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- No wonder Superintendent Nancy McGinley has brought out the big guns--letters solicited from the Mayor; scolding emails solicited from the Board chair; outraged op-eds from the NAACP.
- Now this: Four unruly Board members want to investigate what benefits the district gets for its contributions to sacred-cow nonprofits, contributions from an operating budget projecting a $26 million shortfall next year.
- In their first swing at a cow, members Moffly and Kandrac refused to vote for $50,000 awarded to the Charleston Promise Neighborhood. Not to put too fine a point on it, Board member Toya Hampton-Green's husband heads that particular non-profit, and the Superintendent sits on its Board of Directors. Can you say, "conflict of interest"?
- Although that particular sacred cow escaped with the cash, Board members Coats and Taylor now want to scrutinize the benefits gained from other nonprofits receiving funds from the district. Can you say, "edublob"?
- Surely they can't be serious? Why, they might need to scrutinize the funds paid to the nonprofit headed by the Mayor's sister!
- Long-time readers of this blog will remember the point made some time ago: nonprofit does not mean it's not profitable for someone. A good look at salaries paid to those in charge should be in order.
- Let's not forget: the money for these nonprofits comes from the operating budget, the same one whose shortage of funds has created furlough days and staff layoffs. Now's a good time to focus on the primary mission of the district.
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8 comments:
A responsible relationship between a public agency like CCSD and so-called non-profits which receive public funding can exist, but only in a climate of full disclosure. Full disclosure means listing the names of all non-profit employees and board members, including their salaries. Full disclosure means opening their financial records together with copies of annual audits. If public funds are being co-mingled with private funds, everything is subject to disclosure. If any of this isn't happening, then CCSD has no business being in bed with these organizations.
How many pigs are at the CCSD teet? Charleston Promise Neighborhood, Cities in Schools, Chamber of Commerce/Education Foundation, Wings, Parents Anonymous, Heritage Community Services, and on and on... a conservative guess would put tens of millions in CCSD dollars going to dozens of private non-profit organizations annually with almost no oversight.
CCSD has been giving millions of tax dollars to non-profit groups that purport to offer services like counseling, mentoring and cultural enrichment programs. As public money goes out the door to these private groups, CCSD is cutting positions for its own counselors, mentors and cultural enrichment programs. I fail to see the logic, but then nothing about CCSD is logical.
Right now people are seeing the school district as the problem and the school board as part of the solution. If these four board members are worth their salt, they will stay on top of this until they get complete answers. If they cave or walk away after the district stonewalls them, and it will, the school board becomes part of the problem once again.
Discretionary spending accounts totaling several million dollars are outside board review according to CCSD's modified procurement code. These have become the private cookie jars for the superintendent, the chief financial officer, the facilities director and the legal counsel. Without an accounting of these funds, fiscal transparency doesn't exist. This superintendent, with help from former board member Gregg Meyers, carefully reworded the standard codes issued by the state several years ago with the board rubber stamping the changes. This was done in order to transfer powers from the school board to the superintendent in case a board majority unfriendly to the superintendent ever developed. Current board chairman Chris Fraser seems to want to keep it that way. As it stands, the public and at least four elected school board members are in the dark. CCSD's spending will remain a patchwork of special interests until 5 members of the 9 member board develop the nerve to say otherwise.
Nancy McGinley files an annual statement of financial interests with the state Ethics Commission. Her report is public information, but the report’s reliability depends on her honesty. From what appears on-line, the Charleston County Superintendent’s report of public funds and related benefits she receives is less than complete. As superintendent of public schools she receives a lot more than she is reporting. The same might be said for others running the show at CCSD. Can you say “fraud”?
Nice editorial in P&C today re: some of the sacred cows. It's about time they questioned them and its more than passed time for the school board majority to do the same.
Do you want to bet the administration doesn't give the board a report on these groups paid to do outside work? If the administration does, the reports will be so full of double talk and meaningless data, they won't be worth the paper they are written on. Forget answers to meaningful questions because Michael Bobby will just "get back with you". Thanks to the superintendent's closed contract and CCSD's procurment code which prevents board oversight, there are no checks and balances on CCSD's internal operations.
This is the real culprit. The Charleston County Legislative Delegation gave away the powers when it modified CCSD's statutory operating set up and lifted the millage cap about 10 years ago. Now the chickens have come home to roost. CCSD is run by administrators who have no restraints and no oversight. It's a public taxing and spending authority with none of the public controls that city, county or state governments have placed over them. Not even state colleges and universities operate as loosely as CCSD. As for the five vote majority paid for by the chamber of commerce, that has run the school board for the last 16 or so years, they are collectively dumber than dirt. If the superintendent wanted them to jump off the Ravenel Bridge because it would be "for the children", they would do it. They nod their heads dutifully when she tells them CCSD has made great strides in reducing the dropout rate over the last 4 years. So we've gone from 50% to 46%, or something like that. I'm sorry, at that rate it will be the year 2047 before the graduation rate reaches 90% in Charleston County. That's not worth giving the top administrators raises, contract extentions or outrageous bonuses for the successes classroom teachers are making in spite of CCSD administrative interference.
The public needs to tell the legislative delegation to fix the problems they helped create. Make sure the board isn't giving away more of its responsibilities that exceed the law. Finally, the public and the press need to look deeper than the spin the superintendent's office is making over the "progress" they are taking credit for achieving, which in many cases is simply "standing still".
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