Gilbreth's P & C Column Worth Reading

Just in case you didn't get this far into your P & C today, Dr. Gilbreth's column articulately sums up the battle now raging sub rosa between advocates of a new charter high school in District 20 and its adversaries in CCSD. The meeting referenced below (when representatives heard about the rent issue prior to the school board's vote) actually took place in Joe Riley's office. Park Dougherty's op-ed piece was published earlier this week. At last Monday night's CCSD Board meeting, Gregg Meyers proposed sending an email around so that the required four members could vote to bring the rent issue back for discussion--that at the request of Arthur Ravenel, Jr.

"Charter school should get fair chance of survival" by Edward M. Gilbreth (Thursday, September 13, 2007)

As I said in a column sometime last year, the idea spearheaded by Park Dougherty regarding the creation of a charter school for math and science on the peninsula is timely and appropriate. The quality of available public schooling in that part of the city is lousy, and everybody knows it is, including the African-Americans who speak out in favor of the charter.
Families have been abandoning public schools on the peninsula for years. Four of the five public schools serving downtown Charleston in 1970 have closed for want of suitable programs. One, in fact, was Rivers, the site of which would play a vital role for the proposed charter, as discussed below. The concept behind the charter is actually exciting parents (black and white) about sending their children to a public high school on the peninsula. This is based on a model developed by the charter executive committee, made up of 58 people, whose ideas may reverse a tide of discontent that has washed over the educational system for so many years.
The charter concept, as I understand it, would be under the aegis of the public school system, and fairly open its doors (room permitting) to all applicants in the absence of specific entrance requirements, yet enforce a certain GPA for students to remain enrolled.
Students might actually graduate with a bona-fide education, and not be among
the 1 in 5 who can't even identify the U.S. on a map of the world (if you believe the recent statistic presented to Miss South Carolina Teen USA and her infamous response).
Dougherty and his committee have labored mightily to get this show on the road and have encountered criticism, name-calling (including suggestions of racism) and the usual assortment of political roadblocks. On Aug. 13, however, the Charleston County School Board unanimously approved the charter and voted 8-1 to provide space at the old Rivers Middle School campus. It also voted 5-4 for terms that would place the charter utterly at the mercy of the school board, and therein the rubber meets the road because the majority of its members simply rubber-stamp the superintendent's recommendations — some of which are guaranteed to be deal breakers.
In other words, the school board giveth, and the school board taketh away.
Included in the superintendent's terms is a proposal that would permit annual rent of up to $327,000! How in the world can a fledgling venture like this possibly come up with that kind of cash? No other public school is charged more than $1 by the school district. And even if they were, how could 327 grand be remotely justified in this case when much of the Rivers campus simply lies fallow? Answer: It can't and it's not, and imposing such an outrageous fee would be tantamount to a death sentence — levied by county government, mind you — against thoughtful ideas that have met a lot more support (from what I can tell) than resistance.
OK. We've got a deal for you, says the school board. We will reduce the rent by 50 percent if 40 percent of the student population qualifies for free and reduced meals. Well, that sounds great, but $163,500 is still more than can be afforded, and, what's worse, the stipulation violates the spirit of the charter, which is being established so that any applicant has the same chance of being admitted as any other applicant.
Won't the above proposal create a conflict of interest and possibly generate discriminatory legal action?
A more sensitive issue involves sharing the Rivers campus with High Tech High (HTH). The executive committee representing the charter school agreed to share the campus with HTH last February in a deal that broke down as follows: 460 charter students and 280 HTH students. The charter school would have two-thirds of the building, and HTH would have the remaining one-third. Since last winter, the superintendent has authorized increasing HTH enrollment to 400 and relegating campus usage to one-half for each program.
So the rules keep changing, and so does the concept behind High Tech High. Originally billed as a career academy that might be installed in any high school, it now sounds like an NAACP-inspired vocational program. Which is fine, but the Friends of Burke have meanwhile begged for restoration of the vocational programs that were canceled by the school board years ago. So the question, therefore, is why wouldn't it make sense to restore Burke's programs and give the charter school control of Rivers? That was the most popular option among the 250 people who recently conferred, a choice that would give parents what they want and possibly reverse the exodus of children from downtown schools.
When the charter school executive committee found out about changes in the wind shortly before the school board vote, representatives approached the Superintendent and voiced displeasure. Yet the comments fell on deaf ears and
there was no negotiation. And that's the long and the short of where things stand now.
There's got to be a way around these issues and a way for the charter school to at least have a fair chance at survival. The peninsula deserves it and students who are willing to work deserve it. Perhaps with continued support, the impact of upcoming school board elections and ongoing negotiations, the charter school will finally get the terms it so desperately needs.
Edward M. Gilbreth is a Charleston physician. Reach him at edwardgilbreth@comcast.net. Copyright © 1997 - 2007 Evening Post Publishing Co.