Some students in Guilford County Schools have been showing up at home with gift cards given to them for things like good attendance and doing well in class.
While students at some schools “win” those gift cards for their positive academic accomplishments, at some other schools, students may make straight A’s and show up for every class and not get anything but a pat on the back.
Some parents, who think their kids should be naturally motivated to do well in school, don’t want their youngsters being driven by gift cards, while other parents and educators think that anything that gets the students fired up is a good thing.
The Guilford County commissioners had some questions about the gift card programs when Guilford County Schools Superintendent Sharon Contreras spoke before the Board of Commissioners at a recent budget work session.
Guilford County Commissioner Alan Perdue called it “Pay to Pass,” and said he wanted to know if that was really happening.
“I just want for the record, so the public knows what’s going on here – is that fact, fiction or what?”
“The district has no such policy,” Contreras told the commissioners, “but I notice there are many sites that create fictional information.”
She added that individual schools could be offering such programs.
“Schools have, for decades, created their own incentives,” she said. “And there are 128 schools – I don’t micromanage them and, say, ‘You can’t create programs.’ They give out movie passes. They give out all sorts of things. I have no way of knowing every incentive that the school improvement teams come up with – but the district has no such initiative.”
Perdue asked if the money for the gift cards and other prizes comes from tax dollars or other funds.
“There are many ways,” she said, adding that the money could be from grant funds, money raised at school fairs, money donated by PTAs or other sources.
“I hope we all want students to graduate and have high graduation rates,” she added.
How many administrative positions does our Superintendent have in our central offices? You don’t have to micromanage to have awareness of schools managing of funds. 128 schools sounds like a lot but our tax dollars fund lots of highly paid folks who never step in a classroom. The best response would have been; “I don’t know the answer right now but I will have staff investigate and compile a report on incentive programs and how they are funded.” Instead we have the nonresponse and flippant attitude of “schools will do whatever”?
Maybe some schools have programs that actually work and some might not. Contreras doesn’t even care to be asked, what a unacceptable attitude and performance.
“It’s for the children.” Ever heard this phrase before?
Exactly. The school support officers are aware of funds paid out and where it is spent. Evidently GCS admin thinks no one has a clue.
Dr Contreras was dishonest when she said has no way of knowing what school improvement teams decide to do. Bull. They are required to keep minutes and schools have to submit plans. SSOs are paid a 6 figure yearly income, so I can not imagine that they have no idea what they are spending monies on, right?
Why does she avoid questions? Why are some of her board members being silenced? Why does she not want public opinion? She made a mess in Syracuse and they were glad to see her go, but now she is here making the same mess.
By the way, look up how many people Mo Green had working for him in admin when he was the superintendent, then compare to how many work under our current superintendent.
What a crock! This creates laziness and entitlement, but that’s what the schools want isn’t it? As if the Social(ist) Justice Indoctrination wasn’t bad enough, they come up with this mess. Remember, this is the entity that the majority of your tax dollar already goes to fund. The same entity that never has enough money and is always asking for hundreds of millions more. #bootcontreras
Just your typical give everyone a trophy for participating leftist trash. Yes Contreras, I want the students to succeed. Success is the good grade that is earned not some gift card, movie tickets or some other incentive. What is going on in our schools? Obviously, the superintendent does not have a clue. Get rid of her NOW!
If the lady doesn’t know the hows and whys about money passing through each and every school in the county and hasn’t appointed some underling to oversee that to report back to her then we need a new super. I cannot believe the answer she gave to the CC.
Bahloney! I showed up at school and brought home a decent report card, or got my arse fanned.
Parents are too lazy to be parents. Just bribe the kids, or put them in front of an idiot box so they will leave you alone for a while.
These kids will be running the country soon enough. You wanna see what you are getting now? Check out Jen Psaki.
There is nowhere to hide.
MS Contreras.We would rather see the students be safe with some security systems and cameras than be given gift cards for doing things they should already be doing.You say you don’t micromanage-do you manage at all?
The Superintendent never seems to answer a question directly. Always beating around the bush. Isn’t there a lot of folks in high paying positions at the central office that could find out the specifics of what each of the “128” schools are doing to incentivize these students.
What exactly does this quote mean?
“I hope we all want students to graduate and have high graduation rates,” she added.
There are plenty of students who worked hard this school year and there are also plenty of students that did not.