Nexsen Pruet, Memminger, and Buttered Bread

Hooray for Memminger Elementary School! It has been discovered by the Nexsen Pruet Law Firm. [See Law Firm Discovers School Neighbor.] According to the May 12th article in the P & C,

"Memminger Elementary needed 280 sharpened pencils, 140 water bottles, yogurt and peppermints for the upcoming PACT test. The school wanted to put on a science fair later this month and needed display boards and ribbons for the winners. The administration wanted to recognize its volunteers for their hard work this year with a picnic. And there was something else Memminger was in dire need of.

"One thing we were in desperate need of is a (public addess) system, because sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't," said Principal Diane Ross.

"The answer to their prayers was right down the street, less than half a mile away.

"Ric Tapp, one of the litigation partners at Nexsen Pruet, told student support specialist Leah Hambright and Memminger's parent educator Maurice Johnson that he thought people who worked at his firm would be interested in helping the elementary school reach some of its educational goals. Johnson and Hambright put together a successful presentation for several lawyers, and about a week later, they had everything on the wish list.

"When these two gave their presentation... we had seasoned lawyers in tears," said Chris Ogiba, a lawyer at the firm.

[snip]

"Ogiba said many of his co-workers didn't know that Memminger was such a close neighbor, but now he feels the relationship between the school and the firm will only strengthen.

"Everyone [at the firm] wanted to make sure this is just the beginning," he said. "We're in it for the long haul. ... We're neighbors."

Everyone has a nice, warm, fuzzy feeling now, right?? That was on May 12th.

Five days later, CCSD announced that it had finally hired its promised in-house lawyer. The cynical among us know what's coming next, don't we?

"John Emerson has been hired as the district's new staff attorney. Emerson practices in Nexsen Pruet's Columbia office as a part of the employment and labor law group and the business litigation group."

Frankly, I'm glad to see that someone at Nexsen Pruet knew which side its bread was buttered on and thought it wise to help Memminger out.

Coincidence, you say? Sure, just about as much of a coincidence as the resignation of Rusty Thomas the day before the fire report came out.

Note: Thanks to a sharp-eyed reader for putting two and two together for me. As this person has said so succinctly,

One would think that a law firm as rich and powerful as this one and with designs on taking over the CCSD contract would have been (a.) less obvious in the choice of its beneficiary; (b.) more generous so as not to look "niggardly;" (c.) careful to avoid the appearance that it has been oblivious to Memminger's plight for over forty years; and (d.) gone the extra step of setting up a Non-profit to provide for continuing donations to and fund-raising for this school.

Of course, the money could have been donated to the school anonymously through http://www.donorschoose.org rather than directly to the school in a public manner. But then Nexen, Pruet would not have received the free publicity.

Tom Ravenel Convicts Himself in Interview

Self-serving whining.

That's what greeted Sunday's readers of the P & C as they read its interview with former State Treasurer Thomas Ravenel, smartly splashed all over the front page for maximum publicity.

Let Thomas speak for himself:

"Ravenel remains angry that he has to go to prison at all. If the case had been pursued in state court rather than at the federal level, he and his legal team contend he probably would have gotten a slap on the wrist and no incarceration time at all."

"I think what happened to me is that I went through a midlife crisis."

"[He] began running with the drug crowd because they were young."

"Contrary to public opinion, [cocaine]'s not that addictive," he said.

"He knows that he did wrong by using drugs while in elected office but says he deserved a break from federal Judge Joe Anderson."

"A first-time drug user should not go to prison," said Ravenel.

"His habit was mostly recreational, he says, buying sporadically and saving it for party times, although he said the frequency of his use increased."

A first-time user? Is he kidding? Not addictive? Really? Didn't get a break? Wasn't the amount he was charged with holding reduced from 400 to 100 grams?

Believe it or not, this whiner is so arrogant that he plans to run for office again in the future.

CCSD & Sea Islands YouthBuild: What Now?

If you can make any sense out of what is going on with this charter, I'd be glad of your comments. The P & C's recent article [YouthBuild Gets 2-week Reprieve ] was not illuminating!

SC Montessori Programs: Where's the Beef?

Maria Montessori, a pioneer in childhood education, took children from the Italian equivalent of housing projects and showed that they were educable. Since the recognition of her success early in the twentieth century, her methods have spread in various incarnations around the world.

My own experience with "real" (not American) Montessori was my child's enrollment in a preschool that mixed children from 3 to 5 years old with highly-educated, wealthy parents in a private school with small classes. It was a good experience for my child, although I'm not sure that a more traditional atmosphere wouldn't have been the same.

Now the SC State Department of Education is touting Montessori programs as one of the ways to improve graduation rates. According to Monday's Post and Courier, the state's coordinator of Montessori education, Ginny Riga said, "Montessori isn't for everyone. Some students need more structure or learn better through lectures, but she contends that's a small percentage. 'There's so much emphasis on the love of learning and respect of learning, instead of push, push, push for skill and drill.'" Lectures? Please, stop the straw-man arguments.

You know, until she made that last crack about "push, push, push for skill and drill" as being antithetical to "the love of learning and respect of learning," I was ready to go along with Riga. Now I want the hard statistics on South Carolina's 33 Montessori schools, adjusted, of course, for the usual socio-economic factors.

According to the article, SC's Montessori schools have been around since the mid-1990s. That's long enough to gather preliminary statistics on whether they have produced more engaged and more prepared students. Has anyone been charged with finding out? And, by the way, how many of these programs go past the sixth grade? That might have some bearing on whether graduation rates would be improved.

As they say, "Where's the beef?"

YouthBuild Builds at Last: CCSD Soap Opera

The long, sad odyssey of Sea Islands YouthBuild Charter School seems to be coming to a resolution, if a temporary one. Today's P & C reports that the school finally has a building. [See Sea Islands YouthBuild Home at Last ]

At the end of the school year. The school managed to dodge the cut-off of district funds several times during the year [see several postings on this blog], but this summer the CCSD School Board will be forced to choose: is it going to fund this school in the future or not? Has the school met its obligations to remain in good standing?

Comparisons have been made between Sea Islands and the new Charter School for Math and Science over the last few months. It's time to take stock. The two charters certainly have been treated differently by the CCSD School Board; that's because, leaving aside differences in their missions, these two charters are entirely different in genesis, motivation, and parental involvement. Perhaps there are some lessons to be learned.

• Sea Islands was encouraged by 75 Calhoun to form under the well-meaning guidance of a former employee of CCSD and friend of 75 Calhoun in order to meet the needs of older at-risk students who would no longer be eligible for Murray Hill Academy because the district changed its policies regarding Murray Hill. The students targeted for YouthBuild were unlikely to have much parental support or involvement in its organization.
  
• Charter School for Math and Science started as a grass-roots effort among parents of District 20 students who were discouraged by their choices of failing schools. From the beginning, it seems, the CCSD board was miffed that it did not control the actions of this group.
  
• When the CCSD Board of Trustees approved YouthBuild, it failed in its duty to these needy students by trustingly accepting the word of its organizer that a facility that would meet state standards was available for use. Such was not the case.
• The CCSD Board of Trustees never trusted CSMS in any regard because it hated the idea of a charter high school downtown, with members repeatedly hinting that its organizers were racists. Strong grass-roots support among all races downtown won over public opinion.
  
• The lack of a building and monthly perambulations of YouthBuild from pillar to post, coupled with lack of busing, guaranteed a major reduction in the number of students in attendance. Meanwhile, the district continued to pay funds based on initial numbers of students. Records of attendance were not made available to the district when requested.
• When CSMS organizers saw the old Rivers High School building sitting vacant and requested its use, the School Board attempted to quash and/or gain control over it by suggesting exorbitant rent, then raising the number of millions needed to bring the building up to standards (never mind that the building had been vacant for a very brief period) to a ridiculous figure.
• Perhaps as part of its agreement with CCSD to keep getting funding despite its not following the rules, Sea Islands did not ask for space in public school buildings, although certainly such space exists. Now it has signed a three-year contract to rent an old warehouse that students themselves will renovate.
  

According to Larry Blasch, chairman of YouthBuild's board, "the school will spend another $30,000 improving the space so it can clear state and local inspections and be occupied by students." So the space will finally meet requirements just as school is getting out for the summer?

Given that expenditure and the signing of a three-year contract, it seems reasonable to assume that the fix is in, even though the Board will be not updated in regard to continuing its support until its meeting later this month.

Taxpayers deserve to know what CCSD has gotten for their money in regard to students at YouthBuild: How many credits have been earned per tax dollar? How many diplomas?

And has CCSD learned its lesson?

Delay, Linger, and Wait: Again with the Fire Report

Why do politicians make important announcements late on Friday afternoons? No, this is not a trick question.

It's to get bad news out when their audience is paying the least attention. Some won't even get the word until the following Monday, and by then the worst of the storm will have blown over (at least that's what politicians hope).

So it should come as no surprise that it was late on Friday afternoon, only a few hours ago, that Mayor Riley, who no one doubts has political skill, announced that the long-awaited requested panel investigative report on the fatal fire at the Sofa Super Store will now be delayed until the middle of June.

The middle of June. For a report that originally was supposed to come out in December. Actually, what Riley said was, "the panel's report could be released over the summer, but he refused to commit to a definite timetable." Now the excuse is a wait for the results of two federal probes.

You know, Joe, at this point people are beginning to murmur, what has he got to hide?

The Stupidity View of the Post and Courier

It's not rocket science.

The lead paragraph (or two) of a news article should mention who, what, where, when, why, and how, if those facts are known. The same is true of any writing that seeks to inform. Do you remember when you were first introduced to the "5 W's and an H"? I don't either, but I know it was early in high school.

So you must ask yourself, what's wrong with the Newsless aka Post and Courier? In Wednesday's edition an article about Horizon Middle Academy (who) informed the public that this charter school will not open its doors (what) next fall (when) because of lack of funding (why) caused by its approval through the SC Public Charter School District instead of through CCSD (how).

Oh, did I leave something out?

You mean WHERE? WHERE? [See Opening Farther Out on Horizon]

Yes, the reporter left out the fifth "W" because , I suppose, if you have to ask, you can't afford to know this information.

And the editors (they still do edit, don't they?) didn't care or didn't catch it or assumed that anyone reading the P & C lacked the same amount of curiosity that the editors did.

Okay, enough of being cute. It's on Johns Island and is being organized as an alternative to Haut Gap Middle School. I know because I had to look it up. So many potential charters have been announced in the last year that I couldn't remember which one Horizon was either.

If I believed in the conspiracy view of history (which I don't), I would assume that the P & C didn't want to give Horizon any more publicity than it was forced to and figured that saying where the school would be located would only encourage those misguided parents to seek out Horizon in place of sending their children to a failing school.

No, I believe in the stupidity view of history. According to that view, what others chalk up to conspiracy is easily explained by the usual incompetency and imbecility.

Remember, we are talking about the P & C.

Jim Rex Confuses Buildings with Standards

Hard to believe, isn't it, that State Superintendent of Education Jim Rex is so confused that he equates buildings with academic standards. Rex revealed his confusion at a Rotary Club meeting in Columbia Monday. As reported in the State, Rex said:

"More political courage is needed by the state’s 170 lawmakers if they are to fix the state’s ailing public education system. [. . . ]

Rex said state lawmakers often tell him they want to stand up for public education but are afraid of being targeted by powerful [so powerful they cannot be named] groups in their home counties. Rex said that within an hour’s drive of Columbia, there are public schools that look like something in the “third world.”

The state’s 700,000 young people in public schools will be the dominant population in the state, so it makes sense to spend money on them, Rex said. A “tsunami” of bad consequences is rushing toward South Carolina if it does not raise public education standards, he said."

Let's follow the logic here: South Carolina's "Corridor of Shame" has "third-world" school buildings. Therefore, the state should replace and/or renovate the buildings. As a result, "public education standards" will rise. Oh, yeah. Better buildings = higher standards.

Listen, I didn't vote for him.