VOCATIONAL TRAINING IN A CHARLOTTE PUBLIC CHARTER HIGH SCHOOL

This program sounds like it may be a good alternative for some young men and women in Charlotte who will not complete conventional high school programs and are interested in vocational training indicated in these flyers, though the name of the school includes the term "entrepreneurs."  There may be benefits to focusing on preparation for a different route than direct to full-time college, and here is some information about a meeting March 15th to discuss one such proposal from the program director:

Please spread the word about the Entrepreneur High School Information Day 

March 15th (11 am - 2 pm)  

Did you know that 82% of area high school students don’t complete a college degree in four to six years?  

What happens to them?

Underemployment? Unemployment? Welfare? Prison?

Our new charter high school (EHS) prepares students for a job and/or equips them with the tools to start their own business by integrating advanced vocational training and relevant world-class education!!

Please go to their website for more information- www.GoEHS.org, and then...

Attend the Information Day on Saturday, March 15th from 11 am to 2 pm.  (See the flyer below.) This event will take place at 5431 Hickory Grove Road. We will give a presentation on the school at 11:30 am, 12:30 am and 1:30 pm.

This event will afford you an opportunity to ask questions, engage with board members and get a sense of the corporate support garnered thus far.

Open Enrollment for August 2014 is underway, and they are in the process of interviewing applicants. Interested students/parents can start the process by applying online at www.GoEHS.org.

(Information from Robert Hillman, Board Chairman of the Entrepreneur High School)

Robert.Hillman@EntrepreneurHighSchool.org    704.232.2096 – cell

www.EntrepreneurHighSchool.org or www.GoEHS.org

Missing Girls from Our Area

UPDATE:  Thanks to WCNC's Dianne Gallagher for pointing out that Tayviona Vandiver was located after two weeks.  Her name didn't come up in a search before posting this story except for the Charlotte Observer/WCNC partner link posted August 5 which shows her as "still missing" as of August 14.  It seems WCNC didn't tell the Observer, either.   Apologies for the error but so happy to know she is safe.  See the story at WCNC.com direct story here:

http://www.wcnc.com/news/local/12-year-old-girl-missing-in-Charlotte-217802281.html

The Charlotte Observer is reporting about Rowan County only recently reported missing by her brother, even though authorities now say she’s been gone since 2011.  The full story can be found here, with excerpts shown below:

Police: Missing girl’s parents are being uncooperative

Investigators searching for a missing Rowan County teenager say nothing the girl’s adoptive parents told them during two days’ worth of questioning was true, and the family is not being cooperative.

Erica Parsons’ older brother reported her missing last week. It appears the last time people at the family home on Miller Chapel Road in Salisbury saw her was November 2011.

No one knows where Erica Lynn Parsons is, or who she left with in 2011

What isn’t in the Observer story but has been reported in other media is that both the maternal grandmothers have been dead since years prior to the time frame the adoptive parents claim Erica went to live with her grandmother, driven away with some unknown person.

WBTV reported tonight on the one week delay between the missing persons report and posting Erica’s information on the Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s site (http://www.missingkids.com).  What they didn’t report and what is notable is that another young girl from our area is also missing, but not on the site either: 

The full story from the Charlotte Observer on Monday, Aug. 05, 2013 is here:

A 12-year-old Charlotte girl is still missing.

Tayviona Vandiver was last seen at her house on Cold Water Lane on July 23.

She is 5-foot-5 and 110 pounds. She is black and has black hair, and police say she may need medical attention.

Officers say Vandiver has run away before, but never for this length of time. She is known to frequent the Redman Road area near the Forest Ridge and East Walk apartment complexes.

Anyone with information should call 911.

EXTRA TELEVISION COVERAGE FOR TAYVIONA?

Tayviona is not listed on the Missing Kids site.  She hasn’t been reported as found.  She is likely not the only child from our area who isn’t safely at home.  Please watch for her as well. 

Please talk to your children about their own safety and about how to help their friends—that they should “tell on” their friends to keep them safe.  If there are secrets too big for kids to handle, go get the right adult to help.  And keep trying until everyone is somewhere safe. 

Meanwhile, look for these two girls to bring them home, and make sure if you see them you tell them they are loved and people are only interested in having them home safe:

Photo Credit:  Charlotte Observer
TAYVIONA VANDIVER, Age 12, current picture, 5' 5"
Missing from CHARLOTTE

Photo Credit: Charlotte Observer
ERICA LYNN PARSONS
Photo from 2011
Missing from ROWAN COUNTY

SAFETY INFORMATION

There are a number of sites with good resources for having conversations with your kids.  One specific list comes from the www.missingkids.com site (see www.take25.org/FamilyResources ) and could make a big difference.  Remember, it’s not just one conversation.  Of course, nobody wants to scare kids, but we do want to prepare kids:

Child safety is a serious subject, but that doesn’t mean you can’t have an enjoyable time talking about it with children. Sing songs, tell stories, play games, and interact with kids in a way that makes them feel safer. Consider the following topics as you begin the conversation.

• Teach children their full names, address, and home telephone number
• Make sure they know your full name
• Make sure children know how to reach you at work or on your cell phone
• Teach children how and when to use 911 and make sure children have a trusted adult to call if they’re scared or have an emergency
• Instruct children to keep the door locked and not to open the door to talk to anyone when they are home alone 
• Set rules with children about having visitors over when you’re not home and how to answer the telephone

See the same site to click on links for:

• ·       Conversation Starters
• ·       Safety Tips
• ·       Child ID kit
• ·       Emergency Contact for Parents
• ·       Bookmark (Nat’l. Center’s rules of safety)
• ·       Series of Mini Lessons
• ·       Activity Lessons
• ·       Parent Presentation

With the excitement of a new school season starting and everyday pressures, it’s a good time to review and teach your kids.

More Soft Southside , Hard at Harding

Back in July, CMPD released results of a survey conducted which they claimed was a customer satisfaction survey of all of Charlotte about the job the police department was doing and how safe everybody felt.  They did not, however, get any kind of statistically relevant numbers and seemed to go on a promotional tour of interviews that really wasn’t talking about crime or policing.

Forty-five percent (45%) of the respondents to the survey were located in the South Charlotte Division, with one of the lowest crime rates in Charlotte, if not the lowest.

Naturally, a fair portion of these people would say they feel fairly safe in their homes and areas, but Chief Monroe still points to the overall numbers as a demand for more officers at the same time.  Which is it:  is everyone safer, with crime down?  OR do we need more officers because of higher crime rates.

If we could just see the crime data that has been removed by Chief Monroe from charmeck.org, and have access to all the reports to figure out why CMPD’s numbers are so terribly off from what they report in different locations, we might know the answer.

Meanwhile, consider again the attitude directed toward different parts of town.  A recent post shows the absolute throw-away treatment by elected officials and the management of the CMPD of the Camp Greene Neighborhood Association looking for assistance with a halfway house for 75 possibly violent prisoners that a contractor wanted (or maybe still wants) to release into their residential area next to playgrounds, churches, schools, and homes.  The post compares this to what documents and reports show are a ‘special-op’ of some kind launched to discover the thief of some plastic campaign yard signs for Patrick Cannon’s campaign supporter, after he made a call to the higher-ups at CMPD (the highest). 

Now see that there’s a contest of sorts going on in five South Charlotte neighborhoods.  Officers are spending time basically looking for people who have left their property vulnerable, and competing for a trophy if they don’t have their stuff sitting around unlocked.  And a sign. 

It seems like they did this last year, although this hasn’t been verified—but it also seems like this is another Public Relations ploy to say that the police are active and involved in Neighborhood Watch.  Why go around tagging people who don’t care enough to roll up car windows, keep wallets out of unlocked cars, close garage doors when not inside, etc… (as the police say they’re targeting) and ignore Neighborhood Watch groups begging for help, such as Camp Greene?  Is there a proven decrease in serious crime from conducting such busy work that could not better be accomplished more widely with other means?

Also, ALL Neighborhood Watch groups and all of Charlotte would benefit from having the Significant Event Logs, Watch Commander Logs, Calls For Service, Crime Reports, and more available to the public.  It is public information and must be reinstituted to public review.

Meanwhile, across at the Harding High School, reports of crime have increased by four times and there have been death threats.  Specific dates with threats have been issued.  Harding High School is located on Alleghany between Freedom Drive and the Billy Graham Parkway.   Many parents don’t feel they’re getting enough information or help.  At least one Charlotte Mecklenburg School Board Member agrees.

Harding was put on lock-down October 27^th after a threat to shoot and kill a student was phoned in to the school.  Other details have not been released.  Since then, graffiti indicating turf wars of a sort has damaged large parts of the school.  At a School Board Meeting last night, the plan was for the Board to receive a report about the Harding School situation.  However, the report has been postponed until December 13^th.  With all of the violent threats, and what students and parents report as daily fights, this postponement should not be tolerated.

WCNC’s Ben Thompson reports “the members will now hear the report on December 13, when two new members will take their seats on the Board.  Kaye McGarry was the sole dissenter, voting to view the report Wednesday.

"Let's just sweep it under the rug. We don't want the public to know," McGarry chided her colleagues. "The kids are scared. The parents are scared. This has become a security issue."

If you ask anyone else in charge, they’ll probably tell you everything is fine.