Bill Martin

To the casual observer, Tuesday night's (November 10, 2009) Charlotte Mecklenburg School District's (CMS) board meeting might have appeared to be a blow out FOR the IB program at Myers Park High School. Matter of factly, the "speakers" who favored keeping the Myers Park IB program as it is blew away the opposition. They were not only far more persuasive in their arguments, but they were also obviously much better educated.

Arguments for retaining the MP program intact included

1. historically similar school board missteps show that such changes have not succeeded elsewhere in the CMS system,
2. national ranking of 44 (Newsweek) with 26% subsidized lunches (a measure of a school's percentage of students from poor families) show that MP is the crown jewel of North and South Carolina schools that could only fall from any reduction in IB student enrollment,
3. the presence of a dedicated student body and staff that is focused on rigorous education and devoid of a violent criminal element that inhibits learning and retention,
4. additional commuting distance to East Mecklenburg High School that would change an already early bus time to,
5. a belief that being the largest school in North Carolina is not synonymous with overcrowding and that many classrooms are left idle during the school day due to the lack of sufficient teaching staff.

East Mecklenburg High School had their own proponents who's argument was basically a single line: "Keep East Meck Strong".

Of course, the sole reason for this morass anyway was the construction of a needed school in Mint Hill that, after the fact, no Mint Hill parents wanted to attend because they wasn't to be "kept together". Excuse me, but keeping Mint Hill together makes about as much sense as keeping Charlotte together at a single high school. Growth that necessitates the construction of a new school defies the logic of keeping that same growth at a single school.

So, maybe the bigger question is this: how do we create other top schools like Myers Park? Top schools are derived from top students who get that way from parenting that tells them that education is the only way to success. Education without commitment isn't education - it's babysitting and to make other programs successful in the Carolina's will require more than just lip-service to the problem.

Some states have enacted lotteries to help address the problem. South Carolina, for example, created one so successful that "B" students can have their college education paid for through it's success. What a great way to improve East Meck, you might say. Unfortunately, North Carolina played a trick on its taxpayers when it enacted its own lottery by shuffling the funds into and, then, out of the education budget and back into the general fund. How can you expect to educate your state's children when you play tricks on them? It reminds me of the Ally Bank commercial regarding the fine print.

What IS the solution? If you're a parent, educate yourself. There's no greater way to stimulate a child than by being a great role model. Spend time with your kids and, if you can't, get help from motivated friends and neighbors to keep your kids involved and out of trouble. Get your kids active in school and sports - it only takes 30 days to create a habit and it'll help your kid for a lifetime. Make sure your kids do their homework and reward them when they do. Words of kindness work as well as financial incentives.

Keep in mind that great educational systems AREN'T about race though statistics sometimes might make it appear that way. Minority test scores are just 6 percentage points higher for blacks than for those of the academically gifted. The HBO documentary on being Black in America points out though that being a top minority isn't about being brilliant, it's about being persistent.

In a recent best selling non-fiction book, Outliers, successful people have a single thing in common - the ability to spend time learning. More intriguing than anything in the book is that learning needn't always be so obvious, spending time over a complex math problem, even unsuccessfully, eventually helps kids to learn and that can happen at home, at East Meck, at Myers Park, and at Mint Hill High School.

Where would I start? That's a great question that I battle everyday.

First, make the education lottery fund the education ON TOP of their state budget. Don't play with the numbers to pull the lottery funding out of education and into the general fund.

Second, make sure that kids that lack education have educated parents. If they don't, educate the parents first.

Third, get kids the time they need learning. If that means opening up the schools at night for volunteer or compulsorary supervision by parents, so be it, but there are many places that learning can take place. Even opening up gyms nightly with a small admission charge would have a more positive effect on a child's academics than a night in front of the TV. Believe it or not, bouncing balls raise questions about geometry and physics with each and every rebound.

Fourth, let technology work with education. More frequently than not, we "block" websites because we believe their content might be harmful. Likewise, we remove cell phones from students because they're disruptive. At a recent day in a CMS career center, a student came in for college information, but only had a few minutes to copy volumes of information. Guess what the best solution was? To take photos using her picture phone of the school info she needed. Against the rules? Absolutely. The right thing to do? Absolutely.

There are grey areas in anything and we need to admit they are grey. Like the 2nd grade boyscout who brought his new "knife" to eat with at the cafeteria and was subsequently expelled (and reversed, on appeal). Or the shooting some years back at Myers Park High School that now keeps students from enjoying one of high school's rights of passage, a home coming dance. Who are we penalizing and why?

In the current question of Myers Park High School and East Mecklenburg High School, the answer doesn't really matter. If the IB program closes at MPHS, the students that are there will just move to their neighborhood schools. East Meck may gain a few, but at the expense of a self-motivated, newly demoralized IB student. Get back to the root of the problem, Mint Hill, and re-examine why we ever built another school there to begin with and, then, address the real issue: education and how can we do it best. Don't play with the systems and schools that work; work on the systems and schools that DON'T.

Beverly Woods is a great neighborhood nestled in the South Park area bordered by the Mountainbrook, Beverly Woods East, and Bellingrath neighborhoods on one side and by Park Road on the other. All of the neighborhoods, including those of Carmel Woods, Foxcroft, Myers Park, and Eastover have many wooded areas and streams that are still home to an abundant array of wildlife. Consequently, it should come as no surprise to anyone when a coyote was noticed lurking about in Beverly Woods.

What should this mean to area residents? Keep your pets inside at night! While this might be an impossible task that I recognize from personal experience with one very wild cat at our own home, it is still likely the prudent thing to do for those clawless felines we'd like to nap with on the couch.

If you have a photo of a wild animal you've seen in South Charlotte, please send me a copy. I'd like to catalog the type and location of each sighting. Charlotte is truly a wonderful place to live and whether you believe its the next NYC or the small country town that relishes the big city lifestyle, the wildlife here make Charlotte a place where you can appreciate it all.

So we're already had the "Back to School" Tax Holidy, Governer Easley has announced that consumers can get a break on those high cost, energy efficient, appliance, but there is a catch: you've got to act fast.

The break that saves Mecklenburg County shoppers 8.25% on their purchase of clothes washers, freezers, refrigerators and other appliances that carry the "Energy Star" label. This includes central air conditioners, room air conditioners, air-source heat pumps, geothermal heat pumps, ceiling fans, dehumidifiers and programmable thermostats, too.

Still there is some fine print that you need to know about before you run out to make that purchase. Items purchased for use in a trade, business, or for rentals are not covered by the exemption. Plus, purchases by contractors who install the products for consumers are still subject to the tax.

Here's the take home message: make your purchases between 12:01 am Friday and 11:59 pm Sunday and, if you need a contractor's help for installation, purchase the appliance yourself and pay the contractor for the installation.

Ok, it's almost official, but not yet out of the Senate, but the latest tax incentive to get the US housing market back on its feet again is taking shape. Under the plan, approved by the Senate and awaiting a House of Representative vote tomorrow, home owners who've owned their homes for 5 years or longer would be able to claim a $6,500 tax credit while the $8,000 tax credit for first time homeowners (defined as those who haven't owned a home in the past 3 years) would continue.

To qualify under terms of the plan, buyers must sign their purchase agreement by April 30, 2010 and close on the purchase by June 30, 2010.

That's a GREAT plan that should get many fence-sitting buyers off the fence.

What was this selling thinking when he/she rescheduled a showing for my buyer client? Did they really thing we'd reschedule the rest of our showings so we'd be back in their neighborhood later in the afternoon?

If you plan on doing this, don't expect the buyer or buyer's agent to be cooperative. It might be workable if the agent is only showing homes in a single neighborhood, but such was not the case today and when I wrote the offer on one of the houses we visited, I had to laugh at the absurdity of the rescheduling seller.

But I have a suggestion. If you must reschedule (yes, parties and funerals are great reasons), please give the reason and ask the showing service to give it to the buyer's agent. It will help to create empathy on the party of your greatest asset, the buyer's agent. Keep in mind that if you're having some kind of celebration, welcoming in a potential buyer is a great way to make your property memorable in their mind. Heck, I think memorability is why I wrote TWO offers (that became contracts) during the biggest snow storm in recent Charlotte history (I have a 4WD, so why not get out).

So, the take home message? Don't reschedule, but if you must, don't put it down as a simple "declined". Give details. Create understanding. You don't want to alienate your best friend.