Probably not everyone isas irritated as I am by paeans of praise to the Charleston County's newest Taj Majal school buildings in the latest editions of the P & C. Even knowing that the funds for building them and those for daily operations are separate has not assuaged my nagging suspicion that, here in these multi-million-dollar, state-of-the-art schools, children will still be left behind in reading skills.
Now, let's use just a little bit of critical thinking about statements made as fact in two recent articles on Mt. Pleasant Academy and Orange Grove Charter Schools.
According to one article, the enormous new Mt. Pleasant Academy had to be built because the old 1950s building had grown too small. Wrong. It would be an easy bet that the Old Village of Pt. Pleasant doesn't have as many elementary-age children as it had in the 1950s! No, what happened is that the CCSD School Board made a conscious decision to create large elementary schools instead of smaller new ones and, as a result, to increase busing. Now ask yourself if it is better for an elementary-age child to be bused to an 850-odd student school or go to one half that size in his or her own neighborhood.
Monday's article on Orange Grove Charter School has a misleading brag in both the front-page teaser and the article itself: that this is the first school building designed specifically for a public charter school in South Carolina! Of course, the decision to rebuild Orange Grove was funded prior to its becoming a charter school. Of course, the CCSD School Board fought its going charter tooth-and-nail and caved only when it became clear legally that the Board didn't have a leg to stand on.
And the much-touted separate building for day care for faculty? The lack of the ability to have that facility, thanks to CCSD's policies, created the impetus to go charter in the first place. What short memories we have!
Let's hope that Bill Lewis has managed to build and plan these facilities better than he did for Wando High School, where they're still suffering with air conditioning problems in the gym!
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2 comments:
How quickly we forget. Thanks for reminding us. McGinley and Lewis both trust the public to have short memories. Why else would they treat mere civilians with such contempt?
Wanna bet these new mini Taj Mahals will start falling apart just as quickly as the others? Lewis and CCSD have a reputation for taking short cuts on maintenance that end up costing much more later. It's the same with their shoot-from-the-hip planning on growth. Then there's the pattern of wasting good money on cheap materials. Conventional wisdom says we should be building small schools which are considered ideal for elementary students, but McGinley and Lewis say they are all about saving money.
Saving money!? How much more is it costing us to put half the county's students in yellow buses and the other half in heavy traffic? Now tell us how much it's costing each student to spend an hour or more each way, every day, instead of attending a small, well managed neighborhood school.
I really like how the stories on the new Moultrie Middle School failed to say that the Teachers were required to work without pay for 2 days moving locations.
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