RALEIGH -- Saying the Wake County school board has created a climate of uncertainty and mistrust in the community, the accreditation agency AdvancEd has placed Wake County high schools on "accreditation warned" status, giving the system a year to fix a series of issues or risking losing accreditation.
The school system issued a statement just before 2 p.m. acknowledging receipt of the letter from AdvancEd that details results of the agency's February investigation of Wake schools. The probe came as a result of a complaint by the state office of the NAACP. School officials noted that Wake will retain complete accreditation pending a return visit by Georgia-based AdvancEd.
Mark Elgart, the president of AdvancED, said Wake will have a full year to correct the issues cited in the report. But he said a review team will be back in Raleigh before Nov. 30 to monitor the school district's compliance.
"Since December 1, 2009 the actions and decisions of the Wake County Board of Education have resulted in creating a climate of uncertainty, suspicion, and mistrust throughout the community," according to the audit.
"It is critical that the Board of Education and the newly appointed Superintendent establish a cohesive governance-leadership team dedicated to serving all students attending Wake County Public Schools. Additionally, the Board of Education and Superintendent must work to gain the community’s trust and confidence in the school system and its ability to meet the needs of all students."
The review is harshly critical of the actions taken by the GOP school board majority since the board members took office Dec. 1, 2009. The report cites how the new majority, without prior warning, added several items to that meeting's agenda, including electing Ron Margiotta as board chairman.
"Board members joined forces with current Board member, Ron Margiotta, to launch a premeditated act that resulted in destabilizing the school system and community," according to the report.
AdvancED criticizes the board for actions such as:
Ending the weekly Wednesday early dismissals that critics called "Wacky Wednesdays" but had been used for teacher planning without consulting staff;
Ignoring data from staff showing gains in student achievement;
Introducing resolutions and policies to the board meeting agenda without prior notice.
But some of the harshest criticism came over the school board's handling of the elimination of the use of socioeconomic diversity in student assignment. AdvancED charged that school board members "exercised undue influence" on student assignment changes.
The report also found that school board members who eliminated the diversity policy did so with "no compelling data to support the rationale and reasoning."
But the report doesn't call for the board to go back to its old assignment policy.
The report includes seven required actions that must be acted on by the school system before another AdvancEd team returns on November 30.
The seven action steps are:
Create and implement a Strategic Plan to guide the future work of the school system.
Analyze and revise the “node” system of assigning students to schools to ensure objectivity, transparency, and consistency.
Establish and implement an agenda setting process to ensure that every member of the Board of Education and key system leadership are well-prepared for each Board meeting.
Define in policy the purpose and role of adopting resolutions as a governing practice.
Provide ongoing cohesive and consistent training to all members of the Board of Education regarding their roles, responsibilities, and the strategic direction of the school system.
Institute a policy review, revision, and adoption process that support related board policy development.
Ensure that policies and procedures guiding the work of the system are in alignment and support the newly formed vision, mission, and core beliefs.
School board members said they were asked to refer questions to Margiotta and to Superintendent Tony Tata, who took office Jan. 31 after the issues raised in the report.
"I welcome this input as I continue my listening tour of Wake County. We are already attacking many of the recommendations and intend to aggressively implement all of them," Tata said in a news release.
Margiotta said he was "pleased" that the high schools are keeping their accreditation for now.
"We had a constructive meeting with AdvancED officials this morning and while we may disagree with certain opinions expressed in the report, especially unfair characterizations of individual board members' motives, many of the actions which they recommended are currently under way," Margiotta said in a news release.
The report came the same day that Tata met with investigators from the U.S. Department of Education's Office as part of a separate investigation into the elimination of the diversity policy. That investigation was also triggered by a NAACP complaint.
The release of the report also comes as a bill is making its way through the legislature that would bar state-run universities, colleges and community colleges from using accreditation from groups like AdvancED in making decisions.
The bill, introduced Monday, says that state-run institutions of higher learning could only consider accreditation from state agencies when using accreditation for admissions, scholarship and loan decisions. The bill also instructs the state Board of Education to begin accrediting high schools when requested by school districts, which would pay for the accreditation.
