speedpass' improvement in the future.
Look for one of these new drive-through building permit centers near you...
I just knew this was going to be a great day when I woke up !!
2/6/07
Cary Town Council Leadership in This Crisis
A concerned parent sent a letter to the CTC asking for their support in driving legislation which would redefine all the BoE positions as at large. Cary's representation on the BoE is limited, and Cary has been hammered with MYR conversions. Here's the response from Jennifer Robinson:
I am really sorry that you are dealing with the frustrations of MYR and the school assignments. The decisions made by the school board have a serious impact on our quality of life that we experience in Cary. I know that
conveying these frustrations and concerns has been particularly challenging for those living in western Cary because our representatives live outside of Cary.
The Cary Town Councilmembers are aware that the school board districts are drawn in such a way as to have the western Cary area with weak representation. But, I sincerely do not believe that at-large elections will solve that problem. I believe that we will end up with less accountability than more accountability. The
WCPSS should consider moving to a more defined district level management rather than continuing to build
the monstrosity of a system that they currently operate.
It is disappointing to me that a few politicians can stand up in front of naively believe that they are being effective. These people are being politicians, not leaders and certainly not public servants. Their behavior has
degraded the process of finding a solution by further alienating the school board and causing an intense amount of friction among governing boards. I know this because I have spoken with Patti Head three times, with each conversation lasting in excess of 1.5 hours. Her disgust with their behavior has been a roadblock
to working with them to find a solution.
Re-assignment and MYR are symptoms of deeper problems in our school system. To fix these symptoms, we need to identify the root causes which include taxing authority, state funding, authorization for municipalities to tie growth to school capacity, policies promoting social engineering, to name a few. As a municipal leader, my job is todetermine how Cary's policies and ordinances enhance or degrade our school system.
My job is to work towards solving the problems that are under my purview as determined by the State.
While I have no granted authority over school board decisions, I convey to the school board members the concerns that Cary citizens and I have. I have
discussed with them:
* MYR
* reassignments
* the need to promote a sense of community among our children
* the burden on our roads of having long school commutes for children
* the need to bank land for schools
* the agreement to give land to WCPSS for an elementary school, and
* the agreement to sell land to WCPSS for a middle school
The most important thing that we have discussed is the need to actually address the root problems that our County has in providing adequate school capacity. For years, County and municipal representatives have tried to address the symptoms of our broken system and have pointed their fingers at the other governing boards for being responsible for the problem. Enough is enough. The time has come for all municipal leaders
to meet collectively with our State and County reps to discuss the causesfor our problems. I am happy to say that Patti and Mayor McAlister agree with me and have agreed to work on hosting such a forum. In advance of this forum, the Town Council is hosting our school board reps and our County Commissioners at our March
retreat, at which time we plan on going over our concerns for our citizens' quality of life as impacted by school board decisions.
I hope that you will recognize that the Cary Town Councilmembers have been working on school board matters in a way that we deem appropriate, sincere and most likely to have impact.
Sincerely,
Jennifer Robinson
District A
Cary Town Council
Here's the net: Our representatives are doing everything they can to insulate themselves from the MYR issues. We may have moved thousands of people here, but that is totally WPCSS's problem. They will not even support the BoE at large movement which would give us better representation (in the absence of any from our own town government). The comments referring to the CC's as grandstanding are beautiful. I'd like to be a fly on the wall when they sit down together at the retreat with the CC's and this letter comes up (A copy was forwarded to them). Thankfully, this retreat base been scheduled for March -- the fate of our schoolchildren will be decided by then so they came move on to more important topics like decorating bridges. This is one retreat which no one should come back from.
I am really sorry that you are dealing with the frustrations of MYR and the school assignments. The decisions made by the school board have a serious impact on our quality of life that we experience in Cary. I know that
conveying these frustrations and concerns has been particularly challenging for those living in western Cary because our representatives live outside of Cary.
The Cary Town Councilmembers are aware that the school board districts are drawn in such a way as to have the western Cary area with weak representation. But, I sincerely do not believe that at-large elections will solve that problem. I believe that we will end up with less accountability than more accountability. The
WCPSS should consider moving to a more defined district level management rather than continuing to build
the monstrosity of a system that they currently operate.
It is disappointing to me that a few politicians can stand up in front of naively believe that they are being effective. These people are being politicians, not leaders and certainly not public servants. Their behavior has
degraded the process of finding a solution by further alienating the school board and causing an intense amount of friction among governing boards. I know this because I have spoken with Patti Head three times, with each conversation lasting in excess of 1.5 hours. Her disgust with their behavior has been a roadblock
to working with them to find a solution.
Re-assignment and MYR are symptoms of deeper problems in our school system. To fix these symptoms, we need to identify the root causes which include taxing authority, state funding, authorization for municipalities to tie growth to school capacity, policies promoting social engineering, to name a few. As a municipal leader, my job is todetermine how Cary's policies and ordinances enhance or degrade our school system.
My job is to work towards solving the problems that are under my purview as determined by the State.
While I have no granted authority over school board decisions, I convey to the school board members the concerns that Cary citizens and I have. I have
discussed with them:
* MYR
* reassignments
* the need to promote a sense of community among our children
* the burden on our roads of having long school commutes for children
* the need to bank land for schools
* the agreement to give land to WCPSS for an elementary school, and
* the agreement to sell land to WCPSS for a middle school
The most important thing that we have discussed is the need to actually address the root problems that our County has in providing adequate school capacity. For years, County and municipal representatives have tried to address the symptoms of our broken system and have pointed their fingers at the other governing boards for being responsible for the problem. Enough is enough. The time has come for all municipal leaders
to meet collectively with our State and County reps to discuss the causesfor our problems. I am happy to say that Patti and Mayor McAlister agree with me and have agreed to work on hosting such a forum. In advance of this forum, the Town Council is hosting our school board reps and our County Commissioners at our March
retreat, at which time we plan on going over our concerns for our citizens' quality of life as impacted by school board decisions.
I hope that you will recognize that the Cary Town Councilmembers have been working on school board matters in a way that we deem appropriate, sincere and most likely to have impact.
Sincerely,
Jennifer Robinson
District A
Cary Town Council
Here's the net: Our representatives are doing everything they can to insulate themselves from the MYR issues. We may have moved thousands of people here, but that is totally WPCSS's problem. They will not even support the BoE at large movement which would give us better representation (in the absence of any from our own town government). The comments referring to the CC's as grandstanding are beautiful. I'd like to be a fly on the wall when they sit down together at the retreat with the CC's and this letter comes up (A copy was forwarded to them). Thankfully, this retreat base been scheduled for March -- the fate of our schoolchildren will be decided by then so they came move on to more important topics like decorating bridges. This is one retreat which no one should come back from.
BoE Smoke and Mirrors
Here's today's press release from SMYR. These people are intelligent, well-informed, and are not looking to build political careers...
MEDIA ALERT:
WCPSS Has More Than Enough Seats to Cover 2007-2008 Expected Growth WITHOUT
Mandatory Year-Round Conversions
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
An independent audit indicates manageable growth and mandatory year-round conversions are not the answer. This audit was conducted using staff-generated, historical data to benchmark available seats throughout the WCPSS elementary school system. Conservative methodology was applied and only data generated by WCPSS staff was incorporated.
The WCPSS has a projected need for 4,240 to 5,439 elementary seats for the 2007-2008 school year. Based on Stop Mandatory Year-Round’s (SMYR) independent audit, WCPSS has a minimum of 6,113 verifiable seats and potentially close to 7,000 seats available for 2007-2008 without the mandatory year-round (MYR) conversions. Therefore, there is no reason to implement MYR for the upcoming school year.
WCPSS is currently projecting unprecedented elementary student growth at 5,439 students or 68 percent of total growth of 8,000 students for 2007-2008. However, WCPSS data indicates that average growth for the last 3 years is 4,240 students or 53 percent of total growth per year.
“We at SMYR have heard the concerns from parents, teachers and citizens regarding the uncertainty surrounding the implementation of MYR for the 2007-2008 school year,” said Dave Duncan of SMYR. “We are facing manageable growth and MYR is not the answer. Parents, teachers and even the Chair of the Board of Education have stated that they do not want MYR.”
SMYR recognizes that only incremental and unsubstantial gains are proposed through MYR conversions. In light of MYR fiscal and student assignment shortfalls, SMYR is calling for
For more information, please log on to www.stopmandatoryyearround.com. Please direct additional media inquiries to daveduncan@nc.rr.com or tji93@aol.com.
2/5/07
Judas Strikes Again
Today the County Commissioners voted 4-3 to deny funding to WCPSS for conversion of existing traditional schools to MYR. The 4 Commissioners who carried the vote were Coble,Bryan,Gardner and Gurley. The vote should have been 5-2 against MYR funding if Lindy Brown was honoring her campaign promise. She showed up at anti-MYR rallies, sat in the front row, and made public statements against enforcement of MYR. This is the second critical vote in which she has caved to the BoE and failed to validate the votes that got her into office. Here's where I'll admit again that I screwed up -- I actually believed her promises and voted for her!
2/2/07
I have seen the enemy, and it is us
At a September CTC meeting, our council members talked solemnly about the need to work with the school board. Last Sunday, the mayor was on NBC17 touting the same message. Mention was made of the tract of land being provided to WCPSS. Cary has owned that land a long time, wish we could have cut the deal sooner so we'd have schools on the site right now instead of trees.
Since the CTC gave their September sermon on working with the school administration, 661 new residential building permits have been issued in Cary. Talk is great, but all I see is us making the 07/08 problem bigger. The strip-mining of Cary continues....
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