Get your own Free Home PageSmith principal Charles Monroe announced his resignation last Friday in a semester-ending faculty meeting.
The second-year Smith principal said that there were two reasons for his retiring.
"My mother has tumors on her stomach and another spot on her heart, and I need to be with her right now," he told a stunned faculty.
"But I also need to work on my doctorate. I cannot continue working on it part-time while being a principal full-time. I had to make a choice and I am choosing to go back to school on a full-time basis."
Monroe said his original seven-year clock to get his doctorate in education from UNCG had expired, but that the university had agreed to give him another five years to finish.
"This is it," Monroe said. "I have one shot left to get this degree. I want to be an administrator on the college level, so I must get my doctorate to do that."
Monroe, whose legacy for Smith will be turning the EOC scores around in just one year, said he is not interested in being a superintendent.
Smith teachers were visibly shaken by the announcement. Many shed tears as Monroe gave his half hour-long talk.
Monroe told the Guilford County Board of Education that he would like to see Smith assistant principal Al Munns take his place.
"I have suggested Mr. Munns serve as acting principal for the rest of the year," Monroe said.
"I'm certain that's what the board will do," Smith athletic director Oscar Brayboy said.
Sources in the administration told WordSmith that Munns has agreed to serve as interim principal, but that he does not want the position permanently.
Meanwhile, David Bulla, an English teacher and the adviser of WordSmith, announced his resignation too. Bulla is also returning to college. The fourth-year BLS teacher will attend Indiana University in Bloomington, Ind., starting Jan. 10 to pursue his master's in journalism. He also hopes to get his doctorate in mass communication.
Bulla will be replaced by Kelly Nash, a graduate of Beloit College in Wisconsin. Nash, a creative writing major at Beloit, spent the last year living in South Africa. Nash is a native of Rockford, Ill.
Under Bulla's guidance, WordSmith became one of the most outstanding scholastic publications in the state. Last year it received six N.C. Scholastic Media Associaion awards and was named all-Southern by the Southern Interscholastic Press Association.
Bulla plans to write his thesis on NCAA Proposition 48, the by-law that determines freshman eligibility for intercollegiate athletics.
In other news around campus, WordSmith executive editor Bobby Booker has been accepted into UNC-CH. There Booker will major in journalism.
School mid-term exams will start on Wednesday December 15th, and end Friday December 17th. Students are advised not to leave the campus becaus there will not be a standard break for lunch. Lunch will still be served in the cafeteria.
1st period 8:30-10:30
Break 10:30-10:50
2nd period 10:56-12:56
3rd period 8:30-10:30
Break 10:30-10:50
4th period 10:56-12:56
5th period 8:30-10:30
Break 10:30-10:50
6th period 10:56-12:56
The Guilford County Board of Education board has taken a long look at a block schedule for all 14 of its high schools, but will not implement the schedule next August. Instead, the board has decided to wait until the 2001-02 school year. Starting then, class periods will be twice as long as they currently are and each semester students can take four credits. Administrators support the change because it will give students the chance to take more classes (32) over the course of their four-year high school career than is currently the case. Smith students currently would only take 24 classes over a four-year period. This change will give students the chance to take more classes that they are interested in, but it will also increase the amount of time in class each day. "It is hard to keep students' attention for one hour," said math teacher Nancy Massengale. "With the block schedule it is going to be much harder to keep them on task." Others argue that with the emphasis being placed on end-of-course testing block scheduling offers a chance to immerse students
The annual Smith blood drive will be held Friday in the BLS Auxiliary Gym. From 9:00am to 2:30pm The names of students who have been excused to help has been supplied to each teacher.
"40 donars, 40 pints, That is our goal this year" says Jessica Cecil, the blood drive chairsperson this year. "The purpose of the blood drive is to get students into the habit of donating blood" Cecil says. "The older people already donate blood". Cecil has been involved in the BLS blood drive for three years now, continuing a tradition started over two decades ago.
The Golden Torch branch of the National Honor Society will have its fall induction ceremony next Thursday.
The ceremony will be held at 7 p.m. in the media center.
The 1999 North Carolina All State Honors Orchestra was held November 14,1999 at the Stevens Center for Performing Arts in Winston Salem North Carolina.
Those students from Smith include Ini Isangedighi, Angelina Moore, they were acompanied by orchestra director Jesse Suggs.
Because it will perform at Friday's playoff game at Havelock, the Smith marching band will not take part in the Johnson C. Smith homecoming parade Saturday in Charlotte.
Smith's band is fresh off a second-place finish in the Dudley PAWE competition at Tarpley Stadium last month.
The band will take part in the Greensboro Christmas parade Dec. 12.
Senta Sample was crowned Homecoming queen at the halftime of Friday's Smith-Glenn football game.
Jessica Cecil was named Miss Ben L. Smith.
Sample and Cecil were two of 10 seniors voted to the court. Other senior members included Monique Austin, Amber Cargill, Morgann Edwards, Nicole Gales, Tishima Goldston, Quanedda James, Cheryl Parks and Shaquinta Platt.
Juniors members of the court include Clarissa Burns, Amanda Cox, Ashley Good, Sarah Morales, Heather Sizemore and Sholanda Smith; sophomores are D'Wan Austin, Lauren Curtis, Sheena Haith, Kesha Jackson and Tia Matthews; and freshmen are Chanel Brown, Wendy Chantavong, Krystal Fuller, Jamie Gibbs and Nina Scott.
Meanwhile, Smith took second place in the PAWE band competition at Dudley last Saturday. East Mecklenburg finished first. Host Dudley did not compete.
Easa Hanhan heads a group of six seniors who have been named to the Ben L. Smith High I.Q. team for the 1999-2000 school year.
Hanhan, the team's captain, is joined by Bobby Booker Jr., Rebecca Dimondstein, Jessica Cecil, Courtney Duncan and Bojana Manigoda. Hanhan, Dimondstein, Cecil and Booker will make up the playing team. Duncan will serve as alternate and Manigoda as attestor.
Six Uzbekistani women toured Smith last Tuesday through the Piedmont Triad Council for International Visitors (PTCIV).
Led by Maluda Abduhalimova, the Uzbekistanis visited several classes. When asked about the role of women in Uzbekistan, Abduhalimova said:
“We say that the women is the neck of the family. The man is the head of the family. The woman does the really important work.”
Abduhalimova was joined by Hafiza Ahmedova, Olga Avanesova, Matluba Bazarova, Bibisara Oripova and Dilaram Umarkhanova, all of whom work in the social work and vocational fields. Bill Bobbitt and Inga Karlina served as interpreters. Several of them deal with such social problems as depression and low self-esteem in young women.
ESL director Dr. Ann Pember served as BLS’s tour guide. Brooks Westwater was the liaison from PTCIV.
Standardized test taking time is upon juniors and seniors, with the first administration of the Scholastic Aptitude Test being Oct. 9 and the second Nov. 6.
The SAT is a tool that colleges utilize in the process of admitting students. SAT scores play a major role in determining whether or not a student is eligible to enter the college of his or her choice. The scores not only affect students, but it also important to a school’s ranking in comparing to other schools in the county and state.
While SAT scores increased four points to 986 in Guilford County Schools, Smith’s scores declined 54 points to 846.
“The score (for Smith) went down because many seniors didn’t prepare for college admission and some students didn’t even take the PSAT,” BLS math teacher Nancy Massengale said. “There were also students who waited until February to apply for college.”
Smith’s scores had risen almost 130 points from 1989 to1998. But gains were not equal year in and year out, and the scores received a major boost when ETS reentered the scores in the early 1990s.
Chris Canipe, head of the Guidance Department said that the trend at Smith fits the national picture.
"SAT scores have been going up and down for the last 30 years,” Canipe said.
Over the last three years, Smith has offered an SAT prep class taught by Massengale at 7:30 a.m. The class is open to all students. Thirty students are currently enrolled in the class.
Furthermore, the SAT word of the day is supposed to be written in every class to help students improve their vocabulary skills.
To determine how well students perform on the SAT, the state is also paying for those students who have geometry or a higher level of math to take the Preliminary Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT).
“The College Board will tell you that it’s an invalid way to judge the school based on their SAT score,” Canipe emphasized.
Canipe said that the public does not believe the SAT is a way to judge how the school performs academically.
Nonetheless, it is confusing to see Smith's scores on five of the six state-mandated end-of-course tests improve, while the SAT's go down 6 percent. Smith’s SAT score decreased in 1998-99 while its ABC scores increased. Its ‘98-99 ABCs scores give Smith exemplary status after having been low-performing the previous year.
“The ABCs are more likely to be affected by short term change while the SAT usually change more in the long term,” Canipe explained.
“Students who do well in class do well on the SAT,” Canipe added.
He also said there are students who do well on the SAT but don’t put Smith’s code number down so Smith doesn’t get credit for their scores. There also students from different schools who scored low and used Smith’s code number. The reason for these complicated problems are still a mystery.
Smith has no control over the importance society places of the SAT. However, the truth is many colleges do use the SAT as a secondary factor in choosing students for admissions. There, the SAT is a necessary evil for those students who want to go to college.
The staff of WordSmith has finished production on a fall sports media guide that will be available in two weeks.
The Smith Football 1999 and Fall Sports media guide will be available for the next Golden Eagles' home game. The 40-page document features stories on Smith's magical 1974 football season when it went to the state title game, a look at the '98 campaign, previews of all fall sports teams, an honor roll of the greatest football players in school history and a pictorial spread by WordSmith photographer Ryan Krause.
The media guide was the idea of Smith football coach Tony McKee and BLS principal Charles Monroe.
With Hurricane Floyd bearing down on the southeastern North Carolina coast, Guilford County School officials decided to call off classes Thursday.
Most school districts east of Forsyth County called off Thursday classes as Floyd prepared to make landfall between Sunset Beach and Morehead City. Floyd was listed as a category three hurricane Wednesday night, with winds at 115 mph. It was expected to be downgraded to a category one or two on Thursday, depending on the exact route it takes.
Greensboro is expected to see significant rainfall and perhaps tropical-storm-level winds. Points east of Goldsboro will see hurricane-force winds and up to 20 inches of rain as Floyd merges with a low front coming from the northwest. The Outer Banks and Morehead City area were expected to receive the brunt of damaging wind and rain.
Smith students are reminded to monitor cable channel 3 Thursday night and early Friday morning for updates on Friday classes.
Meanwhile, all athletic events were cancelled for Wednesday and Thursday because of the approach of Floyd to North Carolina. Currently, Friday night's varsity football game with Grimsley is still scheduled to be played. Game is 7:30 at Manzi Stadium. Grimsley is 3-0-1 and Smith is 2-2.
Former Ben L. Smith High School principal Bennie Higgins died last Friday after a bout with colon cancer.
Higgins, 55, served as Smith’s principal from 1976 until 1990. Since then, he was an associate superintendent of the Guilford County Schools.
Funeral will be held today at 3 p.m. at Shiloh Baptist Church. Burial will follow in Maplewood Cemetery.
Higgins, a native of Greensboro, graduated from Hunter High School in Matthews, Va., and earned his undergraduate degree from Hampton Institute. Later, he earned his master’s at N.C. A&T and his doctorate in education at Appalachian State.
Higgins was a long-time educator. He taught biology at Dudley High School and was named assistant principal at Proximity School, which would become McIver. He had stints as an assistant principal at Mendenhall Middle School and Smith before taking over as head man at BLS in 1976.
After his years at Smith, he moved downtown and worked in administration. He served in various capacities there, including director of secondary education. Through that position, he maintained strong ties to BLS.
Higgins was long associated with the N.C. High School Athletic Association in Chapel Hill. He served as president of the board of directors of NCHSAA.
He was also involved in Leadership Greensboro, Greensboro Beautiful, Hampton Alumni Association, Greensboro Men’s Club and Phi Beta Sigma fraternity. He was also a member of the National Middle School Association and the National Association of Secondary School Principals. He received numerous honors, including administrator of the year from the N.C. Association of Office Personnel.
He is survived by his wife, Jane Holt Higgins; son, Terrik LaMont Higgins; brothers, Qunnie Higgins and Guy Higgins, and sisters, Walta Mae Johnson, Bettye Miller and Emma Hair. He is also survived by 18 nieces and nephews.
Donations may be sent to Hospice at Greensboro (2500 Summit Ave., 27405), Family Life Center of Shiloh Baptist Church (1210 S. Eugene St., 27406) or the Bennie Higgins Memorial Scholarship Fund (23 E. Fountain Manor Drive, 27405).
The albatross is dead.
After a year with voluntary assistance from the state department of public instruction, Ben L. Smith High School has attained exemplary status.
Principal Charles Monroe made the announcement after sending a letter to the faculty advising it that Smith had made exemplary. Smith finished with an +8.3 overall ABC index score. A school needs a +1.0 indexed score to make exemplary. Last year BLS had a -1.5 indexed score. It did not have to have an assistance team because it was barely low-performing; however, Monroe felt it was more prudent take an assistance team at that time than to face more serious consequences later.
The largest gains on the EOCs came in Algebra I (+7.4), Biology (+5.4) and English II (+4.1).
The Guilford County Schools released the scores on the 1998-99 end-of-course tests July 26. Smith improved on five of the six EOCs. Improvement came in Algebra I, biology, U.S. history and English I and II. The only decline came in ELPSA (civics), which had shown improvement in each of the previous two years. Grimsley was the only othr GCS high school to improve on five EOC tests.
The EOC scores used to determine a school's overall standing are based on the percentage of students on grade level in a particular course.
Last year Smith improved on three tests and declined on three. This led to a negative score overall on the ABCS, an accountability plan that takes into account relative progress by looking at the precentage of students on grade level for a three-year period.
Since BLS was low-performing last year, it requested a voluntary, part-time assistance team from the state. A second straight low-performing year would have earned Smith a mandatory, full-time assistance team from Raleigh.
Monroe now has to determine how the bonus money for making exemplary will be split up. Each faculty member may receive as much as a $1,500 bonus from the state.
Smith had only one class over the 50-percent mark -- Algebra I.
In other BLS news, Mae Chalk (Spanish), Rob Biasotti (social studies) and Maureen Galvin (social studies) have tendered their resignations. Chalk is headed to Hilton Head Island, S.C., Biasotti to St. Thomas Aquinas School in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and Galvin to East Chapel Hill High School. Margaret Courtney (physical education) retired in June. Social studies teachers Tracy Gooch and Carol Deaton have also reportedy resigned.
According to a high-placed source, all of last year's faculty will get the bonus, including personnel that retired or resigned this summer.
Guilford County Schools superintendent Jerry Weast will become the superintendent of the Montgomery County, Md., schools, according to a report in the June 30 Washington Post.
The Post reported that his contract to lead Maryland's second-largest school system will be worth $225,000, making him far and away the highest paid superintendent in the metropolitan Washington, D.C., area.
Montgomery County has 185 schools and 128,000 students, contrasted to 94 schools and 61,000 students in Guilford County. Blair and Whitman High Schools in Bethesda are among the best public high schools in the nation. The Montgomery system is the 19th-largest in the country.
The 51-year-old Weast, who has led GCS since it merged with the Greensboro and High Point schools in 1993, was making $190,000. He replaces Paul L. Vance, who was making $155,000. Weast's nomination was approved June 29 by a vote of the Montgomery County school board.
As Guilford school chief, Weast put an emphasis on early childhood education and on weeding out weak teachers. He also led the Guilford County school board's attempt to redistrict its schools, a project that was completed this spring. The board of education and the county commissioners have been at odds over how to pay for redistricting and other items that will update the county's school system.
CHAPEL HILL -- Pou Keophakhoun, 1998-99 executive editor of WordSmith, received two editorial writing awards June 16 at the N.C. Scholastic Media Association's annual awards announcements at Howell Hall on the UNC campus.
Keophakhoun, who was BLS's valedictorian, won first place for individual general column. Keophakhoun, a native of Laos, wrote about the problems of sharing loyalties to two distinct cultures. She also took second in editorial column. Keophakhoun, who gave a moving speech at graduation last week, is headed to UNCG, where she will major in business.
WordSmith, a newsmagazine that was named all-South by the Southern Interscholastic Press Association during the spring, also got a first in photography. Tara Fraser took first for her International Day photo of Shawn Hughes, a member of the AFJROTC drill team.
Bobby Booker, who will assume Keophakhoun's role as executive editor in August, took third place for his sports column on steroids.
“The reason why we won three more awards than last year was because staffers attended the Summer Institute last June,” Booker said. “They took knowledge from here last year and they took it back to WordSmith. People like Pou, Darren (Popik), Olivia (Dickens) and Claudja (Goode) gave WordSmith a thrust.
“Because we attended this camp, we will be more focused and wiser next year. We can transfer the knowledge that we got here this week. Another thing we looked at is other successful high school newspapers from across the state. Such papers as Gastonia Ashbrook’s Wavelengths and Manteo’s Sound to Sea provide examples for the rest of us. ”
WordSmith received honorable mention for its work in editorials and features.
"We are gratified at the progress we have shown," said David Bulla, WordSmith's adviser. "We claimed three awards last year and six this year. That's what we want to see. The standard for next year's staff is high."
Booker raised a challenge to the 1999-2000 staff.
"“WordSmith would like to double its awards total next year,” Booker continued. “We won three last year, six this year and hope to win 12 next year. It will take a lot of work, but this camp gives us a chance to get started on that goal.”
"Booker said that the awards also left him a bit disappointed.
"“Darren, Nensi, Mellissa (Matthess) and I put a great deal of emphasis on sports coverage,” he said. “I personally covered every football game. We had a tremendous amount of space devoted to sports this year and we received only on third-place award in sports. I’m personally feel let down. We have to go back and see what we can do to improve. The competition, though, was keen. Some of the best schools in the state are in our size category.”
Seven members of the 1999-2000 WordSmith staff have been taking part in the annual NCSMA Summer Institute at UNC this week. They include Booker, Dickens, Nensi Tomas, Nick Long, Darshna Patel, Dao Truong ad Shawn Hughes.
Dipti Patel, a member of the 1998-99 staff, served as an assistant to the secretary of NCSMA during the annual journalism camp. Dipti Patel graduated from Smith June 11 and will major in computers at UNCG beginning in August.
In addition to the awards WordSmith won, the Smith publication also undertook a move to be a part of the leadership of NCSMA. Booker, a rising senior, was voted state-wide student vice president for news for NCSMA and Bulla was named a faculty vice president. Booker will attend several meetings at UNC-CH to help mold NCSMA policy and plan for next year's Summer Institute. Bulla had served as a NCSMA regional director for 1998-99.
"I didn't attend the Institute last year, but I can tell President Will Loftis (of R.J. Reynolds High School) and his vice presidents did an excellent job with this year's conference. Will added a neat opening skit and listened to any issue the students wanted to raise. The students who attended were enthusiastic. The only thing that dampered our enthusiasm at times was the constant rain."
WordSmith is in its third year of existence. The first year, 1996-97, it published two editions when it was an after-school club. It was put out by one class in 1997-98 and two classes this past school year. It published six editions each of the last two years. It also published 150 daily newsletters called WordSmith Daily this past school year.
The Smith boys' track and field team nearly lapped the field April 30 and retained their Piedmont Triad Conference championship.
Hurdler Brandon Summers, sprinter Deshon James and the Golden Eagles' relay teams led the way. Summers, one of the top hurdlers in the state, won both the 300- and 100-meter hurdles. James took both the 100 and 200. The Golden Eagles swept the relays.
Other Smith victory came from Sharmaree Brown in the discus.
Smith totaled 218 point. Second-place was second with 119 points. Dudley finished third with 80 points. Rounding out the final standings, Carver was fourth with 56 points, followed b Southwest with 49, Glenn with 16 and Parkland with 1.
On the girls' side, Smith took third with Tawana Rowland taking first in the 300 hurdles. The Lady Golden Eagles also won the 4x100 relay.
School redistricting in Guilford County has been debated hot and heavily the last two years.
At one point it seemed to have taken an almost violent turn for the worst. Questions -- like when will it take affect, what's it going to cost, how will it effect taxes, will racial tension be a problem, how will it effect student relationships, how will it effect staffing and schools in general -- were being asked at redistricting meetings GCS has offered to the public. The answers were often vague and contentious since the citizens of the county have very strong opinions about public education. The projected year for redistricting to take full affect is 2008. The process of redistricting is predicted to cost the taxpayers of Guilford County $151.4 million.
As for racial tension the problem is inevitable, but the school board and its allies are hoping that redistricting will soften the blow by balancing the racial ratios at many schools. Student relationships will also be affected. Some students will be separated from their friends when they split middle and elementary schools. This will have both positive and negative effects on students. The positive consequence is it will force many to make new friends and this will cut down on cliques; the negative effect will be the loss of other friendships because of separation.
It appears redistricing will have two major effects on Smith. First, students from the Lindley Park neighborhood will no longer be in the BLS attendance zone. Second, Smith is expected to see its enrollment increase to 1,800. Currently, Smith has a capacity for 1,140 students and a cramped enrollment of 1,190.
The expansion of Smith's enrollment will cost taxpayers an estimated $11.5 million. The racial ratio is also expected to even out a little. The current racial ratio is 58 percent black, 17 percent Asian and approximately 23 percent white. With current demographic patterns, the Asian and other immigrant population should continue to grow. However, GCS only factors in 2 percent decrease in black enrollment by 2008.
Meanwhile, the state board of education decided March 31 to end social promotion, at least in the third, fifth and eight grades. Under the new guidelines, third-, fifth- and eighth-graders will have to pass a multiple-choice test in reading and mathematics or repeat the grade.
Similarly, juniors will have to pass a high school exit exam to receive their diplomas. The test will measure students knowledge of reading, grammar, math through Algebra I, science and history. This test may replace the competency test now given to eighth-graders and the 10th-grade comprehensive test of reading and math.
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