Thursday, June 02, 2016

Troubles from McGinley's CCSD Administration--Money and Food

New Superintendent Gerrita Postlewait must be wondering what problem will pop up next in the Charleston County School District. It's bad enough to follow an administration that left a $18 million shortfall to deal with--now it's food service. Lack of accountability in previous years produced this week's Charleston Schools Balanced Budget Act, which 
"would require the county auditor to verify the district’s projections for property tax revenues. After the school district’s $18 million budget shortfall in 2014-2015, initial reports placed part of the blame on a $9.36 million overestimation of revenues.
   The bill also would require the Charleston County School Board to revise its budget after the passage of the state budget every year, if necessary, to reflect the funds sent to the district by the state. In January every year, the school board would be required to review its expenditures and amend the budget to fix any deficits within 60 days."
Needless to say, the bill, which is likely to become law, merely checks that the district is doing its job. Sad, but true, that hasn't been the case in the last few years.

Then there's food service, a growing part of educational expense. One field supervisor, Cassaundra Tucker, who served for a decade, 
"said she noticed a disparity between the meals offered at majority-white schools like Wando High and the meals offered at other large high schools with bigger minority populations. Tucker said the district was also slower to make kitchen equipment repairs and to remediate mold and mildew in food preparation areas at predominantly black schools. 'They paid more attention to the white schools than the black schools,' Tucker said."
Other food service employees have complained of "withheld wages, miscalculated overtime pay and the use of racial slurs, among other issues," according to National Action Network State Coordinator Elder James Johnson. In case you are wondering who Johnson is, here are the activist credentials of this businessman and former Marine as published online by the League of Women Voters:

  • Pastor of New Creations - The Church of the Now
  • President / Vice President The Rainbow Push Coalition
  • Chairman of the Board, Southern Christian Leadership Conference
  • Member of the NAACP
  • President /CEO of Minority United Trading and Consulting, LLC
  • President of Minority Concrete Company 
You have to be asking yourself if the Charleston Area NAACP has atrophied to the point of uselessness. Clearly, NAN is positioning itself to take over as spokesman for black interests in the community. 

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