Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Report: 'Chaos' at Burke County schools

The nation's major school accreditation organization has placed Burke County's four high schools on probation, saying school board members have created an atmosphere of “chaos” that makes teaching and learning difficult.

Click here to read the full report.

Among the findings by The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Council on Accreditation and School Improvement:

"There was no evidence of an Ethics policy. The Board was not following its own policies as demonstrated by the hiring of staff for positions that have not been posted or interviews conducted. Additionally, the student transfer policy is being totally ingored as Board members are interviewing parents and students individually who are requesting transfers. One Board member had to be sanctioned for sending racial e-mails across the system e-mail. Although this sanction aoccurred on May 18, 2009 , he has yet to fulfill the requirements of the sanction."

Accreditation from SACS CASI is a key for students who wish to attend college.

Interim Superintendent Rick Sherrill said the report's findings would be discussed at today's school board meeting.

The critical report follows months of bickering between school board members and the community, mostly over the board's highly controversial decision in April to remove longtime Superintendent David Burleson. That decision, which came in a 5-2 vote, led to lawsuits and a court decision blocking the ouster.

The board, which asked for police protection at several of its meetings, responded to the court ruling by buying out Burleson's contract in late June.

- Steve Lyttle

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Can somebody please shed light on why the school board wanted this guy removed? It's been in the paper for about a year now and I've never seen an article which outlines why David Burleson was not wanted by the school board. However, its been well documented that he was admired by the parents and students alike. I live in the Lake Norman area and am not aware of the Burke County gossip.

Anonymous said...

The Board never said why they wanted him gone.It has to be some personal reason.Tracy Norman was the one behind it,but dosen't have the guts to say why.It dosen't matter they will be gone next election.

Biggs said...

The board won't say because there is NO good reason to get rid of Mr Burleson. It is rare to find a superintendant so loved by faculty, students & parents. There was just enough members on the schoolboard to do it, even though it was obviously against the rest of the county's wishes. Those few on the schoolboard failed in their duty to represent the citizens of Burke County as they were elected to do. But it is a mistake that will be remedied this fall. You can believe that those up for relelection this fall that are in that litle group, such as mrs norman will NOT be reelected & i'd bet by a very very large margin.

Anonymous said...

ONLY IN NORTH CAROLINA! :-D

Anonymous said...

Apparently some employees of the system who were friends of board members were reprimanded and that's what got the whole thing started. That's a rumor I've heard. Everything else has been reported except the reason. Everytime the media asked the board members why, they asked the police officers to remove the reporters from the meeting.

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