This school has no room to grow into a K-8 and it's interesting how mobiles - a school that had up to 24 at one time with parents screaming about it - is going to add more in order to house students.
The school has no sports facilities and will have to use Coulwood Middle School's facilities, less than a mile away.
Coulwood sits on 32 acres of land while MIL sits on a little over 16acres.
On top of that, Coulwood is being converted to a STEM school as well, the same school that received an F grade this year.
By the way, when is CMS going to post every school's letter grade on their websites for all to see?
This scenario is the latest status quo blunder put forth by an inept BOE and educrat management system.
Mountain Island Lake Academy getting $2.5 million upgrade
04/11/2015 2:00 AM
Mountain Island Lake Academy will be getting $2.5 million in upgrades as the northwest Charlotte school prepares to expand to more grades and offer a specialty academic program.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools has budgeted $860,000 to renovate two classrooms into science labs, which entails new flooring, ventilation, plumbing and casework. Another $1.7 million has been slated for a new mobile unit that houses 10 classrooms.
The school board is expected to approve pieces of each project at its Tuesday meeting. The science labs should be complete by August, and the mobile unit by December.
Both projects will help the school as it continues to expand from an elementary school to a K-8. The school offered prekindergarten through sixth grade this year, and will add on seventh grade in the fall....MORE... http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/education/your-schools-blog/article18195017.html#/tabPane=tabs-b0710947-1-1
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools has budgeted $860,000 to renovate two classrooms into science labs, which entails new flooring, ventilation, plumbing and casework. Another $1.7 million has been slated for a new mobile unit that houses 10 classrooms.
The school board is expected to approve pieces of each project at its Tuesday meeting. The science labs should be complete by August, and the mobile unit by December.
Both projects will help the school as it continues to expand from an elementary school to a K-8. The school offered prekindergarten through sixth grade this year, and will add on seventh grade in the fall....MORE... http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/education/your-schools-blog/article18195017.html#/tabPane=tabs-b0710947-1-1
I don't get all the concern over "mobiles". It's a building. They can be comfortable and have plenty of natural light. They can be quiet because they aren't connected to other buildings. I think they may even make more sense than brick and mortar buildings for some areas. My son had a class in one and it was fine. I even went in and checked out the A/C filters to make sure they weren't all cruddy. They were probably cleaner than the vents leading to the classrooms in the regular schools. And it was possible to circulate fresher air into the mobile, too.
ReplyDeleteThe teacher he had was a bigger problem than the mobile.
Put a good teacher in one and who really cares?
It's the same as your "zipcode" analogy in the other post when educrats talk about it out both sides of their mouths.
ReplyDelete24 mobiles was horrendous at one point but now they are welcomed.
Go figure.
Also, I have posted it yet, but the next Dunn story was that Coulwood - 8 tenths of a mile from Mountain Island, will be a STEM like MI and that their mascot name is changing to WIldcats because middle schoolers didn't know what a Catamount was.
Maybe that's the reason Coulwood received a state grade of F!
I guess STEM doesn't include zoology or biology. Or using Google or a dictionary.
ReplyDeleteI pulled up a website for the middle school and they even had
a picture of a "wildcat" for anyone who couldn't figure out what
the word meant.
Seems to me that the definition of catamount would have been a "teachable" moment for kids who didn't know.
But I guess some schools don't see the value in that.
So just keep dumbing things down.
I'm guessing they deserve that "F".
I admit I had no clue what Tar Heel meant until I moved to NC. Hopefully, none of these kids will aspire to attend a college with a Boll Weevil, Buckeye or Argonaut mascot.
DeleteSome years back, an outspoken group wanted to do away with my alma matter mascot - The Minute Man. You know, the whole musket thing on top of having a penis was considered offensive to some. Needless to say, the idea was eventually thrown overboard in Revolutionary fashion. Of course, it didn't hurt that thousands of women came forward to testify that while their mascot only took a minute, it was the best minute of their lives.
Onto equal distribution of fractions!
Alicia
Heh, "minute man", I get it...
DeleteWell, there are lots of words I don't know, but I know how to look them up.
That's what gets my goat.
A school that folds this quickly due to student ignorance will probably not have the "grit" (there's a good new word in educratese) to make these kids a success.
And it is an automatic admission of "low expectations" from the kids as well.
And I thought that was a big no-no today. Especially with minorities.
This comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteAlso, on a somewhat related note, since you mentioned buckeyes and I once lived in the buckeye state...
DeleteOn the subject of "local" expressions and such, I took a driving test in Ohio which mentioned something about the "berm" side of the road. I had no idea what that meant, but took a guess that it was probably what we usually call the "shoulder" and was right enough to pass the test.
But I decided to look up the word again to see what it said and stumbled upon the "Urban Dictionary" alternative definition of "berm". Which I found quite amusing in a crude, sexist sort of way (a bit like your "minute man" joke).
berm
combination of beer and sperm, as relating to the odor of a sorority girl after a hard night's partying.
Yuck!
DeleteIn 1972, UMass's mascot was changed from the Redman to the patriotic Minuteman after a Native-American-Indian group found the name "defamatory". In 2003, a different group petitioned to have the mascot changed from the Minuteman to a Wolf after accusing the Minuteman of being "defamatory". Of course, it was only going to be a matter of time before UMass's PETA, Vegan and Greenpeace coalitions took issue with the "defamatory" nature of parading around an endangered wolf.
And you wonder how - as a modern dance major - I progressed
to a more conservative viewpoint on a lot of things?
Alicia
"And you wonder how - as a modern dance major - I progressed
Deleteto a more conservative viewpoint on a lot of things? "
You mean you did one of those, too?
Same here in many ways, though I was never too much on the other side. I've supported a few "liberal" causes over the years and sometimes still do. At least most people would associate them with "liberals".
These are the things that I sometimes disagree with folks like Larry Bumgarner over (though I take THAT in stride since he travels a bit more on the straight and narrow path than I EVER did).
Since I started a bit on the liberal (or at least very open-minded) side before becoming the curmudgeon I am today, I can sometimes admit the errors of my way, but not often.
I NEVER could sympathize with the PETA vegan crowd, though. I could handle the women liberation crowd, but not so much the radical lesbian version, including some of the LGBT folks fights.
Even though (or maybe because) I knew so many of them in Houston.
I've just learned that some of the folks out there with their various "causes" are just a bit off mentally.
I came to this conclusion after spending some time doing some volunteer radio work (mostly as a sound engineer, music selector, and occasional voice of reason) on a Pacifica Radio station (KPFT) in Houston, TX in the mid 80's and early 90's.
That was a real loony-bin collection of misfits and a few really nice, creative people along with some scary folks, too. They're still out there (and I mean way out there) if you want to listen.
I got to meet and know some SERIOUSLY effed-up people from that stint who convinced me that some of these kooks are truly dangerous.
(I have the dubious honor of having met Leslie Perez through such channels. First as a guest on a prison outreach program, then as a dinner guest afterwards. He/She was once written up in the Houston Chronicle under the tabloid-sounding headline "Killer Transvestite in Runoff". Google that one for a quick scare...)
That was also close to the time when I got death threats for writing letters to the editor against Pat Robinson for President, so I've gotten crap from BOTH sides of the aisle.
And knowing some of these nutcases in the flesh is one of the inspirations for my anonymity. Because I know how they think and what they are capable of doing when "offended".
Because they used to brag to me about some of their shenanigans.
"I've just learned that some of the folks out there with their various "causes" are just a bit off mentally."
DeleteLol.
God bless my poor father who envisioned me attending a small private liberal arts college. Instead, he had the opportunity to escort me through the Fine Arts Center to witness a female in the nude posing for a drawing class before dropping me off in a high-rise dorm my freshman year with co-ed bathrooms complete with condom machines. And I was so happy to be at my first choice school.
If you get a chance, you owe it to yourself to read "The Gatekeepers" written by a NY Times writer who was given unprecedented access into the college admissions process at Wesleyan Univ. (CT). I spent a few summers at Wesleyan as a high school student and then a resident counselor for a gifted and talented summer arts program. UMass/Amherst is relatively conservative compared to Wesleyan. When I was teaching at Penn State, I turned down the opportunity to dance naked in a performance by a resident artist from NY who appeared at the Belk Theater a few years back. Can you imagine THAT photo appearing out of nowhere the year I was PTO president at my children's school?
I've seen and heard it all on the liberal front lines.
Alicia
Bill T. Jones. That was the name of the company. I could have bared it all with different races, genders and the LGBT crowd for the purpose of making a "diversity" statement about baring it all with each other. Then there was the artist-in-residency project I did with a small modern dance company for the Harrisburg PA public school system under the artistic direction of NCDT's (now the Charlotte Ballet) former executive director who also worked for the National Endowment for the Arts before becoming the executive director of the Martha Graham Co. I objected to a piece we were going to perform for elementary school students only to be subsequently reprimanded and lectured about "artistic freedom". When we performed the piece (which I wasn't in) we were immediately informed by the principal at our first school that we would not be performing the piece I objected to at any other school and if we did, we would be packing up our dance bags and sent home. And then there was the dance professor at George Washington Univ. who flipped her middle finger at the audience in protest of something. I once invited NCDT to perform at Charlotte's Harris YMCA (with children in attendance) where the company director thought it was appropriate to present a piece that had a long red scarf coming out of a woman's crotch representing blood after an abortion. And I could go on and on...
DeleteI can't make this stuff up.
Alicia
Alicia,
DeleteI'm sure getting naked for art's sake is acceptable. I was usually big buddies with the art, music, and theatre crowd at my small liberal arts college. I was just one of those odd geeky types that fit in well with them for some reason. I remember one gal who had a plaster cast of herself made for art class.
She was probably the LAST person you would expect to get naked for her art, but she did in a round-about sort of way.
She was an interesting character. She had no math or science background and yet took a Symbolic Logic class in Philosophy and blew the top off it. That class was roughly the same material that I was taking in my Sophomore year Topology class as a math major. I know because I tried taking both classes at the same time and kept confusing the material between the two classes and using proofs I had done in one class to solve problems in the other.
A serious no-no in Math, so I had to drop the Logic class to focus on Math.
It's funny to me that she had all this talent for logic yet never tapped into it until she went to college. I don't know what eventually happened with her. I remember that she married her boyfriend of the time (a nice enough guy) and apparently settled into life as a housewife somewhere in Alabama.
I kinda doubt that she will ever be haunted by her self-sculpture in the nude, though.
Gee, some of those "performances" sound a bit off the wall and definitely inappropriate for children.
DeleteI really don't "get" people who do not understand that. Sure, there's artistic freedom and all that, but just about everyone recognizes boundaries with children.
I think things like that and the attitudes that go with them (especially if they are from some "special" group like those in the LGBT community) have a lot to do with the animosity they bring upon themselves.
A lot of other people like to stir controversy like that as well (such as some of the radical feminists and atheists I have known, which BTW included Madalyn Murray O'Hair and her family at one time in Austin, TX, before they were murdered by one of their employees somewhere in the backwoods of Texas).
Ah fond memories. I've known a few odd characters in my days. Sometimes a bit too close for comfort, if I had only known then what I know how.
Another one which comes to mind was an older woman I also knew in college (through her son who was a friend of the group I used to hang out with). I had her in a few philosophy and religion classes as well. She eventually became a minister.
Turns out they were key witnesses to the infamous KKK church bombing in Birmingham (16th Street Baptist) which killed four girls.
Turns out it was their uncle who did this and they were on the run from the KKK the whole time I knew them.
They often hinted to their friends that they had to be careful who they associated with and were kind of in hiding from someone, but they never really spelled out that they were prime witnesses for a big FBI case coming up.
I guess the FBI doesn't really like folks spilling the beans.
Even more "odd" in a way is the fact that my friend's mom who was touting herself as a Lesbian at that time (which really messed up her son) eventually went full transsexual and became a man.
Then He/She wrote a book.
So if YOU want an interesting read and some insight into the kind of crowd I associated with, I'd suggest "Long Time Coming" by Petric J. Smith.
When I read it, it's almost like I can relive my college days on campus. The KKK stuff is fairly novel, though, but I can picture the kind of folks they most likely were.
So NOW I know what his/her son was going through at the time.
And now I KNOW why he was so seriously screwed up.
I know he was screwed up because one of my girlfriends at the time had dated him for a while and probably knew more about him than I did and what she told me.
Ha. Such fond memories.
But no nudes for me.
Last summer, my 78-year-old father of few words with a PhD from Columbia Univ. and a law degree from UConn finally says to me, "Well, I guess your decision to attend UMass didn't turn out that bad".
DeleteLol.
I'll never die regretting my decision to major in dance or to attend a land grant university surrounded by some of the most prestigious private universities in the world. If anything, I'm more grateful now for having the opportunity to follow my dream than I was 34 years ago. I had good parents in this regard. I find it tragic when adults squash young people's dreams.
I presume Mountain Island had a lot of parental support urging the upgrades and spending of money, maybe? Doesn't make a lot of sense otherwise....the local charter school seems to have a fair draw, so maybe it's trying to compete against that too?
ReplyDeleteAnd speaking of mobiles, how come no one's figured out a clean, somewhat easy way to stack those suckers? Instead of taking up land horizontally like a trailer park, why not design them in a way that could stack 2 (maybe 3?) high?
A nice ramp or spiral walkway would accommodate ADA and I'd have to think the overall costs, over time, would be much less than what's out there now...
Jeff,
DeleteI don't have a problem with MI being a STEM school.
I don't have a problem with Coulwood being a STEM school.
The problem is MI was built as an elemetary school on 16 acres of land and Couldwood was built decades ago as a middle/junior high school on 32 acres of land, complete with ballfields, track, gym, etc. MI has no facilities.
MI will be using Coulwood's facilities once they add all the grades.
These two schools are 8/10 of a mile apart. It's plain stupid and a huge waste of money.
I blame the BOE, not the parents. The BOE is systematically killing Coulwood (and our neighborhood), the school both my wife and son attended and that is 1 mile from my house.
I agree with having no problems with either school being STEM but being a Riverbend resident, I'm pretty certain that many families have a, um, perception about Mountain Island compared to Coulwood.
DeleteWe have families in the subdivision that are almost going off the rails because the Dollar Tree "suddenly" appeared on that corner and supposedly a Taco Bell (!!) is going in by the Harris Teeter.
And your points about available land are right on, which is why I wonder if maybe a group of parents decided to lobby the board to burnish Mountain Island at the expense of Coulwood?
Jeff
Goodwill, Dollar Tree and Family Dollar all within 100 yards of one another.
DeletePublix has sites all over the Charlotte area and the closest one to us will be in Belmont. Maybe they will put one in our area, but I believe it will be years down the road - if it happens - as a fill-in site.
That should tell you something about what's happening in this area.
Oh sorry, I forgot to sign my name to that comment.....long day, that previous comment was me.
ReplyDeleteJeff
I was thinking the same thing Shamash, it should have been a great teachable moment, but instead they taught the students that when you don't know the answer just change it to something that is easier for you to understand. That right there in a nut shell is the reason for the "F" grade.
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of stackable mobiles. I think there is actually some modular construction done this way for new highrises. Even in the US now.
ReplyDeleteHere's the new "lego" building set for construction in Brooklyn (or, rather, the hype):
http://www.planetizen.com/node/59554
And the reality...
http://atlanticyardsreport.blogspot.hk/2015/03/forest-city-10th-floor-modules-in-b2.html
And, finally, the "root" of the problem emerges...
http://atlanticyardsreport.blogspot.hk/2015/04/black-institute-slams-citys-mwbe.html
Ha-ha. Should have guessed.
ACORN was behind this one...
No wonder we cannot innovate. What a disaster this has become from it's initial hype.
And I just happened to Google upon this boondoggle by searching for "modular highrise" based on Jeff's comment and seeing all the hype about Brooklyn.
It was all done for the wrong reasons, i.e., "social welfare"...
Whoops. Meanwhile, the rest of the world marches on with its real projects.
Man that Atlantic Yards development has had a host of issues, hadn't seen that one though, interesting...
DeleteNow in addition to the stackable modular, you can add greenery and crops to the outside of them and make 'em self-sustaining to give every student a free vegetarian, locally-sourced lunch!
Why not put a hydroponic garden on top of the stack? Sounds like a deal to me. Oddly enough, here in Hong Kong (actually Kowloon) I live near an older industrial area called Kwun Tong.
DeleteWhile roaming around here I noticed that they had an organic vegetable shop in the warehouse district. Turns out they put a garden on a rooftop and are doing quite well with the organic stuff. There are also people who have apiaries (OK, beehives for the STEM crowd...) on rooftops as well. Of course, there are plenty of flowering plants around so I guess the bees just know where to go. Maybe they visit the organic gardens.
So a lot is possible in what looks like the most unlikely places if people just try these things.
AnonymousApril 13, 2015 at 10:31 PM.
ReplyDelete" but instead they taught the students that when you don't know the answer just change it to something that is easier for you to understand."
Speaking of such dumbing down, I was going through some of our old junk and found my son's previous Math workbook which had irritated the holy hell out of me for a few years at his old school. I actually went to a meeting on the curriculum and remarked on how stupid and repetitive the whole thing was. Turns out it was designed that way. So that dummies could eventually "get it".
It's called Everyday Mathematics. And it was developed by the University of Chicago. They used some dumb "spiral technique" as they called it to keep repeating the same crap over and over again in a million different ways using a million different examples while slowly drilling down to newer material.
A lot like the spiral in a screw, you see.
Lots of spinning around and little forward progress.
It used to drive my son crazy because he usually "got it" the first time and did not need all the unnecessary BS to make it any clearer.
It's got all kinds of colors, pretty pictures and such, too. Maybe it is useful for some kids who are really struggling, but I don't think it's for everyone.
In fact, if you look at some of the stuff, it's hard to tell what they are actually teaching, but it sure does burn some classroom time.
http://everydaymath.uchicago.edu/
The website has plenty of examples...
Catamount
ReplyDeletehmm….
CAT
MOUNT
"Cat of the Mountains"
I guess these kids won't be headed to Western Carolina University either.
Find this somewhat ironic: Teachable Moments
ReplyDeleteWebster's Dictionary defines "catamount" as "any of various wild cats such as a cougar or lynx." Cats of the catamount variety, including the bobcat, have roamed the southern Appalachian Mountains, where Western Carolina University is located, for years.
The nickname evolved from a contest that was held on the Cullowhee campus in 1933. At the time, the school was called "Western Carolina Teachers College" and its teams were known as "the Teachers."
Alicia
My son's fiancee graduates from there in three weeks, becoming a teacher.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to get a Catamount sweatshirt when I attend the graduation.
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