Sick and Tired of CCSD Half-Truths in the P & C

Having read the story in Sunday's paper concerning payments to fired teachers in excess of $150,000, a person must assume that the reporter (or editor) desires for the elected Charleston County School Board to appear as slacker idiots. Nowhere in the article does she mention that it was CCSD administration's decision to defer hearings that began the "rubber room" salary status of five tenured teachers who were not given contracts.

One suggestion from a local observer deserves a look:

"If the board had its own administrator to run a small and efficient staff focused only on the board's work, one that was independent of the superintendent's office, preferably a competent attorney, it wouldn't be running into these conflicts. That's how county council does it. Every standing committee in the state legislature does it that way, too. I can't imagine the cost of this small but qualified staff being any more expensive than what the district is now paying out to outside attorneys and for other related charges associated with this problem."

Two other observations deserve attention:

1. Why does a hearing take an entire day? Something is wrong with the process. Cindy Bohn Coats is in charge and should move the hearings along so that no hearing takes more than half a day.
2. Board members need to know in advance that their election means many other meetings to attend than merely the twice-monthly Monday night ones. The amount of time spent on CCSD business is extensive. As comments from two or three present Board members reveal, the Board should be paid more or the self-employed will be discouraged from participating. At this rate, the time involved for representing the public points toward a board composed of retirees and millionaires.

The truth is that some non-attendees have missed more than 29 out of 30 meetings (our noblesse oblige Chamber of Commerce member, Chris Fraser, comes to mind).