She's not a tool of Gregg Meyers, Mayor Riley, the Chamber of Commerce, or the NAACP.That's the good news. [See School Board Picks New Leader.]
While Ruth Jordan has not always spoken against the Meyers-Green agenda, her voting record and statements over her years on the CCSD School Board do indicate a certain independence. Superintendent Nancy McGinley fondly recites that "everything is for the children," but Jordan's record suggests that she actually believes that to be true.
So it was only fitting that Jordan made her point at Monday night's meeting. After an unapologetic attempt by Gregg Meyers to make the election of a new board chairman all about supporting McGinley, Jordan was quoted as saying, "'Frankly, I was appalled that it would come down to the mandate about the superintendent. I thought it was about the children. ... If we're truly committed to public education, we're going to do what's right for children.'"
You tell'em, Ruth!
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3 comments:
The Charleston County School Board has been like a college road trip gone out of control. Nine people are in the car and only two have the keys. Now a different pair of drivers is in the front seat...with access to the keys.
If politics is the art of compromise then Meyers and Green really never got it. They've lost control of the keys but they're still in the vehicle.
To many watching from the curb, CCSD is still a stolen limo speeding down the highway with no map and no particular place to go. To them it matters little who’s behind the wheel.
I'd like to think with Jordan and Toler in the front seat for a change, the rest of the county school board will finally be allowed to hear more about what's really going on with the administration of our public schools. It seems that Mr. Meyers and Ms. Green were all about the appearance of control to the point of vilifying anyone who would dare offer even a whimper of discontent. They should have understood the need to build trust among the other seven board members, all of them, if they really wanted to arrive alive. It would also have helped if they would have told the rest of us where that place was and show us how much closer we are to that destination.
If this stolen car and this misbegotten journey are ever going to be made right by the people then a new approach to debate and dissent on the county school board should be allowed by the new leadership. All board members, and the public, too, whenever possible, should be fully informed and allowed to participate in the process of governing OUR public schools.
I hope Ms. Jordan and Mr. Toler will do whatever is possible to allow a reorganized board to provide the greatest number of educational choices to the greatest number of people. With a more open style of discussion and debate among all nine board members, our public schools can do this well within the limits of reasonable budgets that the public can understand.
Disagreement is not the villain of good school policies; it’s an essential part of a system that includes compromise and progress. Even back seat drivers have something to add. They may even be right some of the time.
Let's bring this Lincoln and its nine occupants back into normal traffic. Gosh, how many defenseless pedestrians standing on the curb have been run over already by the previous drivers of this board?
It's a long standing policy that Nancy McGinley meets privately with the chairman and vice-chairman before each meeting to discuss the agenda. Perhaps the entire board (and not just a select few) will now be "in the loop" and fresh new ideas can be honestly be put on the table. Sure, it’s more work for the board members to look at more options, but isn’t that what they were elected to do?
Wow, Superintendent McGinley must feel really exposed. Her agenda which has always been described as a moving target anyway may now open to a real discussion.
Up until now it seems both the school board and the public have been limited to the monologues Dr. McGinley chooses to deliver. After becoming superintendent in May 2007, her initial “conversations” with several local communities gave her an earful, probably much more than she would have liked. Since then she has tried to control these public meetings to the point of planting shills, restricting questions to index cards and limiting her Q&A to less than 30 minutes. She was further protected from having to answer difficult questions because the written questions are now culled by her highly paid staff and ever present entourage.
Without the protection and cover of the outgoing board chairwoman and vice chairman, Dr. McGinley should be subjected much more frequently to having her facts checked. What a relief it would be to hear a board member being allowed to question her data at the same meeting and in public. If she’s so data driven, then I’m sure she should welcome the opportunity to explain the data she chooses to use. So much of her data isn’t adding up and she’s been required by members of the board to explain so little of it.
With more objective leaders running the board meetings, she may be required to use her teaching skills and explain her practices more thoroughly. I still think class participation is a good thing.
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