FORUM 1 ?i * "Let our teaching be full of ideas; hitherto it has been stuffed only with facts " .. t ? Anatole France imagine working for one of the largest organizations within a city or county. You get up early each morning and often take work home with you each day. You spend some of your own money to buy supplies to create the learning environment necessary to produce favorable results. You even partici pate in extracurricular activities to ensure a team spirit. Experts talk about your pro fession, how your product is not iheeting expectations and offer suggestions for improving what you do and how you do it. You are evaluated several times during the year to ensure you have mastered your subject, your cus tomers are on-task and you are in control. Of course there is the paper work necessary to keep track of all activities and to com municate the status of your cus tomers' performance. ; You don't decide who your customers are; they are assigned to you based on where you work and where they live. Your profession is Under the microscope, and it is public knowledge how your team performs: a public report card. Your evaluation ranges from low-performing ? failure to meet expected growth ? to exemplary. You are responsible and account able to produce results. You could lose your job or be required to Kake additional tests to demon strate your ability to perform, while some of your peers at anoth er location receive certificates of recognition, and even monetary rewards, for meeting or exceeding expected growth. You are a teacher in the public school system and you have expe rienced the first year of the ABCs of Public Education. It is more commonly known as the School Based Management and Accountability program (SB 1139) passed by the General Assembly in June 1996. The program focuses on strong accountability, emphasis on high educational standards, teaching the basics and maximum local control. I have not heard from a teacher or an administrator who is unwilling to be held account able for producing results; howev er, they risk losing the most under the ABC program for students failing to make progress. You can't fire parents. And what about the responsibility of the students? What concerns me is this: Teachers and administrators at low-performing schools may be dismissed and the school taken over by the state because students' performance did not meet or exceed expectations. I agree that teachers and adminis trators should be held accountable; however, the levels of recognition in part reflect fac tors other than actual teaching and management practices at a given school, according to Irv Besecker. I agree. Irv, a teacher at West Forsyth High School, says, "It reflects more on the demograph ics and socioeconomic realities of the individual school." If this is the case, we can't place too much emphasis on exemplary schools, nor can we place too much blame on low performing schools. I'd like to know what knowl edge the State Board of Education has a corner on that will allow it to take over a school, dismiss a principal, develop a plan and turn the school around. Certainly we possess the knowl edge and skill at home. And where will we get the additional teachers if a school continues to be low-performing and the teachers are dismissed. Does it mean teachers at exemplary schools put forth a greater effort or developed a more effective plan for improvement? Maybe the leadership at one school really makes the difference! I propose a different approach. At the end of the school year, we exchange the principal, staff, and teachers of a low-performing school with those of an exemplary school. Goals and objectives and a plan of improvement will be established and measured at the end of the next school year. If progress is made at the low performing school, we should pay a higher cash incentive. We will save the state from having to come in and evaluate the school and allow them more time to be creative. If the exemplary schools' performance declines, we definite ly have a cause for concern, and a developmental plan is in order. What I think will actually happen is close to the same results will be accomplished in each school. The heart of Senate Bill 1139 is to improve student performance. That is a must, and we can't accept less. However, accountability is not solely the responsibility of teachers and administrators ? it's the commu nity's. Nigel Alston is an executive for Integon Insurance Company. Motivational Moments Nlgol Alston NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING REZONING OF PROPERTY CITY OF WINSTON-SALEM The Board of Aldermen will consider requests to amend the City of Winston-Salem Zoning Ordinance by rezoning property as shown below: DATE: DECEMBER 15.1997 TIME: 7;30 p.m. PLACE: Boardof Aldermen Chamber. City Hall 1) Petition of David B. Rierson; from RS-12 to LB-S (Restaurant {without drive through service}); property located at the northeast comer of University Parkway and Cherry Street. W-2186. 2) Petition of The Salvation Army for property owned by DHD Associates from RS-7 to GB-S (Retail Store, Speciality or Miscellaneous); property located at the southeast corner of University Parkway and 27th Street. W-2185. 3) Petition of Blackwell Associates for property owned by Albert A. Turner and Bobigene P. Turner from RM-12-S (Nursing Care Institution) to Site Plan Amendment; property located on the northwest side of New Walkertown Road/US311 approximately 60 feet southwest of Addison Avenue. W-2190. 4) Petition of Shugart Enterprises, LLC, Limited Power of Attorney for prop erty owned by Carl. L. Lanier, Jr. Trustee; Linda Bingham Trustee; Manley Oscar Dobbins; Charles M. Rothrock; Wiley C. White Jr.; and Doris White; property separated into two separate tracts of land - Track from RS-9 and RM-18 to MU-S (Manufactured Housing Development; and Child Day Care Center) for property located on the northeast side of Willard Road approxi mately 1200 feet southeast of Fanning Road/Green Oaks Drive intersec tion and on the south side of Fanning Road approximately 900 feet east of Willard Road: Tract 2; from RM-18 to MU-S (Manufactured Housing Development; and Child Day Cafe Center) for property located on the north side of Fanning Road approximately 1,050 feet east of Willard Road ? and along the south side of the I-40/US 31,1 interchange W-2191. - _ 5) Petition of Indera Mills Company; Brookstown Mill Restoration Venture; and Lillian M. Lumley; property separated into twotracts of land - Tract 1: from Gl to GB for property located at the southeast corner of Marshall Street and Wachovia Street: Tract 2; from G1 to GB for property located at the southwest comer of Marshall Street and Wachovia Street and at the northwest comer of Marshall Street and Maple Street W-2192. 6) Petition of Flow Motors, Inc. and James W. and Bobbie Strader, from RM-18, HB-S (Furniture and Home Furnishings Store), and HB-S (Outdoor . Display Retail) to HB-S (Food or Drug Store; Outdoor Display Retail; and HB-S (Food or Drug Store; Outdoor Display Retail; and Furniture and Home Furnishings Store - TWO PHASE); property located at the southeast comer of Peters Creek Parkwav/NC 150 and Brewer Rd. and at the south west comer of Brewer Road and Cliff Street. W-2194. 7) Petition of the City of Winston-Salem; from RS-Q to RM-12-S (Residential Building, Multifamily - TWO PHASE); property located on the east side of Dunleith Avenue between 17th and 18th Streets W-2195. 8) Proposed Final Development Plan by L.E.C. Properties for property owned by Linwood L. Davis and Nisbet Family Partnership for an Apartment Development (Crowne at Fairlawnj in a RM-8-S (Residential Building, Multifamily - TWO PHASE) Zoning District; property located at the northwest comer of Silas Creek Parkway and Fairlawn Drive but does not include the comer parcel at this intersection ; property is also known as "Tract 6 of the Sunnynoll Development". W-1519. The Board of Aldermen will also consider the following amendment to the Unified Development Ordinances: 1) Proposal to amend Chapter A Definitions Ordinance and Section 2-6 Accessory Uses of Chapter B Zoning Ordinance of the UDO regarding Storage Trailers and Greenhouses - UDO-34. Prior to the hearing, interested persons may obtain any additional informa tion which is in the possession of the City/County Planning Board in that office at City hall on weekdays, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Interested citizens will be given an opportunity to be heard. AN requests for appropriate and necessary auxiliary aids and services must be made within a reasonable time prior to the hearing to Angela Carmon at 727-2056 or TDD No. 727-8319. ' THIS MEETING WILL BE BROADCAST UVE ON CITY TV-13 Renee P. Rice, Secretary to the Board of Aldermen. ; Race Reconciliation Will Take More than Just Talk ~ i * "" ? n,--L ??J-? : ?fanHarrk these nronosed tests are wncn mc DidtK L.cauci9uip Forum Inc. (BLF) was founded in 1978 as a confederation of this nation's major civil rights and set^ice 1 organizations, it was inspired'partially by the need for a formal mechanism to facilitate meaningful dialogue with sitting presidents and other national leaders. At that time, the sitting president was Jimmy Carter, a Southerner who believed that his civil rights credentials provided for him a special intimacy with black folk. He felt he did not need them to tell him what was on their minds. Black leaders felt differently and formed BLF. - Over the years, not much has changed. Even with an alleged "hangin' buddy" like President Bill Clinton, African-American leaders' experiences validate the imperative so eloquently expressed to President Franklin D. Roosevelt by presidential advisor and black icon Mary McCloud Bethune: No one can speak for me better than I can speak for myself! ' As President Clinton's recently announced race initiative takes shape, therefore, BLF members aftd other African-American leaders have turned up the volume of 'their discourse and increased the frequency of their dialogues with many other Americans, including the president of the United States. They intend to make sure that black voices are clearly heard on the subject of racial reconciliation and what it actually requires. For example, meaningful remediation of racism calls for action on sentencing parity between crack cocaine and powdered cocaine violations ? sentencing parity, not just reduction to a smaller ratio. Recommendations for ratio reduction rather than ratio elimination, are viewed by some as "... an example of liberals hanging black folk from a low tree." Tensions between police and the black community are labeled "racist" by many black leaders who, moreover, view the increasing brutality and violence of policemen against blacks as more than civil rights violations. These encounters, which have always been felonious, are the single most pernicious aspect of American racism. Examination of practical remedies to this circumstance certainly is within the mandate of the President's Race Commission and could help to establish the commission's relevance. Policies to enhance community development banks and to support local efforts by small community-based banks are critical. The President's Race Commission might well start by inviting the testimony and case examples of the numerous neighborhood-based local banks, which can provide a briefing on their successes and on the national supports which they require. Other steps that could further racial reconciliation are education resource increases; policy revisions to support meaningful and fair Welfare reform; and a 'curb on purposeless, biased and unstandardized testing of public school students. Currently being promoted as optional tools for establishing educational regulated and monitored by no one in particular. They are viewed by black leaders as Trojan horses for academic tracking. Racism often finds inadvertent vehicles for its advancement. But beyond these more programmatic, operational considerations, the federal government has a constitutional responsibility to enforce existing civil rights laws that guard minorities, and to provide the equal protection under the law guaranteed to all Americans. It is a new-age, states-rights ideology, black leaders charge, that permits the resegregation of schools and of communities to occur under the camouflage of devolution. It is racial malice, say BLF leaders, for reactionaries and the media to advance the concepts of racial preferences and quotas, as though these illegal practices accurately reflect the black community's demands for constitutionally mandated equal access and equal justice. Dr. Scruggs-Leftwich is executive director and CEO of the Black Leadership Forum Inc., a confederation of the nations 21 largest and oldest civil rights and service organizations. Her Think Tank column is syndicated to NNPA's membership. I Y Think Tank Dr. Yvonn* Seruggt-Laftwieh ?VBKVniA wmmmm mm r~ ~n ? Programs of Study )? Accounting ? Business I Administration ; ? Computer Information Systems ? Elementary Education (High Point Can.put Only) ? Home Furnishings Marketing (High Point Campus Only) ? Interior Design (High Point Campus Only) ? Industrial / Organizational Psychology ? Psychology (General Studies & Mental Health Concentration) ? Classes offered ; . year round ? Six sessions per year ? 8 week sessions ? Earn 6 sem. hours in 8 wks ? Classes 3 nights waaIcIv (Mon.,\ues., Thurs.) ? Ttoo class periods: 6-7:40 & 7:50M9:30 pm - ? Financial Aid > available c? ?i " L. ^ U. THE ^unt>vst?t* ' ? 1 year: $30.7? ??? T5 72 h ? 6 months: $20.48 5moi .2i ?.? * 3 mos. 15 24 ? IT Name V ? ? r ZB5 ? ' ' W ; +' City Stale Zip ? VISA ? Mastercard ? American Express ? Check enclosed ? Please bill me ? % ? i? Account Number Expiration Dale Signature - Send to: The Chronicle, P.O. Box 1636, Winston-Salem, NC 27102 * ' ' ' I ? - ? ?