
{"id":2936,"date":"2008-07-03T09:36:41","date_gmt":"2008-07-03T17:36:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=2936"},"modified":"2008-07-03T09:36:41","modified_gmt":"2008-07-03T17:36:41","slug":"carrboro-high-school-parents-want-answers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2008\/07\/03\/carrboro-high-school-parents-want-answers\/","title":{"rendered":"Carrboro High School parents want answers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>by <strong>Susan Dickson<\/strong><br \/>\nStaff Writer<\/em><br \/>\nCarrboro High School teachers and parents say they don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t understand Superintendent Neil Pedersen\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s recent decision to replace Principal Jeff Thomas and that district administrators owe them more of an explanation.<br \/>\nThe district announced June 18 that Thomas has been reassigned to the district\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s central office and that Rodney Trice, the district\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s director of curriculum and instruction, would serve as interim principal. The release announcing the change did not indicate why Thomas was being replaced. <!--more--><br \/>\nThomas served as principal of Carrboro High since 2006 and opened the school last August. Prior to his work at Carrboro High, Thomas served as assistant principal at Chapel Hill High School.<br \/>\nParents were notified of Thomas\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 replacement in a phone message, while faculty received an email. Some parents and teachers have come out in support of Thomas\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 performance at the school and want to know why administrators replaced him.<br \/>\nPedersen said his decision was based on unsolicited feedback from staff and parents, as well as the results of surveys that indicated both students and teachers were unhappy with their experiences at Carrboro High. Pedersen said survey results influenced his decision to replace Thomas, in that he used them to either confirm or refute individual perceptions. He said his decision was also based on his work with Thomas, as he and other central office staff had worked closely with Thomas over the past two years.<br \/>\nBoth parents and faculty members said they have requested more information regarding Thomas\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 reassignment from district administrators, but have been told personnel information cannot be released.<br \/>\nIn addition, according to Tom Brown, chair of the Carrboro High science department, faculty members were told Thomas would not be able to speak with them if they tried to contact him.<br \/>\nUnder North Carolina personnel law, public schools are required to provide limited information regarding personnel, including date of employment, salary increases or decreases, promotion and demotion information and an employee\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s current office or station. However, administrators can choose to release additional information only when it is \u00e2\u20ac\u0153essential to maintaining public confidence in the administration of [the employer\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s] services or to maintaining the level and quality of [the employer\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s] services.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<br \/>\nMark Barroso, parent of a rising sophomore at Carrboro High, said he had few interactions with Thomas and didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know whether he was a good principal or not, but wanted to know why he was replaced.<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153My beef is with how Neil Pedersen keeps parents in the dark about major personnel decisions at all the schools,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153In all of the schools that my daughter has been in, the principals have left for various reasons and parents never know why. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re left to guess and imagine what the reasons are.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<br \/>\nBarroso\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s daughter has attended Frank Porter Graham Elementary School, Culbreth Middle School and Carrboro High. Each of those schools\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 principals changed while she was there.<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a major thing to change principals at a school. It affects every aspect of that school,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153For us to not know what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going on, I think, is just troubling.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<br \/>\nPat Lewis, former chair of the English department at Carrboro High, said she resigned her position because she had been told by district administrators in the spring that Thomas would be given more time as principal to grow and develop the new school, but later learned he would be replaced.<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I had trouble believing anything that anybody was going to tell me,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said.<br \/>\nLewis said eight of nine Carrboro High department heads requested to speak with district administrators prior to Thomas\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 replacement, but were denied.<br \/>\n<strong>Early troubles <\/strong><br \/>\nThere were several documented incidents in the high school\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s first year, including a dispute over a no-hat policy and a fight among three students caused by one student\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s racially-charged comments.<br \/>\nJan Gottschalk, a journalism teacher at Carrboro High, said that despite the difficulties the school had really found its stride by the end of the year.<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I left for spring break with this very positive feeling that things were turning around,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said, citing a meeting with district administrators.<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Mr. Thomas really did listen to students when they wanted to make changes,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Students saw that change could be made. It was a wonderful learning experience.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<br \/>\nGottschalk and other teachers said the high school student climate survey used by district administrators was administered in January, and that students were much happier at their new high school later in the year. The climate survey indicated that students at Carrboro High were less happy at their school than students at the district\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s other two high schools.<br \/>\nBy the end of the school year, Gottschalk said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153the feelings had changed greatly.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<br \/>\nEllen Medearis, parent of Molly Superfine, Carrboro High\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s co-president, said Thomas was a good principal, and that some students and teachers weren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t used to his disciplinary style of administration.<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a man of his word,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a man of principle.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<br \/>\nMedearis added that opening a new school is hard for administrators, teachers and students, and that the decision to replace Thomas was hasty.<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I think that one year of a school being open \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 is not enough to make that kind of a judgment,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said.<br \/>\nParents of Carrboro High students have also expressed concern about recent notifications that several advanced placement and honors courses would not be offered at Carrboro High next year because of a lack of enrollment.<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve cut a lot of the AP courses at Carrboro High, so there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s this brain drain that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s happening,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Barroso said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153A lot of the best and the brightest are transferring out, making Carrboro a mediocre school.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<br \/>\nCourses that have been cut include AP chemistry, AP physics, AP human geography, honors biology II, honors physics, AP Latin, AP German, German III, German IV, AP Spanish literature and AP French.<br \/>\nCarrboro High students can take courses not offered at Carrboro High at the district\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s other two high schools but must provide their own transportation. Some parents and students are considering requesting transfer to another high school where the courses are offered.<br \/>\nBarroso said he is concerned that the transfers will cause the academics at the school to deteriorate.<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I think if affects every student when the cream of the crop goes to another school,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he added. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s all part of the academic culture at the school.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Susan Dickson Staff Writer Carrboro High School teachers and parents say they don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t understand Superintendent Neil Pedersen\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s recent decision to replace Principal Jeff Thomas and that district administrators owe them more of an explanation. The district announced June 18 that Thomas has been reassigned to the district\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s central office and that Rodney Trice, the&#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-2936","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-schools"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2936","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=2936"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2936\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}