More Fallout from Postlewait's "Marketing" Hire

This Letter to the Editor from one of the most respected educators in Charleston County:

"Marketing firm no way to communicate

The recent revelation that Charleston County School District Superintendent Gerrita Postlewait hired a Columbia-based marketing firm (Post and Courier, July 10) should alarm the public not just because of the $64,000 price tag, but because of what it says about the superintendent’s inability to communicate directly with the public.

The superintendent has a difficult job dealing with complex planning, budget and policy issues, but one area that should not be difficult is communicating with teachers, administrators, parents and the public. That Gerrita Postlewait has struggled with this basic administrative function and resorted to hiring a marketing firm is reason enough to demand a new superintendent to lead the district.

As a former CCSD Teacher of the Year and the founder of the Charleston Teacher Alliance, I have met frequently with CCSD superintendents over the last 20-plus years. Sometimes these meetings have been collaborative, and other times they have been contentious.


But while teachers may not have always liked what they heard from superintendents regarding budgetary constraints, previous superintendents like Ron McWhirt, Maria Goodloe-Johnson and Nancy McGinley always treated teachers with respect. As a result, teachers successfully implemented the vast majority of initiatives despite low pay and challenging working conditions.

The sense of honesty and collaboration that guided previous superintendents has been replaced by confrontation and indifference under Ms. Postlewait. Instead of talking directly to teachers, she hires a marketing firm to communicate. Instead of engaging school-based administrators, she disrupts schools and communities by shuffling principals like branch managers of a bank.

Instead of evaluating teachers based on established standards, she uses test scores that were never designed for the purpose of teacher evaluation.

Perhaps most ominously, she has met repeatedly with Michelle Rhee, who before she left her job as Washington, D.C., school chancellor infamously offered to fire a principal in front of a reporter doing a profile of her for PBS NewsHour. No amount of marketing will cover up the chaos that pervades the district under Postlewait’s leadership.

Ms. Postlewait has had three years to show that she can lead this complicated and challenging school district. By hiring a marketing firm and engaging with Michelle Rhee, she has shown that she is the wrong person for the job.

Andrew HaLevi, Ph.D
Broad Street
Charleston