CCSD's Secret Agenda on Buist and Magnet Admissions Policies. Really

You would think that, after all the complaints about the Buist admissions process over the last few years, the Charleston County School Board would be sensitive to its constituents. Wrong again.

The CCSD School Board has a workshop scheduled for Wednesday morning, time unannounced to the public, on magnet admissions processes and procedures. Even board members themselves are caught unaware of this agenda.

Sneaking another one by, are we McGinley?

CCSD's Definition of Insanity: McGinley's Tin Ear on Improving Schools

According to Sunday's print edition, "It’s the cliché promise of second chances: “This time, it’ll be different.”

That’s how some say they feel about Charleston County School Superintendent Nancy McGinley’s newest effort to improve four low-achieving schools — and they’re not buying it.

“This isn’t a new concept,” said Kent Riddle, who leads the Charleston Teacher Alliance, a teacher advocacy group. “They’re saying it’s different, but it’s not.”

The Renaissance Schools Project aims to transform four schools, Burns Elementary, North Charleston Elementary, Memminger Elementary and Sanders-Clyde Creative Arts.

This isn’t the first time the district has tried to turn around a school by changing its some staff, but officials said they have learned from past experiences.

“We’ve never put the package together the way it is now,” McGinley said. “It’s not the same old, same old. This is taking what we know are the essentials of effective schools ... and we’re putting the package together.”

The school board signed off on the plan in January, and officials are moving forward with making it a reality.

The reality is that Superintendent McGinley is fresh out of ideas from the Broad Institute. And unwilling to listen to insistent voices in the community that have different ideas about how to turn around failing schools.

How long will the rubber-stamp school board travel on this ship of fools?

Charleston Education Network Defunded, But Why?

The non-profit known as the Charleton Education Network (CEN) is being disbanded, and its representative to the Charleston County School District, Jon Butzon, is out of his job.

Despite our differences with CEN in the past, our first reaction is, did Superintendent McGinley have anything to do with its defunding?

Lately Butzon hasn't been completely on her page.