Wednesday, October 3, 2012

North Meck's Poole: Redo boundaries

Some residents of northern Mecklenburg County have been upset about high school boundaries since Hough High opened in Cornelius in 2010.  Jimmy Poole,  who retired as principal of North Mecklenburg High in 2005 and leads the North Meck alumni association,  has been a spokesperson for the view that Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools damaged his former school by removing most of the white, middle-class and suburban students,  leaving North to serve northern Charlotte.

He recently wrote to Huntersville officials spelling out some of the consequences of the changes and suggesting boundary changes he hopes the school board will make. Read his letter here.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Jimmy,
Another truth that CMS doesn't acknowledge and why Cannon, Southlake, and Hough are doing so well.

Anonymous said...

Jimmy, you are correct in writing your letter! I don't blame parents wanting to not attend North Meck but I do blame parents for abandoning North Meck. This is primarily due to the CMS board working out a terrible zoning plan. So, let us go ahead and close North Meck and reassign many of the students to Hopewell, Mallard Creek and yes of course, Hough!

Anonymous said...

I agree that the boundary lines were probably not established with the best interest of all schools involved. I agree that North doesn't serve the community in which it stands. However, as a teacher there, I do NOT agree that we are suffering or that we have problems which cannot be overcome. I personally have experienced the racial slurs from the mouths of the, shall we say "privileged," Hough students who look down on our students, as well as the pity from former NM parents who, for whatever reason, want to feel sorry for NM. I would not hesitate to send my teenager to North; however, I would take caution in sending him to Hough because of the reactions of our community. I don't want my child raised to think that it's still OK to pity or degrade people for their color or SES. How about walking our halls for a day, talking to our students and faculty, and supporting the "old school" for a change, rather than throwing us to the wind b/c we don't look like we used to? This isn't a race issue, as some want to say, or an economic issue for that matter. It's human decency...support teachers and students - ALL of them, at any school, rich or poor -because they deserve the right to educate and be educated. North Meck til I die...

Anonymous said...

Like........and I went to vance.

Kay Ingram Shelton said...

All four of our children attended North Meck and 3 went through the IB program. We live in Wynfield. We have always been extremely grateful for the outstanding education our children recieved at North. It's sad to see this happening. Our children are grown now but I hope parents will get involved and support our neighborhood schools. Good letter Mr. Poole!

Anonymous said...

Dont forget about how they butchered up North when Mallard Creek opened and all the better or best athletes fully trained ready to go by Norths coaches over many years were assigned MCHS.

Theodore said...

This is fantastic!