They must be quaking in their boots. All those who lied to get on the downtown list now are forced to prove they live in Charleston County! Gosh, where will it end?
What a hardship!
Has anyone considered funding a complaint to the U.S. Department of Justice on behalf of black downtown students? Sometimes I wish I had money.
Friday, November 02, 2007
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35 comments:
My child went to Buist starting in 1998. There were plenty of people even then that didn't live in Charleston County. Why did the paper not mention that maybe those people owe Charleston County tax payers per student cost? According to Nightline (just last winter) people have had to pay other districts when they get caught.
They will remove the out of county cheats just like they never kicked out the creeps that used false downtown addresses. Actually I should be clear that I am referring to the parents as cheats and creeps. They have put their children in a terrible position.
Is Sallie Ballard just sloppy or does she think she is above all laws and regulations?
Has the school board noticed that those County wide spots were to go to tax paying Charleston County residents? Surely Mr. Bradenburg has an opinion on this. What is the name of his group? Perhaps the newly discovered set of cheaters can start a group called Non-Charleston County Residents for Buist!
Recntly it was reported: "Some Mississippi public school districts are cracking down on people who manipulate school choice. Southaven is implementing an ordinance that makes it a misdemeanor - punishable by up to six months in jail or up to $1,000 in fines - to lie to government officials to get some kind of benefit. That includes misrepresenting a residence to get a child into a particular school."
http://www.usatoday.com/news/states/msmain.htm
http://www.sunherald.com/306/story/159210.html
http://www.picayuneitem.com/local/local_story_282141800.html
My first question is "Why don't we pass such legislation?" My second question is "Isn't it already a crime to steal government benfits?"
In New Orleans they are prosecuting people who obtained government benefits--food and clothing for their children-- based on false claims that they were residents of New Orleans at the time Katrina struck. What is the difference between them and those Folly Beach residents who obtained government benefits--free "private school" education for their children--based on false representations that were District 20 residents at the time they applied to Buist?
From a logical standpoint, there is no difference. From a moral standpoint, the Buist cheaters were worse because they stole more and what they stole was not a necessity. From a legal standpoint, the difference is the difference between a felong and a misdemeanor.
They are burning this issue up on the P&C on line comments. I'll re-post part of one here.
This is a joke, right? Sallie Ballard verifying valid addresses for cheating applicants at Buist is like a known bookie being asked to certify that no one placed any illegal bets on a horse race. Sallie Ballard's integrity has been called into question on this issue more than once, so she shouldn't be involved at all, unless all of this is just window dressing. And it is.
...cut...
Sallie Ballard and Nancy McGinley are just trying to change the subject with this carefully crafted news release about out-of-county students. For crying out loud, why wasn't this done the week school started? It's well into the second quarter already. They know damn well no one is going to be found without a "verifiable" address by the county board's loose definition. This is all about posturing, not truth.
Here's the real news for anyone who still believes CCSD's special admissions process used only at Buist Academy is fair: This is a sick joke. This won't go away until the people who are in charge are either fired or criminally indicted or both.
I'm borrowing this from what an 8 year old said recently upon seeing a sign on the wall at CCSD's central offices. Out of the mouths of babes: "Mom, why do they call it the 'board of trustees' when we can't trust them?"
This is why those who currently run Buist and CCSD shouldn't be involved in public education at all.
The District 20 board made a motion a few months ago to forward all documentation concerning Buist to the US Justice Department in the hopes it may spark another investigation (i.e.lawsuit).
To my knowledge, they're still waiting...
But, as always, thanks again for "getting it."
Funny you should ask about a law suit. There has been a law suit concerning fake addresses and CCSD failing to follow policy concerning the act of consolidation for about a year now. How about we make it class action? Anyone interested?
Seriously this affects every magnet schools. We pay some of the highest taxes and we are paying for children from other counties to go to school in charleston county. Not just Buist. What about Academic Magnet, School of the Arts. Then again if your the buddy of a who's who I guess it does not matter what county you live in.
Maybe someone should ask Joe where he stands?
Summer before last he stood with the Mt. Pleasant parents who used false addresses and Goodloe.
I wonder how many Mt. Pleasant voters will turn out for Joe Riley on Tuesday. Riley stood up for students from Folly Beach, Mt. Pleasant and Sullivans Island attending Buist, but he couldn't stand up for real downtown families who wanted access to Buist, better academic courses at Chas. Progrssive and high tech vocational programs at Burke.
The truth is Joe Riley is not a true supporter of public education in the City of Charleston. Never has been. He has absolutely no personal experience with anyone in his family receiving a public education. Surprisingly, Mayor Riley has never quite understood how quality public schools and livable cities work together. After 32 years he just doesn't "get it".
I voted for Riley in every election before now. Times have changed. I'm fine with Gregorie on Tuesday. At least Dudley Gregorie gets it.
Riley had connections with many grandparents of the false address crowd. Thanks to his policies people with children have a hard time living in downtown Charleston unless they are super wealthy and can afford $15,000 a year per child for a private school.
It's wrong to conclude that Riley cares about education at all. He cares about staying in power. He really doesn't understand at all how important good schools are for supporting the quality of life in the city.
Some very wealthy SOB (South of Broad) residents with children who have moved here are horrified by the city's total disregard for high quality public education. They can't understand why Mayor Riley is satisfied with this. These people have no interest in Buist as it's currently set up and can easily afford private schools. Still they see what the city has allowed to happen to the public system as a total waste. A few are even now helping to lead the charge for better public schools here.
Riley is so tone deaf to this that he's begun to alienate more than a few of these deep pockets who would otherwise share his political agenda. Riley is "so last century" that it's almost painful to watch.
Mayor Riley is a part of the good ol' boy system. Keep the blacks down. We do this by not educating them...
My children are at St. Andrew's School of Math and Science, the EXCELLENT magnet school that does not get much recognition, but is also noted in the P&C article. I'm glad to see the address verification. St. Andrews has an attendance zone and accepts magnet students from the county at large. I "camped out" for over 12 hours to get my children entry into St. Andrews. Others who chose not to apply early or were not drawn in the lottery just lied about their addresses to gain entry as a "zoned" student. Not fair to all of us who followed the rules!
Also, St. Andrew's shows that having approximately 50% magnet and 50% zoned children can bring up everyone....our whole school is rated excellent, not just the "magnet" part!
I don't have any comments on Buist, but I can say that St. Andrew's is doing it right!!
Bash, bash, bash...Buist was founded 15 years ago as a COUNTY-WIDE magnet school. Yes, the downtown folk have their special list, but countywide means that those living in Mt. Pleasant, West Ashley, North Chas, etc., are also fully qualified to attend the school. When will the District 20 mob finally accept this and move on? And enough of the personal attacks on Sallie Ballard--she inherited this system; she didn't create it!
COUNTY-WIDE does not mean Daniel Island! County-wide is a term used by the CCSD to facilitate their own agenda.
To the poster at 10:36-CCSD schools are for people that reside in Charleston County. Is that such a tough concept?
Like it or not there is a downtown list for children that reside in District 20. Sallie Ballard didn't create the mess at Buist but she doesn't seem to have done anything to clean up the corruption.
Downtown Mob? Interesting terminology. There is a mafia in this town and we all know who the mob boss is! He's been in power for over three decades!
Also get your facts straight. Buist was not founded 15 years ago. It became a magnet school 21 years ago but was school for black students for many years. CCSD lies about many things but they can't erase history.
To the condescending posters above, thank you for clarifying that CCSD schools are for Charleston County students. I was having a hard time grasping that concept. (sarcasm mode off) I was merely addressing the real issue, which is not out-of-county students--show me the evidence!--but the fact that District 20 parents will never accept the fact that Buist Academy is a county-wide (read: not a District 20) magnet school. Furthermore, I am well aware that Buist was once an all-black school during the days of segregation, and a largely black school in the years after, even if I was off a bit on Buist Academy's founding date.
What I do know is that Buist Academy's original by-laws provided for a 50/50 ratio of black and white students. It is ironic, therefore, that this by-law was challenged and eventually struck down by the same attorney who often represents District 20 parents, many of whom harp on the fact that Buist's racial makeup skews white.
In any case, it is a genuine shame that there are not more schools like Buist to fulfill a sore need for quality public education downtown.
Mr. Anonymous above, your facts are way off...
I suggest you head over to the Avery Research Center and get your facts straight. You can even review Mr. Kobrovsky's lawsuit because he donated all of his papers to them.
I also think you're attempting to evade the real facts. The REAL facts are that parents are using fake downtown addresses to steal slots from true downtown kids.
You are "off a bit" a little more than you know. I don't think CCSD schools have by-laws, though charter schools might. CCSD's policies originally stated that Buist was to have a 40% minority & 60% white student body. This policy was developed to keep Buist from being "taken over" by downtown applicants desparate to get out of downtown schools because of resegregation & declining standards under CCSD. The first "Memminger experiment" designed to sustain a quality and racially diverse downtown school had been abandoned by CCSD when it refused to support out of district transfers that had been blocked by the St. Andrews constituent board. In the related federal court case CCSD's lawyers argued that they had to respect the autonomy of each constituent district and its right under law to oversee out-of-district transfers.
There is no doubt now that in 1986, when Buist became the "new" experiment, CCSD was determined to prevent Buist from becoming "too black" by being too open to Dist. 20 students. So when Sallie Ballard says a change at Buist would "destroy" Buist, what exactly does she mean? Dist. 20 parents only want Buist to conform to the exact same preferences for neighborhood kids as used by St. Andrews, Jennie Moore, C.E.Williams & Ashley River. Granted, Sallie Ballard's control over admitting certain people might be upset, but with the racial balance of the peninsula's school age population right now at about 50/50 (black/white) and with Buist's academic entrance qualifications remaining unchanged, this change would only present the opportunity for Buist to become more racially balanced (without a forced quota) than it is now (which is less than 20% black...and 0% in some grades). Data driven CCSD officials have ignored the fact that Buist might on its own under this change reach close to a 40/60 (black/white) and still have room for about 15-20 county-wide seats available every year. This would destroy Buist...but it will break the cycle of corruption that Sallie Ballard, Janet Rose and Gregg Meyers have opperated at the expense of the school's reputation.
I believe the OCR would find your rationale of "it's a county-wide magnet school" very interesting. CCSD keeps Buist downtown and makes it "appear" as though it's serving some black downtown residents to keep the US Justice Dept. off their back. It's a numbers game.
Let me give you an honest scenario. There are these people called the Rays. They used granddaddy's condo for their address to get in as a Dist. 20 resident. They even spent a few restless nights attempting to sleep there. Their boy even rode his bike to school a day or two. Mommy changed her voter's registration card and even her license (that was easy!) Tired of that game (it's hard for a family of 4 to sleep in a 1 bedroom condo when they're accustomed to 4 bedroom house), they went back to their beautiful home on the marsh and since then have even moved further away onto Folly Beach. That was a District 20 slot they took. How can you honestly tell anyone that's okay because it's a "county-wide" school?
Thanks 9:55. Let me add this in response to 12:21. Attorneys don't "strike down" laws, (unless you're Gregg Meyers attempting to ride rough shod over his fellow board members). Larry Kobrovsky brought a legal challenge to the racial quotas on behalf of a group of non-D20 parents. At the time the D20 Board didn't support this position and had no relationship with Mr. Kobrovsky except to acknowledge that he was a former county school board member. The challenge was never argued in court. It was only a challenge that had been filed. Before the central arguments could be scheduled and heard before a judge, the CCSD board voted to change the Buist admissions policies. If anyone changed Buist to bring us to the place where we are now it would have been the CCSD Board which included Gregg Meyers at the time (not Mr. Kobrovsky).
So may people are posting as "Anonymous" that I am having difficulty figuring out "who's on first." Please click "other" and designate yourself as Anonymous for Joe," "Anonymous 401," "Anonymous for Change" and so on. I am interested in reading your comments but am fact becoming confused.
Thank you.
I agree. I've also been very curious as to who "Mr. Buist is County-wide, downtown mob" is. His comments remind me of Mr. Meyers, yet Mr. Meyers would not be off on the numbers. We know he's not Mr. Brandenburg because he blatantly criticizes those who post anonymously. So, hmmm...I have a strange suspicion he's another attorney. Is he the other psuedo civil rights attorney our poor black children are blessed to have among our midst?
Perhaps the Office of Civil Rights would like to consider that defense for Buist "but it's a county-wide school" when they consider just how far CCSD has gone to keep downtown children out of Buist. Sallie Ballard went on record saying that "Buist Academy doesn't recruit qualified students from downtown schools because..." [and this is really what she said] "...other downtown schools are so bad that they need these students to help improve those schools' report cards." Sounds to me that Sallie Ballard must have learned her educational practices at the Josef Goebbels School of Social Research. I don't doubt the staff's primary school at Dachau Consentration Camp in 1939 was probably pretty good for the children of government officials and employees. But what about all those other kids who were on the other side of the wire?
The lesson of unfairness is the same, only the extreme degree to which those in charge are willing to carry the inequity may differ. We need to remember that these are real children downtown who often will have only one chance to get a jump on receiving a quality education. These are not just numbers and figures on a school report card. Any educator, including Sallie Ballard, who thinks otherwise should be let go immediately.
It is quite easy to tell the poster is Gregg Meyers. He always speaks in that tone to folks that he thinks aren't very smart. Too bad he has chosen to spend his life in the closet. It is time ti come out Gregg. Everyone knows it but you. And take off those clogs, you look silly. Now, why would we even have out of county students in our schools. I spoke to Goodloe years back about getting a child in the district school whose parent was willing to pay the fee the district would have received for that child if she was a Charleston resident. Goodloe said absolutely not. The parent was attempting to save hers and her childs life from a spouse that eventually killed her. Shaem on Goodloe, may she be damned to a bad marriage. Oops she is!
Anonymous 10:36 "Bash, bash, bash..." sounds more like our illustrious former communications director.
Josef Goebbels School of Social Research? "apartheid lives here"--love it!
Why did Sallie Ballard give these people a week to rent property downtown,etc? If she really meant business, the warning to get those affidavits in should have been done in a day. In other words, she gave them too much time to turn in thier affidavits after having the entire summer to do so.
I am tired of this evil woman.. she needs to be removed from her position. She is a witch and a liar from the pits!
What strange images we have here in Charleston. History does repeat itself in some most ironic ways.
- Standing in the school house door to block the charter school (instead of Gov. Wallace) we have Nelson Rivers, Joe Riley and Joe Darby.
- And Nelson Rivers said what? "Not in Charleston, not now, not ever!" Sounds like old George Wallace talking about segregation. That's what Nelson Rivers said about whites and blacks who want to come together for a charter school.
- Gregg Meyer & Toya Green throw some money at Memminger (District 20's ill fated lifeboat) so that it can become the "Voyage of the Damned" (not unlike the voyage of the SS St. Louis in 1939). It's a program set to fail just to prove the there can be only one Fatherland (oops, I mean Buist).
- "It's OUR school (the Rivers school campus) and THEY can't have it." I can't remember if this is what was said by the imported redneck crowd outside Little Rock High in 1957 or by Dot Scott standing in front of Rivers school in 2007.
The more things change, the more they remain the same.
Circulate a petition to have Ballard removed. State the case. Give evidence of her having lied. Sure the Buist Foundation will circulate their own. But I'll bet that a majority of Buist parents will avoid it or be forced to sign. Similarly any teacher who is forced to do the same will only raise further resentment later. The Buist problem got this bad because of the people who mismanaged it. You can put Janet Rose in that group, too. Sallie Ballard is responsible for most of this. I agree with the poster above. Sallie Ballard calculated this delay. The proof will be that there will be no one removed from Buist. If that's the case then she needs to go.
Gregorie for Mayor: Who is the other "civil rights" attorney that you refer to? No doubt he or she in personally benefitting from Buist just like attorney Brandenburg!
As someone wrote yesterday, will Meyers and Brandenburg come up with a group for the newfound cheaters and label it "Non-Charleston County Parents for Buist?"
How's that advocating for the other downtown schools going Brandenburg? I'm sure you are working quite hard for the downtown schools. Wasn't that a goal of your Charleston County Parents for Buist group? Tell us what you have done so far!
To Anonymous 6:59 PM... It was easier for Maria Goodloe to deny a request for an out of county student to attend (a perfectly legal concept with a payment of a fee in lieu of taxes) than to admit that students not from Chas. County were already attending CCSD schools. That way she didn't have to put a price tag on all the others she knew were getting in for free. This honest student/parent was done dirty while the cheaters got away with theft. Officials like G-J just turned their heads away because of the people involved. There are too many examples of inconsistancy like this to not call for an independent audit. This particular example appears to almost rise to criminal neglect on the part of CCSD.
9:50 pm poster, thanks for the laugh this morning. Yes, I can see it now...Brandenburg is on the phone with his buddies ready to combat the witch-hunt against "non-Charleston County residents."
In reference to your question, the only other pseudo-civil rights attorney who comes to my mind is Mr. Wilborn. His silence on this Dist. 20 issue is deafening.
In response to Anonymous 8:31 PM. Who's going to check those last minute leases of all those people who have primary residences in Berkeley County? The leases and this process look just as fraudulent as Sallie Ballard's frequent assurances that no false addresses have been discovered at Buist? How stupid do we look?
Nancy McGinley should know this would never fly in Philadelphia. Audit the whole damn mess. The longer McGinley waits to do this, the more she becomes part of the problem. An audit now would place the blame on others. An audit later will place the blame squarely on her.
The out of county cheats need to be removed !
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