CCSD's Third Board Replacement: A Charm or a Strike-out?

Soooo many people want to get onto the Charleston County School Board without running for election. What does that tell you? With a non-partisan Board, each individual represents whom? Himself or herself, of course. Fortunately, the CCSD Board does not have the privilege of replacing its own members. Thanks to John Barter's unnecessary resignation, that responsibility passes to the Charleston County legislative delegation.

Twelve people have put forward their desire to be anointed by the Republican-dominated delegation. Now we just need to figure out which ones have been recruited by Superintendent McGinley and her minions. Whoever is selected and vetted by Governor Haley will have nine months of Board experience before running for re-election.

Who are these people? None of them are household names. Only Charles Glover has served on a constituent board (#23 in Hollywood). Two candidates probably have close ties to the Superintendent, Anne Sbrocchi and Carol Tempel. They are also liberal Democrats, so you've got to hope that the delegation has more sense.

Do we need more attorneys on the Board? Seems unlikely unless one has some special qualification for the job. Three hopefuls are "self-employed" attorneys: Robert Ray Black, Elizabeth Hills (liberal Episcopalian, if that matters to you), and Tripp Wiles III. The rest are a mixed bag of experience, including a journalist (Edward Fennell), jazz musician (Ian Kay), life-long Charlestonian and synagogue leader (Burnet Mendelsohn), non-profit manager (Troy Strother), and marathoner and arts activist (Charles Fox).

Last, but not least, we have a private investigator, charter school organizer turned down by McGinley, and friend of Chris Collins, Howie Comen. We can assume he's not one of the chosen few! For his background go to
http://www.postandcourier.com/article/20120701/PC1204/120709960

Feel free to provide more information on the suitability of these candidates.

CCSD Board Members' Sour Grapes over Lowcountry Leadership Charter

If for some reason the state inspection of new and renovated facilities for the Lowcountry Leadership Charter School finds construction problems, four members of the Charleston County School Board want to throw its 400 students into the snow. Well, not into the snow; in Hollywood that would be into the sand.

The mean-spirited message sent by members Coats, Ascue, Collins, and Miller is typical of those who see a racist under every proposal they didn't make themselves. Here all the school wants is to remain in the same place from month to month until its own building is ready. And it pays rent that would revert to $0 if the building is unused. Revenue from this lease even goes to other Hollywood schools.

The situation is too reminiscent of the old jingle used by the John Birchers to defeat fluoridation of water: "It's all a Commie [insert racist here] plot, you see, / To get us internally."

CCSD Board Members Must Justify Racist Voting on Lowcountry Leadership Charter School

Michael Miller, Craig Ascue, and Chris Collins need to justify their votes against the sixty-day lease of the vacant Schroder Middle School building to the Lowcountry Leadership Charter School (LLCS). Evidently each cares more about inventing racial problems than supporting the district in providing the most effective use of Other People's Money.

Any sensible person would applaud the requirements put on LLCS for use of the building as improving the finances of the Charleston County School District. Without the $128,000 in rent and additional building repairs assumed by LLCS, this asset would sit vacant and deteriorating for those two months. CCSD certainly has no plans for it! In addition, the lease cannot be renewed, and school starting time will differ from the adjacent C.C. Blaney Elementary School. So what's the problem?

First of all, none of the three opposed board members lives anywhere near Hollywood, SC, where the schools are located, so whatever ideas they have are coming second-hand. The citizens who are most affected by problems in that part of the district who showed up for the School Board meeting were overwhelmingly in favor of the charter school. The accusations that charter schools are a stalking horse for taking us back to sixties segregation are a joke with no basis in fact, although that has never stopped the NAACP from opposing them. You need only look at the racist rhetoric from the NAACP regarding the Charter School for Math and Science downtown (the most integrated school in the district) to realize the idiocy of these ideas.

Charter schools, whether approved by the state or by the district, are public schools open to all students. In this case, of the 400 students expected at LLCS, 67 percent are "low income" and 25 percent are minority. That ratio means that the school is more evenly divided both economically and racially than virtually any other school in CCSD, including Blaney. Is that what bothers our three board members?

Chris Collins, of all people, should have supported the lease, given his own history of leasing from the district. How ironic.

Brian Hicks Needs New Title: Former Columnist

When the Charleston County School Board voted to allow member Chris Collins's church to rent the vacant Charlestowne Academy, it followed a pattern of conflict of interest observed throughout its years. Collins didn't create the conflict.

In fact, no one questioned the Healing and Deliverance Church's lease fulfillment until someone tipped off administrators last fall that Collins had allowed a group interested in forming a charter school to meet at the building. We all know how Superintendent McGinley feels about new charter schools. She cowed the Board into voting against lease renewal in November.

The lease expired in June, but the district accepted Collins's check for the July rent, thus signifying its acceptance of another month of use by the church. 

Suggesting that Collins should have recused himself or expressed no opinions regarding Montessori at Hursey Elementary because his children attend the school is so egregious as to almost beggar belief. If school board members in the past had done so, no Buist Academy or Academic Magnet would exist, since they were pushed through for the use of former school board member Gregg Meyers's children and the children of many other members.. Evidently, only black board members should refrain from stating opinions.

No other entity has expressed an interest in renting the building for any amount of time. The rent paid by Collins's church is the only offset to its $40,000 per year cost of upkeep. Certainly the superintendent has no plans to offer the building for use by a charter school.

Chris Collins certainly has faults in the ways he has dealt with the situation; however, he is a duly elected member of the board trying to represent his constituents. 

Who elected Brian Hicks columnist? What are his qualifications to judge?

CCSD's McGinley: All Hat and No Cattle

Blaming the CCSD Board of Trustees for not approving the International Baccalaurate program for Memminger Elementary is only the latest in Superintendent Nancy McGinley's cover stories. Anyone who has kept tabs on the Board over the last few years knows that its decisions have been controlled by the superintendent and not vice versa. The super says "Jump"; the majority of her hand-picked Board say "How high?"

No excuse exists for the district's failure to follow through with its program of "global studies" as a partial magnet instead of the community-supported IB program. The idea was a sop to the community that never materialized.

Having a mostly black elementary school on the majority-white peninsula is a result of district policies extended during the reign of this superintendent. Could it be possible that McGinley has promised the NAACP its own all-black schools in District 20? If it walks like a duck, etc.

Laughs, please, for the misnomer "Renaissance" schools. Those are schools that must be reorganized under NCLB guidelines because of poor performance over a period of time. Memminger has sunk to that level. Meanwhile, two-thirds of its students do not live in the sending district, and when its new multi-million dollar building opens in the fall, it will be almost half empty.

Maybe it's time for the superintendent to listen to the community and relent on the IB program. Why should the present students whom Collins and Miller worry about not have the opportunity to learn in a rigorous program with a diverse student body? 

Truly, McGinley will not listen to what the community desires until she has tried everything else. Memminger is living proof.

CCSD Frets over Hundreds; Thousands Go to Waste

Board of Trustees member Chris Collina, also a pastor of a church renting the old Charlestowne Academy building from the district, has made no secret of his independence from Superintendent McGinley and her minions. Now the School Board has voted for Collins's church to cough up another $600 plus for use of the building over the hours specified.

No one seems to ask the obvious questions, so I will.

Why is this vacant building wasting away in the first place? Why hasn't the district diligently searched for some organization to rent the facilities? In other words, why isn't the district concerned about using its capital resources to pruduce income? It's not like the school's sitting vacant doesn't cost money; it does.

This case in point is yet another example of how the district runs its finances poorly. We can only guess at the problems that we can't see sitting so prominently by the side of the road.

CCSD School Board Recommendations

Pay no attention to this posting if you are satisfied with the administration of the Charleston County School District and its schools.

On the other hand, the Board of Trustees needs a majority of members who are independent thinkers and actually come to the district with some knowledge of it.

West Ashley (2 seats): Bullet vote for Henry Copeland; he knows more about how the district runs than the superintendent and will be a voice for independent auditing.

Downtown (1 seat): Write in Todd Garrett. He's an ex-Marine (that counts for something with me) and has at least one child in the school system. He was also appointed by the legislative delegation to fill the vacant seat, if that means anything.

North Charleston (2 seats): Chris Collins, the only incumbent and one who looks out for the students independently. If you must vote for a second, make it Tom Ducker, who at least is a native of North Charleston and in favor of charter schools.

Ignore this nonsense about how "we all have to get along." That's code for "we all must follow whatever the superintendent wants."

 

Remember, if CCSD were a private company and the largest employer in the county, would you want its CEO selected and advised by a bunch of ignorant sycophants?

Feckless CCSD Board Chairman Has Tantrum

Frustrated because the superintendent never told him there would be days like that, Charleston County School Board Chairman Chris Fraser walked out on the board members' discussion at Monday night's meeting.

Fraser has struggled to cope with his ignorance of, and inability to apply, Robert's Rules of Order from the beginning of his term. He has no executive presence.

When, if ever, will Fraser comprehend that elected members will sometimes disagree with his (i.e., Superintendent McGinley's) agenda for the district? What does he think should happen to members who actually perform due diligence on matters facing the Board? Apparently, they should remain quiet in their ignorance as other members do, or even absent themselves altogether in the name of harmony, as member Ann Oplinger does frequently.

Furthermore, why is the Board meeting about contracts that should have been approved before the school year began? Only one more instance of mismanagement by the administration.

If you want to blame anyone, Chris, blame your boss.

P&C Ignores CCSD McGinley's Power Grab

The Charleston County School District Superintendent, Nancy McGinley, has flexed her muscles. Seeing her majority on the Board of Trustees, she determined to grab as much power from the Board as possible. The erstwhile editors ( there are some, right?) of the Post and Courier don't see her legal violation of her contract as a problem, just "insider baseball." Would that were true!

Long-time observers in CCSD and the minority of non-McGinley sycophants on the Board of Trustees see matters coming to a crisis next Monday, March 12. Used to agenda sleight-of-hand, they have recoiled at the illegal subterfuges now underway to subvert the governing structure of the district. What follow are remarks from one such observer.

For a public school district as large and as diverse as this one, concentrating absolute power and decision making authority in the hands of one person, with few checks and balances in place, isn't healthy. In this case it isn't legal, either.

Board Chairman Chris Fraser and Superintendent McGinley are attempting to intervene in the the Policy Committee's selection of chairman and vice-chairman, currently Elizabeth Moffly and Chris Fraser. In spite of board policies and applicable parliamentary rules to the contrary, Fraser and McGinley have engaged McGinley's own attorney, John Emerson, to outline the case for having the full board select new Policy Committee officers.


In a separate matter, Emerson has also drafted an agenda item purported to come from the Policy Committee meeting that authorizes the Board to delegate its statutory responsibilities to hear certain appeals to the Superintendent. For example, the county school board would no longer hear certain student disciplinary hearings . Appeals will end with the Superintendent.

The plot thickens.Mr. Emerson's report on Monday's agenda implies that the Policy Committee has approved an amendment to the Student Code of Conduct doing exactly the opposite of what its chairman, Ms. Moffly, proposed.
 
In discussions involving a pending disciplinary appeal first presented last month , Ms. Moffly and others on the board moved to repeal the offending statement in the Code of Conduct which barred lawful appeals to the Board. The statement conflicts with state laws guaranteeing due process and appeal rights. McGinley was against the repeal. Emerson's report to the Board from the Policy Committee appears as a complete fabrication designed to advance McGinley's


In this tug of war, McGinley is using Fraser to further isolate elected Board members who most often vote with the minority. Through her legal counsel, McGinley is grabbing the power to set Board policy and select Board officers. She plans to set the organization on its head: the Board will serve her; she will not serve the Board.
The Post and Courier, although it has been warned, probably doesn't want to understand the ramifications of McGinley's plans. Just as it is a violation for Board members to interfere with the superintendent's job, she is required to respect limits that separate her from being involved in the Board's governing and oversight functions. By ignoring this line, she is in breach of contract. With an independent Board, she could be found insubordinate and subject to termination for cause.


A few years ago, we witnessed a systematic dismantling of the statutory responsibilities reserved to the constituent boards that have been part of CCSD's structure since its inception. Those boards are emasculated with not even the power to express an opinion in the selection of principals or the quality of teachers in their constituent jurisdictions. Even their role in the establishment of attendence zones has been taken over by--you guessed it--the Superintendent.

Centralization of power began shortly after McGinley became CCSD's chief academic officer. Erosion of the constituent boards' legal authority accelerated rapidly and aggressively when she became superintendent. Now the same process is spreading to the county board. To whom will the Superintendent be responsible in the future?

No one. Certainly not voters or taxpayers. Superintendent Czar.

McGinley Determines to Save Teacher Morale

Special from the turnip truck.
In a marked departure from her usual posturing, Charleston County School District Superintendent Nancy McGinley lambasted recent policies forced upon her by the CCSD Board of Trustees.

First, she complained that her salary and benefits were already too high, and the Board should not have awarded her a raise based on jiggered statistics in the district. Her protestations were met with stony silence by members Kandrac and Collins. Chris Fraser remarked that McGinley really should receive another raise in February based on her performance at the recent "shows"about district goals.

Stymied on that point, McGinley pointed out the unfairness of reducing teachers' salaries during the same period. She correctly pointed out that teachers have the closest relationship with the students (barring herself, of course), and if they appear bedraggled and hungry the students will be demoralized. Fraser and Oplinger immediately jumped on this idea, saying that teachers have taken a vow of poverty, so reduced salaries should make them even more energized in the classroom.

Finally, McGinley offered to reduce the number of associate superintendents by half and take on extra duties to show her solidarity with classroom teachers who now take additional students into their classrooms for supervision when others are absent. Showing an astute knowledge of arithmetic, she also pointed out that assuming 5.6 days of leave for teachers allowed three personal days and 10 sick days does not add up. Fraser silenced the board members who had become agitated at this point and requested that McGinley take a vacation as soon as possible.

In Case You Missed P&C Attack on Collins

The P&C sees its mission as deflating the influence of anyone disagreeing with CCSD Superintent McGinley's policies. It might hurt Mayor Riley's re-election, doncha know?

As we learned last week, Chris Collins, an elected member of the Charleston County School District Board of Trustees, simply isn't deferential enough to Superintendent Nancy McGinley and her hangers-on. As a result, the P&C deemed it appropriate to publicize late rent payments that Collins's church owed the district.

Just in case you didn't read the first article, the P&C has a follow-up that the rent has been paid. Wow, inquiring minds want to know.

Such coverage coheres completely to the attitude Melanie Balog (a Brian-Hicks wannabe) expressed in a recent hatchet job on elected CCSD Board member Elizabeth Kandrac. (Kandrac isn't deferential enough, either.) Balog ignorantly follows the P&C line.

You might wonder why attacks have not been leveled at Elizabeth Moffly and Mary Ann Taylor. Ask the editors of the P&C. Moffly and Taylor will not hesitate (and have not hesitated) to call in their lawyers when drivel erupts from McGinley's lapdog Chris Fraser, Board Chairman.

Too bad Collins and Kandrac don't have access to equal resources.

Machinations in CCSD

Do you believe in fairy tales?

If so, you must be one of the few readers of the P&C that believe the assertion that Chris Collins's failure to pay rent to the Charleston County School Board as been widely publicized as a public service and not as payback for challenging Chris Fraser's miserable performance as an independent CCSD Board chairman.

You must also believe that Elizabeth Kandrac's continued opposition to the proposals of the majority of the Board of Trustees has no connection whatsoever to the P&C's "expose" of her training expenditures. The P&C clearly believes that only rich people like Chris Fraser should be on the Board, and then they wouldn't bill CCSD for their expenses.

Of course, Chris Fraser himself is low spender because he doesn't need to attend any educational classes; he takes his orders straight from the superintendent and then asks how high to jump.

Or so it seems to many observers.

CCSD Board: Trust, Not Verify

Monday night the Charleston County Board of Trustees voted on an evaluation instrument for Superintendent Nancy McGinley. The Board members did not receive a final copy of the evaluation form on which to vote. Shame on you, Chris Fraser. You've had nearly two months to straighten this out.

Yet the effervescent form claims to be virtually identical to last year's instrument, the one designed by McGinley for herself! You can't make this stuff up.

The way the evaluation works statistically, it is virtually impossible for the superintendent to get a failing grade. Wow. Sounds like some of our students' social promotions.

All this drama precurses another salary increase and contract extension for McGinley. Considering the economy and her performance as judged by the community at large, let's hope she can't cow the present Board into either.

Chutzpah Personified: CCSD's Taj Mahal

Even Brian Hicks knows its wrong. [See Wednesday's P&C.]

Spending $76,000 on renovations to the administrative offices of the Charleston County School District? Why not, Superintendent McGinley would say. After all, we have the money just lying around unspent.

Meanwhile, it becomes obvious that CCSD Board chair Chris Fraser doesn't know Roberts Rules of Order or how to follow them or doesn't care about them because he takes his marching orders from elsewhere.

Oh, that's right. He's the voice of the Metro Chamber of Commerce, I forgot.

Why should anyone care what shenanigans were pulled to get the item back on the agenda for a second vote? What we should care about is who voted for this deaf-and-dumb-to-the-taxpayers decision. I'll list them for you.

Chris Fraser, Chair 452-9245

Elisabeth Ann Oplinger 406-6685

Craig Ascue 884-6862

Cindy Bohn Coats 529-2457

Chris Collins 813-0616

Toya Hampton Green 723-7831

I'm sure they'd love to hear from you.

CCSD Board Disdains the Poor--Again

Scurrying around the halls of the Taj Mahal at 75 Calhoun these days are minions planning the Charleston County School District's next building program. Much hand-wringing has ensued over its inability to continue alternative financing, the method for its program reaching its completion in 2010. How to get the millions? How to get the millions? Scylla and Charybdis appear on the radar screen.

In the vernacular, that's a rock and a hard place. The school district actually must put the question to the (gasp!) voters. Let's see, which would the voters prefer? [See School Board Weighs Finance Options in Thursday's P&C.]

That master of understatement, Michael Bobby, the district's chief financial officer is quoted as saying, "'The fact that we have to be on the ballot with the building program presents some real challenges and considerations.'" No kidding! The two options on the table? " a bond referendum or a sales tax increase."

Incredible as it may seem to the sane, the Board leans toward putting a sales tax on the ballot "which would be accompanied by a reduction in property taxes."

See, cynically the educrats and the majority of Board members think that people who don't own property (the poor) also don't vote. Therefore, the way to sugarcoat a tax increase is to promise the most likely voters a decrease in property taxes. Didn't the state of South Carolina just do that? Isn't it in trouble already by attempting to finance through falling sales tax revenues? Where will this madness end?

At least Chris Collins spoke up for the poor, knowing full well that the burden of financing through sales taxes falls most heavily on them. No one else seems to care or understands the issue. Chair Ruth Jordan opened her mouth to prove that she needs to take Economics 101, making the economically-illiterate statement (regarding an increase in the sales tax) that ""We all bear the same burden. . . It's the most fair way.'"

Painful, isn't it?

I need to create a new label: super-idiocies.

Top-Heavy CCSD Administration Salaries Hurt District

These people--Eliot Smalley and Audrey Lane--are so central to the Charleston County School District's success that they deserve raises to the six-figure bracket when teachers are being let go and class sizes are rising. That's how educrats like Superintendent Nancy McGinley think.

What ever happened to "victory begins in the classroom"? Just a slogan.

So points out Carol M. Peecksen, a retired CCSD English teacher, in a Letter to the Editor published Wednesday and titled "Raises Wrong." [See Letters to the Editor.] Peecksen was responding to an earlier editorial in the P & C that pointed out that CCSD now has 20 members in its "six-figure club." Not one of those is "in the classroom." Instead, those "in the classroom" have their salaries reduced with "furlough days."

As the prior editorial pointed out, "The raises should make those two employees happy. The district's other 5,374 employees are probably wondering what happened to theirs." Right. Especially since they too have been asked to perform additional duties.

Who on the School Board looks out for the little guy? Not Green, Jordan, Oplinger, Collins, Meyers, or Fraser! Those members were only too happy to go along with this idiocy. I wonder if those teachers and staff who voted for them are happy now?

Note: In one of those strange coincidences, Peecksen and I were classmates at St. Andrews Parish High School many years ago. No collaboration here--I haven't seen or talked to her in 23 years and didn't know she had retired.

Forensic Audit Needed for CCSD Accounts

And the award for Most Misleading Lead for a News Article goes to. . . School Board Avoids 1 Tax Hike in Tuesday's P & C.

Here's the lead: "The fiscally conservative Charleston County School Board succeeded in passing a $318.3 million operating budget that doesn't have a tax increase." The Board was trying to avoid a tax increase? Really? "Fiscally conservative?" Superintendent McGinley must have written that one herself!

A more accurate lead would have been "Board member Ruth Jordan, who normally follows the liberal spending ideas of Gregg Meyers, messed up his and the Superintendent's plans by voting with the fiscally conservative MINORITY of Ravenel-Kandrac-Toler and brought along Chris Collins for the victory." All McGinley could do was to whine "[that] the board's decision begs the question of what kind of school system the community wants. 'I'm sick about what happened,' she said."

It's easy to tell you what the community wants, Superintendent McGinley: transparency in operating expenses and income and in building expenses and contracts. Every year we go through the same shenigans, with people of good will towards the district attempting to understand the items in the budget asking for clearer budget figures. Every year the district reacts as though it has its hand in the cookie jar.

Until McGinley and her cohorts and supporters on the CCSD School Board practice more transparency, the community will continue to believe that its tax dollars are being wasted.

How about a forensic audit of CCSD's books, including the capital accounts. That just might satisfy Charleston County voters that the money has been well spent. Or it might show something else.

School Board Thinks It Supercedes SC Legislature

My conscience is clear. I didn't swallow the promises made by Collins, Fraser, Green, and Oplinger to support charter schools. I wonder how all those parents at Drayton Hall Elementary who voted for them feel now. Cheated? Betrayed? [See Drayton Hall Denied Charter]

Meanwhile, the Charleston County School Board has decided to rewrite the rules for charter schools set down by the state legislature. Six members of CCSD's Board don't like the law, so they've decided to ignore it until someone forces them to pay attention. Fortunately, this time they're not dealing with those with no money or influence, so repercussions will be forthcoming. Prepare yourself for seeing more school budget money going to defend lawsuits. Sigh.

This law-breaking decision became entirely predictable when these four cheerleaders for 75 Calhoun were elected. Hold onto your hat. It's going to get worse.

They're so dense that they don't realize that every time they oppose charter schools they add more support for school vouchers.

Out of the frying pan, into the fire.

Members Show Colors on Charter Schools

Where was Ann Oplinger Monday night? Somewhere so far into the galaxy that she couldn't even reach a telephone to vote? Maybe the color of her flag was yellow.

So it would appear from the 4- 4 tie vote from the Charleston County School Board on the granting of charter status to Drayton Hall Elementary School at Monday night's meeting. Having failed to get a majority, the Board will meet again on December 1. [See School's Request to Convert to Charter Denied]

Will Oplinger attend? Will she be able to use a telephone?

Following CCSD Superintendent Nancy McGinley's lead to vote against charter status were staunch charter school supporters (not!) Toya Hampton-Green and Ruth Jordan and newly-elected members Chris Collins and Chris Fraser. Golly, what a surprise.

Democratic Stealth Campaign in CCSD

Under the radar. Well, at least it was under my radar, but as usual one commenter has made sense of Tuesday's results for Charleston County School Board.

Here's a snippet plus my take on why the analysis makes sense:

"Good old fashioned dirty politics based on rumor and fear[. . .]. Add Altman to the ballot and he became a target in an already high profile election. The others just became collateral damage."

"Despite this being non-partisan, the two political parties are working openly for certain candidates. This only causes further partisan divisions."

Those of us who don't travel in educrat or partisan circles wouldn't realize how carefully Mayor Riley managed to get the word out. Certainly the P & C wouldn't cover that. It's believable because of the GOP-sponsored ad in the P & C just before the election for four recommended candidates--Stewart, Engelman, Kandrac, and Lecque.

When I saw it, I was a bit mystified why it had appeared. I didn't view all these candidates as Republicans. Now I know they simply were the ones not being pushed by the Democrats.

Do voters in Charleston realize that, in the large majority of states, non-partisan positions are voted upon on a different date than partisan ones?

How did South Carolina arrive at this crazy "system"?

"It really is ironic that the Democratic Party has gone out on a limb by backing the candidates they have. [. . .] Why any political party would want to claim 'ownership' of this board is beyond me. Maybe we should give out the personal contact information so parents with problems might be able to reach the party leadership and the mayor at home. They can’t expect Toya Green or Greg Meyers to be much help."

Maybe the question should be, what does the Democratic Party have to gain by backing these candidates? Unfortunately, corruption comes to mind.

Where do Mayors Summey and Hallman stand in this "non-partisan" effort? Were they on board as well? Do they care?

"To some extent the Republicans have painted themselves out of the picture by never having gained any real influence on the school board. AR’s isolation on the current board proves the point."

Now, here I must disagree. They never had a chance. Republicans have never gained any real influence on CCSD's School Board because any school board is the last refuge of Democrats in a generally Republican area. Democrats can run as "non-partisans," and most Republicans are none the wiser. I saw this disguise work all too well in the New Jersey suburbs.

Add to the previous remarks another commenter's observation that the North Charleston results reflect two black versus one white candidate, and the total finally make sense.

How someone as sensible and well-educated on school policies as David Engelman could be defeated while at the same time Chris Collins, a novice who thinks that the student population in Charleston County is down because some students have decided to attend schools in Berkeley County instead (well, that's what he said!) is, in fact, an example of the world turned upside down.

How school board trustees are elected needs to be reformed if the Charleston County School District, especially its downtown schools, is to become truly excellent.