School violence and discipline problems have earned Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools a lot of bad ink in recent years. Has anything changed? Here’s what CMS Superintendent Peter Gorman had to say about it when I interviewed him two weeks ago at the WBT radio studios.
Creative Loafing: There were more than 1,500 dispatch calls made to police between August and December 2006 for Charlotte-Mecklenburg high schools and middle schools. Several guns have been found on campus. If the assaults on school personnel by students this year mirror last year’s numbers, we’re probably at 15 already. Yet school board members say, so far, only two students have been expelled for that period. Why aren’t we disciplining these kids?
Peter Gorman: I think we are disciplining kids. We’ve had some situations where we have had some students come to disciplinary hearings (with school board members) where they have been overturned. We’ve got other cases where the student has withdrawn from school or has gone to jail. We also have cases where we’ll have someone say, “but he’s a good boy, he didn’t know better.” I don’t believe that. You don’t make a mistake and bring a gun or a replica-like gun, to school. We need to deal with those in a severe manner. The levels of how we’ll handle it though, whether it’s a second or third grader, may be different than a high school student.
Last year, the state’s school report cards showed that Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools averaged three long-term suspensions per 100 students and zero expulsions per 100 students. This was last year and most of this you were not in charge of. Can we expect to see more next year?
How do I approach that? Do I brag and say we’ll have way more than that? But the answer is we will have more suspensions. Unfortunately we have a group of kids who make poor decisions.
Understand there’s a philosophical belief that some people have. I talked with the seven police chiefs and the sheriff and their philosophy about should we expel kids was interesting. The chiefs that didn’t have kids said don’t expel, we don’t want those kids out on the street. The chiefs that had kids said we need to expel and get those kids out of school.
In a November interview with Creative Loafing, you described a tiered system of alternative schools for violent kids and those with behavior problems to remove them from mainstream classrooms. Your 2010 plan said those schools would be up and running by January of 2007. But so far that hasn’t happened.
We are looking at for the short term what can we do regarding expulsions and making sure that we clamp down. But as far as having the tiered system where we can put folks in other facilities, we just don’t have the facilities. We did some looking, did some pricing out and we are not going to be ready to have that done on time.
When can we expect to see these schools up and running?
The fall of 2007. Right now we are combing the community. We are looking at everything from existing space we might have on one of our campuses to storefronts. We want to make sure that these facilities are in different geographic areas too so that they are closer to kids because some folks will choose to drop out if a discipline alternative school is too far away. I don’t want those kids out on the street if possible.
You’ve talked about bringing talented, experienced teachers into low-performing schools to teach, but again if we had 1,500 dispatch calls made to police from Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools just between August and December, and just two expulsions, how can these teachers teach in these schools?
I know the bulk of the disruptive behavior our kids engage in is not in the classroom. It’s at other times when there is less supervision. Some of those could be community related things. But I’m not going to make an excuse. That carries over into a classroom. It’s like when someone said to me once I don’t think we should expel kids because then we’ve got kids who might be engaged in criminal activity part time now engaged in it full time. To which I say that’s supposed to make me feel good because now that they are in school.
We are asked more and more to be parent and to be teacher and to be surrogate and it’s difficult. There is a group of individuals who say this is not what I signed up to do. I just want to teach. I don’t want any of the peripheral parts, and we are having to ask them to handle more of the peripheral parts.
This article appears in Feb 28 – Mar 6, 2007.
Holy cow! 15000 calls to the police from CMS in less than 5 months? I know many NC towns that don’t have that many police calls in a year!
Are these teachers getting combat pay?
Whenever I watch & listen to Pete Gorman I end of feeling like I was just listening to a used car salesman try and sell my a used 1978 Chevy. He reminds me of a used car salesman – very slick, and not very effective.
Reality time. Peter is a good man trying to solve an impossible problem without the resources. We don’t want students in classes with criminals, but we don’t support the system with funding to separate them. We ask him to move better teachers into bad schools but teachers weren’t drafted they can and will choose to leave. If you asked everyone from the Toyota Factory to go over to the Yugo Factory just because the workers changed doesn’t mean YUGO all of a sudden becomes the most reliable car on the road. I feel people don’t have a grasp on the reality of public education, there is no reward for teachers to enter into this profession in reality the penalty is much larger than the reward. Yea teaching is a calling, so what, you go to work and get told you stink all the time and eventually you find a new calling. Lets lay the blame where it belongs ALL OF CHARLOTTE is to blame. Without years neglect we wouldn’t be sailing on the Titanic of public Education.
Well, where do ya start ?
I have lost all faith in CMS.
Ever wonder why we have sooo many vacancies each year and are constantly loosing the new teachers?
Well just think about it, s’really not hard to figure out. What do College Grads want to do, TEACH, that’s what!
However, I have seen more times than not, theses Motivated new teachers, thrown to the wolves. Our CMS may say they provide mentoring the new teachers , but it turns out they are liars like any other political system. What they say IS NEVER WHAT THEY MEAN.
Over the past 16 years I’ve seen more talent driven out of CMS, for reasons all similar, you see, talk is cheap, but it has been taken to the extreme levels to the point (in my opinion) of criminal, YES CRIMINAL!
Let’s look at the turn over each year….
How about hiring a teacher and telling them, you are here to work your specialty, ie. French, Spanish, math…So these new educators who are smart enough to do anything they wanted, they wanted to teach, for all the GOOD reasons.
But, not at all long or just as soon as they start, they find no help, “SINK OR SWIM”! mentality, YUP, YUP, YUP!!!
No one, but no one, keeps to the original plan, Just as soon as the New Motivated Educators think they have a plan, a Job/Position, doing what they went to school for, Because the “WANTED to TEACH, our future, they find out there aren’t enough teachers. So, next the French or Spanish specialist find themselves teaching, subjects they have never practiced!
Christ Y’all, the Professional are still our Kids best hope, but they find NO, help, established teachers have no time , desire or knowledge to help guide our newest friends/teachers towards the schools goals, WTF !!! CMS is terrorizing more and more New Teachers, showing them, EVERY IDEAL they’ve had are deflated ASAP….
Tell me, how would I know how to do a lesson plan or plot a course for a year teaching a subject they have no experience in. I’d think that the system would help, NO DAMN-IT, it is sink or swim, new teachers in these positions are now under the gun to make remarkable reviews if they want to be re-hired , But no body gives the resources to teach, those new Professionals end up staying up all night trying to make effective lesson plans, creating resources, because a French teacher has no French textbooks or classroom aids, such as materials to promote their subjects. next thing they know a Principal tells them, MY PHILOSOPHY is to give you your rubric’s of what you’re supposed to achieve and present to their students, weeks after school starts, and expect these new Professionals to be graded on their application of said procedures, in a few days… WTF CMS .
I’d say CMS needs to grow up, but they are.
I honestly feel if my children hadn’t been blessed with the ability to remain in the 97 percentile, they’d of never gotten through this system and excelled as they have.
Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools, quit ruining our future hope and start supporting the new teachers, do not take for granted anymore, that you can dump all of your problems on the new blood , then use them as the excuse as to why things weren’t done properly. Topping it all off with not asking them back next year!
Too many fine, kind and genuinely motivated young professionals have totally left the profession after a year of your Excellence, but the old wood stays…
MY 1st RESPONSE FROM SENDING A COPY OF THIS POST TO Dr.GORMAN:
Thank you for your email. You are certainly entitled to your opinions and I respect your views. However, if you have specific examples that you would like cite in support of the claims that you have made in your email to me, I would appreciate the additional information. Personally, I am proud of our CMS teachers regardless of their experience level. Just this week, two CMS teachers were honored with significant state and national awards. These two teachers have quite different levels of experience but are both spectacular and indicative of CMS educators as a whole.
Sincerely,
Pete Gorman
I wrote back to Pete, told him I get a bit emotional sometimesand that just the other day I was bragging ’bout the awards our teacher’s had gotten, to the folks at the VA Hospital in Salisbury, and that his response and quick 1 at that encouragedme, and mentioned some of the places where I had heard of situations, the response I’ve deleted by mistake, spoke of Him Pete Gorman, taking an intrest in focusing to achive asking the teachers New as well as Veterans, what is it they need, he encourages anyone to speak with him…
Blah Blah.
EVER WONDER WHY TEACHER ARE AFRAID TO TELL THE SUPERINTENDENTS WHAT’S REALLY UP
Hmm. A teacher at emailed Gorman directly, and the f-cker
forwarded that sh-t right to the devil-principal at Harding, leaving in
all names, etc. That dressing down was oogly, trust. He’s been very
unkind to Harding teachers so far. I hope he’s cooler to other’s. no one can figure out Dr. Gorman would do such a thing.
Do Supers’ not realize, that nobody, but nobody reaches that far up the chain of command, unless they were afraid to speak w/their own principal themselves. Do Principals have any reason to be afraid of the super’s, Yup, if they were exposed being the bafoons they are, if they were ever caught in the act of stretching the truth as far as possible.
Never could figure out why such intelligent guys that come here to CMS,as Superintendents don’t blow off all the B/S and team up with the real educators, the teachers’ Listen to those people, align and ally your goals with theirs. Do the teaching and make a team of the teachers who have been there and the one’s who want to stay , present to the board what the teachers need to teach, Stopping telling the teacher, this is what you have and it’s not enough, but even worse there aren’t enough teachers so you need to teach more classes and if you have done this subject, just sink or swimm because CMS is to busy to see the TEACHERS get what the KIDS REALLY need!, there is no one who can serve results, to hear from the teacher’s!
The Truest MODEL of a GOOD Principal is/was Emily Stephenson Green, She should be a great asset to a administration if they really want to know what’s up, The Honorable Lady is a Principal with Principals, experience in this system, and made it through clean as snow, That Lady is Tip top of the educating field in CMS, don’t loose’er!
Good Luck, Pete. Flex that spine and stop all the politicking and help those teachers’ you say you are so proud of, Teach and freely make suggestions w/o worries of reprisal, for asking above their schools staff!
what’du ya think