Bertie High Threatened With Closure

Several Schools In East On Poorly Performing List

March 5th, 2006 - Associated Press (WITN TV)

RALEIGH, N.C. -- A state judge has warned that unless 19 of the state's poorly performing high schools start doing better, he'll order them closed unless the state makes sweeping changes, including replacing principals at the schools.

"Superintendents and principals have run out of room and run out of time," Wake County Superior Court Judge Howard Manning Jr. said in a 17-page letter to state Superintendent June Atkinson and State Board of Education Chairman Howard Lee. "The state is clearly and ultimately legally responsible."

On the list of schools to be closed are Bertie County High, Hertford County High, and Plymouth High School in Washington County.

One quote from the article is appropriate to our current local school problems at all levels. "Those schools also would be required to begin reform plans modeled after the small-school approach promoted by the state's New Schools Project."

Large consolidated schools have the highest failure rate. More and more people are noting that the education establishment fascination with large schools is losing support among people knowledgeable about the problems.

Why are our educational leaders still promoting consolidation here in Bertie County?