Douglas Endorses Copeland for CCSD Board!

Former Charleston County School District Board of Trustees Chairman Hillery Douglas has endorsed Henry Copeland to fill the vacancy on the Board produced by Mary Ann Taylor's resignation. According to the P&C Douglas said that Copeland "would be the no. 1 person district leaders wouldn't want."

Of course, Douglas is well-known for his penchant for using reverse psychology to get his way. Those of us with longer memories of the CCSD Board Follies can call to mind Douglas's well-honed statements on such entities as charter schools and the Buist lottery.

Remember, he said he favored more charter schools and then voted against them?

Reverse psychology. In his heart, he knows he wants Henry.

McGinley Subscribes to the NSNS Too?

National Sarcasm News Service, or Halloween joke? You decide.

From the Superintendent's Desk, October 31 [italics mine]:

On Monday, we honored the proud legacies of Nancy Cook, Brian Moody, and Hillery Douglas—all three of whom, after longstanding tenures on the School Board of Trustees, stepped down. We will miss them, but as I said on Monday, we know that the enduring impact of their work will be felt for a long, long time. Not only is our recent academic success a tribute to their leadership, but new buildings—such as Sanders-Clyde and Haut Gap, two schools we ceremoniously broke ground on this week—would not have come online if these Board Members had not championed the need for them.

"Come online"? Who's writing this stuff?

Money to Charter Schools Needs Explaining

Add $800,000 per year to its budget for yearly expenses? What school wouldn't go charter?
[See 1 Charter Gets Approval, 1 Must Try Again]

No doubt many readers of Saturday's P & C wonder why Drayton Hall Elementary will get $800,000 more per year when it goes charter. Just think what Fraser Elementary or Edith Frierson Elementary could do with extra bucks in the bank!

Well, Courrege isn't going to explain it for you, probably because she doesn't know the answer. She gets her information from CCSD, after all. Despite continual protests by CCSD administration and School Board alike that they really favor charter schools, CCSD doesn't want you to know.

It's up to you, charter school supporters, to get the word out. CCSD Board Chairman Hillery Douglas is about to make more noises about how Drayton Hall wants to take money from other schools in CCSD.

How to Lie with Statistics: CCSD, Part Deux

Why would any sane person believe numbers put forth by Hillery Douglas, Chairman of the CCSD School Board? [See A Question of $80.5 Million in Wednesday's P & C.] His goal is to strike fear into the hearts and minds of taxpayers in Charleston so that other board members and the public will shy away from creating more charter schools. Instead, he's struck loathing--of some members of the School Board and their toadies at 75 Calhoun.

But, Hillery, we think your proposal is an excellent one! We're so glad that you brought it up! If we make all CCSD schools into charters, we can get rid of you and all of your cohorts at 75 Calhoun and sell the Taj Majal.

Imagine how much money we could save! How much hot air we could avoid! How many residents of the district would put their children back into the schools.

Yes, it's a vision of loveliness! Go for it, Hillery!

CCSD Board Members Need Reality Check

Would you believe that the CCSD School Board voted for a policy in 2002 that it forgot about until 2008? You would? Me too. [See Board to Set Diversity Goal in Tuesday's P & C.] In fact, if we just had an instrument of measurement for board performance, we probably could create a list as long as Santa's--of policies voted upon and then ignored--by present Board members. Are there not a number of policies that are routinely violated by this Board?

That's why it's so disingenuous of Chairman Hillery Douglas to suggest that now after "forgetting" for at least five years (we'll give him 2003) about its affirmative-action policy for minority and female-owned businesses, the Board should get on with enforcing the policy, in fact, beef it up. He couldn't have a particular relative- or friend-owned business that wants part of the cash cow? Surely not.

Imagine. This policy was so important that no one on the Board noticed its disappearance.

Same goes for fatuous comments from erstwhile watchdog Gregg Meyers, whose votes over the years have oh-so-effectively created a new segregated district in Charleston. He's been there on the Board, meeting after meeting. Figures on diversity were not put forward in the last five years. Now he says, "We should be paying attention to it." How about "should have been," Gregg? What a hypocrite. It's called lip-service.

In his usual fuzzy-thinking manner, Douglas also expands the reach of diversity, now saying that "The school district doesn't have a good record on its percentage of contracts for small, minority- or women-owned businesses." Who said anything about "small" businesses, Hillery?

I'm no fan of such policies, especially for women. Anyone paying attention to how such policies have been manipulated over the entire country has no faith that they work as they are supposed to. Now, as the School Board rewrites the rules to cost taxpayers more money, it should also explain how said policy will add educational value for the district's children, especially the poorer ones.

Sometimes I think education is the last thing on its mind.

Buist Policies Safe for Another Year

Cheaters can breathe a sigh of relief. Thanks to several cowards on the school board, its attendance policies, such as they are, will continue to be treated like the "third rail" of CCSD politics. That's why discussion of Buist disappeared from the agenda of Monday night's CCSD school board meeting. [See Board Delays Decision on Buist Attendance.] This time there was no "ohmygoshIforgot" moment but bald-faced prevarication on the reason for its non-appearance.

Remember the Board's famous "the minority rules" rule: it takes four members to put an item on the agenda but only one to take it off. Don't you wonder who that was? The most appealing aspect of this rule (to cowards) is that voters never find out who did it, but we can "round up the usual suspects." It's probably a good thing for Hillery Douglas that he was interviewed afterwards by phone when he said that the Board wanted "to ensure everyone has a shot at being treated fairly." I'm sure he couldn't have kept a straight face in public.

Here's the skinny: it's an election year. The Board is going to putz around on Buist until it is too late to deal with this year's students. Then it will take up the policy seriously AFTER THE ELECTION.

If Gregg Meyers's toadies win, expect District 20 to be shafted again. At the very least, all cheaters now at Buist will be grandfathered.

Well, there's always the lawsuit. (Does anyone wonder why they keep happening?)

CCSD's McGinley: Surfing as Metaphor

That cream puff I had for breakfast today was so sweet that it nearly made me sick. [See Q&A with Charleston County Schools Superintendent Nancy McGinley.] By itself it would have been fairly sweet, but then I just had to have a second helping! [See McGinley Lets Waves Carry Stress Away.] Maybe I should save the P & C for dessert after dinner.

When you think about it, however, perhaps surfing is a fitting metaphor for McGinley's leadership in CCSD during her first (and maybe last) year as superintendent. She's here for the ride. Her "leadership" takes the form of scouting CCSD to see which wave is the strongest (that would be the five-person tag team of Meyers to Douglas to Jordan to Hampton-Green to--usually--Moody), then applying the latest appropriate educational jargon (and sometimes Broad Foundation solutions) to whatever issue is at hand. There's no doubt she means it when she says that she wants to make CCSD an excellent district; that's her career on the line as well.

Under the waves, it seems, a possible rip current is brewing. What happens if, for example, voters replace Douglas with Kandrac and Hampton-Green with Stewart? Of course, that's why she negotiated a three-year contract. Election day will tell, but if McGinley's supporters are elected, prepare yourself for the closure of more than one elementary school in District 20 and continued prevarication over Buist.

CCSD Parodies Itself Again

I thought about writing a satire of Monday night's CCSD School Board meeting, but it would have been too tame. I'd end up with the same problems as the New Yorker. You can't make this stuff up.

In its quixotic quest to banish profanity from the lips of school board members, a committee assigned the job of rewriting regulations for behavior proposed that "stated members would refuse to play politics."

[. . . ]

Sorry, I had to take a few minutes there to regain my composure.

It would be pathetic if CCSD students weren't suffering the consequences of attending among the worst schools in South Carolina, which means among the worst in the nation.

After adding in all sorts of other requirements to the policy, including the kitchen sink, Douglas and cronies couldn't manage to pass it.

Worth the loudest horse laugh is Superintendent Nancy McGinley's mental block that caused her to forget to bring up the variant policy in confirming student addresses at Buist Academy. Her problem is that so many lies concerning Buist have come from her quarter that even if she really did forget, no one's going to believe it!

What do you think? Can she manage to forget to bring it up at the next meeting? Can she drag it out until school has actually begun and then allow Principal Sally Ballard her usual delay, linger, and wait dead-slow process?

We all know about Douglas--he's a lame duck anyway. But now Superintendent McGinley has lost any credibility she may have once enjoyed with residents of District 20.

Wasn't Ravenel's original blow up about McGinley's forgetting to put CSMS's using the Rivers campus on the agenda?

Forget the Economy: CCSD Board Sinks to New Low

I hate profanity. If anyone called me a bitch to my face, I'd probably slap him. My father, who as a former Marine probably knew plenty, never used profanity at any time around me when I was growing up. Arthur Ravenel, Jr., revealed to me by his choice of words to a woman that he is no Southern gentleman, but then I never thought he was. I am still offended by any profanity that I hear used by my peers and can't even imagine the duress I would need to be under to use it in the classroom. There.

That said, can we get real here?

Monday night's CCSD School Board meeting was a classic of its kind. [See New Behavior Standards for Members Proposed]. It's politics, folks. This is appeasement of our lovely, ineffective NAACP, as represented by Dot Scott. Why, if the new policy were made retroactive, Hillery Douglas himself would be in the dock! I'll support the policy when every student who calls a teacher a bitch will be sent to Murray Hill Academy or expelled. That will be a cold day in hell.

The Meyers faction is proposing to use its 5-4 majority to expell ELECTED members of the Board who oppose it, pure and simple. Ravenel not only opposes them; he has the contacts to do it effectively. [BTW, there was a time when I wouldn't have believed that I would ever defend Ravenel!] You don't really believe this is about bad language, do you? If so, please see me later about my bridge in Brooklyn.

We have yet to hear from CCSD's new attorney on the legality of the Board's ousting an elected member. Frankly, until I hear otherwise from state sources, I refuse to believe it. Even Meyers admitted that taking such action would be a "'zoo.'" Zoo? It would be a witch hunt! Can you imagine the trumped up charges that would routinely appear in attempts to get those who don't "go along to get along" with Meyers?

This is about intimidation of members who choose to disagree. The P & C is happy to go along with it. If you read the article carefully, you will see that Ravenel's original outburst concerned failure to put an item on the Board's agenda. It states, "He also told McGinley he'd have her job if she didn't put a certain item on the school board's agenda, according to McGinley's account." Our wonderful newspaper neglects to mention what that item was. Can you guess what?

It was approval of arrangements for CSMS to use the Rivers campus. If the item had not been added to that agenda, CSMS would have lost out on using the campus. See, the plot thickens.

More Nonsense from the NAACP and CCSD

Monday's CCSD Board meeting was a classic--a classic satire on school board meetings.

• Nelson Rivers III, field director and Burke High School graduate, showed up to prove that he doesn't know what's happening in District 20 these days.
  
• Academic Magnet parents showed up to protest the potential deflation of the Magnet's effectiveness when combined with the School of the Arts.
  
• Toya Green's absence (is there some reason she couldn't have voted by phone also?) guaranteed that the proposed budget for next year would not be passed.
  
• The Board refused to renew the charter for James Island High School.
  
• Hillery Douglas pretended he didn't know that, as chairman, he needed to sign the Board's approval (from its April meeting) for CSMS to use the Rivers campus.

Meanwhile, the ground is being prepared for the construction of the combined Academic Magnet and School of the Arts off Enterprise Avenue in North Charleston, now that the Special Day School has been completed. Has the public ever seen the final plans on that building? Has anyone? Has any traffic study been done? Where will the entrance to this "gi-normous" school be, off Enterprise or Montague? What is this, a state secret?

Last Gasp of a "Failing Mindset": NAACP & Ravenel

Dot Scott has lied to Nelson Rivers III, whose speech can be seen on the P & C's website. At least, I assume that Rivers wasn't being ironic when he said that the organizers of CSMS "want a segregated, or almost segregated, school" at Rivers. Maybe that was a joke? Or maybe a school that is all-black, such as virtually every school in District 20 except Buist Academy, isn't considered segregated by Scott and Rivers? Frankly, given the circumstances, Rivers's comments are bizarre.

Dot Scott is worried. Oh, not about the de facto segregated schools on the peninsula--about getting an integrated one. This is the most logical explanation for the illogical line that Scott, as Chairman of the Charleston NAACP, draws between Arthur Ravenel, Jr.,'s now famous blow up at 75 Calhoun Street and the Charter School for Math and Science's use of the Rivers campus. Scott hopes to use those remarks to drive an old man from office and prevent the election of another one who just might oppose the 5 - 4 majority of the present Board. See Friday's P & C for Meeting AddressesInequities in Schools.

Given that headline, didn't you assume that finally the NAACP and the phantom Interdenominational Alliance (that exists only for public meetings like this one) were going to demand that Charleston Progressive Academy, an almost all-black magnet school only two blocks from Buist Academy, get the resources it needs to be truly a magnet? Or that Fraser Elementary get its very own principal? Nary a mention. Instead we get more of the same from Scott and her cronies.

Let's all keep in mind that Ravenel, who certainly has his flaws, has been one vocal and mostly effective opponent of the majority of CCSD Board members led by erstwhile civil-rights attorney Gregg Meyers and Board Chairman Hillery Douglas, who can't even get control of the Board's agenda (if McGinley has been writing it, as the circumstances of the brouhaha suggest).

This meeting kicks off the election campaign to make sure that November's replacements for Board members follow the racist agenda set up by the NAACP. Despite who shows up at Monday's CCSD Board meeting, it is a "failing mindset." Thank God.

To Draw Attention from CCSD Board's Failures

The P & C is at it again. And why not? No news source in the Lowcountry will counter its propaganda. Well, The Chronicle might, but unfortunately it doesn't have much clout.

So it is that once again the local rag finds Arthur Ravenel's comments of a month ago to be front page news, complete with Board Chairman Douglas's sanctimonious posturing, while important new information gets buried in the back pages. Instead of headlining Ravenel's Comments Denounced, the news should have read " CCSD Finally Votes to Revoke SeaIslands Charter." But then the focus would have been on the Board's AND the Superintendent's failures instead of Ravenel's.

Let's not forget who bear the responsibility for encouraging this charter school in the first place.

One way that McGinley and her cronies could build a bit of "street cred" is to admit their mistakes. Why, if they like, they can even say "Mistakes were made," not naming themselves.

Not going to happen.

CCSD Nay-Sayers: Keep Segregation Downtown!

No surprises. The vote Monday night at the CCSD Board of Trustees meeting on charging rent to the new Charter School for Math and Science was 6 to 3 in favor of no rent. [See Charter School Vote Breaks Racially] Those voting "no" had already voiced their reasons at previous meetings; they had no new arguments, not even ones challenging Attorney-General McMaster's ruling that rent couldn't be charged.

Chutzpah? Gall? Nerve? Arrogance? Effrontery?

We could exhaust the thesaurus trying to grasp the attitude of Toya Hampton-Green, Ruth Jordan, and Hillery Douglas. The organizers of CSMS have shown considerable forbearance in not responding to the racist attacks hurled their way by these three, who purport to be defending the schoolchildren in District 20.

Ruth Jordan actually "said that [the] vote would show the district has a long way to go to ensuring fairness and equity in education," accusing the organizers of being a wealthy elite who no longer wish to pay private school tuition. What she refuses to acknowledge, thanks to her racist agenda, is that this school is the best step towards "fairness and equity in education" downtown in decades.

Here we have a school in District 20 (not Buist!) that will actually be integrated, and purposely so! Present sign-ups for the school show a population that is 46 % white and 42 % black. That must be what nettles Jordan so much.

Maybe we should call in civil rights leaders to protest the horrible injustice of CCSD's supporting a non-segregated charter school? After all, what other charter schools in CCSD claim a balanced population?

CCSD Politics: Airheads at Play

Now obvious to the public is the political deal made between CCSD School Board members Hillery Douglas and Nancy Cook. Let's face it: the two of them may be the biggest racists on the present board, so maybe that's what they have in common.

The conversation clearly went something like the following:

Hillery: If I run for mayor of North Charleston, you'll support my candidacy.
Nancy: Yes. And then if you lose, I'll let you be Board Chairman while you support my candidacy for Charleston County Council, even if I have to run as a Republican.
Hillery: Why do you want to be on the Charleston County Council?
Nancy: Well, remember, the CCSD Board can't send funds to my shelter any longer, the way it did with the Derthick Fund. If I get on the Charleston County Council, I can get some funding from the county to replace that money. After all, the County Council puts lots of earmarks right into the budget, even if its slush fund has been under the gun lately.
Hillery: That's true. It's a deal.

Of course, the former was only an IMAGINED conversation, but it does explain Douglas's reaction to airhead Nancy's stupid remarks made earlier this week on local talk radio.

In case you've been hiding under a rock, the comments, which Cook now claims have been taken out of context, concerned sterilization and taking babies away from what used to be called "welfare mothers." THIS is her solution to high dropout rates in our nation's schools. AIRHEAD is not too strong! [See Cook's On-air Remarks Draw Fire]

Cook: We're not paying for another baby, maybe one baby, but after that, we're taking the baby. And maybe you get sterilized. I know that sounds kind of extreme and radical, but we're in times to where — think about America.

Out of context? Here's what Douglas said in response:

Cook was trying to give an answer to a problem that has most people perplexed.

"Sometimes when you try and do that off the cuff, the wrong things come out," he said. "I'm almost certain she really doesn't mean that that's the solution to it by sterilizing. I just think it was something that was said that should not have been said."

Why was it said? Because Cook is after the racist vote in North Charleston, that's why. She's no Republican. Don't kid yourself that she really doesn't think this way.

Can you imagine the firestorm from Douglas and his cronies if Sandi Engelman had made remarks even one-third as racist as these?

CCSD's Douglas: We Won't Hold CSMS Back

Can I quote you, Hillery?

Acting on the advice of CCSD's "experienced educators," the Charter School for Math and Science's organizers had pared down their original plans for two sections of eighth graders to a request for one, or about 20 students, in their 180-student school.

Turns out the waiting list for eighth grade was another section long. Why should that be a surprise? Could it be that many parents of rising eighth-graders want their children better prepared for high school?

According to the P & C's report on Monday night's CCSD Board meeting, the Board unanimously agreed to allow another section without any discussion. [See Math & Science School to Grow ]

My favorite comment? from Board Chairman Hillery Douglas: "'We would not want to hold them back.'" It falls into the same category as Gregg Meyers's statements about not charging rent for the Rivers building, although he can't seem to get around to putting that item on the agenda.

$24 Million for What, Hillery?

Is anyone else as tired as I am of the obstructionist ways of CCSD Board of Trustees Chairman Hillery Douglas? Friday's P & C provides yet another example of his smug, you-can't-touch-me-but-I-don't-support-charter-schools-I-can't-control remarks. See Bill would bar district rent charges for charter schools].

Apart from the question of a public [charter] school's paying rent to use a public school building, Douglas is quoted as asking,

whether the district should pay for an upgrade to a district building [that's a building owned by the public, Hillery] that a charter school wanted to use. That's what's happening in Charleston: The school district has agreed to let the math and science charter school use the former Rivers Middle School building, but making the building safe for students is going to require $24 million. Decisions about such situations should be left to school districts and charter schools, Douglas said.

Douglas would have us believe that giving space in CCSD buildings to charter schools [note--not controlled by Douglas and his ilk] will cost the district MILLIONS of dollars it otherwise would not need to spend. How disingenuous is that?

Charter school organizer Park Dougherty hits the nail on the head:

"there's always another way to attempt to block us." The point of contention involving the math and science school has shifted from rent to the "alleged needs" of the building, he said.

Because, new legislative bill or not, the rent issue is dead on arrival. Even Gregg Meyers is ready to throw in the towel on that one.

Twenty-four million dollars to renovate Rivers? "Alleged" is right. Maybe just a few of us remember that it wasn't so long ago that the district was using that building? That, when first approached by the Charter High School, the district's own estimates of making it usable again were less than half what Bill Lewis claims is needed now.

Where are the brakes on this out-of-control spending on brick and mortar? Only the very gullible--and those with a financial interest--believe that the Rivers building isn't "safe" without these millions. If Lewis announces in February or March that the costs have escalated to $50 million for renovations, who's going to call him to account? Not Douglas, obviously.

CCSD's Pretend Residency Politics

CCSD labors mightily and brings forth . . . a mouse.

Saturday's P & C reveals the results of its new policy on enforcing attendance zones. [See Board allows 6 outside zone to stay at school].

Whom should we feel sorrier for: Nancy Cook, who voted to enforce the residency policy approved on her watch and was voted down 8 to 1 by the rest of the CCSD board members; or the St. Andrews District 10 constituent board, which naively assumed that enforcing that policy was what it was expected to do? Perhaps its members have now discovered they have more in common with the District 20 constituent board than once they thought!

According to the constituent board's chairman, Russell Johnson, "no one on the constituent board wanted to move children mid-year, but they were trying to uphold the county board's rules."

'I'm not real fond of (the county board) making rules that they don't enforce themselves,' Johnson said. 'What is the point of the residency verification if they are not going to enforce the results?'"[italics mine]

Exactly. So the plan is, drag your feet verifying addresses for the first semester; then allow the miscreants to keep the children where they should not be because they've been in the school for a semester. I'm not talking about hardship cases here, but it's hard to believe that all six exceptions fall into that category. Let the parents explain to Johnny Joe why he has to change schools mid-year. It reminds me of the criminal who murders his parents and then begs for mercy because he's an orphan.

If CCSD is not willing to enforce its attendance zone policy now, there is no reason to believe it will do so in the future. The school board passed this policy to placate those who believe (and still do) that the lists for Buist Academy have been "cooked" and bypassed for favored children of the well-connected. Nothing has changed at Buist with this policy. Community concerns have not been answered. Only St. Andrews was impacted by Goodloe-Johnson's assigning multiple unhappy Buist applicants to the school as a sop. The uproar began when the school became overcrowded and added mobile classrooms as a result.

At Buist, which claims to be the only magnet school to have completed the process of verification, the process was never truly started. No enrollees were checked to see which of the four lists they were supposed to be fulfilling. Does anyone believe that all of them actually live in Charleston County? Why should anyone when downtown addresses have been proved false in the past and NOTHING happened?

Gepford should not allow himself to be used as a figurehead for this ethically-challenged group, not if he has any self-respect.

[By the way, is this the same Doug Gepford who is a supporter of Charleston Collegiate School?]

CCSD: You Thought We Were Going to Follow Our Policy?

Clearly what CCSD needs is a Chief Obfuscation Officer, such as the one suggested for the New York City Schools [See DOE Announces New Administrative Positions]. Then slip-ups like the one below wouldn't occur.

Board trips over policy on expenses

By Diette Courrégé

The Post and Courier

Friday, January 11, 2008

Charleston County School Board members haven't followed their policy to publish their expenditures and share what they learned with their colleagues.

The school board approved a policy that requires it to publish the yearly expenditures for its members each August, but the board failed to do that last year. The Post and Courier began asking for that information in early October and submitted a Freedom of Information Act request for it in late November. The district supplied the information in early December and provided more details later that month.

Board member Gregg Meyers said it was inappropriate that a Freedom of Information Act request was needed and that the information should have been available in August. He said he planned to let the superintendent know the district should follow the board's policy.

School board Vice Chairwoman Nancy Cook was chair of the board until November. She said she forgot the board was supposed to make this information public, and district officials should have reminded the board about this. The board doesn't have anything to hide, but this disclosure wasn't on her radar, she said.

"They should've been on top of that," she said.

School Superintendent Nancy McGinley said she wasn't aware of the policy's requirement until recently, and the responsibility to ensure such a report was generated would have fallen under the chief financial officer. She said that she relies on the heads of district departments to follow policies and that this issue wasn't brought to her attention. [Note: And the chief financial officer said, what?]

Job description for this new CCSD official could be modeled after the one [satirically] proposed by New York parents:

"Chief Obfuscation Officer: Heads the PR Department division responsible for explaining all DOE restructuring issues to the public."

Add to this administrative position the responsibility for explaining the School Board's arcane financial decisions and unequal treatment of District 20 and North Charleston, and I think we've got a winner.

Douglas & CCSD: Segregation Is OK

CCSD Board Chairman Hillery Douglas and CCSD Superintendent Nancy McGinley made some very revealing comments last week when the State Department of Education released its findings on segregation in South Carolina's schools. Strangely enough, as far as I can tell, the entire story appeared only on TV outlets and not in the P & C.

Needless to say, the report showed that most of District 20's schools are segregated. Douglas's interesting comment about the findings was that he didn't have a problem with that. McGinley's comments included the thought that such segregation is caused by housing patterns and, therefore, nothing can be done about it.

First of all, Supt. McGinley, you're not in Philadelphia any more. Please take a good look at the Census figures for black and white residents on the penninsula; then tell us why the schools are segregated. It's not because of housing patterns. Check out the Census for Johns Island while you're at it. Just maybe this school segregation has been caused by CCSD policies over the last 40 years.

As for Mr. Douglas's attitude, I find it hard to know where to begin. Certainly his remarks reveal why CCSD has made no progress in desegregation under his watch. He doesn't care!

I'm not one of those idiots who believe that black students must sit in the same classroom with white ones in order to learn to read and write better. I do believe that black and white students need to be in the same classroom to LEARN ABOUT EACH OTHER. Hasn't such understanding always been one of the goals of public education?

Otherwise, students in white enclaves can continue to believe that all black students their age are druggies and dropouts, while students in black enclaves can continue to believe that all white students are spoiled and prejudiced slackers.

Oops! We Forgot to Negotiate--Hillery Douglas

Hope you're ready to pay more in legal fees for the Charleston County Board of Trustees. The Board is moving full steam ahead to confront the Charter High School Committee's appeal to the State Board of Education over the rent issue, now scheduled for hearing on December 11.


Apparently, Charter School organizers, who must come equipped with the patience of Job, have been waiting since early October to get together with a committee from the CCSD Board to talk over differences. When no such meeting occured they had to fish or cut bait at Tuesday's deadline for its appeal.


Hillery Douglas, new Board Chairman, said that, well, they were supposed to meet. His solution is that he might "try this week to set up a meeting." That, of course, would be after the filing deadline. But then, what naif believed that the Board's committee planned negotiation in good faith with the Charter School proponents?


Douglas pouts that the "school is relying on legal arguments" that the "board hasn't had the opportunity to address"! He plans that opportunity for when hell freezes over, or at least the last possible moment on his delay-linger-and-wait agenda. That apparently is the next board meeting.


Meanwhile, CCSD's lawyers continue to rack up legal fees. Too bad we can't spend the money on education.


Which do you think the CCSD Board prefer: new charter schools or vouchers? They seem to believe that they can go on forever without either.

For a look at the Charter School's plans visit charlestonmathand science.org