According to the P & C's on-line version,
"Schools Superintendent Nancy McGinley said it was a personnel issue and that she could not comment further on the circumstances of his leave.
School officials are doing an investigation, and an assistant principal is temporarily charge of the school, she said. She hoped to have more resolution to the situation by Tuesday.
Vernold was in his first year as principal at North Charleston High."
North Charleston High School started this school year without a principal because McGinley failed to replace David Colwell, its previous successful two-year principal (who had also worked at the school the previous 18 years), after Colwell took an out-of-state job. We hope he didn't leave because of an unfriendly attitude on behalf of 75 Calhoun! The school was also short of two assistant principals in August! Why?
Vernold replaced Colwell in October in the midst of a complete breakdown of discipline at the school. We could argue that waiting until then for a permanent principal was not the wisest choice on McGinley's part. Supposedly, Vernold's experience in a rural high school in upstate New York made him qualified for the job.
I always wondered why.
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12 comments:
First, I do believe your comment about McGinley failing to replace David Colwell a little misguided. A number of candidates were considered before the end of the summer and also a series of interviews were done. But everyone in the process agreed that not one of the candidates was right for the job.
Second, calling David Colwell a "successful two-year principal" is quite a stretch. As most who worked during the Colwell “reign” can attest, it was far from "successful".
I was under the impression that discipline problems at North Charleston High were under better control with Colwell. Not so?
Actually the data regarding Mr. Colwell's tenure at NCHS showed an gain of.4 in the school's absolute rating after only his secon year. Those HSAP kids would have been his first class of ninth graders. Secondly the number of arrests, fights, lockdowns, teacher vacancies ALL improved substantially. When he left, the teacher retention rate NCHS was over 80%. (Watch what happens this year.) And rembember, he INHERITED the low test scores, the violence, low morale, etc. after a "Principal Specialist" (Roy Holloway) had blown out before the guy's first year was over. It wasn't Mr. Colwell's mess, but he courageously stayed to clean it up, initially with little support from the district (Darryl Johnson). Look at NCHS now. You don't think he made a difference. Get your head out of the sand. And please define "stretch."
Everybody knows NCHS was on the verge of imploding when Colwell inherited it. Nobody wanted that job. Nobody. He defied the odds. He inherited the most dangerous, violent school in the state of South Carolina. He had to replace 35 teachers his first summer on the job. He had to fight CCSD for teacher allocations. And two years later everybody knew that school had turned around. The last blogger is right about the test scores, too. Nobody thought they would make their .4 goal...except the school. He had us believing in ourselves. In the end, he had earned the respect of the African-American community, the students, and virtually all of us on his staff. Our understanding is he left because he felt the district had betrayed him on their promise to change the start of first period until 8:30. If people do not think he made a difference, just look at what a difference a year makes. Yes, he is missed...espeially by the kids.
I'll get my head out of the sand as soon as you stop drinking the cool-aid.
I was going to offer more opinion but I am not here to criticize Mr. Colwell. He is a good man who has moved on from NCHS and so have we. I have always wished him the best of luck and I am sure he is doing a great job at his school in NC.
My only purpose was to point out errors in the initial post, not to cause trouble with the kinfolk.
No offense taken. However,just look at the data, pre-Colwell and post-Colwell (following this year's HSAP and EOC's). It does not (and will not) lie.
nobody liked colwell....an the rumor around the school is mr vernald rap a girl from NewYork an it followed him as he moved
First off people Colwell was a fool as the school fell apart at the end of his second year and secondly scores can be altered as in my ninth grade year so much extra credit was given to people who played around all year it made me sick! But what we now need is a stable person as a leader of NCHS to "restore the roar"!
The North Chrleston High School faculty deserves a lot of credit for persevering through all of this turmoil. They are good people. God bless them.
The school district needs to open alternative education schools for the undisciplined students who are now running, and ruining, the classrooms. That would mean schools with security (a ratio of 3 to 1) IN every classroom with kids who cannot move until they show they can conduct themselves in a reasonable manner. There are a few of these schools around the country, but they need to triple them.
90% of "inner city/Title I" kids are being robbed of an education due to the 10% who prevent education to take place, and there are no consequences. If the number of incidents went down it only means they failed to acknowledge them: no write ups, no police intervention, no suspensions. Most likely the situation is getting worse.
Did I hear that a teacher had to call 911 from the classroom a few months ago because no one in the school was available to assist in a dangerous/crisis situation?
Anyone who wants to have an opinion about what's wrong with public education needs to spend a couple of days as a sub in these schools. See how you stand up (all alone) against these kids, and then you will understand why the 90% can't pass the tests. They are being robbed of an education, and it is an immoral situation. Teachers can't teach, and that is why they leave. Who in their right mind would want to take on the job of principal?
The rumor about Mr. Vernold raping ANYONE is absolute nonsense....if it was following him from New York, why isn't that verifiable in the news in New York? That is a slanderous, incorrect and STUPID statement for anyone to make without gathering FACTS first! It is obvious that North Charleston High School is an absolute mess, and has been for quite some time. Perhaps that has something to do with why he chose to resign. Regardless, whatever the reason, Charleston County School District and North Charleston High School have considerable work to do to improve the quality of education in that facility as indicated by the high turnover in the building. Maybe that's where the energy should be focused, instead of creating slanderous rumors!!
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