Divide Charleston County into four sections. Give each section its own set of themed schools so that parents can pick which is best for their child. It's the latest in edublob thinking (can you say "arts-infused"?) about marketing public schools in an atmosphere that supports public charter schools instead. See Plan for Themed Schools Endorsed.
Well, I'd endorse it too, if I thought it wouldn't take dollars away from literacy programs. Such is not the case. At the very least these themes will add to costs of renovations proposed for the next building campaign, already acknowledged in the article. We must have themes in order to have equity? Why?
Are the school board members going to fund the programs out of their own pockets?
Memories are so short. Wasn't it just at the end of 2009 that the CCSD School Board finally managed to focus on a literacy policy for the school district? Has that little problem already been fixed? Has the School Board found the funds to put it into full effect?
Superintendent McGinley seems to be convinced that dazzling the School Board with one program after another is the way to keep her job. How many different ones has she now introduced and dropped a year or two later?
Let's keep the focus on literacy alive. Reading well is by far more important than having a theme.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
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5 comments:
Bait and switch would be an improvement. At least the switch implies we would be getting something, albeit less than what we expected. Instead we've got nothing except her assurances that something is happening. Never mind she's never had an original idea, never finished a program remotely within its original form and never conducted an independent assessment on how any of her programs have measured up. This will sum up what Nancy McGinley has been doing ever since she got here, way back in 2004. It's all about perception and not about substance.
So she's now single handedly abrogating the Act of Consolidation by merging eight geographic areas into four. If she intends to review the offerings in each of the four zones, how will SOA, AM and Buist fit into this model. Or will her plan really be five zones? That's four for the masses (you and me) and a fifth one (otherwise known as "county-wide") which will be reserved for the beautiful people fortunate enough to have connections.
Unless there is parity in what's offered in each zone, there is no access. Lord knows we have no access to Buist, regardless of the intellectual prowess and academic potential of our downtown kids.
Speaking of their plans to enlist support for bond funding in the next round of school make overs, get ready for every outrageous reason to be given to justify churning more capital dollars to replace good old building with new throw away junk.
Wanna bet how long it takes Nancy McGinley and Bill Lewis to invoke horror stories of earthquakes in China and now Haiti? They will make conspiracy theories of every stripe look positively rational, unless someone has the guts to call them out on the numbers. Like with everything else at CCSD, if the numbers don't work for them, ignore them, or better yet, make up some new ones that support the argument. They will be cooking the numbers, if only to justify tearing down and replacing every school building built before 1970?
With all their passion about what will happen if we don't approve the next building plan, you'd think someone was dead set on skimming off the top of more than a few school construction contracts. What we don't know about CCSD's real objectives will hurt us far more than any of their dire claims about a siesmic event that might happen in the next 300 years.
BTW, Charleston City school buildings came through the last one in 1886 with fairly minor damage only to be torn down in order to receive new building funds. The great quake here was said to have measured 7.2 at ground zero, which was actually 25 miles northwest of Charleston in Dorchester County.
Contrary to what Bill Lewis has said, the Great Charleston Earthquake of 1886 was not centered directly below every potential charter school campus in the county.
Glad to see your sense of humor still operating, 12:33.
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