3A
NEWS/t^e C^iarlotte $ost
Thursday, May 11,2006
Superintendent touts experience in urban schools
Continued from page 1A
schools financially at a rate of
$2,403 per ADM according to
the latest financial data from
the I\iblic School Forum. At
20 students per classroom
this translates to $48,060 in
local support per classroom.
CMS has 17 high schools and
spends millions of dollars to
support them. Yet, the 2003-
04 performance composites
were disturbing.”
These are also similar
issues that Gorman is han
dling in Orange County,
California where the Tlistin
Unified District he oversees
is 50 percent Latino and is
one of the most impoverished
areas in the state. Gorman
said the achievement gap
between African American,
Latino and white students
should be closed by the third
grade or the school system
has failed.
“There are three things that
White
drive me as an educator,” he
said. “The first thing is stu
dent achievement.”
Gorman,
who will take
over as super
intendent on
July 1, signed
a four-year
contract
Thesday at a
base salary of
$250,000. He
could earn
$310,000 in salary and incen
tives, including an annual
performance bonus of up to
10 percent of his base salary
and $35,000 payment to a
retirement fund. School
board Chairman Joe White
said the deal is worth bring
ing an administrator of
Gorman’s skills to CMS.
“We have a winner in Dr.
Gorman, and we’re very
pleased to have him on our
team,” White said. “If you
want to attract the best, you
have to be willing to compete.
We view this as an invest
ment not only in Dr. Gorman,
but in the future of our chil
dren and the community.”
Gorman said accountability
is another driving force for
his administration. He wants
to be held accountable for his
actions-good and bad-and
wants everyone that works
with and for him to do the
same.
Third, he said he plans to be
responsive to the “publics.”
“I put an ‘s’ on that
because...! need and want
help. This job is too big for me
to do alone,” Gorman said,
calling on the school board,
teachers and individuals to
work with him.
During a brief question and
answer period, issues related
to race were raised. Some
audience members said con
cerns of black parents
seemed to be pushed aside in
CMS and that until commu
nity racial problems are dealt
with, closing the achievement
gap won’t work.
Gorman said he doesn’t
know what all of the specific
issues are because he hasn’t
had those racial experiences.
“I haven’t walked a mile in
someone else’s shoes,” he
said. “But I’m willing to look
at aU solutions.”
Though he was met with a
warm reception at the break
fast meeting, some parents
and community activists
think that under Gorman,
things will stay the same.
Russell Alexander, founder of
Children in Crisis, said “1 see
his idea, but I think he is
going to sink in the same hole
as other superintendents. He
seems to want to make
changes in the upper man
agement and provide bonds
as opposed to addressing
socioeconomic issues.”
Alexander said black par
ents are going to have to get
involved and take responsibil
ity for their children’s educa
tion if they expect to see
change in CMS.
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Sudan: International help now welcome
Continued from page 1A
accepting or rejecting inter
national forces. This has not
been decided yet.”
U.N. spokesman Stephane
Dujarric said: “We look for
ward to working with the
Sudanese authorities on the
eventual transition to a U.N.
force and also in the short
term on the strengthening of
the Afidcan Union force cur
rently in Sudan.”
He reiterated Secretary-
General ICofi Annan’s com
ment on Friday that after the
Abuja agreement “we would,
of course, expect to have
access given to a U.N. plan
ning team that will need to go
to Darfur.”
Two rebel groups have
rejected the accord backed by
the African Union, United
States, Britain, the European
Union and the Arab League
and skipped the signing cere
mony in a hall at a Nigerian
presidential villa Friday
night.
Optimism was. muted by
that and a history of failure to
live up to agreements struck
over two years of negotiations
■ in the Nigerian capital.
At the U.N., American
Ambassador John Bolton
welcomed the agreement but
said U.N. peacekeepers
would become essential if the
agreement were to hold.
“Recognizing that this is a
very positive development in
Abuja, we now woidd hke the
government in Khartoum to
follow through and give the
necessary visas and other
arrangements to allow the
U.N. planners to go in,”
Bolton said. That would lead
to the strengthening of the
African Union force during
the transition, he said.
U.S. Deputy Secretary of
State Robert Zoellick, who
helped spur negotiators to
agree to stop the killing, said
the embattled East African
region was far from safe even
if the peace agreement were
to take hold.
U.S. President George W.
Bush intervened during the
difficult negotiations, sending
a letter to the leader of the
largest rebel group, Minni
Minnawi, with assurances
that the United States would
give strong support to imple
mentation of the peace
accord, help monitoring com
pliance, hold accountable
those who do not cooperate
and support a donors’ confer
ence for Darfur, Zoellick said
in a telephone interview from
Abuja with reporters in
Washington.
In Cairo, Egypt welcomed
the agreement and said it
was ready to participate in
the peacekeeping force that
would monitor its implemen
tation, according to a state
ment released by the
Egyptian presidency. The
statement called on all sides
to honor the accord.
Arab League Secretary-
General Amr Moussa also
welcomed the agreement and
urged the rebel groups that
opted out to reverse their
decisions.
Moussa, in a statement
faxed to the AP, expressed
confidence that the agree-,
ment would end the violence
and open the way for recon
struction and development.
Mulah said the agreement
also would help in repairing
relations between Sudan and
Chad, strained over the flood
of refugees from Darfur.
Beyond that, he told AP, he
expected Minnawi, the head
of the Sudan Liberation
Movement, to play an impor
tant role in the peace process
as a member Sudan’s nation
al unity government.
Mulah said the agreement
was not closed to other rebel
groups who had refused to
sign.
“The other parties stiU have
a chance to do so, but if they
refuse then they wUl be treat
ed just hke the Janjajweed
(the anti-rebel militia the
government was accused of
backing) or any other outlaw
factions.
“This is not a government
stand, it is that of the inter
national community, the AU,
the U.N. and the U.S. They
will not tolerate any violation
of the agreement,” he
warned.
Separately, Sadiq el-Mahdi
- the leader of Umma,
Sudan’s largest opposition
party - criticized the accord,
saying he expected future dis
agreements.
“The people of Darfur
deserve a power- and wealth
sharing formula that corre
spond with their population.
This did not happen,” he told
Al-Arabiya satellite channel.
But he added that having
an international peacekeep
ing force could be a positive
step.
‘We hope that they would
protect the peace and the
security ... of the people of
Black lawmakers can identify
with immigrant workers’ cause
By Beverly Pleasant
WAVE NEWSPAPERS
LOS ANGELES -As immi
grant rights forces gear up for
a national march on
Washington, the U.S. Senate
is preparing this spring to
debate the legislative mea
sure in the eye of the storm
raging throughout the coun
try — H.R. 4437: The Border
Protection, Antiterrorism and
Illegal Immigration Control
Act of 2005 — which the
House passed on Dec. 16,
2005 by a vote of 239 to 182.
The so-called immigration
bill, authored by Rep. James
Sensenbrenner (R-Wisc.),
was thoroughly trashed dur
ing the debates in the lower
chamber by House
Democrats, including mem
bers of the Congressional
Black Caucus who viewed the
entire bill — complete with
its 25 amendments — to be a
piece of enforcement legisla
tion designed to punish ille
gal immigrants rather than a
measure to reform the immi
gration and naturalization
system, which is what they
say is needed.
Of the 40 members of the
Congressional Black Caucus
who were eligible to vote on
the bill, 39 voted against it,
and only one, Rep. Harold E.
Ford (D-Tfenn.), voted for it.
Sen. Barack Obama (D-IU.)
is the only African-American
in the Senate and the only
CBC member yet to debate
and vote on
the bill, but he
has his opin
ions. In a writ
ten statement,
Obama said:
“My father
came here
from Kenya,
and I repre
sent a state
where vibrant immigrant
communities ranging from
Mexican to Polish to Irish
enrich our neighborhoods,”
he said.
The senator described H.R.
4437 as “a strong enforce
ment bill,” which he says is
necessary to secure our bor
ders. He said that while secu
rity may start at our borders,
it doesn’t end there. “Millions
of undocumented immigrants
live and work here without
our knowing their identity or
their backgrounds,” he said.
‘We need to slrike a workable
bargain with them. They
have to acknowledge that
breaking our immigration
laws was wrong. They must
pay a penalty, and abide by
all our laws going forward.
Darfur. This sparks hope.”
Associated Press writer Edith
M. Lederer at the United Nations
contributed to this report.
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They must earn the right to
stay over a six-year period,
and then they must wait
another five years as legal
permanent residents before
they become citizens.”
The senator said that for
accepting those penalties, the
country must allow undocu
mented immigrants to come
out of the shadows and step
onto a path toward full par
ticipation in society.
“In fact,” Obama said. “I
win not support any bill that
does not provide this earned
path to citizenship for the
undocumented population —
not just for humanitarian
reasons, but also because this
is the only practical way we
can get a handle on the popu
lation that is within our bor
ders right now.”
The Bush administration
supports the House biU but
also wants to create a new
guest worker program per
mitting foreign citizens the
opportunity to work in the
U.S. on what it describes as
jobs no U.S. citizen wants.
However, Obama said, “We
cannot create a new guest
worker program without
making it as close to impossi
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employment. We do not need
Please see BLACK/6A
^community
Congratulations to the Town of Cramerton for being
designated a Fit Community along with:
City of Asheville
Town of Chapel Hill
City of Durham
City of Greensboro
City of Mount Airy
Town of Oak Island
City of Wilmington
Pitt County, Honorable Mention
Fit Together, a partnership of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina
(BCBSNC) and the NC Health and Wellness Trust Fund (HWTF) is pleased to
honor these communities.
HWTF Chair Lt. Gov. Bev Perdue and BCBSNC CEO Bob Greczyn congratulate
the citizens of these communities for supporting healthy lifestyles.
Nearly SO North Carolina towns and counties applied to be a Fit Community.
Designees are leaders in supporting:
• Physical activity in the community, schools and workplaces;
• Healthy eating in the community, schools and workplaces; and
« Tobacco-use prevention efforts in schools.
For more information about Fit Together, please visit www.FitTogetherNC.org.
JttDgetber
\
Heaith^Wellness