Here we go again. More mid-year shuffling of principals, ostensibly in reaction to failing to meet AYP. This time it's the principal at Mitchell Elementary, Anne Dicenzo, wife of the principal of Orange Grove Charter. Just a coincidence, no doubt. Maybe it's just the first salvo in Superintendent McGinley's latest threatened reshuffling to address failing schools.Dare we ask if this is the best course for a failing school? To remove its principal in midyear? Midyear removal suggests that somehow Mrs. Dicenzo must be expunged post-haste to avoid further damaging her students. Somehow, I doubt that is the case here.
Look what happened at Fraser last year at this time--the principal was removed and sent to McClellanville. Obviously, Ms. Whaley wasn't a threat to the well-being of Fraser; if she had been, she wouldn't have received another post. Furthermore, does anyone think that Fraser was improved by having its principal removed midyear?
Then there's the strange case of Blondel Gadsden, removed from her job as Dean at Burke and sent to Brentwood with the order not to even set foot in her office to clean off her desk! What did CCSD think--that she would steal the carpeting? Heaven forbid that she should touch the files on her desk.
What do other principals think about this shabby treatment? It's hard to believe it helps morale.
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2 comments:
I wonder...if CCSD simply rotated their principals every three years, would the "good" principals (Wando's Lucy Beckham, for example) be as successful at the "Unsatisfactory" schools (North Charleston High School for example)? Or would Ms. Ballard (Buist) be able to affect a significant turnaround at Brentwood? After all, if McGinley is corollating "bad" schools with bad principals, why not move them all around. I have a feeling that Dan Conner (Stall) might suddenly become a very effective principal if he were moved, for example, to Academic Magnet. It isn't just about the principals.
Copied from P&C comments on this article:
I agree with the comments that out of touch administrators are too focused on test results and knee-jerk reactions that require "changes...every ten minutes". We have "loaded up" many failing schools with statistical failures just so other schools can excel on paper with their statically failing students transferred elsewhere. This is currently a numbers game. It's not "about the children" or anything else for that matter except DATA, DATA and more DATA.
Only when CCSD begins to look at individual schools, the diverse communities they are supposed to serve and take into account the overlooked resources at hand will this picture improve. Right now CCSD is conducting business as usual in a vacuum that is out of touch with the real world...where parents are virtually absent. This represents both a challenge and an opportunity, but without administrative support this remains an insurmountable challenge and not an opportunity for creative responses.
Principals have been reduced to cowering figureheads dependent on what CCSD will dole out to them. So when there are no more principals to blame and fire, will we hold the superintendent and the school board accountable?
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