Superintendent's Blog

January 29, 2009

I wish to thank the community, students, employees and the media for helping make our strategic plan launch a huge success on Tuesday. More than 600 parents, elected officials, community members and employees gathered in an auditorium on the GTCC Jamestown campus to hear us outline the exciting plan, which will serve as the district’s road map for achieving education excellence.

Dozens of students displayed their skills in music, poetry, military science, public speaking and the culinary arts. Many employees generously volunteered their time to help pull off the launch. In addition, the various news outlets helped us get the word out before and after the event.
As you know, the theme of the plan is excellence in all areas, particularly academics and moral character. We know the sky is the limit for our young people if they are grounded in ethics and have finely tuned, analytical minds.

I ask for your help as we move forward with the implementation of this plan. Please partner with us in our efforts to boost literacy, increase academic performance and strengthen character among our students. On our Web site, you can find out how to get involved with the implementation of this plan. I guarantee you that someone from GCS will contact you.

We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us, but with your continued support I know we can reach our goal.

January 21, 2009 - Update on 2008 Bond Projects

We got some great news last week. The county told us it sold $130 million in school bonds. This amount includes $45 million for the completion of Eastern Guilford High School. 

The sale of these bonds means we can move forward on many key capital improvement projects, including some of those currently under construction, such as Jamestown Middle School. In fact, we will have a groundbreaking ceremony for the new Jamestown Middle building on Friday, January 23.

We will also continue land acquisition efforts for this year, including sites for the following projects:

• Special education west
• Southeast area elementary school
• North Greensboro elementary school
• Airport area high school and middle school land

In addition, the district will move forward with the design of projects on the 2008 bond list.  The Guilford County Board of Education has already approved the short-list of design firms for at least nine projects.  In the next few months, our facilities team will continue to work with the board to identify design firms for the remaining projects on the 2008 bond list.

We will adhere to the board’s priority list and move forward with construction efforts on other projects once land acquisition, design and permitting is concluded.

The board had earlier heeded a request from the county to decrease our project cash flow needs. Although the tighter cash flow may slow down how aggressively we can move on these projects, we are pleased that we can proceed with them. This way, we will fulfill the promises we have made to many of our school communities.

January 21, 2009 - Strategic Plan

I’m looking forward to Tuesday, January 27. That’s the day we make history by launching a comprehensive and ambitious strategic plan for Guilford County Schools. A strategic plan is like a road map. It tells us where we need to go and how we will get there. This plan will be our road map for the next three-and-a-half years.

We are excited about the plan, and about the way it will dramatically transform the lives of our students, parents, employees and ultimately this community.

This is not my plan; it is our plan. Last October, I invited you to send me your suggestions for how we could move our district forward. Nearly 4,000 of you responded. Your responses form an integral part of this plan, so we all have a stake in the outcome.  Thank you for the support you’ve given us in the process so far. The hard work - the implementation and monitoring of the plan - begins after we roll it out.  We’ll be asking you once again for your help. I look forward to working with you to make this plan successful for our children.