Grievance panel denies Parkland parents' appeal
By BRIDGET EVARTS
Community News Reporter
A three-member grievance panel of the Winston-Salem/Forsyth
County Schools board of education supported Superintendent Don
Martin's decision to reinstate Parkland High School teacher Charles
A. Schoderbek.
A group of Parkland parents, represented by attorney and parent
Jasper Brown, filed an appeal March 4, two weeks after Martin
announced Schoderbek would return to Parkland.
On Jan. 9, Schoderbek was suspended without pay for striking a
student, and later removed from his position as Parkland boys var
sity coach. The group of parents and students approached Principal
James Brandon with a list of 22 allegations. Tliese charges stated
Charles Schoderbek
Jasper Brown
Jane Goins
that Schoderbek used profanity, made sexually suggestive remarks
and touched students inappropriately.
Three years ago, Brandon issued a written warning to Schoder
bek for similar misconducts.
"I can't help but feel if the same situation occurred at West
Forsyth or Mount Tabor, for that matter, that the outcome would
have been different," said Brown.
Brown presented the case on behalf of the approximately 20
parents and their children at the March 11 hearing. The committee
reached a decision Friday.
School board vice chairman Richard Bagley said that the parents
"really did not have standing." Bagley served as the chair of the
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Win cton-Salem Chronicle
660SiT5THNsT #Uq LIB Choice for African-American News and Information
Minorities represent highest suspension numbers
4
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5 0 5
I- 'flllMBMHMM
Number of Suspensions
by yrods level
total suspensions: 897
Mai tlays: 684
K
WfofoifoM 156
WUte females 31
Mfonrfor Mnlw 340
(Whurtj Fim rin 165
MidfMe School
Mai suspensions: 9,154
Mai days: 10,164
Will Mali i 749
Mffifo Fmiii 197
Mln ? ITj Mull I MM
ilons: 3,089
Med days: 8/061
Mftli Mihi 871
f Mfonrfor Mnfo* 1278
Mkmtlpr tanwfoi 430
A Forsyth county reports five-month stats
By BRIDGET EVARTS
Community News Reporter
Minority students represent more than four
out of five suspensions meted out in Winston
Salem/Forsyth County schools. Though they
comprise 42 percent of the total schools' popula
tion, minority students accounted for 82 percent
of suspensions in the first semester of the 1996
97 calendar year.
Minority males, especially African-Ameri-'
can boys and young men, make up the largest
percentage of disciplined students. Even in ele
Part I of II Parts
mentary school, African-American males are put
out of school for a variety of offenses.
Three of the five elementary schools com
prising Zone 1 of the new redistricting plan lead
in suspensions: Diggs, Forest Park and Hall
Woodward. Those three are also schools where
a majority of the population are minority stu
dents.
Diggs, the smallest school in the system, has
the highest suspension percentage.
"Most suspensions are for fighting," said
Bobby Robinson, principal of Diggs Elementary
School. Robinson said that repeat offenders
drive up the number of suspensions. "The
majority of our students are the normal, wonder
ful, caring students who get along," she said.
Eighty-five percent of the students at Diggs
are on a reduced or free lunch program, but
Robinson doesn't believe that economics plays a
leading role in suspensions. "1 try to look at it
on an individual basis," she said.
Diggs' numbers may be up because of a new
"zero tolerance" policy toward fighting intro
duced this year. "1 told them, 'If you fight,
you're going home,"' said Robinson.
Students in grades three through five who
are involved in a fist fight are suspended; those
children in lower grades who fight are allowed
more chances.
Suspension is not usually the first resort.
Schools attempt to involve parents in the disci
pline process as early as possible, and even offer
them an opportunity to "stand in" for their chil
dren. The parent of a student facing suspension
may come into the school for part of the day and
observe his or her child in the classroom, in
place of out-of-school suspension. Other forms
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I Local charter schools get go-ahead from state board
By BRIDGET EVARTS
Community News Reporter
The state board of education
1 recently approved charters for four
schools in Winston-Salem. Three of
- - the charter applicants are African
- - Americans.
"We're ecstatic about it," said
1 Simon Johnson of the approval for his
: Quality Education Academy (QEA).
"It seems like the state has pretty much
given us what we wanted." QEA will
take an academic lead from the exist
^"Ihg private school, Quality Education
Institute's (QEI) curriculum and offer
an enhanced program with a nine-hour
day for students in grades six through
eight.
The new academy would remain
separate from QEI, which leases space
from the Carver Road Church of
Christ. A clause in the state legislation
that restricts charter schools from leas
ing church space may soon be
adjusted.
Winston-Salem/Forsyth County
school attorney Doug Punger said that
the legislation, passed in June 1996,
could soon be opened to individual
interpretation.
In the past, the local school system
has leased buildings owned by church
nonprofits. As long as a non-secular
curriculum was offered and all reli
gious paraphernalia were removed
from the space, Punger said, church
owned space could potentially be
leased by unaffiliated charter organiza
tions.
Johnson has indicated that QEA
would have remained separate regard
less of the legislation. Construction of
a new building to house QEA .will be
completed by Sept. 2; in the meantime.
applications for QEA can be obtained
at QEI.
Charter schools are publicly
funded institutions governed directly
by the community. Teachers, parents
and other community members may
comprise a charter's board, and the
schools are freed from many of the
regulations of traditional public
schools.
This sentiment encouraged the
other two approved applicants, attor
ney Hazel Mack and county commis
sioner Earline Parmon.
Parmon's Lift Academy, currently
operating as an alternative school for
students who have been expelled or
suspended from public institutions,
will now be open to all students in
grades six through 12. Lift will con
tinue to maintain a 65-seat capacity
"school within a school" for those stu
dents with disciplinary problems.
Lift Academy will expand to serve
160 students, said Parmon. but plans to
preserve a small classroom atmos
phere, with a maximum student-to
Please see page 2
RHC staff proposal seeks new image for center
By BRIDGET EVARTS
Community News Reporter
Reynolds Health Center administrators
admit that in the past, the facility has not been
managed as well as it could have been. But
they think their new action plan deserves seri
ous consideration as an alternative to Baptist
Hospital's proposal.
"If I could tell you that everything at
Reynolds Health Center was perfect, I'd be
lying and you'd know that," said administra
tor Dennis Magovem at a presentation held at
Dellabrook Presbyterian Church March 13.
"We're not doing the same things today as
we did one year ago. We've been able to
adapt," Magovern stated.
The new action plan addresses many of
the facility's financial and management prob
RHC administrator Dennis Magovern (left) and advisory committee
chairman Bill Tatum present their proposal to the audience at
Dellahrook Presbyterian Church.
lems, said Magovern, and predicts a decrease
in county funding of $3-3.3 million by 2001.
County subsidies to Reynolds Health
Center average between $4 million and $4.5
million. Last year. Forsyth budgeted $4.6 mil
lion for the health center.
Magovern assured the audience that the
county would continue its tradition of subsi
dizing health care. Board of Commissioners
chair Peter Brunstetter has stated that the cur
rent board is dedicated to health care, but
warned that Forsyth's tradition of providing
health services is no guarantee for the future.
Baptist Hospital's proposal promises to
invest $5 million into a new. state-of-the-art
facility on East 14th Street and decrease
county support to $4.1 million in the first year
of operations. Increased services would be
offered at the new facility, and the new build
ing would occupy less tnan one-iinn 01 ine
space taken up by the health center.
The health center now devotes a large
portion of space to social service departments.
Magovern called" the facility's 142.000
square-foot building "convenient ? not ideal,
but convenient," and said that Reynolds
should market this as a "one-stop" conve
nience for clients.
Updating fee schedules, adding minimum*
co-payments and pursuing delinquent collec
tions from Medicaid and Medicare patients
would contain costs, and thinning out the
number of medical students would lend a new
image to Reynolds Health Center.
Bowman Gray provides about 20 doctors
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