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Dancing for African Children - Dancers from the Arts Company of Faison will be performing Saturday at the Wallace Fine Arts Center to raise funds to help sponsor African Children. Also performing will be vocalists and guitarists and a drama team. Among the performers will be l to r, Taylor Thompson, Cathryn Jones, Katey Yang, Leigh Williams, Ava Grace Williams, Rosie Batts, Erika Pearsall, Makenna Budding, and Jean Perez. (MOT photo by Merrill)

Duplin Schools shut down JK
School of Engineering

15 May 2008 —By Barry Merrill
publisher

An emotional Duplin County School Board meeting last Thursday essentially closed the James Kenan School of Engineering.

The decision was made during the regular meeting at the Board of Education meeting.
Charlie Blanchard, director of high school education for the county, made the presentation on the decision, which was prompted by a visit from Judge Howard Manning and Howard Lee, chairman of the state board of education.

Judge Manning is the judicial official in charge of the Leandro Decision, which guarantees every child in the state a sound, basic education, according to the state constitution.
James Kenan High School has been identified as a low performing school, with proficiency of students falling below 60%. When the school fell below that standard two years ago, the school was given three years to implement a successful plan to improve scores to the standard, or risk being taken over by the state.

Duplin County opted two years ago to establish the School of Engineering, a so-called STEM school, as a magnet school in the county.

When Judge Manning visited James Kenan (WHEN), Mr. Blanchard, school board member Willie Gillespie and James Kenan Principal Vickie Booker all affirmed that it was a one-way meeting. Judge Manning, using colorful language, made it very clear what would and what would not happen at the school.

One of the points of concern was that proficiency scores at the school had actually dropped ten percent after the first year after the school failed to meet the standard, from 48.6 in ’05-’06, to 38.5 in ’06-’07.

Judge Manning said the School of Engineering would close, those students from other schools would be returned to their home school and hopefully enrolled in advanced placement classes.

James Kenan would adopt one of three models for successful schools that was available.
Mr. Blanchard reported that he had investigated the three models and recommended the Talent Development model developed by Johns Hopkins University of Baltimore.

He commented that the Baltimore area had had some of the worst performing schools in the country, and this research-based comprehensive reform model had successfully been used there to improve many of those schools.

While there was great excitement over the School of Engineering in the county, the reform funding in the county was going to raise achievement levels among those students, and not going to reach the low performing students at James Kenan.

Those statement brought several outbursts from the audience of about 40 at the meeting. The board attorney warned the audience, which included School of Engineering parents and teachers, several times about interrupting the meeting, and one parent was asked to leave.

School of Engineering principal Dora Jernigan was recognized by Chairman Emily Manning. Mrs. Jernigan said she had been called by an official  of the Department of Public Instruction and told that she did not think that Judge Manning recognized the uniqueness of School of Engineering, that it was a unique and distinct school from James Kenan that shared the campus for some of the day. She asked the board to contact Judge Manning to confirm his understanding that the School of Engineering was a separate school.

Mr. Blanchard said the county was in violation of the Leandro Decision guidelines by diverting resources that could be used to raise scores at James Kenan. He said the judge was very clear in his direction to the school and staff.

Mr. Gillespie said Judge Manning was very familiar with the situation at James Kenan and recited statistics from his knowledge of the school. He said the school needed certified, competent teachers, an effective staff from the principal on down, and the resources to support the program. Most of his comments were correct about what we need to do.
“We laid out a plan of working 50 students through, and he said no.”

School board member Hubert Bowden held out some hope that the schools could change the judge’s mind. “Don’t we have any say with Judge Manning?” He noted that the board had an attorney and another attorney served on the school board, wondering if they could sway the judge.

Superintendent Dr. Wiley Doby noted that some of the proposed funding for the STEM School had fallen through and continuing the school would mean greater demands on the school budget.

“We don’t have the luxury of starting a magnet school while fixing James Kenan at the same time,” Mr. Blanchard concluded.

Superintendent Doby asked the board to adopt the new plan and close the School of Engineering.

Mr. Bowden said he didn’t believe the board needed to take action so quickly, but Mr. Blanchard said these sweeping changes should have been made a month ago or more to help students make the changes for the next school year.

The board voted in favor of making the changes with Mr. Bowden opposing.

CBA Class of 78 reunion

The CBA High School Class of 1978 will have a free class reunion on Saturday, October 4 from 11-5 at the school’s cafeteria. The CBA classes of 1977, 1978 and 1979 will have a reunion at Wilson Country Club on Saturday, October 4 from 7-12. If interested in one or both of the reunions, email CBAclass78@bellsouth.net or call 745-5513 as soon as possible.

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