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Wake Education Partnership Newsletter September 2013

A Message from Partnership

President Steve Parrott

I just returned from Garner Magnet HighSchool where I attended the Friends ofWake County news conference discussingthe upcoming Wake school bondreferendum October 8. I also had thepleasure of joining elected officials,business leaders and the media for a schooltour hosted by Principal Drew Cook. Hereare a few observations: 1. It was great to see county commissionChair Joe Bryan and school board ChairKeith Sutton working together to supportpassage of this much needed school bond.Other county commissioners and schoolboard members were there as wellproviding their public support. 2. County Manager David Cooke andSuperintendent Dr. Jim Merrill were also inattendance. The county manager certainlyunderstands the importance of timing forthis referendum to take advantage of thecounty's triple A bond rating and lowinterest rates. Dr. Merrill is committed toproviding the much needed resources toeducators in Wake County. 3. Friends of Wake co-chairs Phil Zachary,Billie Redmond and Marion Robinson alongwith other business leaders know the link

IN THIS ISSUE

President's Column

Partnership Connections: Working w ith others

Our Cornerstone Investors

Learn More About Us

Meet our investors: SAS

Teacher Leadership Grants

In Their Words: Why the Partnership Matters

By the Numbers: A Measure of Wake County Schools

Contact Us

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Welcome! We hope you find the

information and links in this publicationhelpful. To find out more about us:

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Meet Our Investors

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between having a quality school systemand economic growth. Using 20-year bondsto finance school construction andrenovation, as well as providingimprovements to security and technologyinfrastructure, is an equitable approach toensure current taxpayers don't bear the fullfinancial burden. As new employers andemployees move into Wake County, theywill also provide financial support throughthe property taxes they pay. 4. Garner High Principal Drew Cook is one ofmany passionate educators proud to beworking in the Wake County Public SchoolSystem. He has a great faculty and 2,436students who work hard to succeedacademically while overcoming obviousdeficiencies in school infrastructure. I sawfirsthand what it's like to accommodatethis many students in a school designed tohold 1,850 kids. The main building, parts ofwhich were built in the 1960s, doesn'tcome close to holding everyone, so thereare 40 mobile classrooms (trailers) on thiscampus. Some of the "temporary" mobilesare more than 20 years old. There are somany that some students walk a quartermile across campus to access a"temporary" cafeteria housed in yetanother mobile structure. Any voter who is on the "fence" regardingthe October 8 bond vote should take thesame tour to see these needs firsthand. Atthe same time, I am pleased to report thefaculty and students at Garner MagnetHigh School focus far more on the positivesthan the negatives at their school. Theymirror Drew Cook's "make no excuses"attitude toward academic achievement. Please join me in voting "YES" October 8 tosupport our educators, our students andthe continued economic success of ourWake communities.

C. Steve Parrott

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There is still time to purchase tickets

for Wake Education Partnership's 30thanniversary celebration!

Guest columnist

Caroline McCullenSAS

Caroline McCullen

For 30 years, Wake Education Partnershiphas built a reputation of advocating forstudents, teachers and quality education.As an organization, we have left politics toothers in order to maintain a laser focus onsupporting teachers and students. Sorecently when our board chair asked if wewanted to support the Wake Countyschool bond referendum, the board ofdirectors had a lively discussion. Was this issue too political? Would ourposition be aligned with our mission? Howwould this affect our position in thecommunity since other organizations hadalready come out strongly against thebond? After much discussion, theunanimous decision was to advocate forthe school bond. Why did the Partnership board decide tostep into what some would see as apolitical issue? I can't answer for my boardcolleagues, but I have learned a great dealby talking with educators and workingwith Friends of Wake County, anadvocacy organization that provides keyfacts about the bond referendum. Here area few statistics from their web site, someof which were the most compelling reasonsfor my vote and for our board's decision. Since our last school bond in 2006, we

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6 p.m. - 8 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 3Marbles Kids Museum, Raleigh

Featuring the inaugural inductees of the Wake County Public School System

Hall of Fame

Education: Dr. Bill McNealformer Wake schools superintendent

Business: Ann Goodnight

on behalf of SAS

Community Service: Sherry Worthlifelong community leader

Entrepreneurship: Zach Clayton

president and CEO Three Ships Media

Athletics: David WestIndiana Pacers

Arts: Dr. Elizabeth Grimes-DroesslerWCPSS senior administrator for the arts.

In addition, former Wake schoolsSuperintendent Dr. Bob Bridges and G.Smedes York, chairman of the board ofYork Properties/McDonald York BuildingCompany will also receive special LifetimeAchievement Awards.

Special thanks to the following sponsorsfor supporting this event:

Presenting Sponsor

Hall of Fame Sponsor

have added more than 170,000 residents,and Wake County is now the largestdistrict in the state and the 16th largest inthe U.S. No matter which projections youbelieve, it is clear that we will need moreseats for students. The district expects togrow by 3,200 seats this year. Even ifmore students attend charters andindependent schools, there will not beenough seats. The bond would pay for 16new schools, renovations at older schools,roofing repairs, heating and air conditioningupgrades, technology infrastructureupgrades and more. Our children needthese improvements. If we take the long-term view, we mustacknowledge that the schools must bebuilt; the question is how we pay for them.By law, Wake County must provide a seatfor every child. There is no pot of moneyallocated for new school buildings.Thedistrict must borrow to pay for buildings,much like a home mortgage. The differenceis that voter-approved bonds have thelowest interest rate, which saves the tax-payers money in the long run. Although we have had tremendouspopulation growth, Wake County's tax ratehas remained the same since 2008. SinceWake County has a triple-A bond rating,voter-approved bonds are the cheapestway to pay. Bonds are also the fairestway, because current and future residentswould pay gradually over a number ofyears. To picture how this might affectyour tax bill, the average value of a WakeCounty home is $265,500, and the home-owner would pay about $12 per monthmore. We think our children are worth it. The Partnership board agreed that voter-approved bonds are a good investment inthe future of Wake County. Please join meand other supporters of Wake CountyPublic Schools and vote "Yes" on Oct. 8. Caroline McCullenDirector of Education InitiativesSAS ---------------------------------------

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Registration Sponsor

Host sponsors

Allen Tate Realtors, BB&T, Capstrat, GoldenCorral, Grant Thornton, Greene Resources,Highwoods Properties, Honoring MarionRobinson, Lenovo, Poyner Spruill, SunTrustBank, VantageSouth Bank, Womble CarlyleSandridge & Rice Help celebrate 30 years of supportingpublic education. Join us Oct. 3 for the

celebration!

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Partnership Connections

Wake Education Partnership is pleased towork with local businesses, the schoolsystem and a wide variety of groups indifferent ways that focus on the educationof children and their families. Below aresome recent highlights and thanks.

Several members of the Partnershipstaff participated in a conferenceorganized by World View and theWake County Public SchoolSystem in August titled"Transforming Learning EnvironmentsThrough STEM and Global Education."Partnership President Steve Parrottshared remarks during the openingsession providing a business andcommunity perspective on STEM andGlobal Education. Vice presidentsTim Simmons and Julie Crainconducted a breakout sessionfocused on "Creating Partnershipswith the Business Community." The Partnership completed its fourthEarly Literacy Summit Sept. 21 in

The 2013-2014 school year is underway,and thirty-four Wake County public schoolteachers are carrying out classroom grantsthanks to local business investments inWake Education Partnership! The grants are focused on the arts, dentalhealth, early childhood literacy, math, lifescience, health and nutrition, and autismeducation. Teacher Leadership Grants for the 2013-2014 academic year were made possible byTime Warner Cable, Biogen Idec.,GlaxoSmithKline, Food Lion, Quintiles, theCarolina Hurricanes Kids 'N CommunityFoundation, Blue Cross Blue Shield of NorthCarolina, Duke Raleigh Hospital,VantageSouth Bank, the Sherri MerrittLiteracy Scholarship Fund and the Hit ItFar For Kirby golf tournament. The Teacher Leadership Grants program isone of the Partnership's longest-runningprograms, allowing the business communityto invest almost $1 million in classroomprograms during the past 26 years. Click here to see a full list of the grantrecipients and team leaders. ---------------------------------------

In Their Words Why The Partnership Matters

From time to time, people will graciouslydrop us a line or tell others why thePartnership matters to them. We likegetting these notes and we love sharingthem.

Here is one we're especially proud of givenour work with the local chambers ofcommerce.

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Wendell in collaboration with localchurches, day-cares, the schoolsystem and other non-profits such asSmart Start, Marbles KidsMuseum, and Motheread. Specialthanks to the four schools thathosted the summits in Knightdale,Rolesville, Wendell and Zebulon. Thehalf-day summits attracted teachers,parents and day-care providers aspart of a larger community effort toincrease the percentage ofkindergartners recognizing print andprint concepts. The summits weremade possible by grants from PNCand AT&T. The Partnership was represented atthe Raleigh Innovation Summit onSeptember 11, 2013. Vice presidentJulie Crain attended the event andparticipated in an education breakoutdiscussion titled "Shaping theEntrepreneurial Mindset."Partnership president Steve Parrottand vice president Julie Crain haveparticipated in focus groups andworking groups for the Institute forEmerging Issues upcoming forum inFebruary 2014. The focus issue forthis forum is education.The Partnership has worked withlocal businesses and the schoolsystem throughout the past month insupport of the $810 million bondrequest before voters Oct. 8. MarionRobinson, a member of thePartnership's Executive Committee,serves as a co-chair of thecountywide committee working insupport of the upcoming school bondreferendum. The Friends of WakeCounty committee also includesPartnership board members PaulaFryland of PNC, Chris Bell ofSunTrust and Gordon Brown ofAlfred Williams & Company. Inaddition, Partnership staff membershave worked closely with the Friendsof Wake County and made numerouspresentations to local businessgroups to answer questions aboutthe proposed building program.

Working with and representing the businesscommunity in a wide range of activities is alarge part of who we are and what we do.It gives us an opportunity to learn more

"Thank you so much for your continuedsupport of the Cary Chamber's EducationCommittee! What an excellent discussionregarding the state of Wake County'spublic school system. I know I've said thisbefore, but we are truly lucky to have anorganization like Wake Ed Partnership.Thanks for all you do!" Allison WrennDirector, Education and FinanceCary Chamber of Commerce

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In Context An independent review of school issues forbusiness leaders, elected officials and theeducation community in Wake County.

Provided free by Wake Education

Partnership

Read / Subscribe

Upcoming Events

30th Anniversary Celebration

On October 3, we will celebrate our 30thanniversary at Marbles Kids Museum. Tickets are still available! Register today

World Cafe' - October 16, 2013

On October 16, the Partnership will partnerwith WCPSS to offer the second annualWorld Cafe'. At this morning meeting,principals and teachers from schools withinthe WCPSS STEM and Global Schools

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about the needs of the district and tomake sure the perspectives of localbusinesses are well represented indiscussions at all levels. We thank you forsupporting an organization that can carryout this work.

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Our Cornerstone Investors

The following have invested in the work ofthe Partnership at $10,000 and above.

We would like to take this opportunity topublicly thank them and want you to know

who they are.

AT&TBank of America

BB&TBiogen Idec Foundation

Capitol Broadcasting CompanyCarolina Hurricanes Kids 'n Community

FoundationDuke Raleigh Hospital

GlaxoSmithKlineGolden Corral

Greater Raleigh Chamber of CommerceLifetouch

MMI Public Relations News & ObserverProgress Energy

PNC BankRex Healthcare

SASSunTrust Bank

Time Warner CableWakeMed

Wells Fargo

Network will sit down with members of thebusiness community to discuss ways topartner together. A huge thanks toAllscripts, host of this year's gathering!

Parent Academy - WCPSS On multiple Tuesday, Wednesday, andThursday evenings each month, WCPSSoffers a Parent Academy. Selected topicsand sessions are designed help familieslearn to engage with the school systemand positively contribute to their child'sacademic and social success. You can find the schedule of sessions andtopics, as well as a registration link at: http://www.wcpss.net/parent-academy/.

By the numbers...A measure of Wake County schools

When Wake County voters are asked Oct. 8 to approve the sale of $810 million worth ofbonds for construction, renovations, repairs and technology, the approval ultimatelycomes down to a single number. That would be the number ONE --as in your vote.School bond requests are often decided on turnout and every vote matters. Here are several reasons the Partnership encourages you to vote "Yes" Oct. 8 . Moreinformation is available by clicking here.

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Enrollment and capacity projections: Wake County expects to enroll 20,000 new students between 2014 and 2018. Thedistrict doesn't have the seats. The bond would allow construction to keep up withcapacity and allow the district to remove enrollment caps in most areas. It will notcreate additional seats or reduce the use of classroom trailers. New schools:

Elementary (11 new schools)Middle (three new schools)High (five new schools)

Renovations:

Six complete campus renovations Three campus renovations started to prepare for next building programSignificant renovations and repairs at more than half of the district's schools

Facilities support:

Land acquisition, security, technology upgrades systemwide

Total cost: $939.9 million

Amount covered by bonds: $810 millionAmount paid in cash: $130 million

Expected tax increase:

5.53 cents per $100 of assessed property value$145.72 per year on average-priced house of $263,500 ($12 per month)

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Please contact our staff at 821.7609 if you have any questions about our work or if youwish to find out how you can invest in public education through the Partnership. If youlike what you see here or at our web site, please encourage your friends and colleaguesto join our mailing list. It costs nothing to receive Partnership materials.

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