The superintendent of the Charleston County School District is ready to do anything she can think of to fix North Charleston's high schools except what would actually work!
This comes as no surprise to McGinley-watchers, but the boldness of her latest move merely confirms that the superintendent, and not the elected Board of Trustees, is in control of what happens in CCSD. Why not? She has a ready contingent of bootlickers, including the education reporter for the P&C, who are willing to consent to any lamebrained scheme she throws at them as long as it comes replete with educational jargon--and a promise to get funds from the state .
Given the state (no pun intended) of South Carolina's budget, I wouldn't hold my breath on that one.
Basically, McGinley is giving her lackeys two weeks to determine the futures of 1500 high school students who are zoned for Stall and North Charleston High Schools. Despite their being no evidence that combining the two and separating the grade levels as she proposes has ever improved graduation rates anywhere, this is her solution to their on-going problems, many of which her own policies have created.
For example, how many magnet high schools are located near these two high schools?
She complains that parents actually choose to send their children to magnets!
Infuriatingly, three years ago millions were spent on upgrading North Charleston High School so that it could meet the needs of its 9-12 students, including career and technology aspects. Now she wants to can that and make it for improving reading and math skills for 9th and 10th graders only. And the technology and career improvements will need to be made (and paid for again) at the NEW Stall High School, which unbelieveably costs much more to run than its old 1960s building.
Explain that one.
Not even McGinley knows all this movement, change, and busing will improve these schools.
Hello. Common sense suggests that until both schools get a handle on discipline (and, in particular, the discipline of the unreasonably high number of students who have I.E.P.'s), nothing will change.
Truth is--because these schools have been failing for so long, the state has the right to step in and run them instead, thanks to NCLB, and, for McGinley, that would be the worst solution of all. She has to upset the fruit basket or face losing control.
Friday, February 11, 2011
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47 comments:
Watch her plan to pair elementary schools with what she calls her "2 schools, 1 principal" plan. When she first tried that, it was at Fraser and Sanders-Clyde schools downtown. Fraser is no more and the new and improved Sanders-Clyde is without a permanent principal (fired?) since Christmas.
Under the umbrella of recession related "cost reductions" she will eventually close the schools she targeted in 2007. It's all about making her report card show she has reduced the number of failing schools. If we had 100 failing schools and the super closed 50 of them without changing anything else, she would stand on the roof tops and claim she had cut the number of failing schools by half.
Nancy McGinley gets what she wants even if he has to bring it up over, and over, and over, again. She just wears down her opponents in the community and among parents, even on the board.
She is all about her image and winning accolades for herself. She cares nothing about substance and very little about where these schools are taking our kids.
The Sanders-Clyde principal was not fired...those are slanderous suppositions...I think it is prudent to not inflame things more than they are already.
Would someone please get to the FACTS! Please investigate the academic levels of the incoming ninth graders at Stall every year. Roughly 40% are not ready to start middle school, yes 3-5 years behind in math and reading.
Now please compare EOC scores at Stall from 04-05 to 09-10. You will see that those teachers have improved those kids 34% in English 1 and 22% in Algebra 1, yet the kool-aid being shared publicly is tht Stall has not improved.
Want to discuss graduation rate? After the many private or magnet schools in North Charleston take Stall kids or the NCLB kids leave for Wando and WA, what is left? SC counts special needs kids against our grad rate, they also count 5th year graduates against the grad rate. In addition, Stall gets nailed for hundreds of kids that never step a foot in the school; they call this the rollover from middle school attendance records. The insanity of this system is beyond comprehension;any guesses why Gary West who was in charge of this just decided to resign in the middle of the year?
Why did NJM stand at Stall's Grand Opening and heap praise on Stall folks about the tradition, the improvements, etc.? I was there, I heard her!
Ever hear about the story of the people who decided to go upstream to see who was killing the fish vs just cleaning up the mess all of the time? Check our middle schools out people!
Stall High performs miracles every day with kids and has the data to prove it. Why should those kids be part of this public manipulation due to the fact that North Charleston has had no less than 7 principals in the last 5 years?
North Charleston, stand up and be heard!!
Cutting the high school experience in half? Please list the school districts that have successfully improved from doing this. Better yet, name a district that has such a mess. Many of these kids have little to cling to for identity or hope, many call Stall or NCHS "home." Is it their fault that our district has built them for failure?
Go ahead and follow through with this insane plan so we can say, "we had to do something."
I question how some can manage to sleep, but realistically, they won't be there to see the clashes and the messes they are creating. This is sad, plain and simple.
Please investigate the facts vs the manipulation of data.
Rumors abound when principals disappear. The S-C principal hadn't been seen since late last year. His resignation wasn't announced to the community by the superintendent until the end of January. I agree, we should get the facts straight. I would help if the district administration would cooperate by sharing the facts instead of letting rumors and innuendo fill the gap.
Personnel matters are often personal. You have no right to that information unless the professional has committed an illegal act.
Please don't pretend like you would like to share all aspects of your personnel file in a transparent manner...
For what it's worth, none of the decision-makers attended NCHS re-dedication this fall. McGinley and Winbush both didn't show up according to several friends who were there.
A joke.
Simple solution: Increase the number of those "highly effective" teacher coaches, especially those who have been wandering in and out of Burke for years. Set realistic numeracy and literacy goals for them. If they fail, fire THEM...not the poor teachers. It's time to hold THEM accountable.
Question: Were the teachers, School Improvement Councils, etc. at the two schools given any input at all? If not, so much for transparency.
I am at a West Ashley school (I won't say which) but I have a few connections to the north area, and the word is both faculties were completely blindsided. The decision was made at Calhoun Street without so much as a smidge of input from anyone but a core group of 7-10 people.
Take a look at the plan. It was obviously not well thought out at all.
This will be a debacle and I feel bad for the students and teachers at both those schools, since it will be a by-the-seat-of-the-pants operation next year..
10:54,
You are right and that is deplorable at best. Where will the brainiacs be when the fur starts to fly? Sitting at Calhoun blaming teachers, administrators,and poverty or simply (simple is the extent of their ability)proclaiming that they had to try something.
It needs stopped before it starts, hopefully the Board can squeeze out just enough common sense.
What has the world come to when possibly Kandrac may be useful??
Anonymous 10:54 AM is absolutely right. "The decision was made at Calhoun Street without so much as a smidge of input from anyone but a core group of 7-10 people."
It is also correct that the Board of Trustees were just as blindsided as everyone else. For example, the front page P&C photo of students receiving written notice of the plan came at exactly the same moment that a workshop was giving board members their first indication that this plan was already in motion.
Although at least one board member, Ann Oplinger, appeared to be fully informed, others were not. Nancy McGinley is doing exactly what Dot Scott described as just more moving things around.
What does it say when both Elizabeth Kandrac and Dot Scott agree? Consider also that both Kandrac and Scott are making more sense than McGinley.
None of what the superintendent is doing now has anything to do with improving academic opportunities for the students involved. She's obviously fighting a battle to save her job and to appear indispensible. To those in agreement with this kind of maneuvering by the administration, the students are expendable.
This is very sad, if not tragic.
Quite simply the plan is flawed, that is why they did not confer with any of the people in the trenches.
The Board has to step in and stop this. Will the people being affected fight?
Where is Keith Summey on this? It would seem CCSD's continued experimentation with North Charleston schools would need his blessings. McGinley's failures across the board must be having some sort of blowback on the image of the city of North Charleston. Some urban mayors and their city councils with similar school problems in other states have been more proactive, to the point of taking over their schools when the systems have failed like this. Is that an option?
What is the percentage breakdown for North Charleston residents attending magnet schools compared to other areas of Charleston County? How do students who attend North Charleston elementary and middle schools rate on admission to high school level magnets? If North Charleston high schools are doing this poorly, then who is looking hard at the preparation these students are getting before they reach high school?
For the benefit of the No. Chas. community, a list of phone numbers and e-mail addresses may be helpful in letting board members know what's up on the front lines:
Chris Fraser, Chair 452-9245
e-mail: cfraser@wrsrealty.com
Ann Oplinger, Vice-Chair 406-6685
e-mail: oplingera@comcast.net
Craig Ascue 884-6862
e-mail: tcraigascue@gmail.com
Cindy Bohn Coats 529-2457
e-mail: cindybohncoats@yahoo.com
Chris Collins 813-0616
e-mail:
chriscollins700@mybluelight.com
Toya Hampton Green 723-7831
e-mail: thgreen@mcnair.net
Elizabeth Kandrac 813-9778
e-mail: ekandrac@yahoo.com
Elizabeth Moffly 296-6937
e-mail: emoffly@aol.com
Mary Ann Taylor 762-4734
e-mail: mary.ann.taylor@comcast.net
CALL THEM OR WRITE THEM...EVEN IF YOU LIKE WHAT'S GOING ON.
3:31,
Ask Tricia Yeandle how the middle schools are doing. She will lie so make sure you get your own copy of figures to look at and be prepared for NJM to lie to cover her behind.
You are on the right trail, continue forward!! Be prepared to hear how we reduced the number of low achieving middle schools, yes, they closed some of them too!
The Board knew a full day ahead of the teachers. From what I have been told by someone in the know, is that they were fully on board.
The core group that I referred to above included Dr. James Winbush, his staff, Dr. McGinley, and a few people from downtown. I wonder who created the plan.
They played this out in the press first. How often do proposals get announced to the press first before the board gets a chance to vote on it.
You do things like that to intimidate people into going along for the ride. How many parent meetings were there to discuss this? Teacher meetings? None! They are wrong and they know it.
Dig inside Stall's data and thoroughly investigate what they are doing and why, talk to the Stall parents!
Of course something needs done for NCHS, it's called hiring a qualified principal and providing the support.
Check out the academic plan people, they are looking to put 500 kid in the new Stall facility built for 1200 and 900 kids in the smaller North Charleston building. Furthermore they are simpling butchering any sense of school pride and ownership.
Stop this.
I'm new to this blog, so forgive me if I ask a (probably) stupid question. The P & C stated the last time the school report card for NCHS showed any kind of improvement at all was in 2005, I think. What was different then?
Soon after 2005 district officials began several years of rotating school level leadership in and out of NCHS. Parents say the current principal has very little support from or respect for the school's community base.
As the article states, the North Charleston Mayor said he is in support of the idea. When faced with the alternative of the state DOE taking over NCHS does he really have a choice?
Attendance at SOA and AMHS is made up of just under 10% North Charleston Kids, Garrett and Military Magnet? Over half. North Charleston's enrollment has declined by half over the last ten years, if we leave it alone then it will just eventually close on its own when more and more kids zoned to go there will figure out the rules for NCLB.
What needs to happen is for the public to finally figure out that it's the county school district administration that is keeping our kids on the road to schools that look like greener pastures. Rather than fixing what's broken, the school district is claiming it's the parents' fault for abandoning the schools that are seriously at risk. Parents desperately looking for better schools are at fault! Go figure. How ‘bout putting together successful school programs to begin with and quit moving the deck chairs. It's the school district that set these schools up for failure with second rate academic programs and third rate administrators. NCHS is the latest casualty. What about Burke? It’s a good bet; Burke will be next, maybe as soon as next year. Dr. McGinley is just playing the numbers. The superintendent needs to quit treating the symptoms and start addressing the real academic problems which goes back to the elementary schools. These kids have no foundation. The high school kids aren't dumb, but they have been seriously neglected by this superintendent. Remember, she’s been part of the problem here since 2004.
Parents are a child's first and most important teacher throughout. So yes, the failure of schools is in part due to a failure of parenting.
Public schools are symptomatic of a set of social ills, not particularly a cause.
Darrell Johnson...Lest we forget? The problems of North Charleston High School's initial implosion is easily traced back to this guy.
Now even Nelson Rivers of the NAACP and the White ladies on the board are in agreement. Nancy McGinley has put forward one grand plan too many and it has turned her world upside down. Enough already, Dr. McGinley. Just like all her other plans to nowhere, the Super is out of touch with the people. Looks like the new board is getting an earful about transparency.
Ever noticed how NJM is all about neat and catchy names that just don't work...the Burke A+ became F+. Burke Middle High became BM High School. Lowcountry Tech became Low Tech High. Someone said McGinley has a tin ear. She definately can't hear what the people are saying.
McGinley seems to have this thing about the letter "R". In 2008 she announced her Realignment Plan for Charleston schools. It went nowhere. Then in 2009 she sprung a new one on us with her Reconfiguration Plan. That one tried to close 10 schools, but ended up closing only 5 schools from McClellanville to Hollywood. Not to be undone, in 2010, with the great earthquake panic that only the Chamber of Commerce took seriously, she announced her Remove, Rebuild, Return plan for 4“seismic” schools downtown and another one on Sullivan's Island. If that wasn't impressive enough, in 2011 we are now getting the North Charleston High School Renaissance Project. Realignment, Reconfiguration, Remove, Rebuild, Return and Renaissance. Wow, she must really like the letter "R". If only her remedial reading programs could teach the other 25 letters of the alphabet, Charleston County schools would be in high cotton.
Babbie,
Is 28 comments a record? I just pray for the kids of North Charleston that these posts are an indicator that the people will not allow this "crapola" to happen so that the last post could be happy with this beig labeled, "Rejection."
Some of those $100,000 administrators who surround McGinley were working overtime last night. They were reacting to the public firestorm going on at the Board meeting against the timing of this plan. Before the last speaker had finished blasting McGinley's for her lack of transparency and absence of genuine public input, CCSD's bureaucrats were scheduling a new dog and pony show to cover their tracks. By the end of the meeting the Board members were being given a new handout entitled "Proposed Parent/Community Meeting Schedule".
Wouldn't you know it, we are finally being allowed to meet with McGinley and her million dollar entourage, but only for an hour and just in time for the next board meeting. Then our elected representatives will put their rubber stamp on her latest half-baked plan.
Complain loud enough and she reacts. But don't expect her to change her plan. Nothing like closing the barn door after the horses have already escaped.
Here it is....
City of North Charleston High School Renaissance Project
Proposed Parent/Community Meeting schedule:
* Tuesday, February 22nd, 6:00 P.M. - 7:00 P.M.
* Meetings will be held at Zuker, Northwoods, and Morningside Middle Schools (choose any location from 6-7PM)
* Wednesday, February 23rd, 6:00 P.M. - 7:00 P.M.
* Meetings at Stall and North Charleston High Schools (choose either location from 6-7PM)
...that's it.
From the P&C comments to the Feb 15 write up on last night's board meeting. My sentiments exactly.
wonderdog
7:27 AM on 2/15/2011
This comment is hidden because you have chosen to ignore wonderdog. Show DetailsHide Details
I wish the P&C would post the salaries and perks of every person employed at the CCSD headquarters as well as the operating budget for the building. I know some people who work there in positions that make no sense and for salaries that would make your hair curl.
How about it, P&C? The CCSD won't release the information. All we know about is the $76k allotted for new carpet and furniture in ONE office and the $1000+ MONTHLY car allowance for the superintendent, and that's just for transportation in the Charleston school district.
What a scam.
Just wondering if the superintendent is willing to tighten her belt like she wants the schools to and will cut her own staff. Will all the Broad folk be gone? Why has she added more people to the communications department at a time when people are losing their jobs?
Since she thinks it's going to be good for two schools to have one principal, how about combining two of her learning communities and have one associate superintendent for each? That would reduce the number of associates from 4 to 2... plus you'd be eliminating the staffs that support two associates!
I realize people are piling on, but I hope they focus on the current issue and that is the insane proposal to join Stall and NCHS and furthermore to split kids into 9-10 and 11-12 buildings.
So we are going to talk to the public now after the letters have been sent, are you kidding me???
I smell "fear" people! Could NJM be feeling a little self-concious? Does she continue with her cronies support or are they wilting in the heat? Bet the shadows are dancing on the wall at night. May she live one damn day of uncertainty like she is making people who want their kids safe and educated in their school.
I guarantee you she has some folks in her camp who would throw her under the first bus on the lot. James Winbush is one of them, he smellin that super job. Quiet Mr. Winbush, folks hearing whats coming out the other side of your mouth.
When the McClellanville community spoke out about the district trying to close their schools a couple of years ago, it got stopped. When the West Ashley parents spoke out about the district trying to change their school start time, it got stopped. Wonder if the communities of Stall and NCHS will be respected as much. Obviously not! These communities didn't so much as hear a word about this until after it was posted in the P&C and only heard today about a meeting next week-- for a WHOLE HOUR, no less! Gee, how nice that the superintendent will give us a whole hour of her time!
AS I studied the draft proposal for the merger on CCSD's website (Superintendent's Letter), the curriculum proposed for the 9th grade was almost an exact duplicate of the curriculum used in 2005-2006, when our Alg. I and Eng. I EOC test scores started to show gains. Our "Improvement Rating" even increased. I was one of many young teachers recruited by the Principal from out of state (Pennsylvania) to reverse the recent trend that had resulted in violence and plummeting test scores after a Specialist Principal (?) had been fired. We used READ 180 in Essentials of Reading classes every day for 90 minutes first semester, our lexile scores were increasing, and our EOC scores actually rose. We were getting 2nd-4th grade reading level students from Brentwood and Morningside. In Algebra, we had Essentials classes first semester, followed by Algebra I second semester. Those scores increased, too. As I recall, Dr. McGinley was the Chief Academic Officer at the time. I never saw her visit one classroom at NCHS the two years I was there. I was one of those Essentials nof Reading/English I teachers Mr. Colwell had recruited out of Michigan. It's as though we had a literacy plan and a numeracy plan before the terms became "fashionalbe" termsd recently in CCSD. They seemed to be working, and then McGinley kept demanding more and more from us and our Principal until many of us simply threw our hands up in frustration. She should have left us and our Principal alone. So sad. This should never have happened. To the teachers who are still at NCHS: You are heroes!
10:36,
The incoming ninth grade scores have not changed! They go in front of the Stall faculty and tell us we have not improved, actually we have, yet the middle schools keep sending up the same ole same ole. Hey Tricia Yeandle, yoooo hoooo, what's ya got different for us? Hey, lets mess up the high schools so we can get the heat off the middle schools.
An hour to listen to people next week at each school being assaulted? How friggin pathetic! I personally plan on offering free food to fill both places, be heard people! Let's party!
NJM is nervous. She reportedly spent much of the day calling her critics to ask "what will it take to get you to come over to my side?" NJM said "my regime needs your support." (Really, she said 'my regime'.) "We've got too many fires going and we need to concentrate on this North Charleston plan." According to what her contacts are saying, she's going to abandon some of her craziness. It remains to be seen but some report that she may have punted on the 1 principal for 2 schools idea. Her bigger plan really is loosing ground. Don't let up now. She needs to know it's bad leadership that doesn't cultivate genuine public support with honest communication. NJM hasn't done any of this very well.
This is such a sad state of affairs for the children and families in the North Charleston and Stall communities.
So sad.
6:30.
It could turn into a positive if the 2 schools come together collectively to fight for their respective schools. No time for whining, there is a fight that needs fought. Someone please offer some common sense to the Mayor!
Keep after the Board members, we only need 5 votes to stop this insanity and then focus on what really needs to be done.
Suppose Elliott "litle man's disease" Smalley and his assistant Watson are earning their keep?
You really cannot make this stuff up, are there cameras rolling for some reality show? Will Jerry Springer run the meetings?
This is McGinley's failure. She wants the new board to share responsibility for her mistakes and to give her cover since the state Department of Education is knocking at the door. If this board goes along, they are even more of a rubber stamp than the last board.
This new board could be smarter than anybody has given them credit for being. Didn't we hear that some of them ran on the platform of getting rid of the superintendent? Looks like all they needed to do was sit back and wait for McGinley to dig her own hole. Actually, correction is needed. The new highly paid chief of staff should get some credit for this mess too. Brilliant!
Who is the new highly paid chief of staff? How does McGinley slip another administrative position onto the payroll while freezing teacher salaries and ditching the day porters at the same time? This is what the board members need to be looking at before they consider anything Michael Bobby is proposing.
CoS = Chief of Staff, Chief of Spinning.
Does it really matter who it is?
Do people who are upfront really need a spinner?
Anonymous 6:30:
Note that that mayor can be replaced too.
Ohhh Nancyyyyy, whatcha thinkin bout now? How about you Elliott? James? Karma baby, karma.
No time to let up North Chlareston people, they tried to publicly persecute us, the fun is starting!
Proposal dead. Perhaps Drs. McGinley and Winbush as well?
I don't envy them answering all fo the inevitable questions about their methods and assumptions.
McGinley just backed down on two of her latest whacky ideas....combining North Charleston and Stall....pairing small schools under one principal. It ain't over, folks. This is just a short delay. She usually comes back with a vengeance. The best defense is a good offense. The opposition needs to come up with better plans than she does. That shouldn't be too hard.
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