Taking her show on the road, Superintendent McGinley stops first at Burke High School, barely giving District 20 residents time to realize that community meetings are being held. Not that they're going to change anything.
It would be good for her to hear from some District 20 "stakeholders" (her word, not mine--as though we are all in a joint-stock company) to ask pertinent questions regarding the fates of various elementary and middle schools. Why, someone could even ask if the district has had any further contact with MiShawna Moore or her lawyer. Someone could ask about the upkeep of the Rivers building.
Actually, many questions remain unanswered. Maybe even one or two will be allowed the floor tonight. If school board candidates are there, do try to pin them down on where they stand on the issues!
Monday, September 15, 2008
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4 comments:
Did anybody go? Was it a joke?
You bet a lot of people went. It was another well represented cross section of District 20. This must be unnerving to McGinley because her CCSD staff was unprepared as usual. They had only enough participant packages for 100 participants. Twice as many showed up.
McGinley did a monologue for 40 minutes. Then in her well practiced way to avoid direct questions she ended her lecture by directing the nearly 200 people to 5 break out sessions. In the same acustically challenged auditorium all 5 groups competed for sound in the same auditorium. They lasted not much more than 20 minutes.
Only half, at most, of the 16 criteria were discussed in the time allowed. But no matter, it was just for appearances. These groups were managed by senior staff. There was no question who was in charge. No democracy here. No debates, not even a discussion. It was another onesided engagement. A second grade teacher might have allowed more dialogue in the 2 dozen minutes allowed to the 40 or so people in each to address the 16 items that will be used to bury a few more of the Doctor's mistakes.
It was very scripted and the "public engagement" was nearly non-existant. What a sad joke. The criteria that will be used has already been weighted and the target schools identified. Asking the public to participate in this process is designed to place the ax in their hands when its time to kill their own neighborhood school.
Gosh, how I miss Goodloe. She would have just brutally pulled the plug on schools where she pleased and then accuse her detractors of not getting on the bus fast enough. McGinley is sadistic. Who would have thought she could entice the public into participating in this brutal mass execution of their own schools?
Oh, and I almost forgot. McGinley is so excited that we are going to get another "National Consultant, Sue Robertson [who] will conduct community forums to consider redesign options." I wonder how much this one will cost.
They don't get it at 75 Calhoun, do they. This is exactly why so many have given up on Charleston's public schools. It's not the poor schools; it's the poor management.
Would that be Sue Robertson, owner of Planning Alliance in Raleigh-Durham?
How much of the $77,000 did they end up paying Harvey Gantt? Like so many other projects, plans and studies, CCSD pulled the plug on this "community engagement" experiment begun in the spring of 2007. I guess McGinley and the county school board didn't like where the public was going with it by overwhelmingly favoring the charter school use for the vacant Rivers School.
The way they conducted the meeting last night they can be fairly sure the public won't be taking this newest restructuring plan where McGinley doesn't want it to go.... like maybe restructuring the administration and not the schools.
Will Sue Robertson be paid with what they didn't spend on Harvey Gantt? Or to cover the tab for this latest CCSD study to nowhere, will the staff just redirect funds that might have gone for 4th and 5th grade educational field trips?
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