
{"id":1724,"date":"2008-01-24T07:34:04","date_gmt":"2008-01-24T15:34:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/2008\/01\/24\/leaders-committed-to-providing-the-extra-help-needed\/"},"modified":"2008-01-24T07:34:04","modified_gmt":"2008-01-24T15:34:04","slug":"leaders-committed-to-providing-the-extra-help-needed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2008\/01\/24\/leaders-committed-to-providing-the-extra-help-needed\/","title":{"rendered":"Leaders committed to providing the extra help needed"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/01\/p1205679rresized.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/01\/p1205679rresized.jpg\" alt=\"After a Martin Luther King, Jr. Day tour of Barbee\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Chapel\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s new education assistance center, Rev. Gene Hatley reflected on the need to do something within the community to address the acheivement gap. Photo by Kirk Ross.\" align=\"left\" height=\"120\" width=\"161\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>By Susan Dickson<\/strong><br \/>\nStaff Writer<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Ten years ago, Bishop Gene Hatley started thinking about a program run through the church to help educate the members of the African-American community.<\/p>\n<p>The program would reach out to children and adults who needed help with reading, math or other skills.<\/p>\n<p>Although Hatley \u00e2\u20ac\u201c who serves as pastor of Barbee\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Chapel Missionary Baptist Church \u00e2\u20ac\u201c tried to launch such a program several years ago, it was too small to succeed. But about a year ago, Hatley and other volunteers started work on a new program, Barbee\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Chapel Harvest Word Community Resource and Enrichment Centers, which will launch next month.<\/p>\n<p><!--more-->On Monday \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Martin Luther King, Jr. Day \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Hatley invited community members to the church to learn about the program.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m just so excited,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Hatley said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m trying to contain myself.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Harley announced the launch of the program at a meeting of school and community leaders earlier this month, where Chapel Hill-Carrboro NAACP and Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance leaders called for changed and improved achievement for black students in Chapel Hill-Carrboro schools.<br \/>\nPrior to the meeting, the groups distributed a report card to school officials outlining failures in 11 categories, including eliminating the minority achievement gap, decreasing the dropout rate of black students and more.<\/p>\n<p>According to Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools, about 44 percent of black elementary school students passed both reading and math End of Grade tests, compared with 93 percent of white elementary school students.<\/p>\n<p>Closing the minority achievement gap has been a repeated goal of school board members, administrators and teachers alike. According to Superintendent Neil Pedersen, who has served in his current position for 8 years, the district has made slow progress, but rescaling of test scoring has made that progress less apparent.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not talking about a problem that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s unique to Chapel Hill \u00e2\u20ac\u201d it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s all over the nation,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Hatley said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153In most every school district, the problem is exactly the same.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>To remedy that problem, Hatley says the program will start with reading skills.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Number one is going to be dealing with their reading skills,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153That is key. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s basic.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>The program will be run entirely by volunteers, including several former teachers.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We are people who have been successful in teaching kids,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Hatley, a former teacher.<\/p>\n<p>He added that the support from the community has been a huge help in starting the program.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We have people calling every day to volunteer,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Hatley said.<\/p>\n<p>According to Brother Robert Muhammad, one of the program\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s coordinators, volunteers will first assess each student in order to determine his or her needs and to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153chart them on a course, our course.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<br \/>\nAt first, the program will have just one class a week on Saturdays, but eventually it will expand to several classes a week, at several locations throughout the area, so that the program can serve more children and adults.<\/p>\n<p>For adults and children, the program will offer computer classes, which will teach participants not only how to use computers and fix problems, but to build computers from scratch.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We must do everything that we can to bring the community together,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Muhammad said.<\/p>\n<p>Parents of children in the program will be required to be involved, and will help to serve as a link between the program and the child\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s school, in order to better determine how best to teach the child.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153[The schools] cannot require parents to participate in a child\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s education and learning,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Hatley said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153They can ask, but they cannot require it. We can.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>To enable parents to be more involved, program classes will be recorded and streamed on the church\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s website. If a student can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t make it to class, he or she can participate online, according to Muhammad.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re trying to cut out the excuses now,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said, adding that the program will offer transportation for its students as well.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We want to catapult our community to another level, and I think this is the way to do it,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Muhammad said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Susan Dickson Staff Writer Ten years ago, Bishop Gene Hatley started thinking about a program run through the church to help educate the members of the African-American community. The program would reach out to children and adults who needed help with reading, math or other skills. Although Hatley \u00e2\u20ac\u201c who serves as pastor of&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1724","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-schools"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1724","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1724"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1724\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}