Bottom Line on School Superintendent Pay

Sunday's article shows what most followers of the Charleston County School District have known for quite some time: Nancy McGinley is paid all out of proportion for her performance and responsibilities. Also, John Emerson is part-time only. He's making out like a bandit!

CCSD finances need outside oversight.

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.

P&C Spikes CCSD Residency Problem

More CCSD lawsuits costing taxpayers more money.

A Berkeley County parent believes that her child should attend CCSD's Academic Magnet, tuition-free, and the district should be glad to have her. The parent deliberately purchased property in Charleston County so that her child could "qualify." However, attorney Gayla McSwain must not have the correct political connections, for CCSD told her that she could not pick which school in Charleston County her child could attend. Months ago, a Circuit Court judge agreed with McSwain.

Why did the P&C sit on this story? Good question, having everything to do with nefarious practices going on in the Charleston County School District for decades. Perhaps now that Janet Rose has retired she can be the goat.

Should we laugh at CCSD's attorney John Emerson when he says, "school leaders were aware before the start of this school year" that non-county residents attended magnet schools? How long before that, John? We could drag up Buist Academy and those residency shenanigans, I suppose.

Does the Academic Magnet turn away qualified students who live in Charleston County? Yes.

There is the answer to McSwain's suit. If her daughter wants to go to North Charleston High School in the district where the property is located, so be it. Meanwhile, magnets should be for Charleston County residents only. Period. This excludes all residents of Hanahan, Goose Creek, and Daniel Island, who all live in Berkeley County. Any students now in the magnet high schools from other counties who own property in the district should be charged full tuition. Future non-residents should not be accepted. If attendees move out of the district while at the magnet, they should be charged tuition.

You could almost be sympathetic with these no-good parents if they were poor, or even lower middle-class. Such is not the case. They're rich (i.e., McSwain) and well-connected (well, not McSwain!). They give money to the campaigns of Board of Trustee members who will see to their interests.

Who's going to stop them?

CCSD Slaps Public in Face with Ticket

For Charleston County Schools Superintendent Nancy McGinley, "open meeting" means open to supporters of her administration, not to her critics.

How else to explain the ticketing of Henry Copeland for meekly attending Tuesday night's informational session on budget cutting at Burke High School? Copeland, who sat in the back and said nothing, will appear in court to challenge the right of CCSD to "close" its meeting to someone who is a resident of District 20. He's demanding a jury trial.

Just the presence of a taxpayer who understands more than most what really goes on at 75 Calhoun strikes fear into CCSD's administration. Really, what does it have to hide?

Emerson just stepped out of his league.

How Does CCSD Attorney Earn Salary?

Is it fending off Freedom of Information requests?

To support its challenge to paying for classroom buildings and transportation for public school students who attend charter schools, the Charleston County School District has hired Derfner, Altman & Wilborn, a firm that knows more about constitutional law, according to John Emerson, CCSD's attorney.

Anyway, he's too busy to do trial work "because of the time commitment involved."

Or is he unqualified?

Or is he being paid $145,000 + (starting salary in May 2008) for part-time work?

Toler's Right on This One

The Charleston County School District continues to pay Superintendent Nancy McGinley compensation for gasoline that costs $5 per gallon when its price has stabilized around $2.50.

So CCSD's attorney justifies his salary by suggesting that the flexibility that hourly (or classified) workers have in taking their one-half-hour lunch break and two fifteen-minute daily breaks be taken away. How much do you want to bet that John Emerson has never been an hourly worker (sorry, billable hours as a lawyer don't count!)?

CCSD Board member Ray Toler has experienced this type of job and knows how difficult life can be for the underpaid and under-appreciated staff that keep the system operating. That explains his vote against the majority of members who again rubber-stamped something they know nothing about [see School Perk Stopped].

Since it took at least three readings of the above article to figure out what the fuss was about, the reporter perhaps needs to walk in the shoes of one of these workers for a day. The elephant in the room? Workers were taking one-hour lunch breaks and sometimes taking the two 15-minute breaks as well and no one was keeping track. Pathetic.

I'd like to see McGinley and Emerson each be limited to these breaks. Then maybe they'd see that in the course of daily life sometimes a worker needs an hour to make a bank deposit, pick up a child, you name it. And 15-minute breaks are not exclusively used for smoking cigarettes.

Power Play in CCSD Almost Over?

Why would anyone assume that a public school should be allowed to use a public school building? As you read this, the Charleston County School District is wasting your tax dollars to prove this use illegal in Charleston County. See Ruling Soon on Charter School Act in Wednesday's P&C.

A charter school is a public school. Circuit Judge Roger Young should extend Act 189 of the State Legislature to all counties in the state.

CCSD's complaint against this use dates to the emergence of the Charter School for Math and Science, organized by a group of parents that the School Board and Superintendent did not, and do not, control. No such grief was given to Orange Grove Charter (for which Act 189 was written) or James Island Charter.

It's all about power.

By the way, why is Armand Derfner representing the District? Doesn't CCSD have a perfectly good lawyer, John Emerson, on its payroll? Derfner surely is an added expense!

CCSD's New Attorney: What Conditions?

Among other problems swept under the rug (excuse me, relegated to the back pages) of the P & C's reporting on the most recent meeting of the CCSD School Board was a one-sentence announcement that the Board has finally solved the draining of resources caused by not having its own staff attorney.

The sentence: "-- The school board agreed to hire new district staff attorney John Emerson and pay him $145,000 annually."

Now, that sounds like a lot of money to most ordinary people, who make a great deal less. It also sounds good after the approaching-half-a-million-dollar item for legal expenses on CCSD's expenditures record for this year.

HOWEVER. It's not that much for an experienced lawyer, especially one with the following description as provided on the website of Nexsen Pruet's Columbia office:

John Emerson practices in Nexsen Pruet's Employment and Labor Law Group and in the firm's Business Litigation Group. Mr. Emerson has been certified as a specialist in Employment and Labor Law by the South Carolina Supreme Court. He advises clients on all employment matters. Mr. Emerson has appeared on behalf of management in state and federal courts throughout South Carolina.

He has also appeared before state and federal administrative bodies including the Employment Security Commission, the South Carolina Human Affairs Commission, and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Mr. Emerson is a frequent speaker on employment issues including wage and hour law, discrimination claims, and at-will employment.

In 2005 the Alumni Association of the University of South Carolina School of Law presented Mr. Emerson with the Compleat Lawyer Award (Silver). The award recognizes alumni who have "made a significant contribution to the legal profession and who exemplify the highest standard of professional competence, ethics and integrity." The Silver Award is given to attorneys in practice for 14 years or fewer.

While continuing to practice law, Mr. Emerson served as Chairman of the South Carolina Educational Television Commission (2001-2004). He was appointed by Governor Jim Hodges to lead the Commission, which oversees South Carolina's public television and radio networks.

• Former Judicial Clerk to the Hon. Robert F. Chapman of the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals (1992-93)
• Former Chair, Public Relations Committee of the Tort Trial and Insurance Practice Section, American Bar Association
• While attending law school, Mr. Emerson was a member of the student editorial board of the Real Property, Probate and Trust Journal and the ABA Moot Court Team. He was admitted to Order of Wig and Robe and received the John Holland Scholarship Award.

So are we to assume that $145,000 represents a cap on the fees that will be paid to Emerson or a base salary to which extra hours will be added? Or is this a part-time position? Or is Emerson so desperate to live in Charleston that he jumped at the chance to represent one of the most litigious and litigated against school districts in the state (yummy!)? Obviously he has the right political connections.

Time will tell.