BCR's Daily Fishwrap Report for November 3, 2009

The big news of the day, naturally, is Carl Harris' departure from Durham Public Schools; the superintendent will leave DPS at calendar year's end to take a deputy assistant superintendent position in the Obama administration's Department of Education. The Herald-Sun (#1, #2, #3) notes that the school board has been more harmonious since unanimous-pick Harris took over for Ann Denlinger -- though the change in elected officials on the board likely also played a role.

The statistical performance of the district has been uneven, with improvements in some measures and declines in others -- something a data-driven Harris administration watched closely. As the commenters here yesterday from a group of parents organizing around the Reading Street program attest, the data-centric approach of Harris is a staple of the educational reform movement spearheaded nationally with Broad Foundation and other philanthropic monies.

Both Mayor Bell and BOCC chair Michael Page praised Harris for his work, as did members of the school board in comments to the paper; the Rev. Mel Whitley tells the N&O in their coverage that Harris "exceeded expectations" given the deep animosities that troubled the school board and schools before his arrival. Harris had served DPS starting in the 1990s, heading back to his home of Franklin Co. to lead their county schools before his return to Durham.

In other news:

Families First Put Congregations Last?: The trimming of the Families First program last spring allegedly wasn't over budget cuts, but unmet performance goals -- and the Dept. of Social Services didn't come out and say it to "save face," an auditor reports in a scrutiny of the program's shutdown. The audit found that while Rev. Pebbles Lindsay-Lucas reached out to find the 85 families who needed the pricey program's help (at a total cost of $600k+ over the years), the intent of the program to work with congregations to identify families in the community and work with them more directly, presumably impacting more families more efficiently. (Herald-Sun)

Mainline Shuttered: Durham-based construction firm Mainline Contracting has switched its bankruptcy filing to a liquidation after struggles with its bonding insurance company and BB&T Bank left it unable to find financing. The move leaves the firm's 200 remaining workers unemployed, its Neal Rd. operational site closed down, and the firm's equipment likely heading to the auction block. (Herald-Sun)

More Landmark Deliberation: The City Council last night heard from a range of residents, non-profit officials and developers concerned over a potential rescission of the historic landmark program; Preservation Durham director John Compton argued that the 50% property tax abatement also brings with it higher costs and diminished property rights on the part of the building owner, and held up historic preservation as the single biggest factor in the revitalization of downtown and some surrounding neighborhoods. The Council, already leaning towards taking more time to study the issue, will give the Planning Dept. more time to study the matter; a decision on the current six applicants will be stalled until May 2010. (Herald-Sun, N&O)

AP Pass Rates Up Slightly: DPS students' rate of passing Advanced Placement college-level course tests moved up slightly, sitting below but closer to the state average. A significant (40%+) gap between white and African-American students exists on the tests, with DPS also promising efforts to increase access to and utilization of AP courses at predominately-black Hillside and Southern. (Herald-Sun)

County Buildings Named: It's official -- the new courthouse will actually be the "Durham County Courthouse," while the whole block encompassing the car house (parking deck) and the big house (county jail) gets denoted the "Durham County Justice Center." The new human services "complex" will simply say Durham County Human Services on the outside. In a neat twist, a three-story stairwell inside the courthouse will have an image of a landmark like the original courthouse, comprised of tiny historic photographs that make up the mosaic image. Paging Endangered Durham's Gary Kueber.... (N&O)

Comments

[Backyard Chickens]

How many years in a row are we going to re-evaluate the Landmark program?

Make a decision and stick to it! Either you like the program because you value historic preservation and inner city redevelopment or you don't. Why do you keep punishing the community members who follow your policy?

If City Council is just looking for things to waste staff time on, why don't we re-evaluate our backyard chickens policy again this year as well. That way we can stick it to the folks who invested in chicken coops based on that policy you created.

[Kelly]

Cheers to the internal auditor for his reminder that "documented goals and performance is no mere nicety." If the program had been run professionally by Lindsay-Lucas and DCI and overseen adequately in DSS, there would have been enough performance documentation to stop the wasteful spending before it reached $600,000. And there would have been enough documentation to avoid an 11-year retrospective internal audit to answer Bowser's questions (although I still feel that the absence of such ready-to-hand documentation is an answer of sorts).