Editing Note: This has been reposted to protect a private individual's email address which was displayed in the comments section to the original post.  I have edited the offending comment and removed the address.

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I received an invitation to attend tomorrow night's ABC of Guilford County meeting in High Point.  I have been wanting to attend one for awhile and am looking forward to meeting with a group of parents who are advocating for our schools.

I am a bit conflicted about the group's focus and hope that I can glean some clarity.  The group's stated core beliefs are honorable and reflect many of my long-held beliefs that I have advocated for many years.  Their "avenues to reform" are hard to dispute.

From what I am hearing, their tactics are what has caused many people to tune out their message, however.  One of those tactics was to work behind the scenes to help thwart a $12M federal grant that was to fund some Guilford County magnet schools over the next several years.  The school system was denied the funding, reportedly because the application was not filled out correctly and asked for $700K more than the allowable limit in year one- but my feeling is there was more to it than that.

The Fed has several telephones and a simple call from the first person in D.C. who reviewed the application could have rectified the error in short order.  That did not happen, however.  Something else may be going on.

An email from a parent in Jamestown may help to explain part of the reason the application was given short-shrift by the Feds.  It also shows that at least one activist parent has a narrow and self-centered agenda: 

From: Jay Shaw 

To: Wilson ; Alan Duncan ; Anita Sharpe ; Billy Yow ; Board Member ; Bob Landreth ; C Maurer ; Diana Hayes ; Dianne Garrett ; Dot Kearns ; Gabe ; Jeff Thigpen ; Julie Hughes ; Kris Cooke ; Linda Shaw ; Marti Sykes ; Mary Rakestraw ; Mike Barber ; MSA ; Nancy Routh ; Steve Arnold ; Susan Mendenhall ; Terry Grier ; Thompson ; Trudy Wade ; Willie Best

Sent: Friday, August 20, 2004 4:57 PM

Subject: Reassignment Plan- Federal Grant

Mr. Grier:

We will do everything we can to prevent $'s from coming into this county for programs that we don't believe in. Obviously, we are all glad to see the Federal Grant Request denied.

I would suggest in the future that you actually get a consensus from "our community" before you implement plans that can't be properly funded.

Regards,

Jay Shaw, CPA

High Point "Choice Plan" Opponent

Jamestown, NC

Having a passion for children's educations I understand.  Working hard to unseat an elected official that you disagree with I understand.  Cutting off one's nose to spite one's face is a little disconcerting, however.  Demonstrating hubris and communicating such warnings to even the elected officials that supported his position is a little over the top.  If I were an official on the receiving end of such a communication, I would not tend to support whatever position such venom was advocating for.

I have no way to know if Mr. Shaw is a member of ABC or not, (and I sincerely hope he is not - for the future effectiveness of the groups efforts) but if he is, I hope his attitude is not pervasive throughout the organization.

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Editing note 8/30: In the comments below, Ian suggests that I have "been had" because Mr. Shaw's email address above is bogus.  When I posted the above public document I intentially wiped Mr. Shaw's email address and substituted my weblog address, but perhaps an image ot my first draft contained the correct address.  Sorry if that confused anyone but the rest of the email addresses are for public officials and are fair game... Mr. Shaw's valid address is not and I wanted to protect that.

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Great coverage of yesterday's Blogger Conference by Matt Williams in this morning's N&R.  To add momentum to the paper's now-admitted and now-demonstrated turn to weblogs, Editor-in Chief John Robinson devotes his Sunday column to how the organization envisions using blogs to become more responsive to its readership.

Perhaps figuring that they had expended enough ink on me last Sunday, Robinson thanks Ed Cone for "pulling it together" as a great public service.  I echo that sentiment.  (Cone has more)

In addition to the three blogs (actually four) that the N&R has already launched (Lex Files, Sports Blog, Editor's Log) Robinson says they are not through yet: "Additional blogs will come..."

I spoke with reporter Williams yesterday about the focus of the N&R's next blog that Robinson mentions in his column.  Authored by on-the-street reporters Mark Binker, Sue Shultz and Matt himself, he gave an example of the type of content they might include in their in-house blogs.

A couple of days ago, I blog-wondered why Wendover Avenue has been made into a gauntlet and then left in that state for nearly a month now.  Matt told me he read my post and had the answer in the form of an internal memo generated by Greensboro's Department of Transportation.  He had been in possession of the memo for awhile.

He said when the new blog is up and running next month, it will be a simple thing to post such memos, thereby explaining the situation.  A great service, indeed.  But...

The fact that Matt didn't respond to my post with the information he had in his possession might tell us something about how the N&R blogs will be allowed to interact with independent blogs like this one.  My guess is that a lot of the linking that freely occurs between independents will be severely curtailed by N&R policy.  That's not a complaint, mind you... just an observation.

In a comment to Robinson's first post at his new blog, I told John that I had already added a link to his blog on my blogroll and was hoping for reciprocation.  He responded, "Thanks, David... the blog links are coming."

To what extent the N&R's blogs will relate and link to the independent blogs will be an interesting, and probably evolving, sidebar to their leadership role they have committed to, as evidenced by their pioneering launch into the blogoshere.

I'm loving this.

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