N&R and Rhino coverage of Guilford County school board member Sandra Alexander’s plan to make the new Ronald E. McNair Elementary School a science and engineering magnet school.
Alexander — introduced yesterday as semi-regular N&R columnist on “issues related to African-American male achievement in Guilford County,” says a school dedicated to science and engineering would be a perfect tribute to the astronaut and N.C. A&T graduate who died in the 1986 Challenger explosion.
The N&R says it’s “it’s unclear whether Alexander was motivated to propose a magnet to appease parents in northern Greensboro who don’t want their children reassigned to McNair when it opens this summer,” while the Rhino pretty much makes that case, citing vocal opposition from Lake Jeanette parents:
My main concern is the QUALITY of EDUCATION my son will be getting going to this new school – Ronald McNair Elementary School,” a parent of a Jesse Wharton student living in the Willoughby Park neighborhood wrote the school board. “It is a TITLE 1 school, with a 65% free lunch program for children. The teachers will have to be focused more on NON-ACADEMIC ISSUES (i.e. social, emotional problems of children) rather than the academic teaching styles. This will definitely affect my son’s academic future.”
The Rhino adds Alexander refused to speculate whether she would push for McNair Elementary to be an all-magnet school or a split between a magnet and a neighborhood school. That decision needs “to be hashed out with federal staff and the board,” she said.
