Jon Lowder

Tax Free Frustration

Once again we've reached the infamous tax-free weekend where we're encouraged to buy all our kids' school related stuff without having to pay sales tax.  One problem: we don't have specific supply lists for the kids.  Following is a rant, and if it sounds familiar it's because I ranted on the same topic this time last year.

This year we have one kid in middle school and two in high school.  I was able to find a generic supply list on the middle school's website, but even then I had to find it by digging through their site and locating it in the "Document Manager" folder about four levels down from the home page.  Maybe they sent the list home with the kids at the end of school, but even so wouldn't it be safe to assume that many folks lost it and that it would be a good idea to have a link to it from the school's home page?  Also, the last item on the list says "Individual team lists with team specific supplies will be available at Open House."  Going to their handy-dandy calendar I find that the Open House is August 19, over two weeks after the tax-free weekend.

As for our two older kids there's a nice note on the high school's home page that students in Algebra I, Algebra II, Advanced Functions and Modeling, Pre-Calculus, Calculus should purchase one of three calculators for use in those classes.  Unfortunately there's no mention of which calculator geometry students should purchase.  We learned the hard way last year with our oldest that you want to make sure you get the right calculator for geometry.  We're hoping that his sister can use his from last year, but since it's a different teacher we don't know if she'll recommend the same calculator or not. And of course I couldn't find anything resembling a supply list on the school's site.

I'm willing to bet that the teachers and administrators blame the state for having the tax holiday too early, and maybe they're right. Heck, last year the Winston-Salem Journal editorial page went so far as to blame the tourism and real estate lobbies for getting the state general assembly to require schools to open later so that families could vacation at the beaches through August. (You can read the excerpt on my post from last year; unfortunately I think the original editorial is behind the paper's firewall). But until the General Assembly acts and pushes the tax holiday further back couldn't the teachers and administrators throw us a bone and have their lists ready and posted on the website by the end of July?  They don't even have to make photocopies, just post them on the website! 

When you think about the money involved you begin to realize that this stuff adds up.  Specialized calculators can run you $100 or more, and by the time you throw in three ring binders, folders, presentation materials, special books, etc. you're talking at least a couple of hundred bucks per kid.  Multiply that amount by 7% and you're looking at real money.

Look at it this way: If we don't include things for which we don't need a list, like clothes, shoes, backpacks, etc. then maybe we're talking about saving $15-20 in taxes on the items from the teachers' specific lists.  Heck, let's be even more conservative and say it's $10.  Well at my kids' high school there are roughly 2,000 students so at $10 per student that's $20,000 in savings.  Isn't getting a supply list online by the end of July worth $20,000?  Now take that $10 across all 51,000 students in the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County system and you're talking half a million dollars that parents could be saving on the tax-free weekend.

Think about what $500,000 can get you.  You could fill a Chevy Suburban's gas tank 1 1/2 times, or give the superintendent a 2% cost of living raise (I know, cheap shot).  Seriously though, this is crazy.  If you're going to have a tax-free weekend specifically for school purchases then doesn't it make sense to let parents know what they need to purchase?  Until the state changes the date for the weekend wouldn't it make sense for the school board to require that schools/teachers have their lists up by the week before the tax holiday?

As I wrote last year there might be a good reason for this.  Teachers may not come back to work in time to get their lists together, but how much does it change from year to year?  Why not have it up on the school's website before they go on summer break?  Or as my wife pointed out last year, why did we have those lists on time two years ago but not last year or this year?  Maybe the teachers need an incentive.  Well here's one: we parents might not be so pissy when they hit us up for $3 for this party, and $5 for that achievement prize, and $2 for those extra hand outs to augment their lesson plan if they would help us out on these supply lists.    

Google Maps Street View Hits Lewisville

For the longest time Google Maps' "Street View" hadn't been available in this area and then today I logged on and found it live...here on my own corner!  That pic to the left (click to enlarge) is a screenshot of my monitor with the street view for my address shown.  Kind of wild that it's available here, and it's cool being able to notice that the pictures had to be taken at least a few weeks ago due to some items that appear in my yard that are no longer there and to notice that the pictures had to be taken in the morning because of the angle of the sunlight and the shadows.

Actually street view is now available in a large swath of the Winston-Salem/Greensboro metro areas.  The area of the map to the left that is in blue is where the street view is available.  I'd love to know how Google does this...oh wait, here's an article in Popular Mechanics with pictures of the camera they use at $45,000 a pop!  Way cool.

We Have a Weeener

Well, we have a winner for the "And I Mean Kinda Close" contest from Tuesday.  It's Andrea Burke who emailed her entry just minutes before the next entry yesterday.  She'll be receiving a nice, 10 year old, coffee stained mouse pad that's been stuffed in a closet for a few years.

Andrea's correct that the house pictured for the contest is on Styers Ferry Road just across from Runny Mede in Lewisville about two miles from the Shallowford Road exit off of  421.  Rumor has it that the owner of La Casa Elefante Rosa is also the owner of the Mi Pueblo restaurants, and as Esbee mentioned in the comments of the contest post the design elements of the house and the restaurants are more than a little alike.

And I Mean Kinda Close

In homage to Esbee's "And I mean EXACT" contest I've decided to try my own.  I call it, "And I Mean Roughly".  I named it that because I can't figure out north from south or east from west even with a compass, so I can't ask for specific locations of things if I can't provide them myself.  Just give me an approximation of where the house pictured to the left is located (click on the picture to enlarge), including the name of the street it is on and the neighborhood that it is across the street from and you'll win.  (Entries should be emailed to jon.lowder AT gmail.com).  First person to send me the correct location will win the wonderful mouse pad pictured below.  Hey, Esbee's not the only one with junk that needs to be gotten rid of.  Last thing: don't forget that Esbee's next iteration of "And I mean EXACT" is tomorrow.

 

Dodged a Bullet Last Night

Some wicked thunderstorms and tornadoes hit our area last night so we scurried to our basement to sit it out and watch the action on TV. A confirmed tornado touched down within a couple of miles of our house but somehow we never lost power so we watched it on the WXII radar and wondered if any of our friends' homes were in its path.  One family we know in Advance who's house was very near the tornado's path is out of town on vacation so we don't know if their house was damaged but we know they are okay. 

Watching the morning news it looks like things got even worse as the storm moved east into the Greensboro area.  They are showing video of cars tossed on top of each other, huge trees down all over the place and of course the requisite shirtless, beer-bellied homeowner walking around his house in a daze.  That guy really dodged a bullet since a huge tree fell within inches of his house and it doesn't look like there's even a scratch on the siding.  Now they're showing a house in Advance that didn't get off nearly so easy.  Yikes.

They just reported that several people were injured and one guy who was in his pickup in a parking lot was killed.  Hopefully they don't find any more injured or killed.

Yep, we got lucky.

**Update** They just showed video of Hanes Park which looks to be completely flooded.  The city just spent a bunch of money re-surfacing the hard and clay courts there and I have a feeling this flooding isn't going to do them much good.  My daughter's soccer team has practiced on the field every Tuesday for the last six months at Wiley Middle School which is next to the park and I'm sure that field is flooded too since it's right next to the same creek that flooded the park. 

Question about Mr. Snow Answered

Last week I asked lots of questions after the announcement that Lewisville Elementary School science teacher Alan Snow would not be charged with anything after a long investigation.  At least one of those questions has been answered according to an article by Dan Galindo in the Winston-Salem Journal:

Alan Snow, a teacher who had been reassigned from Lewisville Elementary School during a sheriff's office investigation, will return to the classroom this month, Superintendent Don Martin announced today.

Snow had been suspended with pay, then re-assigned to a nonclassroom position with the school system while deputies investigated an allegation of misconduct against him.

Garry Frank, the district attorney for Davidson County, announced last week that there was not sufficient evidence to charge Snow with any crime.

Authorities have never explained what the allegation was, and said last week that it wasn't appropriate to do so since no charges would be filed.

Snow returns to school on Jan. 23, the first day of the third quarter.

The article doesn't mention if Mr. Snow is going to return to Lewisville or teach in another school, but he does have his teaching slot back.

On another note I received a worried call from my brother about some of the comments left on my earlier post.  The comments were a little heated and at one point one commenter mentions getting a lawyer to go after another commenter for what he was saying about his/her family and my brother was concerned that I might get caught up in it.  My wife expressed the same concerns.  To address their concerns I gave them a little of my thinking about these specific comments and comments in general which I'll share here:

1. Both of the commenters used aliases so I don't think that one can claim that the other was disparaging his/her family because no individual is actually named.
2. There were a lot of emotions involved and I honestly think that the reactions were a result of those emotions. 
3. As for my vulnerability here, I don't think there's much to worry about.  While I host the blog I'm not responsible for others' opinions. From what I've read the person who types the comment is responsible, not the owner of the site, blog or message board that contains the comment. On the other hand I do think that if people begin naming names or behaving in potentially harmful ways then I need to step in and remove those comments.  I'd prefer not to, but if comments ever get to the point where personal attacks are made, especially those that target people by name, then I'll turn off the comments in a heartbeat.  I didn't delete any of these because I felt the commenters actually brought up good points, expressed their points of view pretty well and highlighted the issues and emotions that make cases like Mr. Snows so difficult and the implications it has for the schools, teachers, students and parents.
4. By and large the people that leave comments on this blog do a great job.  The biggest problem I have is comment spam and that comes from the same people who inundate us with offers for pharmaceuticals that will greatly enhance parts of our anatomy.  There's a special place in hell for them, so I just delete them and forget about it.

Now back to our regular programming.

 

What Will They Do With Mr. Snow Now?

** Update: 1/3/08 - In reading the print version of the story in this morning's Winston-Salem Journal I found more information that wasn't in the early edition of the story on their website yesterday.  Apparently there's a very real possibility that Mr. Snow will be returned to the classroom according to schools Superintendent Don Martin.  (I also might have missed it my reading of the earlier version, but I don't think so).  Either way I think that's great news.**

Lewisville science teacher Alan Snow was accused of improprieties twice last school year.  The first accusations were leveled in October, 2006 and he was suspended for a couple of months before being cleared and returned to work in early 2007.  Then just weeks before the end of school he was accused again in May, 2007 and suspended on June 1.  By law the suspension could only last 90-days (see August 19, 2007 article) so the school system had to either return him to work or let him go.  The risk in letting him go was that if he was cleared of charges then he could sue the school system for wrongful termination, and the risk in returning him to work was that if the allegations were substantiated then the school system would have some very upset parents who would accuse the school system of putting their children at risk unnecessarily. The school system's solution was to give him a job as a kind of floating advisor within the school system, a job that they assured parents would limit his exposure to students.

Today the Winston-Salem Journal is reporting that 22nd District DA Garry Frank is not going to charge Mr. Snow with anything and the case will be closed due to insufficient evidence to prosecute Mr. Snow.  In September Mr. Frank was asked by Forsyth County DA Tom Keith to take over the investigation.

I think there are a few questions that need to be addressed by the school system:

1. Will Mr. Snow be allowed to return to teaching?  If not, then they need to explain why a person who has been accused of something yet has not been proven to have done anything wrong can be denied the furtherance of his career.  Sure he still has his job, but that's like saying that an executive at a Fortune 500 company still has a job after being involuntarily transferred to the mail room.  He might still have a job but he's lost his career.
2. What kind of procedure, if any, is the school system going to implement to better protect teachers and other staff from false allegations while keeping the children's safety a priority?
3. Is the school system going to investigate those that accused Mr. Snow?  Some have said that the first allegations against Mr. Snow were made by teachers who didn't like him.  Were they investigated or censured in any way?  If the accusations were made by fellow teachers shouldn't their names also be made public?  Why should they be protected by anonymity?  Obviously if allegations were made by children they should remain anonymous.
4. Is there anything the school system can do to speed up the investigation process?  For those keeping score Mr. Snow has had to wait about 7 months to be cleared of these latest allegations. My understanding is that the school system turns these investigations over to the sheriff/DA and then waits for results before proceeding with their own investigations.  The sheriff says that his office has higher priorities like investigating murders.  The result is that the teacher being investigated is in the horrible position of being publicly accused of something that is only vaguely hinted at, knowing full well that everyone in the community is assuming the worst, and with no recourse other than to wait to be charged or cleared.
5. Why do they not detail the allegations publicly?  I suspect they think they are protecting the rights of the teacher and the accuser, but I think that they do more harm than good.  If the details aren't provided then the public is naturally going to assume the worst.  On the other hand maybe it is a good idea to leave the details out, but do they or can they allow the accused to opt for the release of the details?  At least that way if the person is accused of cursing out a student rather than touching them inappropriately he can get that information out there so no one looks at him as a child molester when he goes to the grocery store. Since the accuser's name is not provided at all there's no risk to that person either way.

For some background here's links to articles in the Winston-Salem Journal and items on this blog about Mr. Snow's charges:

Winston-Salem Journal
10/31/2006 - Lewisville Science Teacher, Principal Suspended with Pay
12/14/2006 -School Misconduct Probe Ongoing
12/30/2006 - Principal of Lewisville Elementary to Return After 2-Month Suspension
1/17/2007 - Parent Confronts Board About Plans for Teacher
1/18/2007 - Suspended Lewisville Teacher to Return to Work
6/1/2007 - Teacher Suspended for Second Time
8/30/2007 - Suspended Teacher Gets Transfer to Non-Classroom Job
1/2/2008 - Suspended Lewisville Teacher Will Not Be Charged With Crime

Blog
10/31/2006 - Trouble at School
1/17/2007 - Different Trouble at School
6/4/2007 - More on Lewisville Teacher Alan Snow
6/29/2007 - More Fallout from the Mr. Snow Situation at Lewisville Elementary?
8/31/2007 - Mr. Snow Back at Work, but Not at Lewisville Elementary

Lewisville the Next RTP?

According to the Triad Business Journal the fastest growing municipality in the Piedmont Triad is my home berg of Lewisville.  According to the article the town grew 48.3% between 2000 and 2006, ranking it as the 35th fastest growing town in North Carolina.  A good chunk of that growth came from Lewisville's annexation of certain parts of Forsyth County last year, but there's also been a good size influx of folks from elsewhere, including yours truly.

Lewisville Man Finds Muscadines Marvelous

Lex Alexander reports for his day job that a Lewisville-based businessman is getting ready to make bank on muscadines.  From Lex's article in the N&R:

Bob Dalton , who once blended tobaccos for R.J. Reynolds, is now taking a nutritional supplement made of muscadine skins to market under the brand name Vinetra . He believes it will help fight cancer, rheumatoid arthritis and many other ailments.

He grows muscadines on land in the Yadkin River valley that has been in his family for generations, land on which muscadines still grow wild.

His products — essentially, powdered muscadine skin that can be taken as capsules or stirred into fruit smoothies or other drinks — have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration and make no health claims.

But resveratrol, a chemical found in muscadine skins, has been widely studied in cancer research. According to the National Cancer Institute , research suggests it may inhibit the growth of or cause the death of leukemia cells and cells of cancers of the head, neck, breast, ovary, prostate and colon, among others. It also may be a potent anti-inflammatory agent...

He had noticed that his wild muscadines were more resistant to Japanese beetles than his cultivated varieties, such as merlot. A doctor friend suggested he analyze the various types of grapes to see what might be making the muscadines more resistant. Dalton was familiar with such analyses from his work with tobacco.

At harvest time, he gathered a gallon of each variety, and his friend sent them to a researcher. The researcher, Dalton says, called to ask where he got the muscadine grapes.

"I've been a research scientist for 40 years almost, and I've never in all my life seen anything with the amount of resveratrol this has got in it," Dalton recalls the researcher as saying.

Dalton's response? "Bill, what the hell is resveratrol?"

Dalton spent the next six weeks traveling the state, gathering muscadines from all over and sending them for analysis.

He created a pin map with information on each batch of grapes. He found that the farther west in the state grapes were picked, the higher the levels of resveratrol they held — up to a point, about 1,400 or 1,500 feet above sea level, above which the grapes won't grow well.

The Yadkin Valley grapes, he found, had the highest levels of resveratrol and other antioxidants. Antioxidants are believed to benefit the body by attacking molecules called free radicals that are thought to contribute to aging and disease.

Dalton also learned that he could boost the levels of antioxidants in his grapes by subjecting them to stress, such as by not irrigating them frequently. He also discovered that grapes needed to be harvested sooner than wine grapes normally would be if he wanted to maximize the resveratrol levels.

We've got some muscadines in our back yard, and I'm very good at introducing stress to all the vegetation on my land.  Looks like we might have the makings of a secondary income source.

Now that I think about it Esbee's written before that she has the mighty muscadines in her yard.  I'll need to clue her in on this new opportunity.

Lewisville, Oh Lewisville

I'm not sure if Lewisville, NC has a town song, but since most places' songs have "oh" in there somewhere I figured the title of this post would be a safe one.  I just re-discovered the US Census website and there I was able to dig up a handy fact sheet about the town I call home (I've pasted a copy of it below; click on it to see a full version).  The numbers in the fact sheet are based on the 2000 census which means they're a little out of date, especially when you consider that the 2000 census showed Lewisville's population as 8,826 and the Census Bureau estimates Lewisville's 2006 population to be 12,444.  That's a 41% growth rate in six years.  Of course a lot of that comes from last year's imprisonment annexation of some innocent folks in western Forsyth County, but any which way you slice it the town is growing pretty fast.

Other interesting factoids: 

• North Carolina has 548 cities and towns, of which Lewisville is ranked 63rd...and rising with a bullet!
• Boone, home of Appalachian State University (the slayers of Michigan), is only slightly larger than Lewisville with 13,328 residents (59th in the state).
• The smallest town in North Carolina is Love Valley in Iredell County.  They have 55 residents, but that's up from 30 in 2000.
• Forsyth County's population density, at 814 people per square mile, is greater than Guilford County's at 699 people per square mile.  This despite the fact that Guilford is home to Greensboro (3rd largest city in the state) and the vast majority of High Point (8th largest city in the state).  High Point city limits actually fall in four counties, but over 96,000 of it's 98,000 residents live in Guilford.
• But we're a bunch of hicks compared to Mecklenburg County, home of the state's largest city (Charlotte).  Their population density is 1,580 people per square mile.  By comparison the Raleigh/Cary counties of Durham (863 per square mile) and Wake (945 per square mile) are downright hickish too.
• Here's the real comparison for me personally.  The county we lived in before we moved (Prince William, VA) has a population density of 1,058 people per square mile and that's in a county that's considered a far-out suburb of Washington, DC.  The next county between Prince William and DC is Fairfax, which is one of the counties I lived in while growing up.  It has a population density of 2,583 people per square mile.  The county closest to DC and another place I lived growing up was Arlington and it's density is 9,115 people per square mile.  No wonder my commute into DC was a royal pain in the butt!

You should check out your own town and see what you find.