Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/59049
STAFF bbowman@upandcomingweekly.com editor@upandcomingweekly.com ASSOCIATE PUBLISHERS Janice Burton Joy Crowe MANAGING EDITOR Caroline Goins stephanie@upandcomingweekly.com hal@upandcomingweekly.com Linda McAlister Brown ltmcmd01@aol.com OFFICE MANAGER Laurel Handforth officemanager@ upandcomingweekly.com Mary Catherine White ACCOUNTING accounting@upandcomingweekly.com GRAPHIC DESIGNER Alicia Miller art@upandcomingweekly.com CONTRIBUTING WRITERS D.G. Mar tin, Pitt Dick ey, Margaret Dickson, John Hood, Jhana Lewis, Erinn Crider, Karen Poppele, Heath- er Griffi ths, Beth Solzsmon-Carpenter, Shannon Angry –––––––––––– Up & Coming Weekly www.upandcomingweekly.com 208 Rowan Street P.O. Box 53461 Fayetteville, NC 28305 PHONE: (910) 484-6200 FAX: (910) 484-9218 Up & Coming Weekly is a "Quality of Life" publication with local features, news and infor- mation on what's happening in and around the Fayetteville/Cumberland County community. Up & Coming Weekly is published weekly on Wednesdays. Up & Coming Weekly welcomes manuscripts, photographs and artwork for publication consideration, but assumes no responsibility for them. We cannot accept responsibility for the return of unsolicited manuscripts or material. Opinions expressed by contributors do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher. The publisher reserves the right to edit or reject copy submitted for publication. Up & Coming Weekly is free of charge and distributed at indoor and outdoor locations throughout Fayetteville, Fort Bragg, Pope Air Force Base, Hope Mills and Spring Lake. Readers are limited to one copy per per- son. Subscriptions can be purchased for $30 for six months or $60 for 12 months, delivered weekly by first class mail. ©2007 by F&B Publications, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction or use of editorial or advertisements without permission is strictly prohibited. MARKETING/SALES Hal Nunn ASSOCIATE EDITOR Stephanie Crider PUBLISHER Bill Bowman INSIDE The Charter Schools Are Coming! Calendar ........................................... 16 Concert Connection ........................ 22 TV ..................................................... 24 Movie Review .................................. 25 PUBLISHER'S PEN by BILL BOWMAN Well, from all the publicity and hoopla, you would think charter schools are everywhere. Actually, they aren't. However, two are proposed and applications have been fi led to locate one charter school on Fort Bragg and the other in historic Downtown Fayetteville. Downtown Fayetteville? Not my choice, but I will be the fi rst to admit I'm not well versed on the logistics of how the Cumberland County and North Carolina education systems operate. However, I feel extremely confi dent in both our local and statewide educational leadership and gladly yield to their expertise. Here in Cumberland County, Dr. Frank Till has proven to be an effective advocate for local children, teachers and public school education in general. This is extremely refreshing. So when the topic of charter schools comes up I fi nd myself yielding to the professionals. And, even though I feel this community has a defi cit of competent and responsible leaders (see last week's Up & Coming Weekly's editorial: "A Failure of Leadership"), I feel Dr. Till is a shining star dedicated and focused on what is good for our children, our community and Cumberland County education in general. This being said, I sure do wish he had a Board of Education that was more responsive to the needs of our growing community. With a few exceptions this board seems long in the tooth and not up to date on the problems, trends, complexities and challenges facing public education today. To this point, a little education would go a long way, and the current issue concerning private charter schools accentuates this. After all, it is not the intent of charter schools to skim off the best students to create a second tier of elitist public schools or deprive traditional public schools of resources or funding. It's about choice, creating options and raising the level of North Carolina academic success. Who wouldn't want that? Surely, there is no need to demonize those who advocate them. I would like to think Cumberland County Board of Education member Carrie Sutton would appreciate a "do over" after her off-center remarks accusing Fort Bragg of advocating charter Fayetteville's Weather Forecast March 23 Fayetteville's Weather Forecast Friday Thursday March 22 Saturday March 24 schools so offi cers' wives wouldn't have to send their children to E. E. Smith High School. What? She said what? And, this at a time when we as a community are recognizing and honoring our military for their many sacrifi ces and as Fort Bragg Garrison Commander Steve Sicinski is publicly lauding the progress Cumberland County has made in providing quality public education and specifi cally how wonderfully impressed he is with E. E. Smith High School. He also goes on to state that his daughter attends E. E. Smith and has enjoyed immensely her experience with public education. To say Sutton's remarks were unfortunate would be a gross understatement. How does someone with so little compassion, knowledge of our community and common sense end up serving on a school board? Dr. Frank Till Now, speaking of wisdom, I question the feasibility of placing a charter school in the old Capitol building on Hay Street. I just don't understand the logistics or feasibility of it. School buses downtown? Imagine, parents sitting in cars lined up along Hay Street waiting for their children to be dismissed from school? OMG! And, how does a downtown charter school stimulate downtown economic development? Will families move downtown or will several hundred young children be spending their lunch money downtown? Yes, this will be interesting to watch. I hope it works, but, the reality is that we have already established a history of failed businesses who all got caught up in the marketing hype of a vibrant and thriving downtown business community. The charter school is a good idea. I just hope it's not being built in the wrong place. After all, look at our track record for making these kinds of decisions. I do applaud Mike Lallier and his partners for stepping up to renovate the deteriorating building. One thing is for certain and that is we are making progress. Slow but sure. Thank you, for reading Up & Coming Weekly. BILL BOWMAN, Publisher. COMMENTS? Editor@upandcom- ingweekly.com CalCall 910.354.1679l 910.354.1679 Sunday March 25 Monday March 26 Tuesday March 27 Free Wheelin' Feelin' ....................... 26 Horoscopes/Advice Goddess ......... 27 Classifieds ........................................ 28 Games .............................................. 30 High 79° Low 55° Thunderstorms 4 UCW MARCH 21-27, 2012 High 75° Low 54° Showers High 74° Low 52° Partly Cloudy Forecast available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. High 73° Low 49° Mostly Sunny High 74º Low 50º Partly Cloudy High 75º Low 52º Partly Cloudy WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM 24 / 7