Archive for December, 2009
A Revolution on You Tube- Teheran December 26-27
December 29th, 2009 Categories: Everything Else
Special Edition from Charlotte NC
Totally amazing video, watching the violent protests on You Tube. What will the protesters do next? The lawless government? Is this the beginning of the end?
A bad day for the Supreme Leader and his acolyte Ahmadinejad?
Down with Khameni
Another martyr-this is deadly serious
The People Respond
Special thanks to You Tube’s Markant35,PDKI1945,sinagh2006
The videos speak loudly…An election stolen, a people just fed up, risking death, more from CNN
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Charlotte in the Snow, Almost
December 20th, 2009 Categories: Everything Else
If you are up north digging out from the snow, you might be encouraged to know that the Charlotte area dodged the storm that wreaked havoc on the east coast. Just 75-80 miles west or north received 16-20″ of snow, in places like Hickory, Boone, and Biltmore near Asheville. Most of Charlotte received a heavy dose of rain, and the Lake Norman area had a few inches of slush- enough to send many cars off the road, I was showing homes in Huntersville friday afternoon.
This cartoon in today’s Charlotte Observer, came from Minneapolis, but could just as well describe Charlotte driving.
Too funny. For more cartoons from Gary Sack I especially like his recent Tiger Woods cartoon today.
Enjoy your day.
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Bank Of America Chooses New CEO, Electrolux HQ Moves Here
December 17th, 2009 Categories: About Charlotte
It was a big news day in Charlotte, NC. Early in the day, the big news was
Electrolux, USA is relocating to Charlotte.
Governor Bev Perdue announced Electrolux would be moving its North American headquarters in the first quarter of 2010,and more than 700 jobs (over several years) to Charlotte from Augusta, Georgia. The Swedish home appliance firm is consolidating their North American operations at the former First Charter facility in the University City area, and will be home to more than 700 employees, most of whom will be relocated from around the US to Charlotte. Governor Perdue cited North Carolina’s well trained work force and pro-business climate. We in Charlotte real estate like the sound of 700 families moving here!
Charlotte had two big advantages, Charlotte’s airport has given Charlotte an advantage among international companies seeking to locate in the south for a decade. Then last August, another Swedish firm Husquavarna, a former Electorlux division, now independent, relocated here… That and over $10 Million in incentives from city, county and state resources didn’t hurt either.
Still, the incentive package was small by most regional comparisons- they wanted to be here. All good. Then late in the day, it was announced that
Bank of America had named Brian Moynihan as the bank’s new CEO replacing the retiring Ken Lewis.
Moynihan was quick to point out he will be based in Charlotte and that the bank’s headquarters would remain in Charlotte. This settles a few months of uncertainty since Ken Lewis made his announcement. Combined with the early re-payment of the TARP money, this offers Bank of America a new start in a nee decade and can begin the work of rebuilding its reputation.
A number of Bank of America’s Board sought a business relocation to NYC, making many around here, lets say, uncomfortable. Fifth 3rd Bank announced as part of the Electrolux deal they’ll move their headquarters uptown, GMAC has expanded their operations and are moving uptown, US Bank established their Southeast office here in July, all seeking to capitalize on the talent let go by the old Wachovia.
Kudos to our excellent Chamber and city government for putting together the package that made this work.
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Charlotte NC- Three Big Wins for the City
December 10th, 2009 Categories: About Charlotte, Charlotte Business
CMS Tops the Nation in 4th Grade Urban School Performance,
Wells Fargo Gives $6M in Year End Charitable Contributions
The Nations Report Card, NAEP, or National Assessment of Educational Progress, is a nation wide study of 4th and 8th grade students in 18 urban school districts. This interim report released yesterday, or TUDA, indicated that CMS 4th graders were at the top in math of the 18 cities, that they scored above average national mathematics scores in 4th and 8th grade. Another win for Charmeck Schools Superintendent Peter Gorman. State Department of Education release.
Wells Fargo made their presence known in Charlotte, surprising the recession-starved non-profit community with $6Million in grants Tuesday. In a year where there weren’t enough dollars to go around to Charlotte’s non-profits, this was happy news, dance in the street news… and it was a shot in the arm the whole community needed.
Bank of America announces they would re-pay the Federal Government TARP $45 Billion, including interest, before years end. Good news for Bank stock, and good news in the search for a CEO replacement.
These are powerful statements about Charlotte’ s future. I’ll write more in the future
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Congratulations Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools
December 4th, 2009 Categories: About Charlotte, Charlotte Schools and Education
North Carolina, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Measure Up in Newsweek’s Top 1500 High Schools In America
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools placed two high schools in the top 200, and an additional 9 high schools in the survey of Top 1500 Public High Schools conducted annually by Newsweek Magazine Online. The Top 1500 represent the top 6% of US High Schools, and the CMS 11 pl;us 1 from Union- Weddington HS, represent 23% of North Carolina’s total of 53 high schools that made the Top 1500.
Jay Matthew’s at the Washington Post and Newsweek devised a simple formula, not without its critics, a few years back: Rank them by “the number of Advanced Placement, Intl. Baccalaureate and/or Cambridge tests taken by all students at a school in 2008 divided by the number of graduating seniors. All of the schools on the list have an index of at least 1.000; they are in the top 6 percent of public schools measured this way.”
So it is the number of AP or IB tests taken per graduating senior for each school, (not passed) with a minimum “score” of 1.0, so to get on the list- if you had 400 graduates then a minimum of 400 tests take (seniors and juniors) would equal a score of 1.0, likewise 600 tests taken for 400 students 1.5 etc. While not a perfect measure, it is a measure of how many of the schools’ children are actively engaged in college preperatory classes, it is relatively easy to calculate, allows small schools to compete with large schools, and I suspect most high school Principals would be glad to see their school on the list. It is also a modest measure- yet only 6% of the nations’ high schools make the list.
The List does not include many terrific magnet and charter schools- those schools are purposeful in their attraction of elite students, and so, they’d need to be evaluated using a different standard, paraphrasing Matthew’s. Do you have a question on why or how he did the work? Here is his FAQ page for details.
Myers Park led Mecklenburg County at #44 on the list with each graduating senior taking an average of 5 AP/IB tests. Providence was # 189 on the list, with each senior taking an average of 3 AP Tests… but do not forget the other 10! These can be seen at the bottom of the post.
If you’re school is on the list, it means they believe in the power of AP and IB, and the administration is encouraging the course work and test taking– a very imortant indicator of future success in college.
So 1500 schools represent the top 6% of public high schools in America, according to this formula. Mecklenburg County has by my count, 12 schools on the list. Interestingly, many of these CMS schools (5) had 40% or more of their students n Free and Reduced lunches, that is good work at those tough schools, promoting a culture of excellence. Check out the vide in the Newsweek link below, and hear about inner city children being offered plane tickets to interview at MIT and Standford.
Here is the Newsweek link, indexed by State, but a handful of results are below:
Wake County- someone from that region should check me but I’m counting 4.
Lets compare Charlotte area’s 12 High Schools, NC’s 53 high Schools to a few… states.
North Carolina had 53 high schools make the list- so CMS had 23% of those.
New Jersey has 53 High Schools make the list.
Tennesee had 12 high schools make the list
Conneticut had 17 high schools on the list.
Delaware had 6 high schools on the list.
South Carolina had 20 High Schools make the list, somewhat surprisingly none in the Upstate region near Charlotte, 3 each in Greenville, Columbia and Charleston.
The South in general, outside of NC, SC and Georgia, didn’t fare too well.
Alabama-9
Arkansaw- 10
Missisippi-2
Louisiana-2
So- 11 of CMS’s 31 High Schools fall into this top 6% national category, the same system that recently announced it has 51% of its student’s living in poverty. Obviously this fact doesn’t mean all is well in CMS- it just means CMS is doing better than a lot of people think, a message often lost if all the “clutter” we call conversation about Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools. Ane for all that talk about great nearby South Carolina Schools and Union County Schools? One school made the list between them- one school emphasizes AP on the high school level. Wow.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools and Union County on Newsweek’s Top Public High Schools
| RANK | SCHOOL | LOCATION | STATE | INDEX | SUBS. LUNCH | E&E |
| 1517 | Weddington | Matthews | N.C. | 1.04 | 5 | 50 |
| 189 | Providence | Charlotte | N.C. | 3.08 | 7 | 64 |
| 269 | Ardrey Kell | Charlotte | N.C. | 2.73 | 11 | 46 |
| 338 | North Mecklenburg | Huntersville | N.C. | 2.5 | 21 | 30 |
| 441 | Butler | Matthews | N.C. | 2.26 | 21 | 51 |
| 544 | Hopewell | Huntersville | N.C. | 2.08 | 24 | n/a |
| 44 | Myers Park** | Charlotte | N.C. | 5.01 | 26 | 60 |
| 664 | Renaissance at Olympic | Charlotte | N.C. | 1.93 | 40 | n/a |
| 1092 | School of International Studies and Global Economics at Olympic | Charlotte | N.C. | 1.45 | 42 | n/a |
| 605 | Math, Engineering and Science at Olympic | Charlotte | N.C. | 2 | 47 | 31 |
| 516 | Harding University High School of Mathematics, Science and Technology ** | Charlotte | N.C. | 2.14 | 47 | 33 |
| 351 | East Mecklenburg** | Charlotte | N.C. | 2.45 | 49 | 37 |
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As most readers know I make my living in real estate, but I have a passion for education, and a passion for educating every child in the US. It is the promise of America, and it is in our national interest to educate every child to compete in this inter-connected world. For those of you who don’t know, I’m also a father of 4, my grown children were educated in private primary schools, and graduated from a public high school on this list here in Charlotte. I’m married to a longtime teacher who is now a Professor of Education at a local college. I’ll be writing more on schools that “Get it” in the Charlotte area in the coming months.
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