Yes, according to last Saturday's Post and Courier, Mount Pleasant's are the only schools gaining enrollment in CCSD.
The number of students isn't declining--CCSD ENROLLMENT is.
How can the reader figure that out? Let's take the case of Johns Island, a community in which my mother briefly taught home economics at the high school about a million years ago--when artesian water spouted from its fountains!
According to the P & C, "Johns Island community advocate the Rev. Michael Mack has been challenging parents to send their children back to the area's public schools." Where are they now? Are they being homeschooled? Are they in other districts? Are they in private schools?
Mack wants "religious leaders. . . to schedule a community-wide meeting about the problem." I guess that one went right over my head--what does religion have to do with CCSD enrollment? Is Mack trying to make sure Johns Island kids GO to school or go to CCSD schools on Johns Island? Actually, constituent board member Eric Mack (could he be related?) worries mainly that falling enrollment will delay construction of a new Haut Gap Middle School building.
CCSD should be worried: Johns Island enrollment has dropped 19 percent in the last eight years during a time period when construction on Johns Island is booming. Maybe the drop reflects new residents' opinion of the state of CCSD's Johns Island schools--that would be
- St. Johns High (rated Unsatisfactory),
- Haut Gap Middle (rated Unsatisfactory),
- Angel Oak ("a Title 1 School," rated Below Average),
- Edith Frierson (rated Below Average), and
- Mt. Zion (rated Below Average) Elementary Schools.
Is there a pattern here? I'm sure that teachers in these schools are working as hard as they can to improve the picture for all of the district's residents, but parents can hardly be faulted for opting out IF THEY ARE ABLE.
"I am out of touch with reality," is the response of Superintendent McGinley to the report. Seriously, what she said was that enrollment was dropping on Johns Island because of "lack of affordable housing." Yeah, right. Johns Island has always been known for its expensive housing. That's why it has such a large community of "undocumented workers."
Nor, as quotations from the head of S.C.'s Education Oversight Committee seem to imply, is Johns Island's enrollment dropping because people are moving to the suburbs (it IS a suburb) or leaving to find manufacturing or agricultural jobs and emptying out the area (that would be upstate).
So why aren't more younger families moving into Downtown District 20, North Charleston, McClellanville, and Hollywood instead of into Dorchester County? Maybe they are and aren't sending the kids to CCSD schools.
And, as one supporter of District 20 points out, "What about the 1200 resident downtown students who are attending CCSD schools off the peninsula? It would make sense that if quality neighborhood schools were more readily available, more students from the neighborhoods might attend them. It goes without saying that CCSD is already paying a huge transportation cost penalty for not making this a priority." Numbers indicate a drop of 1400 for downtown schools over the period in question. [Of course, some students from other districts are bused into downtown.]
Can you imagine how the number would change if the district cut its 50 percent dropout rate in half?
From the Post and Courier:
Charleston County School District enrollment, broken down by geographic region, using the 10-day student count. Schools' students were counted based on their geographic location, even if students from across the county attend the school.
Region 1999-2000 2007-08 Change
Downtown 4,518 3,142 -30 percent
Mount Pleasant 7,960 10,678 34 percent
North Charleston 15,978 13,259 -17 percent
West Ashley 7,600 7,457 -2 percent
James Island 4,500 4,554 1 percent
Johns Island 1,630 1,318 -19 percent
McClellanville 769 438 -43 percent
Hollywood 2,082 1,457 -30 percent
TOTAL 45,037 42,303 -6 percent
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4 comments:
Unfortunately, too many of the people making decisions for our children are "out of touch" with what parents WANT for their children.
We're here...we just don't trust CCSD to educate our kids.
Here's a Fun Fact regarding our downtown schools. There are nearly 5,000 school age children living on the peninsula. About 52% are Black, 47% are White and 1% are identified as Other. Even if you include Buist with its White majority, only 2,100 dowtown kids out of a possible 5,000 attend public schools downtown where 89% of the students are Black. Without counting Buist the minority percentage would be over 99%. CCSD should be asking what happened to the 2,900 downtown kids (nearly 60% of all downtown children) who don't attend their neighborhood schools.
Ignoring their graduate school courses, their PhD's and other advanced degrees, I think the comprehensive math skills of some of the top county school system officials and contracted education experts are highly questionable. They lack common sense and it appears they can't do simple math.
When is the last time you visited a CCSD school. If you do you will see teachers teaching and making a difference. This blog is no better than the P&C becuase you twist things for your benefit. Next time visit a CCSD school before you judge.
By the way, thanks to All Children Left Behind and George No Brain Bush most of the students leaving these schools are White. Is this his way of reversing Brown V. Board of Ed.
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