Discussion Continues On QZAB Funds

by Cal Bryant - April 20th, 2007 - Roanoke-Chowan News-Herald

WINDSOR - It appears Bertie High School is on its way towards much-needed improvements.

However, there remains a strong feeling within [some of] the Bertie County Board of Commissioners that a new high school is needed.

At their mid-month meeting here Monday night, the commissioners continued their discussion on QZAB (Qualified Zone Academy Bonds) funds earmarked for improvements at the high school.

This discussion will be one of the most important discussions we will have on the direction of our schools. J.P. Law Elementary School sits idle in a county that is not growing. Askewville Elementary sits idle in a county that is not growing. With the completion of the new Middle School, C.G. White will sit idle in a county that is not growing. Southwestern will also sit idle in a county that is not growing. It will sit idle until the Board of Education finds some way to use it that does not waste money we need for our children's classrooms. (The idea is to move Central Administration to Southwestern, however I hope it is done cost effectively.)

History and tradition are important in our society and important in our schools. The best schools are always schools that have tradition and history behind them. That tradition is related to the buildings that an institution is housed in. No major University in the world ever fails to recognize that hanging on to their buildings is an important element in reverence for the tradition of education. They renovate. New buildings are only created to accommodate growth of the University. Most of our Universities are using buildings from the 1700s and 1800s. They keep them maintained and they are still excellent buildings.

Three facts are important. Bertie County is not growing. The building structure of our current high school can last for centuries. Renovation is always less expensive than building new unless you have to redo the structure itself.

The millions that can be saved by renovation rather than new construction can be directed into our classrooms for education. However it is the same people who ignore the fact that we are already in the top 25% in spending per student who insist we have to spend more money on education. They are also the ones that want to waste money on new facilities that will not teach any child.

The traditions and history of Bertie High School should not be wasted. It has been over 10 years since appropriate maintenance has been spent on our high school. It has already been pretty much accepted that the earliest we could get the funds for a new high school is 7 years, and that is optimistic. The State of North Carolina is growing rapidly and the formula for sharing bond money (which we still have to help repay) will be focused on the rapidly growing counties and cities. Bertie County is not growing and cannot expect much help in the current situation any time soon unless we start to grow. Increasing taxes to build a wasteful new school is not going to help get our economy growing. In fact it could kill chances for growth. Building a new school while we are not growing and our children are struggling to learn makes absolutely no sense.

How many more years will be wasted while not bringing our current school up to the top through facility maintenance? Every year we wait, another class of our children is essentially told, "you are not important enough for us to give you a decent school!" If we built a new high school, at the earliest 8 more years of our children will pass through the current high school before any child will "benefit". That "benefit" is in quotes because our student scores have dropped continuously during the time we have built the new middle school. Let's focus on the children in school now and who will be there in the near future. We need to start educating them.

New schools do not improve student achievement. New schools are for the egos of adults and school administrators . . . not the children. When are we going to work towards teaching our children and stop worrying about the wishes of adults?

The important discussion in Bertie County should be quickly bringing our current high school up to top standards. We must sell off some of the empty school buildings that we currently have sitting idle, or will have idle soon, and spend that currently idle money making our current school like new.

We are not growing and the idea of adding another empty school to our current huge warehouse of empty schools borders on . . . . you pick the word. Insanity is all I can think of.