I should let Sunday's
P & C article [
Change Sought to Policy] speak for itself (with some added italics):
"Charleston County schools are supposed to verify the address of every student this year, but district leaders plan to ask the school board to change that requirement. The school board passed a policy in January of last year aimed at preventing parents from lying about their addresses to attend specific schools. District leaders failed to make plans to implement the policy until late last summer, so they decided to phase it in with five magnet schools."
[snip]
"The address verification policy was the board's response to downtown parents questioning addresses of certain students enrolled in Buist Academy, the only excellent-rated magnet school on the peninsula. Downtown residents accused some of the school's parents of lying about their addresses to better their children's chances of acceptance into the school."
Actually, downtown residents PROVED that some parents were lying about their addresses, but CCSD chose to ignore the facts!
"Buist Academy was one of the five schools required to do the address checks this past school year, and it was the only school that verified students' addresses in a different manner. The other four magnet schools checked students' addresses against the manner in which they came into the school." [Gee, how did that discrepancy creep in?]
[snip]
"McGinley said she would go back to the board July 21 to talk about the conflicting manner in which schools are verifying addresses to get feedback on what the board wanted to see happen."These questions are unique to Buist, and we have to investigate them," she said." [It doesn't take any imagination to guess what Gregg Meyers and his ilk want. She's hoping he has rounded up the votes.]
Too bad that Superintendent McGinley has decided to continue in lockstep with her predecessors. She could have begun a new era of trust in CCSD with a tough verification policy that would have put to rest the
deserved reputation of cheaters at Buist.
Think of the sham (i.e., unverifiable) lottery and inappropriately used test for entering kindergardeners as well as the address cheats. She's simply serving the interests of the "deserving" rich. Apparently, that's what "Charleston Achieving Excellence" means to her.
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11 comments:
Did you read the article? It said that Buist was the only one that actually did verify the addresses for everyone. Sounds like you have a kid that didn't get in and you have an axe to grind. Why pick on the one that actually got the work done and not the ones that didn't? I don't read this column all that often, but, realy, you sound like you have something personal against Buist.
I don't think Babbie has a personal ax to use against anyone at Buist. What this post has pointed out is McGinley, just like those before her, have continued to call the plays as they want them to be and not as they really are. Very few Buist critics have a personal interest in the school. They don't even have children for the most part who are trying to get into the school. They aren't even on the waiting lists...why bother? Most critics of the management of Buist, however, do have an interest in the integrity and honesty of every public school which is part of the system in Charleston County. If people are cheating at Buist (be they parents, the principal or higher ups at 75 Calhoun) then it stands to reason others, including other schools and their students, are being short changed by those who continue to abuse the system to an unfair advantage. If administrators are aware of this and choose to ignore it then the public has a right to know this is going on.
Now, exactly what is it that Anonymous 9:45 PM doesn't understand about the administration of Buist and CCSD choosing on their own to not at all complete the lawful job they were given. They redefined the policy by only verifying the county residency of each student. Why not do exactly what St. Andrews Math & Science did? Who said they didn't have to? McGinley and the Buist principal continue to mince words and expect the public to buy this junk. The facts remain unchanged: McGinley was informed that certain and specific parents lied about their addresses when their children were initially enrolled at Buist. McGinley was informed that certain and specific district employees were aware of and defended the fraudulent addresses used by these parents. McGinley lied to the public and at least some members of the county school board when she said that all the addresses had been properly verified and any complaints raised by the District 20 and downtown advocates were unverifiable. To the other board members to whom she presented no false statements, it was only because those county board members were in on the scam. Please don't insult us by implying that the employees running Buist are doing their jobs properly. They aren't and they should be fired. Unfortunately, McGinley will have to be fired first before anything changes at Buist Academy for Advanced Studies. What a sick joke this school has become! What a sorry a$$ed superintendent McGinley has turned out to be.
The fact is if you move out of West Ashley you can't stay at the Creative Arts School and if you move out of St Andews district you can't stay there. Why would the board allow families to keep their kids at Buist when they got in on the downtown list? They already know that most of Buist's "downtown" got in by cheating. The policy should be uniform.
St Andrews "county-wide" students can move anywhere. The "neighborhood" students at Buist need to really live there just as the "neighborhood" St Andrews kids must. This isn't complicated.
Very true! Magnet policy should be uniform but Buist was always the exception because that is the school put together for the children and cronies of school board members and city officials This would be less of a crime if the rest of District 20 hadn't been neglected by CCSD during the tenures of Hillery Douglas, Nancy Cook and Gregg Meyers.
If Toya Green's child is at Buist, she really can't be part of this discussion unless it is to uphold the policies that the other magnet schools follow. As a county school board member she and Gregg Meyers both have a conflict of interest in the out come since both have children enrolled in a magnet program. They would be directly impacted by any change or exception the board would allow for one of these schools. I want to hear how Meyers and Green get around that. Larry Richter and Judge Goodstein might want to hear the answer as well.
I read the article in the paper and went out and got lots of cheese....because, as usual, this blog is nothing but a lot of whining about Buist.
It's becoming very clear to more people that CCSD policy and planning has been turning on just one school, or at least a couple of schools. That's a problem when CCSD has 80 schools and most are failing. As long as people who control the votes, write the budgets and shape the policies at CCSD get their kids into the limited number of life boats, like Buist, they couldn't care less if everyone else goes down with the masses. I can hear Gregg Meyers saying it now, "If so many D20 people want to get into Buist, why don't they just start their own Buist?" Of course Meyers refuses let that happen as long as he's on the county board and controls the budget. His attempts to undercut moves in support of the charter schools is proof that he's no friend of good public schools for anyone except his own kids. Until the people at the top are threatened with poor schools and no alternative, no change at CCSD will ever happen. Buist isn't the problem, but it is a huge indication of just what is wrong about the whole system. Why has CCSD so steadfastly refused to change Buist, bring consistancy to its admissions process or even replicate it? It's because CCSD, McGinley and the Mandarins at 75 Calhoun don't want change. Despite the spin from people like Jon Butzon and CEN, most of the complainers here would welcome change. As for stocking up on whine and cheese, that's more up the alley of the Buist play date people.
Wow. I couldn't have said it better myself, Babbie. If I didn't know better, I would have thought you were knocking on those doors with District 20 board members, unlike the reporter. As usual, you struck a nerve with the Buist elitist. Keep it coming.
They say it's too much trouble to verify addresses. It isn't too much trouble to check and verify shots and vaccinations, is it? It's state law. CCSD shouldn't have to say it's too much trouble. This is simply their crying in order to get out of basic responsibilities. So who's really fighting change?
"Buist elitist"....that's funny....sounds like you are one of those "Buist Sour Grapes"....you act as if all parents at Buist are up to no good. Sorry things didn't go your way....or do they ever? Let's see, were you one whose child failed and you claim they were taken in the wrong color room for testing or maybe the teacher wasn't the right height and your child isn't used to someone that tall? Or did you just get a bad number and it's everyone else's fault?
As the previous poster illustrates so well, too many Buist parents and toadies have an aura of entitlement. Demonstrating a little humility and a bit of empathy for others, every now and then, might carry these "lucky" people a lot further in this world.
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