YOUR-VOICE

OPINION: New Hanover superintendent's rebuttal to Clyde Edgerton

Tim Markley For StarNews Media
Author and UNCW professor Clyde Edgerton (left) and New Hanover County Schools Superintendent Tim Markley.

If you have a leaky faucet, you repair it so that it does not get worse. You recognize the leak and make the repair. As the superintendent of the New Hanover County school system, this is the approach that I take. When a problem arises, it’s acknowledged and addressed with a solution that will prevent future problems.

Over the course of the past few years, author and UNCW professor Clyde Edgerton continues to speak about the Spanish Immersion program that was previously located at Forest Hills Global Elementary School. I want to provide a little background about that program and provide some context to this issue so that the community will understand the nature of the challenges we faced and how I addressed the concerns to turn the program into a thriving magnet school.

The Spanish Immersion program began in the year 2010-11 with about 20 students. For the next few years, it remained relatively small and struggled to be successful. In August of 2012, a new principal was selected and the immersion program was reworked with the help of the NHCS Instructional Department. We partnered with an outside group that provided the curriculum and staffed the classes with international teachers. The changes proved successful. The program’s popularity increased, and it started to attract attention from families outside the school’s district. There was one issue with the program though -- it lacked diversity; even within the school, the program did not match the demographics of the population at-large. During the 2015-16 school year, the district decided to move the program from Forest Hills to Gregory to help support its growth, expand the program into middle-school grades, and create an immersion-focused school. This move was approved by the school board at its December 2015 meeting.

The decision to move the immersion program was not without controversy. Many of the Forest Hills parents wanted the program to remain at Forest Hills. Mr. Edgerton supported moving the program to Gregory. He wrote a Letter to the Editor stating his support. By relocating the program to a larger school facility, we helped resolve some of the concerns. We increased enrollment, increased the program’s diversity and provided better access for parents. As a district-wide magnet school, Gregory was able to offer transportation, which allowed more students to access the program.

Since moving the immersion program to Gregory in August 2016, it has grown and has become one of the largest immersion programs in the state. Gregory has become one of the district’s most diverse schools. We have added an additional language – Mandarin Chinese – for students. Our first group of middle-school students will head to high school next year.

The primary point of the controversy appears to be the enrollment process for the 2015-16 school year. This was the last year that the program was located at Forest Hills. During this time, the program’s popularity was increasing for families outside the school’s attendance zone. NHCS allowed the principal to manage the student enrollment process at the school level. Upon reflection, this was not the best process, and as superintendent, I own that mistake. The enrollment process returned to Central Office the following school year when the program was moved to Gregory. Since the 2016-17 school year, the enrollment process has been coordinated by the district’s enrollment specialist, who manages all magnet school enrollments per board policy.

The other part of the controversy is the concern that students were left out. Mr. Edgerton felt that the process excluded minority candidates who wanted to apply. To rectify this concern, every student who was on the waitlist was offered a place at Gregory. A letter was mailed to each parent on the waitlist offering the opportunity for their students to attend the immersion program.

Any attempt to use this situation to paint a broader picture would be inaccurate. The truth is that it involved one program at a single elementary school in a single year. The end result was that the district recognized that the process was flawed and took the steps to correct any errors or misconceptions that had unintentionally occurred. Moving the immersion program and offering a slot to everyone on the waitlist were the right steps to support a growing program and to correct any concerns that may have come about. As a district, we need to recognize that when we make decisions, and they're wrong they need to be corrected; this one was.

An additional part of this controversy involves the restricting of Mr. Edgerton from New Hanover County schools. One of our primary goals is the protection of students, which includes their personal safety and the security of personal information. Throughout this process, Mr. Edgerton was trying to find out information about those students who were on the waitlist. The information was confidential, as are all student records. The manner in which he went about trying to obtain this information was concerning; student records were at his house, and he was calling other people trying to get names, phone numbers and other personal information. One person called us concerned when she had a voicemail from Mr. Edgerton claiming that he was looking for information and that he had probably gotten her name and number illegally. When district personnel tried to talk to him about his approach, he retained a lawyer and refused to talk, leaving the district with no other option than restricting his access to NHCS. He filed an Office of Civil Rights (OCR) complaint, which was rejected. Within the OCR complaint, he admits he had an informal list of student names and would not disclose how he got them. Mr. Edgerton also told OCR that he was not interested in meeting with the Superintendent, because by not doing so, it “keeps the conversation going”.

I'm not sure why Mr. Edgerton has chosen to revisit this issue now. What I can say is that as a district, we heard the concerns and took the necessary steps to improve the program. The end result is a much better, more comprehensive program that serves students from more diverse backgrounds. We will continue to tweak all of our programs in order to make them better. I believe that our energies are better spent looking forward and making positive change. I encourage all community members to work for the betterment of our students in a positive forward-thinking manner.

Dr. Tim Markley is superintendent of New Hanover County Schools.