Now well into the high school football season, the promised new scoreboard for Stoney Field, where the Burke Bulldogs play, has yet to materialize! How low a priority is Burke for CCSD?Last spring even the P & C paid attention to the poor state of Stoney Field, a valley of humility between two mountains of conceit. Oh, sorry! That was the old joke about North Carolina. At the time (April), reporter David Slade reported that
"The field is patchy and sandy, the weathered wooden seats on the concrete viewing stands are broken in places, the scoreboard is decades old and the dressing rooms are, to put it kindly, rustic.
[snip]
"Some of those demanding improvements to Stoney Field believe similar treatment is something Burke High has not received."When you look at (The Citadel's) stadium, and Riley stadium, and then this sitting in the middle, it's a disgrace," said Elder James Johnson, a North Charleston activist who joined Gilliard and other community leaders at the field. "It only happens in the black schools."
Sad, but true. According to District 20 constituent board chairman Pam Kusmider,
Burke officials were originally told the new scoreboard would be delivered on August 15 and ready for the first home game. That did not happen. The new date of arrival was September 15, yet that did not happen either. The next date promised was September 22. Still no scoreboard.It's now October 8. No scoreboard. What happened? Someone forgot to order it?
Sgt. Allen was told "get your people ready" because the scoreboard would be up by the next home game on September 26. He was scheduling the band and a minister for a pregame ceremony to bless the new scoreboard. This would have been Burke's first new scoreboard in 40 years, a day to celebrate. That ceremony was also canceled.
Imagine all the promises made by CCSD and Superintendent McGinley about intangible educational problems. Here's an example of an unfulfilled promise that can easily be seen. Don't you wonder about delivery of the others?
Ask the CCSD cheerleaders running for the school board about this one. Why not start with Toya Hampton-Green?
Posts
3 comments:
And what about the AP Academy Burke was supposed to get? Well?
I'm sure they all have some lame excuses about that and Stoney Field. Try one of these.
Toya Hampton Green: "I'll look into it if you elect me to another term."
Nancy McGinley: "This is an economically and culturally challenged urban school, so you'll have to be patient as we try to do the impossible with people who can't make it on their own without our help."
Bill Lewis: "Look. This is the City of Charleston's stadium. They should be grateful that we are willing to make any improvements at all to their property. This is really the responsibility of the City, not CCSD. So get off my case about this."
St. Johns High School parent: "Gee, the Burke football team has locker rooms they can still use? We don't even have that."
We actually do have the new score board now.
Thanks for caring, though. 40 years in the making and quite a few teeth we had to pull, but we did it.
Credit goes to the people who really use the stadium for keeping a spotlight on this. Too often with those that call the shots it's out of sight and out of mind.
Maybe the overall neglect of this valuable public high school stadium can begin to be corrected starting with drainage, the track and the locker rooms. While they are at it, maybe they could make some modest improvements at St. Johns stadium.
Post a Comment