Noblesse oblige is "the moral obligation of those of high birth, powerful social position, etc., to act with honor, kindliness, generosity, etc." Evidently, it is one standard yet to be met in the Charleston County School District.Here are the facts: On April 1, 2010, MUSC announced that Etta D. Pisano, M.D., the Vice-Dean for Academic Affairs at the UNC School of Medicine for the last four years would become MUSC's new dean of the College of Medicine. Dr. Pisano "also [had] been active in the community, holding the presidency of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools' PTA council," according to a UNC alumni publication. In a July letter to MUSC's University News, Dr. Pisano related the following:
On a personal note, I am pleased that my husband, Jan Kylstra, is also joining the MUSC College of Medicine family as a retina surgeon in the Department of Ophthalmology. Our daughter, Marijke, the youngest of our four children and the only one still at home, is very excited to move to Charleston, to start school at the Academic Magnet School as an 11th grader, to get her South Carolina drivers license, and to become a South Carolinian.No one could question that Dr. Pisano has outstanding qualifications for her new job, nor that it is great that her husband will work at the same facility. Every family with two professionals knows how difficult such tandem job switches can be to accomplish.
No, the problem concerns the application of her daughter to the Academic Magnet.
Given the timing of her appointment (April 1, 2010), it is reasonable to assume that
- her daughter did not apply to AMHS by the April 1st cutoff for juniors or
- applied but did not complete the on-campus writing sample required by April 1st, or
- if she managed to do both, was not a resident of South Carolina, much less Charleston County, by the application deadline of April 1st.
But, as a condition of her accepting the job, there is every reason to believe that she was told that her daughter could get in. Remember Tinker to Evers to Chance? This was an MUSC to CCSD to AMHS double play. Someone picked up the phone at MUSC, asked Superintendent McGinley, and was told "of course."
Judith Peterson, Principal at AMHS, has spent her entire career in CCSD; she knows how things work. Her response when queried about the residency requirement was that she takes a "common-sense approach" to policies and rules.
That must be the same approach used for District 10 residency requirements for entrance to Buist. You remember that.
According to Peterson, no student was displaced because AMHS has no waiting list for the 11th grade. What about Charleston County residents who didn't make the deadline? Should they now apply? How about other residents of North Carolina? or Summerville, for that matter?
AMHS waiting lists, of course, a la Buist, are top secret, so we'll just have to take her word for it.
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As Dean of MUSC's College of Medicine, will Dr. Pisano still admit my child to MUSC's med school if she misses the application deadline? Those pesky application RULES and REQUIREMENTS are really more like guidelines, no?
Either way, this is simply illegal.
If Dr. Pisano's child applied to AMHS by the deadline of April 1, 2010, she did so as a North Carolina resident and is therefore ineligible.
If Dr. Pisano's child applied after April 1, 2010, then she missed the required deadline and is therefore ineligible.
How many lawsuits will this preferential treatment generate?
Sorry about OFF TASK but ...
Maria Goodloe-Johnson's one year contract extension is being appealed and 5 members of the Seattle School Board are subjects of a Recall Filing.
The Washington State Auditor had an incredible number of complaints in two 2010 issued Audits of Seattle Schools.
WOW!! MG-J is a disaster ... but I suppose that readers of this blog already knew that.
Recall Story in the Seattle Times.
"Remember Tinker to Evers to Chance?"
No, anybody mind to tell me?
Famous baseball trio known for double play--I think it was the Chicago Cubs.
This is good information, but there may be some additional facts that need to be part of the discussion concerning this case. One fact that seems to be elusive is what are the ideal target enrollment levels for each of the four grades at AMHS and what are the expected maximum enrollments for each grade at the start of the new school year next month?
According to what I was told earlier today (Thursday, July 29) by an on-site school official, AMHS still has seats available in the 11th grade and will accept "late applications" for consideration up until the end of the day today. This cut off point for new applications for upper grades, as I understand it, is to be immediately in advance of new student orientation which begins next week. AMHS does not accept/admit new students to fill vacancies after the start of the school year which appears to include orientation.
The 10th grade as of this morning has a waiting list of 12 students. The order of a waiting list is arranged according to academic rankings for those who apply before the regular application deadlines (December for 9th grade and April for 10th & 11th grade). As per AMHS policy, no new students are accepted for 12th grade regardless of total class size.
After the regular deadlines for applications and the arranging of "qualified applicants" by a ranking system, waiting lists of "otherwise qualified applicants" who applied late are arranged in the order in which they are received. The order for late applicants starts with the next position after the last name on the original list. I was told no "waiting list" exists for 11th grade this year. That would imply that ALL technically "qualified" applications submitted either before or after April 1 have been accepted for admission beginning next week.
It seems AMHS has fluid enrollment targets for each grade. Their enrollment goal appears to center on keeping the total enrollment at just over 600 students in order to maintain current staff levels. According to what I'm told the size of the 11th grade for the coming year is down (with fewer applications than the number of students who have withdrawn).
AMHS has admitted 165 to 9th grade in order to allow for certain expected attrition and to compensate for slightly lower numbers in the current 11th and 12th grade levels. According to what I was told, they increased the number of 10th graders this year by admitting 10 new applicants, but they still have 12 on that waiting list. The reason given for high numbers of applicants for 10th grade while not meeting maximum enrollment for 11th grade is that "students in the final grades are reluctant to transfer from schools where they have already established relationships". No argument there, but given AMHS's reputation, it's hard to believe there is such a steep drop off in demand for enrollment between 10th and 11th grade.
If it wasn't for extensive past experience with officials within the school district making so many false statements, I could probably buy most of this. That still doesn't help me understand why CCSD doesn't make it widely known when such opportunities exist to apply to schools like AMHS. If Buist Academy is any example, then I would say the reason is that CCSD administrators want to maintain "pocket slots" a these schools for their own use when certain opportunities come up...like the transfer in caused by the appointment of a new senior official at MUSC. Just as with the public resentment surrounding the way the Buist admissions policies have been manipulated, CCSD should and could have avoided continuing charges of corruption and allegations of selective privileges being extended to insiders. All they had to was create new programs and neighborhood magnets designed to meet the demand. As it is we are limited to a handful of special schools available only to those fortunate enough to know how to be admitted. Where there is a reasonable demand for a service, then fill it. That's what the private sector does and that's exactly why parents have turned to charter schools. Hiding information leads to disgruntled parents.
If the public was allowed to know what was available the demand would certainly increase. CCSD could justifiably exand successful academic opportunities. A rise in public confidence levels for school officials might reasonably follow. Until that happens, withholding information about what is available becomes another means to discriminate.
Accurate demand is dependent on accurate and timely information. CCSD by its own actions has been a roadblock to any expectation of fairness and equity. Too many parents have been deliberately thwarted by the system as they rightfully attempt to gain access to a quality education for their children in Charleston County.
As a matter of full disclosure (something CCSD isn't committed to) Dr. Pisano should be made aware of this. She is rapidly becoming a victim of CCSD by becoming a target. What a shame, because how can great institutions like MUSC continue to attract the best and the brightest when all we have to offer is a third rate public school system like what ours has become. How committed can we be to our future when so many of our kids today are denied access to the best education possible. That's not an environment that encourages doers and shakers to move here, or to stay for very long.
AMHS has admitted 165 to 9th grade in order to allow for certain expected attrition and to compensate for slightly lower numbers in the current 11th and 12th grade levels. According to what I was told, they increased the number of 10th graders this year by admitting 10 new applicants, but they still have 12 on that waiting list. The reason given for high numbers of applicants for 10th grade while not meeting maximum enrollment for 11th grade is that "students in the final grades are reluctant to transfer from schools where they have already established relationships". No argument there, but given AMHS's reputation, it's hard to believe there is such a steep drop off in demand for enrollment between 10th and 11th grade.
If it wasn't for extensive past experience with officials within the school district making so many false statements, I could probably buy most of this. That still doesn't help me understand why CCSD doesn't make it widely known when such opportunities exist to apply to schools like AMHS. If Buist Academy is any example, then I would say the reason is that CCSD administrators want to maintain "pocket slots" a these schools for their own use when certain opportunities come up...like the transfer in caused by the appointment of a new senior official at MUSC. Just as with the public resentment surrounding the way the Buist admissions policies have been manipulated, CCSD should and could have avoided continuing charges of corruption and allegations of selective privileges being extended to insiders. All they had to was create new programs and neighborhood magnets designed to meet the demand. As it is we are limited to a handful of special schools available only to those fortunate enough to know how to be admitted. Where there is a reasonable demand for a service, then fill it. That's what the private sector does and that's exactly why parents have turned to charter schools. Hiding information leads to disgruntled parents.
If the public was allowed to know what was available the demand would certainly increase. CCSD could justifiably exand successful academic opportunities. A rise in public confidence levels for school officials might reasonably follow. Until that happens, withholding information about what is available becomes another means to discriminate.
Accurate demand is dependent on accurate and timely information. CCSD by its own actions has been a roadblock to any expectation of fairness and equity. Too many parents have been deliberately thwarted by the system as they rightfully attempt to gain access to a quality education for their children in Charleston County.
As a matter of full disclosure (something CCSD isn't committed to) Dr. Pisano should be made aware of this. She is rapidly becoming a victim of CCSD by becoming a target. What a shame, because how can great institutions like MUSC continue to attract the best and the brightest when all we have to offer is a third rate public school system like what ours has become. How committed can we be to our future when so many of our kids today are denied access to the best education possible. That's not an environment that encourages doers and shakers to move here, or to stay for very long.
Some of these mitigating circumstances don't really matter in the context of adhering to the law and treating all students equally.
And ultimately, this isn't about Dr. Pisano or her child; it's about a CCSD principal either breaking the application deadline OR breaking the residency rules for ONE student. The AMHS application deadline for juniors was April 1, 2010 because that is what the AMHS application explicitly states, and that is the restriction all Charleston County applicants were required to follow.
If AMHS had a low census for juniors and needed to augment their class, they should have extended the deadline -and advertised accordingly- to all student residents of Charleston County. Do you think the kids at Burke knew about this opportunity?
There is something intrinsically unfair and undemocratic about the way this was handled.
Here's what the AMHS application says about waiting lists:
"Admission to 10th & 11th is limited to space availability. You will be notified by mail of your position on the waiting list for these spaces by May 15, 2010."
May 15th was over 2 months ago! Maybe there's no wait list because the standby kids were already told "Sorry, move on."
It's common for private and magnet schools -especially those as prestigious as AMHS- to restrict the size of their classes if the alternative is admitting students who are less than stellar. These unaccepted students may, in fact, meet all the application criteria, but the schools have discretion when it comes to ensuring they attract only the most elite students.
If the selection committee didn't deny otherwise qualified candidates, then AMHS would not be a highly selective school and their acceptance rate would be 100%.
However, AMHS is governed by CCSD policies and procedures. I still don't see how a CCSD principal has the authority to change the application deadline for a North Carolina resident.
"According to what I was told earlier today (Thursday, July 29) by an on-site school official, AMHS still has seats available in the 11th grade and will accept "late applications" for consideration up until the end of the day today."
That's funny because the 1st page of the AMHS application in front of me says all applications MUST be submitted or postmarked by the deadline. And the 3rd page of the application reinforces this: "The deadline for applications, which includes a writing sample, is April 1, 2010 for 10th and 11th."
This is the issue:
AMHS bent or broke the established application deadline and/or residency requirement in order to benefit one student. We happen to know the identity of the student who received this special treatment.
We will probably never know the identities of the anonymous, invisible students across Charleston County who were disenfranchised because AMHS chose to change rules of the game after the game had ended.
Who will be the advocate for their interests?
The AMHS Honor Code states:
"I am honor bound to neither cheat, lie, steal, nor act outside the law. I will report to school authorities any violation of the AMHS Code of Honor."
There are consequences when AMHS students violate the school's honor code. What happens when AMHS administrators violate the honor code?
Once again, CCSC demonstrates its creativity in the art of double standards. As for the honor code, this proves it applies only where the administration deems it should apply. Welcome to the real world, kids. Adults cheat. Educational administrators cheat more than most.
No one's suggesting that academically unqualified students should be admitted to AMHS. Cherry picking is a luxury that a public school shouldn't have, not even this one. The rules should apply both ways. AMHS should honor the same deadlines it sets for applicants. If not, then the school and those that run it should be honor bound to communicate that information to the public. If the best students at Burke (or any other public school) should want to apply, those students should be given every available opportunity to do so by CCSD, including details of what has become available and how to apply.
I can't believe there were insufficient applications for the 11th grade slots, unless CCSD withheld the information. Very likely it did. That would be a falsehood by not telling the whole truth, right?
I find it sad that absolutely nobody mentions the lack of equity...how about the novel idea that all schools have what all parents want and all kids need? Hell no, just keep building the "perfect" schools for the "perfect" kids.....
I think equity and fairness are, in fact, the crux of our arguments.
Equity demands we at least attempt to give each Charleston County kid the same opportunity to attend AMHS. This cannot happen when one student is permitted to flout the same residency and/or application rules that every other Charleston County student must follow.
AMHS may not be the right fit for every Charleston County kid, but every Charleston County kid has the right to apply and be evaluated by the same standards.
By directly giving one student preferential treatment, they have indirectly discriminated against every high school student in Charleston County.
Serious question: In the entire country, is there any school district more dysfunctional and political than CCSD?
Maybe Seattle, where Goodloe-Johnson's having a rocky time of it.
Every kid the same opportunity to attend Academic Magnet??????? How insane is that comment....wake up! This county built all of its specialty schools and left the poor kids in the dust...
Oh,how the chickens are finally coming home to roost. The question now (September 2011) is will the Post and Courier finally look into the cheats to see if it goes deeper and wider than what CCSD is admitting.
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