The South Carolina state legislature appears to be poised to congratulate itself on passing legislation that will allow any student to transfer into a district he or she does not reside in, provided that the percentage of non-district transfers into a district does not rise above 3%.I've been racking my brain, trying to conjure scenarios that validate this new policy as improving South Carolina's schools. Finally, it dawned on me: this will improve some of its football teams!
Yes, friends, now Summerville's long-serving football coach, known to recruit out of district and use various subterfuges to get those promising out-of-district students into the Green Wave, will simply get them to transfer into the district. No doubt there are other football powers that will also reap the benefit. Why didn't we think of this before?
Do you ever feel like they're rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic?
But District 20 parents can really laugh at the worries of some upstate residents that district re-segregation will occur if students transfer out of districts where they actually reside. CCSD knows that we don't need inter-district transfers to re-segregate schools; intra-district works just fine. They need only look down from their offices on Calhoun Street at the Charleston penninsula schools to see that.
An added bonus will be that those out-of-district Buist Academy students who entered on the downtown list will become only 100% illegal instead of 200%.
Will transportation be provided out of district? I hope it won't depend on CCSD. It can't even get students transferring out of its failing schools on the penninsula to Mt. Pleasant on time, much less to Berkeley or Dorchester County!
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Why is there such a disconnect between the legislature and public education in SC? Given how much money is spent either directly or indirectly on K-12 education and the impact that its success or failure has on the economy of the entire state and its many communities, you'd think elected representatives would be more informed as to the cause and effect of their actions in Columbia. No thanks to local school districts like CCSD for helping to keep them all confused with so much disinformation.
I'm a District 20 parent and I choose Buist. Will Mr. Rex's new policy let me send my child to Buist? Its the only excellent rated school in my community and that's the school I choose. My child can go there under his plan, right?
Oops...I forgot to say I'm African-American and I don't have any money to donate to the Buist Foundation. But that doesn't matter, right?
Did anyone ever send the Sanford family information to the STate Newspaper? I know the Post and Courier dropped the story as soon as they found out about the Riley/Seinsheimer connection so I know they won't pursue the fact that Sanford has relatives that used a fake District 20 address to get into Buist.
Now we know why the corrupt school board did nothing about all the other fake addresses last summer. They had family connnections like Kefalos, Langsam (Sanford), Krawcheck (Maurehan) and God only knows who else got away with cheating....maybe because they were a loud reporter for a local weekly paper--strange that he suddenly left his downtown house....those of you that didn't cheat should be upset too. Your cheating friends make all of you Buist parents look bad. You all sit back and let Sallie Ballard and the address cheats teach your children the Enron way of life. By the way, those people that you think "are just wanting the best for their children" took a downtown seat at Buist from real downtown children that had no other good public school. You too are part of the problem.
Nancy Cook was quoted in the P&C and on local Network news saying that she didn't think that anyone would ever be prosecuted for lying or forging an application to Buist. She said it would be "too costly" to prosecute or collect the $200 fine for committing purgery. For the county school board chairman to say this publicly is equivalent to issuing an open invitation to cheat with no penalty or threat of legal action by those who we trust to enforce the rules. Ms. Cook is in violation of her oath to uphold the law. Of course her kids attend private schools and/or magnet schools. Do you think the county school board chairman would send her kids the one of the many failing schools in North Charleston. Like Hillary Douglas, she's done a deplorable job overseeing the wretched schools in the North Area. Why do we keep reelecting these idiots?
Why would anyone outside of Charleston County want to send their child here...oh, unless 3% of the seats at Buist Academy (12 seats) and the same for Academic Magnet High School (18 seats) would be reserved for Daniel Island residents in Berkeley County. So that's why Joe Riley has been OK with the status quo in public education since 1975. He didn't send his kids to downtown public schools either. We need new leadership all they way around or it'll just be more of the same for the next generation, too. White Republican legislators don't get it either, they sent their kids to private schools along with Joe's. Black Democratic legislators also don't get it because it's just about getting a slice of pork not educating the kids of people who don't vote anyway. As for the Super, she has all but told everyone to go to hell, because she's played the script she was hired to play and will be out of here soon anyway. Dr. Rex, Allendale is a cakewalk compared to CCSD.
I'm an old school (Pre-Sallie Ballard) Buist parent. I wish all of the teachers and parents that pulled out when she became principal could read this blog. They predicted Buist would go downhill fast and it sure as hell did. We always knew that her touted IB program was BS.
I have seen the other side and my children were happier and just as challenged in our wonderful Mt Pleasant schools. According to what I read on this blog there are now more kids from our neck of the woods than downtown. Why? We have great schools here...leave Buist to the downtown people who have no other good options. We know why Sallie wouldn't want that of course. If Buist was mostly a downtown school she and Janet Rose Baele would have a lot less power to pass out slots to rock stars and school board members. At least the children of Darius Rucker and Toya Hampton Green will keep Buist somewhat "diverse".
Sallie and the school board never wanted downtown black kids there in the first place. I learned the hard way that my children were better off going to a school in their community with administrators with the right ethics. Sallie and the school board are a terrible role model for children.
The funny thing you ambitious parents should know: Buist is no longer your ticket into the Academic Magnet High School. Look into that- those of you that cheated downtown children out of Buist, covered up for those that did and people like this Brandenburg fellow that wants to get rid of the downtown list completely. Buist Academy might not be the great prize you think it is.
Those of us from the era before Sallie know that the area surrounding the school wasn't quite so gentrified 21 years ago. How about moving Buist into the Sanders Clyde building? Would you still want to take Buist seats away from downtown children? I think the Archer Campus would be a great spot for Buist. What Maria? You can't put white kids in a building like that? Why can't Darius Rucker and Toya Green's kids go to school on the East Side? You know that this isn't about race but money. If we can't trust you with valuable seats at Buist then can we trust you with the rest of our tax dollars?
According to the City Paper blog Goodloe might be on her way to Seattle. Can you imagine? We knew she was on her way out but what kind of record does she leave behind here?
I took a look on the web for what is brewing in Seattle. The following items caught my attention:
Item One: "Based on the profile, the next (Seattle) superintendent should have successful experience in education, leadership, teamwork, and fiscal management. The candidate should also be able to reduce academic achievement gap, inspire trust and confidence, and keep effective working relationship with public education stakeholders. It's also preferred that the candidate have experience in kindergarten-through-12th-grade education." ...my reaction....hmmm, do they know Maria like we know Maria?
Item Two: "The district (Seattle) is facing an academic crisis consisting of low enrollment and high drop out rates. Currently, nearly 47,000 kids attend schools in the district. The district has a graduation rate of 59% and a drop out rate of 22%." ...my reaction...She ought to feel right at home!
Item Three: "School leaders are also in an experimental phase of eliminating the yellow school buses for high school students and giving them Metro bus passes. The district gets $13.4 million from the state for transportation, but it isn't enough. The district pays and additional $11.7 million to cover their transportation costs. Ballard and Franklin high schools are involved in the test run of students using the Metro buses. School leaders say one advantage of bussing students on public transportation instead of school busses is it gives schools the opportunity for a later start and that can improve students' productivity." ...my reaction...GREAT IDEA...so that must be why Goodhoe limited CARTA passes to only "poor minority" kids at Burke and Stall... but then in Seattle they support public transit anyway.
Item Four: "The Seattle teachers union joined forces Friday (March 30) with the AFL-CIO in a move to bolster its leverage in debates on health care, pensions, education and other public policies. As part of the move, the Seattle Education Association, which represents 5,500 Seattle Public Schools teachers and staff members, joined the King County Labor Council, gaining a role in the council's political activities, such as evaluating political candidates."...my reaction...Maria's finally going to find out how a teachers' union works...too bad we only provided her with experience in handling docile, easily freightened and submissive employees.
Item Five: (from an editorial in last Sunday's Seattle Times)"School District's Obsessed with Race: As part of its well-meaning quest to rid itself of racism, the Seattle School District has found a program it considers racially biased. Summer break. The 10-week hiatus from school is institutionally racist, said the district's Equity and Race Relations director. That means it's something that 'results in less access to services and opportunities of a society based on race.' The premise is that summer break disrupts the school year, thereby deterring students of color from catching up academically."...my reaction...then hiring MG-J should help all the good but conflicted people of Seattle absolve themselves of their gender and race based guilt for years to come.
GOD I HOPE THE PEOPLE IN SEATTLE AREN'T READING OUR COMMENTS.
PPULLLEEEEZE TAKE THIS PERSON FROM US. IF CHARLESTON VOTERS HAD ANY SENSE WE'RE SURE TO FIRE HER (AND THOSE WHO HIRED HER IN THE FIRST PLACE) WHEN THE REPORTS ARE IN AGAIN NEXT FALL...IF NOT, THEN I GUESS OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS ARE HOPELESS. PERHAPS WE'LL LEARN TO ACCEPT THAT IN MARIA'S WONDERLAND (a/k/a CCSD) 'UP IS DOWN AND DOWN IS UP'.
The sad thing is that the Super is a figurehead who in this world cannot act independently (no matter what Gregg Meyers says). The fact is that the CCSD Board will not change (at least not as long as Gregg Meyers is running it). This board will eventually appoint a replacement who will read from the same script that Goodhoe has, just like all the others before her were told to do. But did she really have to play the part so viciously? That was robably the county board's plan, too. The faces at the top continue to change but the policies stacked against educating our kids unfortunately will remain the same.
I wonder if Hillery Douglas will convene another Policy Committee meeting and draft a new county-wide policy against any changes to existing policies. Sort of like the one he did for "correcting" the problems at Buist.
To Anonymous who posted at 10:33--Thanks for the info about Seattle and the good laugh over hoping they aren't reading this blog. I agree Maria should feel right at home in Seattle & would looove to follow her relationship with an effective teacher's union!
check this out:
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/
they'got a great blog on this
then try their other paper:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/home/index.html
Maria was worthless but nothing will change. Joe Riley and Gregg Meyers will again pick another replacement and it will be the same old thing. Joe Riley has chosen every super for the last 30 years. He is to blame for the mess our schools are in. Joe is King and will be until he dies. I don't know what Gregg Meyers is getting out of it still...power? How do Joe and Gregg sleep at night? They committed an injustice to thousands of children...not just downtown. Does Joe get something out of having a racially segregated school system? We sure do have a crazy number of highly in demand private schools for such a small town. Maybe one day we will have a mayor that isn't a real estate developer with cronies like Seinsheimer.
To the previous blogger who "chooses Buist" under Mr. Rex's plan. I choose Buist, too. And I really DO live downtown. I guess I won't get in either.
One might think the people of Seattle would be a notch above our fair city in terms of intelligence and worldliness. It would seem, however, from the following post on a Seattle paper's blog that George Jetson's neighbors are just as gullible as we were. Poor, poor Seattle, if they embrace this moonlight and magnolias drivel in someone's crude attempt to canonize Maria.
From a Seattle newspaper's blog seattlepi.nwsource.com this entry:
"I've watched with interest as Ms Goodloe-Johnson has fought a very divisive school board full of bigots and "good old boys" to make really impressive progress. In addition, I heard and interacted with her at a LWV annual meeting after she go here, and more casually at the Starbucks coffee shop which I regularly frequent, only a few doors down from Buist Academy, a parent-run school K-8 and the only Excellent rated school in downtown Charleston, right between an area one might call ‘dress rehearsal for Porgy and Bess and old Charleston mansions.’ "
In this blog it’s almost as if the poster tries to paint Goodloe as the courageous slayer of Klansmen in their mansions and the noble defender of poor public school children shackled and bound in perpetual servitude within a Gershwin musical. Com’on, Elroy Jetson, Seattle’s not that dumb!
"school board full of bigots"? I'm sure the super majority (Cook, Douglas, Meyers, Simons and Mood and now Jackson and Green) that let Goodloe write her own ticket must really appreciate that epithet.
"Buist Academy, a parent-run school"? Sounds like a term used to describe a charter school and the tightly controlled magnet school that it is run directly by the super and the county board. Someone may need to tell the Seattle blog-poster (or is this really a Charleston resident/LWV member with an agenda?) that under Goodloe suburban whites have displaced qualified urban whites and blacks who want to attend this school, so Buist only reflects a segregated school system that Goodloe has sustained and further limited access with her board's resounding approval. More gated community suburban whites than mansion (or public housing) dwelling urbanites (white or black) have gained admission to Buist under Goodloe than ever before.
"dress rehearsal for Porgy and Bess"? Maybe in another era. If anything Goodloe has provided loyal service to a corrupt system continuing in modern caricature while enlarging the disparities that Heyward's Depression Era play exposed.
And the Starbucks reference must be a cute attempt to gain favor for this poster's views among the discerning readers in Seattle! What a joke. Stereotypes are just as bad in reverse. Right, Elroy?
Could it be that Jerry Adams is posting on this Seattle blog now that he has been banned by his employers from posting here with the Newsless Courier?
Of course that LWV attending and Starbucks frequenting person praising Ms. Goodloe-Johnson on the Seattle blog might just be someone very cleverly trying to ease Maria out of Charleston and into Seattle. Who knows.
A few people in Seattle are in fact paying attention to this discussion. Not the School Board or their out-of-town consultants who chose Ms. Goodloe-Johnson, but some parents at Educating Mom, a reader blog at one of the daily newspapers. See
Educating Mom
It might be worth a look this evening, or even participate in that discussion.
You know most of those people you guys call Buist Academy address "cheaters" are people that have more of a right to Buist than you newcomers to Charleston. Most of them have parents that have lived in downtown Charleston their entire lives and the grandchildren aren't getting raised downtown mostly because of the high prices of houses. If a grandparent paid downtown property taxes for years the grandchildren should get a spot at Buist Academy no matter where they live. Even if the parents can afford crazy downtown prices it is hard to raise children in a city. Give these people a break. Most of the people complaining are people with a lot of money that can afford to live downtown and thus pay for private school tuition. Sallie Ballard has a little respect for old Charleston. She in fact knows most of the grandparents well and understands their situation. Very few qualified children were pushed out of Buist. Many of us are sick of you newcomers coming in and trying to change the way we live. As for those of you that live in the Citadel area, come on! That isn't even downtown. You knew you were moving into dangerous areas with terrible schools.
You've got to be kidding 4:17. How many old Charlestonians have been blocked out of our public schools by these experts with brief cases who have come here to do missonary work among us? Our schools stink because we let these people assume the leadership roles we abandoned to them. These are mot the new comers you identified but the roving opportunists who we allowed to manipulate our decayed political and economic system to benefit a few. In a biblical sense we sold our inheiretance to these outside opportunists (Douglas, Green, Meyers, Goodloe and, yes, even Ballard) for a mess of pottage. They new people downtown just like the socalled old people have both been lied to and scammed by a public system that has been corrupted in the name of "progress" but with no substance. We've all been had.
hello babbie. adams here. don't have the axe to grind with the p&c like you do and things have been busy -- too busy to read the blogs. have been waiting for someone downtown to give me the addresses of the alleged residency cheats, but so far all smoke. no fire. and just because someone lives downtown and goes to buist, doesn't mean they didn't get in on one of the other lists. and post-enrollment, the only residency requirement is living in the county it seems. if i was a fraser parent, i'd be kissing the ground in thanks. as to the reduced number of students, i'm guessing that's the population shift to the north area and elsewhere. and wonder why some white parents don't enroll at the wnderful sanders'clyde?
don't flatter yourself to think that my posting to this site might affect my job. it's just too much like right wing AM radio and i have a life away from 75 Calhoun. feel free to email me at the district. use an alias free account so you don't have to identify yourself and i'll try to answer specific things. just be sure I know it's the couriercritic. I'll answer and you can post replies. too much wackiness out there in blog-land for me. one buist parent got my mail address from the blog and said all the anonymous postings sounded like a conversation in a mental institution.
TO "adams"--your writing style certainly has changed from your last post answering my questions. Is there any reason for that?
Word is some of Brandenburg's buddies might not be the honest and concerned "county" parents for Buist they appear to be.
It doesn't take a rocket scientist, Mr. Adams...You and all of your buddies know exactly who these people are.
i am no rocket scientist. i personally checked the names and proof of last year's class. and the residency info was real. 'we know who they are' is a mccarthyist answer not specific names and allegations. give me the names for chrissakes, no one ever does. i just saw the previous posts. of course it's joe's fault. DOH! it's always someone else's fault and no one ever believes the truth when the lie fits the agenda. and i'm the same one babbie. just send me the email.
I don't get this Mr. Adams person. Who is he again? Did he read the Post and Courier last summer? Was that story a conspiracy? Did he watch the news? I guess those people were "set up" and "falsely accused" of using fake addresses when tenants stated children didn't live there. I remember one tenant stating she'd never even heard of the name. Maybe that tenant was paid off by Mr. Copeland.
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