The Newsless Courier

CCSD Using Capital Assets for Operating Expenses

2009-07-08T20:43:00.014-04:00

Too sanguine over the sale of property owned by the Charleston County School District--that's what the editors of the P & C are in claiming that "There is nothing to lose" from those sales. [See Sell Surplus School Property in Wednesday's editorial section.] Depends on what you mean by "nothing," I guess!

County residents should contemplate whether the district should have centrally-located schools or neighborhood schools. The first cut down on busing costs and wasting students' time being bused. The second allow parents, especially poorer ones, greater access to their children's teachers and a better environment for their children.

Further, older campuses paid for with public taxes should be readily available for the new public charter schools so desired by taxpayers. The Rivers building is a prime example. The present School Board is totally out of sync with public opinion, still smarting over Rivers' use by CSMS and still determined to stymie CSMS's success at every turn.

The P & C's just a bit too trusting of how the proceeds from capital asset sales will be used. No reputable business would take the proceeds from selling off capital and put them into the operating budget! So why does CCSD not deserve opprobrium for having done just that in the past? What is to stop it in the future?

Why shouldn't CCSD be required to put the proceeds from sales of capital assets back into the capital fund? Then maybe CCSD would not need to raise either of its taxes next time around.

Getting Around the Tax Laws, CCSD-Style

2009-07-06T16:38:00.006-04:00

The CCSD equivalent of what brokers call "churning" an investment account for profit (the broker's, not the client's!).

Unable to continue to raise taxes for its overweight operating budget, CCSD has a better idea: sell off properties paid for with capital funds; put that money into the General Fund, where it can be used for operating expenses. Then raise taxes for the capital budget (building schools).

This is a scam that will never run out. Every few years new flaws can emerge in "old" school buildings that will demand that those buildings and the land they sit on be flogged in the real estate market and that new schools be built on cheaper (farther-out-of-city-center) land. Busing costs be damned!

Genius! Who cares if prices ebb? See Schools for Sale: Prime Sites to Be Listed in Monday's P & C.

"The Laing Middle School campus on Highway 17 will be the first to go on the market.

"'It's worth the most,' said Bill Lewis, executive director of the district's building program. 'We've already had numerous informal offers or expression of interest. … Even though the market is not great, there aren't many pieces of property like this left in East Cooper.'"

Coup for Charter School for Math and Science

2009-06-30T19:04:00.012-04:00

It's great news for supporters of CCSD's Charter School for Math and Science and public charter schools everywhere!

David Cowell, who was driven to North Carolina by the edublob's representatives at 75 Calhoun, has agreed to return to Charleston County to head CSMS. He is quoted as saying, "[Its offer] represented an opportunity to come back and work in Charleston but not have to work in the box that I call the Charleston County School District. [The district] became a very, very cumbersome bureaucracy." [See Colwell to Lead Math, Science School in Tuesday's P & C.]

Described as "the most recent principal who had success in leading North Charleston High School," Colwell is too much a gentleman to point out the obvious to the reporter: he was never one of the favored ones at 75 Calhoun. After his years as a teacher and athletic director at North Charleston High School, he had to fight tooth and nail to get the principal's position there before disagreements with Superintendent McGinley sent him over the line to North Carolina, his home state.

Colwell provides a perfect example of an effective leader whom the bureaucracy just couldn't let alone: "under Colwell's leadership, the school became orderly. The number of students arrested and suspended dropped and test scores improved." And we all know what happened after he left, what the reporter euphemistically calls "continually changing leadership."

Meanwhile, new principal Middleton, scrambling to keep abreast of the myriad changes to NCHS's staff and curriculum, must now cope with additional problems of the high school's using a middle-school building for half of the next school year [See Brentwood to House School Part of Year]. Let's hope she's not being set up for failure.

Way to go with facilities' planning, Lewis!

Get Priorities Straight at North Charleston High School

2009-06-28T11:24:00.013-04:00

During reorganization of a high school, if you rehire only 40 percent of previous teachers, why have you rehired every single one of the athletic coaches, that is, 100 percent of all coaches that are teachers?

Juanita Middleton, former principal of two rural high schools, whom CCSD Superintendent McGinley reassigned to Burke High School as an assistant principal three years ago, has now been selected by McGinley (with the cover of a community-based committee) to head the reorganized North Charleston High School. [Veteran Principal to Lead N. Chas.]

Because of its years-long failing record with NCLB, the high school had to be reorganized, made into a charter school, or face state takeover. Needless to say, McGinley chose the first option.

Most likely Fred Moore, the previous principal, knew when he accepted the job a year ago that his tenure would be brief; he could have read the handwriting on the wall as well as anyone else. It may even have been a condition of his hiring. As McGinley remarked, "The perspective that some individuals may have on what transpired is not the full picture that I have." Right.

None of this is surprising; after all, Superintendent McGinley is known for moving administrators around like ping-pong balls.

But rehire 100 percent of all teachers who are coaches? That means that only about a third of non-coaching teachers were rehired. Some excellent teachers are also athletic coaches, but it's hard to believe that true of all of NCHS's previous coaching staff! So, it was the non-coaching staff that was retarding students' achievement at the school? Do you believe in the tooth fairy?

And those ungrateful teacher-coaches are now whining that they haven't gotten their coaching contracts yet? [see North Charleston Coaches in Limbo]

Poor babies!

CCSD's Weeping, Wailing, Gnashing of Teeth

2009-06-24T17:31:00.010-04:00

The headline says it all for the big spenders on CCSD's School Board and in 75 Calhoun: Classrooms Left Out in Tax Increase. That's what they'd like you to believe. It is true that many taxpayers do not understand the difference in raising taxes for operating expenses (what the P & C calls "classrooms") and the debt service budget for capital items (like new schools). But that is only half the story.

It should be obvious to the headline writer that the capital budget provides for classrooms--building them! And why did taxes need to be raised for this item? Because due to underestimated building expenses, the District has run out of money in the fund covering the schools under construction or about to be built. Hmmph. That's right. Who's responsible for that?

No one is calling Bill Lewis to account. The School Board and, heavens yes, the administration at 75 Calhoun are more than happy to pile requirement upon physical requirement for Charleston County's school buildings. Who could forget the (excuse me) necessity of earthquake-proofing all schools that were built before 2000? And we must have mega-schools built to satisfy the contractors and land developers who gain from their construction, never mind the impact on the busing expenses in the operating budget.

Lost in this process of everyone-getting-his is the education of students to read. Parents can sit back and revel in the knowledge that, should the never-to-be earthquake come, their children will be "safe" (not really, but the odds will improve). Should they care about the wasted time spent on busing? Do they know that mega-schools have fallen out of favor across the nation as they have become nameless, faceless government factories where no one really knows the children who fall between the cracks?

When you pay those higher taxes, just remember that, yes, the condition of school buildings in the Corridor of Shame is shameful, but it's even more shameful that a hefty percentage of children are entering high school reading on a third-grade level or below.

Around here, they'll be not learning to read in the safest, most expensive buildings money can buy. Gee, an accomplishment the taxpayers can be proud of!

OFA by Any Other Name

2009-06-24T16:59:00.002-04:00

By any other name, it's still organizers for the Democratic party. Don't kid yourself.

OFA Holds N. Chas. Forum

Forensic Audit Needed for CCSD Accounts

2009-06-23T19:25:00.006-04:00

And the award for Most Misleading Lead for a News Article goes to. . . School Board Avoids 1 Tax Hike in Tuesday's P & C.

Here's the lead: "The fiscally conservative Charleston County School Board succeeded in passing a $318.3 million operating budget that doesn't have a tax increase." The Board was trying to avoid a tax increase? Really? "Fiscally conservative?" Superintendent McGinley must have written that one herself!

A more accurate lead would have been "Board member Ruth Jordan, who normally follows the liberal spending ideas of Gregg Meyers, messed up his and the Superintendent's plans by voting with the fiscally conservative MINORITY of Ravenel-Kandrac-Toler and brought along Chris Collins for the victory." All McGinley could do was to whine "[that] the board's decision begs the question of what kind of school system the community wants. 'I'm sick about what happened,' she said."

It's easy to tell you what the community wants, Superintendent McGinley: transparency in operating expenses and income and in building expenses and contracts. Every year we go through the same shenigans, with people of good will towards the district attempting to understand the items in the budget asking for clearer budget figures. Every year the district reacts as though it has its hand in the cookie jar.

Until McGinley and her cohorts and supporters on the CCSD School Board practice more transparency, the community will continue to believe that its tax dollars are being wasted.

How about a forensic audit of CCSD's books, including the capital accounts. That just might satisfy Charleston County voters that the money has been well spent. Or it might show something else.

Differing Standards or Social Class?

2009-06-20T14:56:00.009-04:00

Woman Reported Missing. This article appeared in the front page of the P & C on Friday. Katherine Peronneau Waring, 28, of Murray Boulevard, Charleston, had been missing since Friday, June 12th. Seven days later her picture appears, five days after her family reported her missing. Someone tried to use one of her checks at a local bank. She's not answering her phone. Facts not reported by the P & C: she had no car because of DUI convictions. The person trying to cash her check is a known drug dealer. The case is being handled by the City of Charleston Police Department.

Compare this reaction with the almost two-year delay in the North Charleston's police filing a missing persons report on Teista Burwell. In her case, the cell phone was left under her deserted car. She had broken off relations with a known criminal, and, as the paper so delicately puts it, "North Charleston police said they have two incident reports involving Burwell, neither tied to that time and date " (when her car was found). These involved her relationship with the criminal she was trying to shake.

The 20-year-old Burwell attended Fort Dorchester High School and studying for a GED. Twenty-eight-year-old Waring graduated from Choate-Rosemary Hall. Burwell is mixed race; Waring is white.

I'd like to believe that the Charleston Police Department took Waring's case seriously because they learned from North Charleston's mistakes.

I'd like to.

Paradigm Shift Needed in Missing Adults Cases

2009-06-17T16:53:00.013-04:00

Teista Swain Burwell provides only the latest example of thinking by law enforcement officials that needs a major overhaul. [See Woman Finally Listed as Missing]. Nearly two years after her disappearance, one agency has finally listed her as missing; one investigator has taken her disappearance seriously. If it were a local aberration, we could call for heads to roll at the North Charleston police station.

But it isn't.

Too many well-documented cases exist all over this country showing that when someone reports an adult missing, police policy is to first assume the person wanted to disappear. Authorities then tell worried spouses and other family members that adults have a right to disappear if they want to. Then they do nothing to help family look for the missing loved one.

Imagine if missing children were treated that way!

Too often those missing are female, more than half according to FBI statistics. Too often a body is found years later when someone finally investigates to find out what happened.

We all can understand that the police are overworked and underpaid for the hard and often dangerous jobs that they do, but the way law enforcement treats these cases must change!

Paradigm shift: replace the former way of thinking or organizing with a radically different way of thinking or organizing.

Swimming Great but Reading Better for Graduates

2009-06-16T17:07:00.010-04:00

His heart is in the right place, but his solution isn't. That's the proper response to State Representative Wendell Gilliard's proposal that all public school students must learn to swim in order to graduate from high school. See Gilliard: Require Swim Lessons to Graduate. The lessons would be free, naturally. However, Gilliard has not proposed a way for school districts to pay for them.

Here is a perfect example of why students graduate from high school without learning to read well enough to fill out a job application. What should be the role of the public school in our society? If the schools have too many responsibilities to fulfill, none of them will be accomplished properly.

My heart aches for those who have lost loved ones, especially children, to drowning. Somehow, the community should provide for those unable to afford swimming lessons. After all, water is all around us.

Just don't put another straw on the camel's back.

Update: Even the editors of the P & C agree: Swimming Beyond Schools' Reach in Saturday's edition.

Students' Thinking Outside the Box--Literally

2009-06-15T17:17:00.007-04:00

Ever been in a portable classroom, i.e., "trailer"? Many of the ones I've seen have been horrors. Despite the teacher's best efforts, the room remains a box with seats in it.

So I was glad to see that one architectural firm consulted students (and their teachers too, I hope!) at the Charleston Development Academy about designing a student-friendly atmosphere for one [Brainstorming a Model Classroom]. Architects learned what students desired, while the students learned how a brainstorming session could translate into real-world action.

According to the article,

"Later this fall, they'll find out if they've won — and whether the prize money will help get it built. The overall budget is expected to be about $100,000.
"School administrator Cecilia Gordon Rogers hopes it's a winner. The school's enrollment was about 134 this year and is expected to grow to 150 next year, placing a strain on the old Septima P. Clark building at the public housing complex.
"'We have totally grown out of our space,' she says. 'We're looking forward to building this.'"

The rest of us hope Liollio Architecture's entry is a winner also, as Charleston Development Academy continues to show that public charter schools can make a positive difference for at-risk students.

Ancestors Speak from the Grave at Charleston Event!

2009-06-14T16:47:00.008-04:00

Yesterday, one of black icons, Booker T. Washington or Frederick Douglass, spoke from the grave. This indeed is startling news, and I'm shocked that the P & C didn't present THAT news in its top headlines!

See Ancestor of Black Icons Is Thankful in both its on-line and print versions for the latest news from the grave.

Meyers, the Poster Boy for Chutzpah in CCSD

2009-06-11T19:39:00.019-04:00

English words have failed me (effrontery, gall, arrogance, brass, nerve, audacity, cheek, hubris--oops, sorry, that last one was Greek), so I must fall back on the little Yiddish I know to describe Charleston County School Board member Gregg Meyers's reactions to CCSD's literacy problems: chutzpah. At least, that was my reaction toThursday's newest article on literacy problems in the district [Literacy Requirements Debated].

How many years has our erstwhile friend served on the School Board?

How many years has the problem existed?

Meyers should be forced to resign in shame.

Think of the major role he played in creating safe-haven magnet schools for his own children (both Buist and Academic Magnet) while allowing deterioration of schools for poorer students downtown (District 20) and elsewhere during his "service." Apparently, Meyers lives by the motto, "Them that has, gets." Imagine the nerve that went into the following Meyers statement: "If we don't stake out what is most important, then this [learning to read] simply becomes one of many important things." If any one person could be held accountable for CCSD's literacy failures, it would be Meyers himself.

On the other hand, Board member Ruth Jordan's remarks reveal that she still doesn't understand the problem. The article quotes her as saying, " it's not acceptable for students to be so far behind when they reach ninth grade, but [. . .] some district teachers are ineffective. Tying promotion to reading ability would penalize students for their teachers' ineptitude."

So, Ms. Jordan, under that politically-correct condition it would be okay to send students "so far behind" that they can't read their textbooks on to high school? Isn't that what caused the problem in the first place? Use some logic here, please!

To top the CCSD's committee meeting off, "community member" (see previous post) Jon Butzon was allowed to sit in deliberations and provide his two cents. When was he elected to the School Board? Why isn't Elizabeth Kandrac on the committee? Isn't she the board member who has the most direct experience in teaching students who can't read on grade level? Where are Butzon's credentials (besides being a friend of the Mayor)?

Nowhere in the article does the reporter mention that the original goal of No Child Left Behind was to make sure that every third grader was reading prior to entering the next grade. Not relevant here, among NCLB-bashers? Or were the reporter and School Board members even more ignorant than we thought?

CCSD School Budget Charades Successful Again

2009-06-10T18:02:00.027-04:00

Mike Bobby could tell the taxpayers of Charleston County that the Charleston County Schools operate on a shoe-string, and no one could disprove his assertions. Most people looking at the proposed budget will immediately flash back to those days sitting in algebra class, when X2 + 4xy + 3Y2 needed to be factored. In a sentence, "Let me out of here!"

On the other hand, those knowledgeable regarding accounting will immediately flash back to prior chief financial officers and their sleight-of-hand numbers. Despite the requests and pleas for clearer outlines of expenditures, no such clarity has developed. The public, to put it bluntly, is "foiled again." And that will become "taxed again."

This week's public hearing reported in Wednesday's paper (School Budget Could Mean Tax Increase) was a charade to provide cover for the coming tax increase--and it will come! Supposedly three "community" members (i.e., non-CCSD-attached) attended the hearing; however, the only one who spoke, Jon Butzon, is a community member in the same sense that Nancy McGinley is: not. No one who has attended closed-door sessions of the School Board could represent the community at large, and anyway, he represents the Mayor! Holding a barely publicized meeting at 5 p.m. on a Tuesday was guaranteed to keep naysayers away.

Ask yourself: if the meeting had kept secret from the public, how many fewer participants would there have been? What does that answer tell you about how well it was publicized? Instead, 75 Calhoun rounded up the usual suspects from employees who have a vested interest in getting as many dollars as possible (and I don't mean "for the children"). CCSD Board members in favor of a tax increase (all but two--Ravenel and Kandrac) arranged their "cover" by voting initially for no increase. CFA Bobby obligingly came back with a budget in which, as his fellow conspirator Toya Green puts it, "the cuts that would be required if no tax increase is passed would be so painful that [. . .] those in the majority would approve some sort of increase." Which they planned all along.

These folks "in the majority" are more than happy to raise taxes. Let's not forget that those elected to the Board in the last election, those that constitute the majority in favor of this tax increase won thanks to the endorsement of the Charleston County Democratic Party.

The idea that we have a non-partisan school board is as ludicrous as thinking that this one doesn't want to raise taxes. We're stuck with them for now. Will voters' memories be long enough to "throw the bums out"?

Belaboring the Obvious in CCSD; More Money, Please

2009-06-09T17:24:00.017-04:00

Oh, you wanted us to teach them to READ! Why didn't you say so? We'll get to it right away.

That pretty much sums up the response of CCSD's administrators and School Board to the series of articles on literacy (or the lack of it) in Charleston County's schools. See School Board Focuses on Students' Literacy in Tuesday's P & C.

Now, to be fair to the School Board, why should it need to "outline its expectations for students and their ability to read"? Isn't Superintendent Nancy McGinley paid beaucoup bucks to take care of such standards? Why should she and her minions at 75 Calhoun need guidelines?

It must have been a real pleasure to hear CCSD administration try to put the best face on its failures to follow through with the expensive "initiatives" announced in the past. And, can you imagine? The P & C's exposes have made Gregg Meyers feel bad. In fact, he's now grateful that the problem has been brought to his attention.

Further, after her more than five years as Chief Academic Officer and now Superintendent, McGinley feels a "new sense of urgency" about reading statistics. After all, she'd been focused on "building capacity to improve literacy rates." Now she understands that she actually needs to improve literacy!

Wait for it-------

The next idea from 75 Calhoun will be that CCSD has inadequate funds to improve literacy, when in reality it suffers from inadequate will.

Imagine a "culture" where fourth graders can read.

CCSD's Five Empty School Buildings: Secret Plans

2009-06-06T11:42:00.007-04:00

With pieces like this one, why does CCSD Schools Superintendent Nancy McGinley pay Eliott Smalley? [5 Schools Close Permanently, Making Friday an Emotional Day for Many]

We can't accuse McGinley of FTPA ("failure to plan ahead"). She has plans for these buildings, all right--they're just a secret.

Can you say "developers"?

CCSD's Lewis's Doomsday Approach Wins $7.5 Million Down Payment

2009-06-04T18:16:00.028-04:00

Cousin Arthur's thrown in the towel. Arthur Ravenel, Jr.'s now supporting making Charleston County schools earthquake proof. I suspect he's decided that some battles just aren't worth fighting. Let's face it: he has little encouragement from the results of the last election. Still, he's been resident in Charleston County longer than most of us--and how many earthquakes have damaged the city during his lifetime? None, of course.

What has the sky-is-falling crowd won? [See Safety First with Schools in Wednesday's paper] The major changes proposed by ex-Californian Bill (can you pronounce "San Andreas Fault") Lewis come with a major price tag "to be named later." So far the CCSD School Board has "seeded" only $7.5 million into the process to get it started. Those were "leftover" dollars. We should all hope for such leftovers.

Wait till Lewis goes for the big bucks.

Experts differ on how far to go in retrofitting (or the necessity of replacing) school buildings in this not-earthquake-prone, not-on-a-fault-line area. A totally earthquake proof environment does not exist and never will, here or elsewhere. Lewis has encouraged the doomsday approach; the CCSD School Board has knuckled under. Is there any hope that they might get a second opinion regarding how much work is really necessary? The necessity for millions to be spent on the Rivers building was revealed much too closely to the request for its use by the Charter School for Math and Science for anyone with common sense to believe that politics is not involved in the process.

Also, it would be fitting if a second opinion came from a firm that did not have a vested interest in recommending major big-bucks work. Well, since Arthur has caved, all we can do is hope.

As for the "comparatively undistinguished" Memminger Elementary building, it's probably far better built than the recently-constructed (under the aegis of Bill Lewis) West Ashley High School, which is already falling apart. Whatever happens to its 1950s building, let's not forget that Memminger's property is prime real estate that Joe Riley's friends would love to get their hands on. The property also has a long history in education that predates the present building.

If you think that greedy developers are not in the equation, you may have just fallen off the turnip truck.

New Acronym for Lowcountry Development: FTPA

2009-06-03T11:46:00.008-04:00

My students hate to see the dreaded FTFD--failure to follow directions--on their research papers. If only I could reach out to Charleston County Council members to brand them with an FTPA--failure to plan ahead. [See Question of Waste in Wednesday's P & C]

Who ever heard of shutting down an incinerator prior to figuring out what would become of the waste and how much the change will cost? Is this really "going green," or is it simply political maneuvering gone amuck?

Guess what. No one knows, including the council. This decision is irresponsibility at its worst.

I thought that no one could top the decision to remove the port from Daniel Island without proper planning for railroads to handle the traffic forced back into North Charleston, but I was wrong. Or, at least, I thought that our elected officials could learn a lesson about FTPA from that fiasco, but even Mayor Summey's son didn't--and he has seen the results of FTPA up close and personal.

Did anyone consider making the smokestack on the incinerator taller so its discharge would dissipate in the upper atmosphere? Could the Council have shouldered the responsibility of planning for waste prior to shutting it down? Imagine what else suffers from FTPA that we can't even see!

CCSD NCLB Transfers Also Opaque

2009-06-02T10:24:00.003-04:00

Transfer to where?

Charleston County schools that students can transfer from:

Elementary: Boykin Academy, Burns, Charleston Progressive, Chicora, Frierson, Goodwin, James Simons, Jane Edwards, Mary Ford, Memminger, Midland Park, Mitchell, North Charleston and St. James-Santee.

Middle: Alice Birney, Baptist Hill, Brentwood, Burke, Haut Gap, Jane Edwards, Frierson and Morningside.

High: Baptist Hill, Burke, North Charleston and Stall.

Why is half of article missing?

CCSD Ignores Policy Regarding Buist Admissions

2009-05-31T16:53:00.017-04:00

Policies that CCSD staff appear to have disregarded govern the admissions process to the magnet schools, including Buist Academy. Thanks to the yearly turbulence over those "winning" entrance to Buist Academy, especially those falsely representing themselves as living downtown in District 20, in January of 2007 CCSD codified a policy:

"Applicants must certify as follows: 'Under penalty of perjury I certify that, as primary caregiver of my applicant child: A) the residence, which is the subject of this application is my legal residence and my domicile, the place where I and the student actually live at the time of this application and that I do not claim to be a legal resident of a jurisdiction other than Charleston County...'"

[To read the full PDF document as adopted, go to Policy Assessing Legal Residence and Domicile on CCSD's website.]

If ever there were clear evidence that CCSD ignores its own policies, we have it this year. What part of the policy allows a Berkeley County resident participation in the application process to enter the kindergarten class at Buist for the 2009-10 year?

When contacted, CCSD's attorney John Emerson admitted no knowledge of such a policy: as he put it when contacted, "Dr. Gepford tells me you contend that policy requires that residence has to be established at the time of application to magnet schools. Can you tell me which policy you rely on?"

Pathetic, or what?

The response of the querying District 20 resident was as follows:

"It is unfortunate that community volunteers are required to show well-paid professionals in public administrative offices how to find copies of public policies that have been central to such a high profile issue. Or is this just another example of official obfuscation?"

"CCSD's unofficial policy seems to be designed just to stonewall the public with the hope they will simply go away. The magnet school admissions policies are clear." [see above]

"There is no excuse for what can only be described at best as administrative incompetence on CCSD's part. If this error is proven, considering the potential damage committed against the rights of others who depend on the admissions process involving Buist Academy and all other CCSD schools being administered fairly and equitably, reprimands are in order."

"As for the school-based administrator who chose to shepherd this application, considering this is the latest in an extensively documented pattern of abuse, termination is overdue."

Blame for this fiasco must remain squarely on the shoulders of Nancy McGinley and the administrators at Buist Academy that she supports.

SC "Weeding" and Waste in CCSD

2009-05-27T12:17:00.026-04:00

What do these books have in common (besides the infamy of being dumped for recycling by media specialists at North Charleston High School? [See the P & C Watchdog's Books Found in Trash]

The Encyclopedia of Mammals--original copyright 1984; new three-volume edition 2006 costs $325.
Supernatural Fiction Writers--copyright 1985; two-volume edition 2002 "supplementing but not replacing" the first two-volume edition costs $265.

Each is more than 20 years old!

Why, we can't tolerate that here in South Carolina. Imagine our high school students trying to read books that are older than they are. What is this world coming to? Next thing you know, North Charleston High School will be on the Corridor of Shame.

Clearly to avoid contamination, yellowing pages, or outdated ideas we need to set up book-burning services. That way these noxious copies won't fall into the evil hands of (shudder) homeschoolers like Ranie Jordan. Is it too late to use the North Charleston incinerator? Call Fahrenheit 451.

The ignorant masses haven't yet learned what librarians (excuse me, media specialists) know from their training: old is bad; new is good. The process is called "weeding," since old books are equal to weeds.

So we must ask the question: if half the incoming class can't read beyond a third-grade level, is it better to replace 20-year-old books or to spend the funds elsewhere?

That is the real story. That these ended up being discarded inappropriately? Look at the described bureaucratic hassle set up after the last fiasco. Don't bet good money that no other still usable books received the dumpster treatment in CCSD this year.

Now, about that tax increase for the school budget. . . .

CCSD Budget Opaque as Usual

2009-05-26T17:05:00.019-04:00

Transparency refers to an environment in which the objectives of policy, its legal, institutional, and economic framework, policy decisions and their rationale, data and information related to monetary and financial policies, and the terms of agencies’ accountability, are provided to the public in a comprehensible, accessible, and timely manner.

That's the definition posted on line by the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development). As you can see, by this measure the Charleston County Schools Superintendent, her policy-making and budget, and the CCSD School Board share an obvious lack of transparency in virtually every way!

Of course, the opacity of CCSD's budget process and result is hardly new, as anyone attempting to follow the process has already discovered. Despite promises to the contrary, including promises from new board members, "Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose."[the more things change, the more they stay the same.]

The budget about to be unveiled to the public does not include the school level breakout requested (and promised!) for many years. Neither School Board members nor others can see to compare utility costs, administrative positions and transportation costs between comparable schools. There is also no coherent representation of these figures from previous years for each school.

Now we have a line item identified as "parochial, private and charter school" distribution. No doubt the new Catholic Bishop will be puzzling over that one, not to speak of the headmaster at Porter-Gaud! CCSD's charter schools are public schools; they are not parochial or private. If charter schools are so different from "regular" public schools, let's be consistent and use a similar breakout for magnet schools in Charleston County.

To add insult to injury, apparently Superintendent McGinley will ask the board to support creating an additional senior administrative position with this budget. Yes, you read that correctly. Another $100,000-per-year in salary and benefits for an educrat. In light of all the cuts to the classrooms countywide, is it wise to be adding administrative staff?

Finally, the combined millage being requested for the General Operating Fund and Capital Fund is the largest figure ever proposed in the history of CCSD. Further, as CCSD nears the end of its five-year capital fund cycle, its actual budget's exceeding $600 million represents a nearly 20 percent cost overrun from the original budget of $508 million.

Fed up yet? Call your School Board members to complain.

Need to Educate P & C Reporters Revealed

2009-05-24T15:32:00.021-04:00

Sunday's article on what may have been the first memorial day dedicated to civil war soldiers [see The First Memorial Day] should pique the interest of all history-loving readers who realize that knowing the past is invaluable. Brian Hicks' article on the event taking place on May 1, 1865, in what is now Hampton Park may very well chronicle the first Memorial Day celebration ever, although most history books give that award to an event in New York one year later.

Hicks carefully documents that early Decoration Day while summarizing what happened after:

"A tradition began. Within 20 years, the name of this holiday would be changed to Memorial Day.
"In 1868, Confederate Memorial Day got its start. The two holidays were kept separate, allegedly because Southerners did not want to celebrate a holiday to honor Union soldiers. [allegedly?!] Blight [a Yale history professor] said the tradition of remembering soldiers and decorating their graves likely began during the war, when women visited battlefields after the fighting had ended.
"For the rest of the 19th century, Decoration Day and Confederate Memorial Day existed as separate holidays, perhaps a symbol of the country's lingering divide. The two holidays were combined and designated a federal holiday in the 20th century."

Someone needs to give Hicks (and presumably the editors of the "South's Oldest Daily Newspaper") a history lesson. You don't need to be an expert to know that in South Carolina, while both sides celebrate Memorial Day this weekend in remembrance of the valiant dead of all wars, the State still recognizes Confederate Memorial Day on May 10. Maybe Hicks doesn't read the papers.

More than that, in his history of the holiday's development, Hicks completely ignores another significant event in Charleston, memorialized by one of the most famous poems to originate from the Civil War, written for the June 1866 decorating of the graves of Confederate dead at Magnolia Cemetery on the Charleston Neck, not very far away from those graves at the race track. Henry Timrod's "Ode on the Confederate Dead" is still printed in high school American literature books, bowdlerized though they be. A line from Timrod's poem even graces the South Carolina monument at the Gettysburg battlefield: “There is no holier spot of ground than where defeated valor lies, by mourning beauty crowned.” The line refers to the laying of wreaths of flowers on the graves in Charleston, although it certainly applies to Gettysburg.

I'm also not sure what Hicks means by "Southern gentility was long gone" in May of 1865. Union troops were in control of the city, but not every Confederacy-supporting Charlestonian was dead or even removed from the city.

The article rightly provides a true example of the "richness" of Charleston's history, but let's tell all of the story.

CCSD's McGinley's Glass Half-Empty

2009-05-22T10:52:00.016-04:00

To make up for its truth-telling on the illiteracy rate in CCSD's upcoming ninth graders, the P & C has exercised its right to put the best spin possible on the Charleston Teacher Alliance's survey of its teachers. [McGinley praised in teacher survey]

Here's the lead: "Some Charleston County teachers say Superintendent Nancy McGinley is doing a far better job of leading the school district than her predecessor." See what I mean? In other words, teachers see McGinley as an improvement over Goodloe-Johnson. Well, who wouldn't?

According to Kent Riddle, chairman of the Alliance, "McGinley has done more to reach out to teachers and let them know what's happening, and it's important to teachers to feel as if they're being treated as professionals." That's right. Public relations.

Riddle thinks that "She likely could have even higher scores if she did more to explain the way teacher input affected her decision-making." Easy, Kent, it doesn't!

Let's face it: what contact do most teachers have with the Superintendent? Not much. However, they do have contact with her emissaries, the Associate Superintendents. These important links in the chain of command are McGinley's choices. And what do teachers say about them?

"Associate superintendents, the liaisons between principals and the superintendent, received worse marks from teachers this year, and their scores continue to be among the lowest for any leadership group. Thirty-four percent said their associate superintendent was an effective leader while 40 percent said they weren't sure."

Given the survey's questions, teachers clearly were not asked to make the connection between McGinley's choice of these administrators and the teachers' poor estimation of their competence. Look at McGinley's response to their concerns: these aren't poor administrators; the teachers have a "perception issue regarding associate superintendents."
That calls for better public relations, of course.

Buried at the end of the article are two disturbing statistics:

"Riddle said areas of concern included the 29 percent of teachers who feared retaliation from the principal if they disagree on an issue or report a concern, and individual schools where less than 50 percent of teachers surveyed believe their school had a positive climate and working environment."[boldface mine]

McGinley plans to hunt them down: "she promised to look closer at schools with low-approval ratings for their leaders."

Water-Is-Wet News: Buist Shenanigans Redux

2009-05-20T17:21:00.020-04:00

Just when you thought it was safe to think that Charleston County's only countywide magnet school for K-8 was back on the straight and narrow in its admissions comes the latest outrage--selecting a student from another county from the District 20 list! Yes, that was no rumor.

Said student, whose parents live on Daniel Island in Berkeley County, was allowed to participate in this spring's lottery for next year's kindergarten slots. He must have been entered on the countywide, failing schools, and District 20 lists--why not? And he "won" a seat with the latter.

If your child were first on the waiting list and you actually lived in District 20, wouldn't you be just a tad upset?

Since the news has gotten out, the parents claim that they own an apartment downtown in District 20 that is at present rented out. When its lease is up in August, they plan to move in. Buist Academy will observe proper admissions policies, and pigs will fly.

Here we have an example of flouting of state law. After Buist's admissions policies made the national news a couple of years ago, CCSD put Doug Gepford in charge of oversight of admissions to all magnet schools. Gepford confirms there is a Berkeley County resident who is registered to attend Buist next year using a District 20 slot. According to one interested party,

"When asked what he plans to do about it, he said he couldn't do anything but monitor the situation. He said his hands were tied, as this was a 'board policy,' and until the board changed its policies, existing rules would allow this admission to take place. He further said he couldn't do anything about it this year, but the board might address this for 'future applicants' to attend Buist who might be admitted 'after next year.'"

What law is broken? "Any exception to extend rights to the other cannot result in the displacement of a rightful and true resident. The promise of future qualification by a non-resident still displaces a current resident." Add to that a presumption of financial leverage to facilitate taking of someone's place in line, and you have an additional problem.

We can all agree that this is just another example of why there is so little confidence in the administration's integrity and ability to lead.

Will the P & C follow up on this story? Too bad we can't get the national news to return.