An upbeat announcement, by an involved parent, about the new neighborhood elementary school that most of the students from Myers Park will attend next academic year.
The New Dilworth Elementary School, by Katharine Bolt
A few short months ago, the Charlotte Mecklenburg School Board met to resolve a mounting issue of overcrowding at Eastover Elementary, which is currently the home school for students in the Dilworth area. After months of highly publicized debate, the CMS School Board approved the creation of a new neighborhood school – Dilworth Elementary. This new school, with the majority of its student population coming from Eastover Elementary, will move into the facility that is currently occupied by the Dilworth Performing Arts Magnet and located adjacent to Latta Park. The Dilworth Performing Arts Magnet program will move to First Ward Elementary, and the First Ward students will be split, with a portion attending Eastover Elementary, additional ones attending the new Dilworth Elementary and others staying at First Ward in the magnet program. The new Dilworth Elementary will be made up of families not only from Dilworth and First Ward but also from Myers Park and Forest Park.
As soon as the school was announced excitement began about the prospects for a thriving new school. Parents from the various neighborhoods met together and immediately went to work on next steps to ensure community involvement in the new school and in an effort to make the new school successful.
Joel Ritchie, the Central Learning Area Superintendent for the Charlotte Mecklenburg School District, held a meeting in early December to help answer questions regarding opening of the new Dilworth Elementary and to provide a timeline for decisions regarding the new school. At that time, Mr. Ritchie stated that he had never seen a school so set-up to succeed. The number of dedicated parents who attended the meeting was overwhelming and he thought Dilworth Elementary could become an incredible elementary school even before it opens its doors to students on August 25, 2010.
In mid-January, Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools named Diane Burnham as the principal of the new Dilworth Elementary effective March 1, 2010. Mrs. Burnham is currently the principal at Elizabeth Lane Elementary, where she has served for the last 11 years. Most recently, Mrs. Burnham was named the 2009-2010 South Learning Community Wachovia Principal of the Year. Under her leadership and with her vision, Elizabeth Lane Elementary has received a number of awards for excellence, including receiving recognition as a United States Department of Education Blue Ribbon School in 2005 and receiving the North Carolina School of Excellence award every year under her leadership.
Mrs. Burnham hosted a “meet and greet” at Dilworth Elementary on February 8th for all new families to see the facility, have a chance to meet and for her to listen and answer questions. Over the next several months her focus will be on setting up the school for a successful opening. Among her most important tasks will be recruiting new teachers and working with parents to form a PTA and on other school issues, such as possible school uniforms.
One of the early challenges will be fundraising for the new school. To make up for limited public funds for items such as computers, books and classroom materials, parents typically raise funds to provide additional support for public schools. Many of the students enrolling at Dilworth Elementary next year are coming from established schools that have successfully raised funds for many years and have resources that are among the best in the Charlotte Mecklenburg School District. This spring parents plan to work with Mrs. Burnham and the newly formed PTA to kick-off a fundraising campaign that will be essential to ensuring a successful school opening.
Everyone associated with the new Dilworth Elementary seems to be excited about the prospects for the new school. With significant parent and community support Dilworth Elementary should become a huge success!
Fast Facts:
Dilworth Elementary School
Principal: Diane Burnham
Bell Schedule: Opening 7:30am, Closing 1:45pm
First Day of School: August 25, 2010
After School Enrichment Program: Available once 20 children have signed up.
To stay in Touch with upcoming news and events about Dilworth Elementary join our email distribution list. Please contact April Whitlock (awhitlock@carolinapad.com) or Katharine Bolt (kbolt@boltnotes.com).
Show your support of the new Dilworth School with a fabulous yard sign designed by future Dilworth parent Michelle Serdula! Signs cost $7.00 each and include a yard stake. Contact Michelle at mserdula@carolina.rr.com to order or for more information.
Follow the day by day advance of the cankerworm menace
Jack Mcneary has counted the appearance of each new cankerworm each day since the season began. click here
Queens University News
Queens University has worked with their Myers Park neighbors on issues that have affected both the University and the neighborhood. The Myers Park-Queens Community Relations Committee has published a year in review outlining those issues. They also would like for you to be aware of upcoming events on campus. Read the year in review below.
The Myers Park-Queens Community Relations Committee—Year in Review
The Myers Park-Queens Community Relations Committee has made great progress during the past year. In fact, communication related to planning, problems and possibilities has been the cornerstone for this group of Myers Park neighbors and representatives from Queens, Myers Park Baptist Church and Myers Park Traditional School. Below are a few highlights of how we’ve worked together:
- Queens hired an external consultant to analyze parking and traffic around its main campus. This will help Queens as it explores expansion plans while also striving to maintain the beauty and integrity of the Myers Park neighborhood.
- Queens shared plans for its Duke Energy Sciences and Health Building at a MPHA meeting this past spring. This new building, to be located near the Belk Chapel, will contain classrooms, labs, offices and a rooftop greenhouse, serving as home to Queens’ growing science programs and a portion of its nursing program. The university is still fundraising for the building and will continue to provide additional information to neighbors in the months and years ahead.
- Neighbors living near Queens’ North Residence Hall (adjacent to the Myers Park Library) now have a representative on this committee. Jean Sullivan from Hopedale joins neighbors from Radcliffe, Roswell and Wellesley. Queens met directly with residents on Hopedale to understand their concerns about safety and congestion, and has been working on several different solutions to lesson parking pressure from the students who live in North Hall.
- In the fall, Queens will mount another back-to-school parking crackdown on the streets bordering its campus. Last year, numerous parking tickets were issued and cars towed during a joint effort with campus security, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department and ParkIt.
- The committee also worked to resolve nagging parking problems at Myers Park Baptist Church and is exploring several permanent changes to prevent students from parking in unauthorized areas of church property.
- We worked closely with the 24 Hours of Booty organization to dramatically increase communication to the Myers Park neighborhood as a whole, and specifically to those neighbors who live directly around the campus who are very directly impacted by the event. Queens also provided temporary parking outside “the loop” to its neighbors to help lessen the inconvenience.
We remain committed to working together in the year to come! If you have questions or concerns please contact committee chairs Janet England at janetengland@carolina.rr.com or Rebecca Anderson at andersonr@queens.edu.
To view Queens calender of upcoming campus events click here...
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