Whatever happened to transparency needed in CCSD to improve public trust? Unfortunately, Superintendent McGinley seems to believe secrecy is her friend.
For example, her "conversations" in the districts this fall turn out to be staged opportunities to answer questions from index cards carefully culled to showcase topics she wishes to address. Her meetings with constituent district boards, except for the one in District 20, have all broken the FOIA. In District 20 the constituent board refused to break it by meeting with her behind closed doors.
Now we learn that she and the school board again broke the FOIA by discussing the restructuring of associate superintendents' responsibilities for one and one-half hours in executive session--claiming they were going over "personnel matters."
Oh, Nancy, Nancy, you have such big plans to improve the district, but you still don't get it. Such incidents combined with your sudden announcement that Memminger and James Simons Schools will be destroyed (yes, that's the correct word) are going to be your downfall. Do you want to improve the district or not?
Saturday, September 15, 2007
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7 comments:
Transparency is the quickest and easiest ticket to McGinley winning public support and trust. She's trowing it away.
If the Broad Institute had taught its graduates anything of value it would have been that honesty with the public and the value of genuine public participation in the planning process are critical elements for success.
Hell, they were there listening to Cook's three pages of complaints about McGinley that Butzon wrote. Honesty doesn't even come up on their radar!!
I was just checking out the other blog. You guys need to realize one thing. You can't put transparency and CCSD in the same sentence...EVER.
CCSD has always operated behind close doors and will continue to do so until someone sues them.
I'm curious 7:26. What are Nancy Cook's complaints (a la Butzon)? I know what complaints are developing in D20 related to her putting them off, but what's the big board saying only 10 weeks after they signed her on board with a 4 year contract? Maybe there's hope. If they don't like her, maybe we can find something redeeming about her afterall.
What is the name of the other blog?
You may be referring to "Charleston's Shame". Babbie has a link to it located in the left column of this page.
Gregg Meyers should be called the Prince of Darkness for all the closed door meetings he's initiated. Now with his letter in Sunday's P&C it looks like he's struggling to regain his footing after the downtown community based Charter School group's progress has called his judgement and impartiality into question.
It matters little if you call them quotas or incentives, it's still an illegal attempt to create barriers of descrimination. What I find interesting is his sudden interest in bring this form of "diversity" to other schools. Does he mean to include Buist and AMHS? When?
Mr. Meyers also minces words on his assertion that rent and maintenance costs are somehow directly related. Basic rent is a direct reflection of capital, not operations. All charter schools, including JI and Orange Grove must use accepted accounting practices to provide for maintenance and tenant upkeep such as replacing light bulbs out of their budgets for operations.
Perhaps Mr. Meyers and CCSD use some other irregular type of accounting that puts janitorial and utilities in their capital budgets...we wouldn't know since CCSD's annual budgets are hidden from public view. Unless CCSD is willing to pro rate its capital budgets with the charter schools, an idea that is gaining momentum, I would suggest that the rent issue originally proposed by Mr. Meyers be dropped quickly. As it now stands, CCSD may discover that a well run charter school at Rivers will be saving them a considerable amount of money. Has anyone asked CCSD what a nearly vacant Rivers cost the school district these last two fiscal years?
The most insulting comment from Mr. Meyers was his reference to CCSD's willingness to "discount" the rent. This would imply that the rent figures they are waving around are representative of something that can be discounted. What is the discounted value of zero? Based on what we already know, the rent figures CCSD has used so far are all figments of Don Kennedy's imagination...a person who has no known experience or knowledge for calculating market rents.
Mr. Meyers is blowing smoke while trying to look like he supports charter schools. He's widely known for his private conversations in which he has openly opposed charter schools because they represent a direct challenge to his control. He does not differentiate between successful and unsuccessful charter schools. He dislikes them to the core. But I'm glad he thinks this one at least is "interesting".
I do find something he said to be just as "interesting". What if his critics suggested that he apply these rules (incentives he calls them) to Buist and AMHS first? If he was sincere in his support for these ideas, or even just to create an viable public school open to everyone downtown, then he'd work to fix the access problems and inequities that exist now downtown and that involve his favorite magnet school, Buist Academy.
What ever happened to the 40% diversity targets at Buist, anyway? I understand it's barely half of that now. What about it Gregg?
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