Category: General

Oct. 13, 2012 The Swann Fellowship lost one of its earliest and most dedicated members this week with the death of John Andrews. John was involved in the Fellowship from its first public meetings in the spring of 1997 at St. Martin’s Episcopal Church, the Charlotte church that continues to put a roof over the Read More …

Oct. 4, 2012 “What I want to do is have these conversations and ask, what are we doing really well, and what can we do better? “And then from those conversations we begin to build relationships, with our employees, with our external stakeholders, with our community. “And when you have great relationships, you start to Read More …

Jan. 2, 2012 I saw the results of the Superintendent Search survey.  They had surveyed three groups – teachers, high-school students and the public at large. What I find most interesting is the relatively low priority each group gave to: “Makes recommendations based upon reliable information” To me, this well represents the disconnect between the Read More …

Dec. 10, 2011 Tuesday’s Board of Education meeting allows the public an opportunity to speak out on how to serve the district’s high-needs children. The Eric Smith superintendency of 1996-2002 saw the board make commitments to extra efforts to educate high-needs children as it created an assignment policy that it knew would create low-performing schools. Read More …

Dec. 14, 2011 Tuesday’s Board of Education meeting marked the installation of new members and the beginning of a new chapter in the board’s work. We congratulate Ericka Ellis-Stewart, lower left, who was elected chairperson of the board, and Mary McCray, lower right, who was elected vice chairperson. One member is missing from the top Read More …

Nov. 10, 2011 The Fellowship’s regular monthly board meeting always seems to fall two days after a school board election, so it has been a tradition for the Fellowship to gather to discuss the election results and where CMS appears to be heading. This year, the Fellowship invited to the meeting all the board candidates Read More …

Nov. 8, 2011 Today’s victory by Ericka Ellis-Stewart, Mary McCray and Tim Morgan closes out a long and difficult, if possibly momentous, election for the CMS Board of Education. But first let us offer a big thank-you to the host of very public-spirited people who took that step to offer themselves for election to Charlotte-Mecklenburg’s Read More …

Sept. 30, 2011, from material from 26 pages originally posted on or before Sept. 30, 2011 Fourteen candidates in the 2011 election for three at-large seats on the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education participated in 45-minute videotaped interviews. The interviews were conducted between Aug. 15 and Aug. 18, at the beginning of the campaign. This project Read More …

June 9, 2011 Within an hour of my hearing the news of Dr. Gorman’s departure, a retired journalist all but stuck a microphone in my face and asked what kind of person CMS needs to succeed the departing superintendent. What I said wasn’t necessarily representative of this organization, or any other. But I do hope Read More …

March 20, 2011 “Segregation is an educational and social disease. Sometimes its impacts are ameliorated for a while in some places, but the broad relationship is clear and strong. “Isolation by poverty, language, and ethnicity threatens the future opportunities and mobility of students and communities excluded from competitive schools, and increasingly threatens the future of Read More …