4
Friday, September 29, 2000
Legislators Mull School Policies
One of the four education
subcommittees will examine
how UNC*system schools
teach foreign languages.
By Joshua Bassinger
Staff Writer
Members of two education oversight
subcommittees met this week to discuss
ways to prevent public school violence
and how to raise English proficiency
among immigrant students.
There are two additional subcommit
tees examining broad issues affecting
the public school system -school per
sonnel, teaching and the improvement
of school facilities and technologies. The
subcommittees will determine if the
N.C. General Assembly should take any
action on these issues when it recon
venes injanuary.
Legislators said the decision to form
the subcommittees was rare and only
happened this year because of an unusu
ally large number of issues facing the
whole committee.
“We discovered that there was so
much work to do in the full committee
that more focus was needed on the
broader topics,” said Rep. Gene Rogers,
D-Washington.
Two subcommittees on safe schools
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and school personnel and teaching met
this week.
The two other subcommittees have
yet to meet The subcommittee for stu
dent performance will research methods
to improve student grades and increase
their overall performance.
The subcommittee for improving
facilities and technologies also will dis
cuss new technology that could be
implemented in education.
Each subcommittee will report back
to full committee in December.
Sen. Howard Lee, D-Orange, said
one of the reasons for the foundation of
the safe schools subcommittee was a
response to the series of bomb threats in
public schools last year.
“The threats interfered with class
schedules and daily operations,”said
Lee, who co-chaired the education over
sight committee.
The safe school subcommittee plans
to build on the Safe Schools Act of 1998,
which established legislation that
allowed each public school to design its
own safety plan to protect the students
and the facilities.
But Lee said North Carolina ranks
high in school safety compared to other
states.
“We have a large number of incidents
but not a great number of violent acts,"
he said. “The goal is to act more in a
preventive way than in a reactive way.”
Lee added that to prevent school vio
lence, officials will be tougher on stu
dents who bring threatening devices to
school.
Rep. Verla Insko, D-Orange, said
one of the roles of the school personnel
and teaching subcommittee is to focus
on the expansion of the foreign lan
guage curriculum in N.C. public
schools, especially for immigrant stu
dents.
Insko said that to fulfill this plan, the
schools will need more funding and
resources.
“There are 37,000 children across the
state with limited English proficiency,”
Insko said. “The state needs an addi
tional SI,OOO per student to fill this
void.”
Insko said she wants to move the
focus of foreign language and English
proficiency to the elementary and mid
dle school level.
Now the focus is in the high school
curriculum, she said.
“The best opportunity for students to
learn language proficiency is between
the ages of 5 and 12,” Insko said.
The subcommittee focusing on the
foreign language curriculum also will
discuss the ways UNC-system schools
teach foreign languages.
Starting in 2006, the 16 system uni
versities will require at least two years of
a foreign language to be considered for
admission.
Lee said, “The goal is to make the
education experience as seamless as
possible.”
The State & National Editor can be
reached at stntdesk@unc.edu.
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MASTERPLAN
From Page 1
hoods,” said Anne Seymour, who lives
in the Whitehead Circle area.
Town Council member Joyce Brown
said the council will continue to monitor
the progress of the plan.
“It does put some of the burden on
the council to help protect the neigh
borhoods,” she said. “I think there were
still some questions in the minds of
some citizens.”
Elaine Barney, who lives in the
Whitehead Circle neighborhood, said
the plan raises more questions than just
those about a transportation corridor.
“I think we had several concerns
about the Master Plan in general as it
affects the neighborhoods surrounding
campus, especially Mason Farm and
Whitehead Circle,” she said.
Barney said there is already a prob
lem of noise and light pollution in the
areas surrounding campus. She said
more growth at UNC will add to these
problems.
“There was still concern about con
tinued growth - when would it end?
(The plan) raises a lot of fears and anxi
eties,” she said.
Betty Cloutier, co-president of
HEARING
From Page 1
Trinh made little effort to hide his
emotions, staring directly at Coggins dur
ing the questioning, throwing his pen and
legal pad down with discontent, mum
bling under his breath and even laughing
aloud during Coggins’ testimony.
Coggins later testified that he knew
Trinh, one of the top students in the
class, was leading a help session for
Chapel Hill Preservation Society, said
she is concerned about the historical
integrity of many campus buildings that
would be affected by the plan.
“It’s our mission to preserve the char
acter of Chapel Hill - that includes the
University,” she said. “You can’t sepa
rate the town and gown.
“The big thing we all need to be con
cerned with is thousands of new square
footage of buildings and thousands of
new students and new cars - all of
which will affect all the neighborhoods.”
UNC spokesman Jonathan Howes said
all the concerns brought by the residents
will be evaluated before a final draft of the
Master Plan is sent to the BOT.
“We have heard some of these con
cerns in the past and tried to address
them,” Howes said. “We have done it in
the past and will continue to do it.”
Cloutier said that while the town
relied heavily upon UNC, the
University needed to respect the neigh
bors’ wishes.
“Chapel Hill wouldn’t be here with
out the University, but you can’t sepa
rate the University from Chapel Hill
either. These old buildings need to be
protected and saved.”
The City Editor can be reached
at citydesk@unc.edu.
struggling students. “I knew that
Michael Trinh had volunteered to initi
ate and lead a study group,” he said. “I
encouraged that to Michael in person.
“Voluntary study groups, in this case,
went over to the dark side and did more
than they were supposed to.”
Some students from Coggins’ spring
class came to hear their classmates’ cases.
“We were supposed to work in groups, but
he didn’t specify how,” said one student
And a number of professors came to
the hearing to show their support
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FESTIFALL
From Page 1
“Even though we’re Chapel Hill,,
we’re still Southern,” Anderson said.!
“We have people serving barbecue,!
pork chops, cole slaw and mashed pota-!
toes and gravy.”
Despite the wide variety of food;
offered on the streets, restaurants along;
Franklin Street also are preparing for;
the crowds.
“We will be open our normal hours
with extra waiters,” said Rebecca Cage,
associate manager of McAlister’s Deli.
“We’re new, so we don’t know what to
expect We’re hoping it will be busy.” !
Other Franklin Street stores also are
gearing up for the festival.
“The vendors of West Franklin Street
know the drill,” Anderson said. “Some
will shut down to allow employees to!
enjoy the fair, and some will stay open
to get business.”
Anderson said he expects Festifall
2000 to be another in a long line of suc
cesses.
“It’s a great family event,” he said.
“It’s a tradition in Chapel Hill.”
The City Editor can be reached
at citydesk@unc.edu.
Sanjoy Baruah, a computer science
professor, said many faculty members in
the department, including department
Chairman Stephen Weiss, were sympa
thetic to the charged students. “It was a
very atypical course,” Baruah said. “I find
it hard to believe many of these students
would be dishonest in any way.”
Sfacey Geyer and Biake Rosser
contributed to this article.
The University Editor can be reached
at udesk@unc.edu.