During reorganization of a high school, if you rehire only 40 percent of previous teachers, why have you rehired every single one of the athletic coaches, that is, 100 percent of all coaches that are teachers? Juanita Middleton, former principal of two rural high schools, whom CCSD Superintendent McGinley reassigned to Burke High School as an assistant principal three years ago, has now been selected by McGinley (with the cover of a community-based committee) to head the reorganized North Charleston High School. [Veteran Principal to Lead N. Chas.]
Because of its years-long failing record with NCLB, the high school had to be reorganized, made into a charter school, or face state takeover. Needless to say, McGinley chose the first option.
Most likely Fred Moore, the previous principal, knew when he accepted the job a year ago that his tenure would be brief; he could have read the handwriting on the wall as well as anyone else. It may even have been a condition of his hiring. As McGinley remarked, "The perspective that some individuals may have on what transpired is not the full picture that I have." Right.
None of this is surprising; after all, Superintendent McGinley is known for moving administrators around like ping-pong balls.
But rehire 100 percent of all teachers who are coaches? That means that only about a third of non-coaching teachers were rehired. Some excellent teachers are also athletic coaches, but it's hard to believe that true of all of NCHS's previous coaching staff! So, it was the non-coaching staff that was retarding students' achievement at the school? Do you believe in the tooth fairy?
And those ungrateful teacher-coaches are now whining that they haven't gotten their coaching contracts yet? [see North Charleston Coaches in Limbo]
Poor babies!
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8 comments:
I think before you spout off about how the Post and Courier gets things bungled up, you should get your own in order...
Firstly, you have no clue why Principal Moore was fired. You have no idea what transpired this last year to make any judgment. Yet you presume to know. Do some better research before you publish.
Secondly, I know some of the coaches that were re-hired--they are some of the better teachers the school has had the past several years. Some are student concerns specialists who get paid only around $20k per year and spend tons of time with kids outside of school.
I have often visited the school, and know that there are some really excellent classroom teachers who take the extra time to teach students on the baseball, football, basketball, cheerleading, track and field teams. There is a lot of preparation involved in coaching a team (I have volunteered in several sports for various high schools in the area). Maybe they are simply trying to be prepared.
You read the paper and a few quotes from supposed cross sections of the community and think you are ready to comment on everything.
Is the school going to open in its new building with all construction completed or is it going to be relocated? The other blogger is correct about the Student Concern Specialists coaching. Varsity (and most likely JV) Football, Varsity Girls Basketball, Varsity Boys Basketball and Volleyball still are being coached by Student Concern Specialists. Most of those teams (with perhaps the exception of Volleyball) have been quite successful in recent years.
Does anyone know if David Colwell was contacted about the position? I think he is still in North Carolina as a high school principal. There was a rumor a while back that he was being pursued by several schools down here. Is it true that he interviewed for several schools (including North Charleston several times) and kept getting rejected? I heard that after he inherited the mess at North Charleston as an interim and saved the school CCSD still didn't want him to be the principal on a permanent basis. No wonder he finally left. Does anyone know why he left? And didn't he leave it with improving test scores? How many principals and interim principals has North Charleston had since that guy left? I know Mayor Summey really liked him. Oh well,good luck to Ms. Middleton.
To the first poster--did I not say that some coaches are excellent teachers? What I wonder about is that at NCHS all of them were. In my experience, that isn't always the case. The P & C's statistics are in regard to teaching staff (the 40 %)--does that even include student concerns specialists who work with students outside of school hours? I think we're talking about apples and oranges here.
And what about the AP Academy at Burke that Juanita Middleton was in charge of setting up? Does her transfer mean CCSD really isn't committed to yet another program it started at Burke? Sounds just like all the other half baked ideas with no follow through presented by Nancy McGinley.
Many NCHS teachers were not rehired- the rhyme and/or reason will never be known. The only thing I can think of is that if you whined about anything or butted heads with the administration you were let go. Seveal national board teachers were sent packing. The coaching staff is a great group of educators. What went on during the last school year was a shame and should have never been allowed to get that out of hand. Nobody could imagine even if I listed events here (for which there would never be enough room).
Three "coaching" teachers were not re-hired. Six "coaching" teachers were.
I have contacted Philip Bowman a few times for information on the local prep scene. When I saw the listing for the coaching positions at North Charleston High School on the SCHSL website I inquired if this was a normal course of business for school district to do. His article was very clear and informative on the nature of the positing (which have subsequently been removed). My inquiry could have prompted the article. I have my doubts as to whether “those ungrateful teacher-coaches” where “whining that they haven't gotten their coaching contracts yet?” Of course, I reserve the right to be wrong.
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