Neville Teachers Oppose Switch to Charter
By: Nina Criscuolo
Updated: January 19, 2013
The possibility of Neville High School becoming a charter school in 2013 is diminishing after teachers vote against it.
Friday morning the Neville Charter Board held a vote of Neville High School teachers as part of their application process to the BESE board. Teachers, as well as parent, support is critical to becoming a type two charter. Neville Charter Board Spokesman Ronnie Shelby says Interim Superintendent Derenda Flowers supervised the vote and also spoke to teacher privately before they made their final decisions.
About 57-percent of teachers voted against the move, which halts the process at least for this coming school year. That's an 18 vote swing from a vote taken earlier this school year, according to Shelby. He worries many of them may have been misinformed, but others say this gives both sides more time to answer those needed questions.
"With Neville, it would be really devastating to pull it out of the Monroe City School District equation. In many instances with the test scores, the desegregation plan, there's a lot of issues that I think now we have more time to look at it," says Monroe Federation of Teachers President Sandie Lollie.
Shleby says "There was a great deal of interest from the central office to see that this was defeated. This is not the first time they pulled a stunt at the last minute in order to avert our traction."
He says the board may look into an appeal process so they can continue to work toward opening as a charter this fall, but if not, they will reapply for the 2014-2015 school year.
Friday morning the Neville Charter Board held a vote of Neville High School teachers as part of their application process to the BESE board. Teachers, as well as parent, support is critical to becoming a type two charter. Neville Charter Board Spokesman Ronnie Shelby says Interim Superintendent Derenda Flowers supervised the vote and also spoke to teacher privately before they made their final decisions.
About 57-percent of teachers voted against the move, which halts the process at least for this coming school year. That's an 18 vote swing from a vote taken earlier this school year, according to Shelby. He worries many of them may have been misinformed, but others say this gives both sides more time to answer those needed questions.
"With Neville, it would be really devastating to pull it out of the Monroe City School District equation. In many instances with the test scores, the desegregation plan, there's a lot of issues that I think now we have more time to look at it," says Monroe Federation of Teachers President Sandie Lollie.
Shleby says "There was a great deal of interest from the central office to see that this was defeated. This is not the first time they pulled a stunt at the last minute in order to avert our traction."
He says the board may look into an appeal process so they can continue to work toward opening as a charter this fall, but if not, they will reapply for the 2014-2015 school year.
