Bill Lewis Reveals He's the Jonathan Gruber of CCSD

Those stupid Charleston County voters! We shouldn't allow them to elect school board members! That is the basic underpinning of retired CCSD operating officer Bill Lewis's proposal in Sunday's op-ed.

Of all horrors, democratically-elected board members don't always toe the line thrown out by the Chamber of Commerce. They're too stupid. Imagine having "community activists" or "disgruntled former teachers" on the board! It's a nightmare! Only such "highly-qualified" candidates as Chris Fraser, Brian Moody, and Gregg Meyers will fulfill that mission.

Lewis apparently believes that the school district should be run as a private-sector organization. Those private-sector boards he praises for not micromanaging their CEOs really did a good job preventing the excesses that caused the last recession, right?

We wonder why Lewis could not name any of the cities where mayors have made the difference in improving schools, since he seems to believe that mayoral control is the solution to CCSD's problems. His solution would give Charleston three seats, Mt. Pleasant three seats, and North Charleston five seats, since Mayor Summey will control the County Council's choices through Teddie Pryor, a North Charleston employee, and his son Elliott.

Politicians selecting school board members instead of voters? Gee, that sounds great.

There are two major ways in which the school board elections can be improved, neither of which is on Lewis's radar screen, or, should I say, the radar screen of the Chamber of Commerce member who vetted Lewis's op-ed.

It's an open secret that these supposedly non-partisan seats are as partisan as they can be, just flying under the radar. Our local paper chooses to ignore that slates are regularly supported by the county's Democrat and Republican organizations. These seats are non-partisan for the same reason that the mayoralty of Charleston is nonpartisan: so that white Democrats can fool Republicans into voting for them. Mayor Riley not a Democrat? Please.

If races were designated partisan, political parties would vet the candidates and voters would have a better idea for whom to vote in the primary. Voters would rapidly discover that the school board generally has been the hiding place for Democrats to be elected to office in the county. Check for yourself: how many of the present school board members are registered Democrats?

Some will try to make the case that Democrats and Republicans share the same ideas about education. Really? When was that last the case? Probably in the 1950s.

The second aspect that would strongly improve the election is single-member districts. These single members would be voted upon by their own district, not by the county at large. That would make members responsible to their districts. Who can forget Toya Green's (yes, vetted as "highly-qualfied" by Bill Lewis) response to her District 20 constituency: "I don't represent you!"

It's time to stop pretending that the population of the county is so small that voters in Mt. Pleasant know who is the best person to represent North Charleston. The system as it is allows the Chamber of Commerce and its lackeys to control outcomes in many areas. What just happened in North Charleston, where Mt. Pleasant supporters (and the Chamber) put Cindy Bohn Coats over the top North Charleston vote-getter Shante Ellis, is a case in point.

Part of the solution is better communication within the county about what the candidates stand for. Evidently, we can't depend upon our local newspaper or television outlets for full information. Perhaps its lack of interest (or collusion) in local races is part of the reason that the Post and Courier has become a dinosaur.

CCSD's Self-Created Lawsuit

It started with a Tweet, a truly insensitive and juvenile one to be sure. The Tweeter was white; its target, black. For Tweeting the n-word to her classmate, School of the Arts senior Ashley Patrick served a five-day suspension.

Seems straightforward so far, doesn't it? But then district administration got involved. Patrick was sentenced to finish her senior year at Twilight, a computer-based district program for serious offenders. Put Patrick with those out on bail and/or violently disrupting the classroom.  

Maybe her continued presence in her classes would be disruptive, maybe not. Apparently the majority black constituent board didn't think so. Its considered decision was to institute strict probation limiting extracurricular activities.

District administration (notice we don't have a name yet) rejected the advice of the constituent board, appealing it to the CCSD Board of Trustees. Needless to say, the matter was discussed behind closed doors. The Board upheld the constituent board's decision, unwisely interpreting that Patrick would also not "walk the stage" at graduation or go to the prom. This interpretation later was dropped, but Patrick must serve 20 hours of community service and write an essay,

Really, the penalties for the Tweet are not the problem. No, the problem is conflict of interest on the part of district administration. The target of the Tweet just happened to be the daughter of Associate Superintendent Lisa Herring, who oversees CCSD's behavior and discipline programs. Did Associate Superintendent Lou Marten reclassify Patrick's offense to a more serious level because of Herring's position? Did Herring recuse herself because her daughter was involved?

Could CCSD have avoided another costly lawsuit? The plot thickens as Patrick's attorney is the husband of former CCSD Board member Toya Hampton-Green and a protege of Mayor.Riley.

You can't make this stuff up.

Kandrac: CCSD's Uppity Woman

If there is one thing that makes Brian Hicks see red , it's an uppity woman. In particular, an uppity woman on the CCSD Board of Trustees. Who could disagree?

After all, Elizabeth Kandrac had the insolence to sue the Charleston County School District over racist treatment she received as a teacher in the district! Other teachers would have faded away quietly because they didn't have the money to sue. Then Kandrac had the temerity to accept the monetary damages when she won the case (by trickery, no doubt). Why, she should have immediately turned the cash over to the superintendent "for the children."

How infuriating!

Then, Kandrac, assuming the role of uppity ex-teacher, ran for a North Charleston seat on the CCSD Board of Trustees. Talk about adding insult to injury! Ex-teachers should know their place, after all, and these Board seats are the honorary purview of the rich, not the hoi polloi! Teachers don't know any more about education than members of the Chamber of Commerce!

It only goes to show, as I'm sure Hicks would agree, just how ignorant and red-necked the residents of Charleston County are, given that Kandrac was actually elected to that seat. Why, she wasn't even endorsed by the Democratic Party!

Suitable to her low status, Kandrac should have followed the more experienced members of the Board and learned to "bootlick, be seen and not heard" or, even better, "bootlick, be not seen and not heard," since they know that the Board trustees are mere figureheads serving in an honorary capacity. Ask Ann Oplinger or Toya Hampton-Green.

This misunderstanding on Kandrac's part led to her ridiculous attempts to attend as many training sessions and meetings as possible to educate herself on how school boards (and districts) should run. Why does she think trustees should have opinions? Why doesn't she understand that what the administration of the district says doesn't need challenges?

Hicks must be greatly relieved that his headache named Kandrac isn't running again.

But wait. . .

Has he noticed Elizabeth Moffly (see, they even share the same name!), who's developing another case of not knowing her place in the hierarchy?

Stay tuned.

Only Two of Five CCSD Wannabes Real

The disgrace of District 20 representation in the Charleston County School District continues.

District 20 is located on the Charleston peninsula. Erstwhile resident and Board member Toya Hampton-Green, once the darling of the Riley administration, has moved to Columbia and vacated her post. Not a great loss, since Green didn't care to represent District 20 and had no mind of her own.

But worse, neither of two District 20 candidates' petitions qualified for the November ballot for the downtown seat. Now five residents wish to be appointed for Green's remaining, hardly two-month, term.

Both Todd Garrett and Tony Lewis at least had the energy to attempt to get on the ballot to be elected to Green's slot. Why should a bunch of politicians (and Niki Haley) appoint one of the three others (Jo Cannon, Bruce Smith, or Lewis Weinstein) who couldn't be bothered with petitions but now see an easy way to get a seat and then run a write-in campaign from a position of strength?

Let Green's seat remain vacant for the remaining meetings of the old Board. We'll hardly be able to tell the difference between her being absent while she's on the Board and being absent while she's off the Board.

Appointing anyone else besides Garrett or Lewis doesn't pass the smell test.

Hampton-Green's "Service" Easily Forgone

In the beginning, Mayor Riley recruited Toya Hampton-Green, a District 20 resident, to run for a downtown seat on the Charleston County School Board of Trustees. She appeared such a promising candidate--a young mother with an interest in her local community and a law degree. However, as Green leaves the Board six years later, only the most ardent supporters of Superintendent McGinley mourn her going.

The most that Green ever accomplished on the CCSD Board was to get her children into Buist, a perk for Board members that mysteriously appears by lottery . Green made it crystal clear to her constituents downtown that she didn't represent them! District 20 was left without its voice on the Board. Seemingly, Green represented Green.

That the S.C. School Boards Association should hire Green as "director of policy and legal services" says more about the deficiencies of that organization than it does about Green's qualifications.

The P & C noted that she "often ended up in the same corner as [McGinley]."  That statement is false. Green never voted against any proposal from administration. Her mantra appeared to be "how high should I jump?"

Such slavish bootlicking will not be missed.

Toya Green: CCSD Board Member MIA

• Should Toya Hampton-Green resign from her position as a member of the Charleston County Schools District Board of Trustees?


• Are other activities taking too much of her time, or has she decided her position is merely honorary?


• We should ask these questions since Green has missed so many scheduled meetings in the last couple of months.


• That would be at least the last three Board meetings, the most recent budget workshop, and the last two finance committee meetings.


• As an elected official, Green owes her constituents her presence, at the very least.

CCSD Board Members Touch Sacred Cows

• No wonder Superintendent Nancy McGinley has brought out the big guns--letters solicited from the Mayor; scolding emails solicited from the Board chair; outraged op-eds from the NAACP.


• Now this: Four unruly Board members want to investigate what benefits the district gets for its contributions to sacred-cow nonprofits, contributions from an operating budget projecting a $26 million shortfall next year.


• In their first swing at a cow, members Moffly and Kandrac refused to vote for $50,000 awarded to the Charleston Promise Neighborhood. Not to put too fine a point on it, Board member Toya Hampton-Green's husband heads that particular non-profit, and the Superintendent sits on its Board of Directors. Can you say, "conflict of interest"?


• Although that particular sacred cow escaped with the cash, Board members Coats and Taylor now want to scrutinize the benefits gained from other nonprofits receiving funds from the district. Can you say, "edublob"?


• Surely they can't be serious? Why, they might need to scrutinize the funds paid to the nonprofit headed by the Mayor's sister!


• Long-time readers of this blog will remember the point made some time ago: nonprofit does not mean it's not profitable for someone. A good look at salaries paid to those in charge should be in order.


• Let's not forget: the money for these nonprofits comes from the operating budget, the same one whose shortage of funds has created furlough days and staff layoffs. Now's a good time to focus on the primary mission of the district.

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.

Another Senseless Decision by CCSD School Board

Day after day, the former Charlestowne Academy school building sits vacant, after its being closed by the Charleston County School Board last year in the name of budget cutting.

A proposed church wishes to pay to use the premises two days a week for the next six months. And the School Board says, no, no, don't force that rent upon us. Why, heating and cooling costs will be associated with using the building! [ See Member's Request Denied in Wednesday's P&C.]

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"Those voting against the item talked about two issues -- the appearance of a conflict of interest and the extra cost the district would incur by leasing the space to the church." The church would be started by Board member Chris Collins, who recused himself from voting. In her usual idiotic fashion, member Green suggested that "board members needed to exercise a higher degree of care and caution when it comes to requesting use of district buildings." What would that look like, Toya?

Those who voted down the request (Meyers-Fraser-Green-Oplinger) admitted that Collins would pay the same as any other entity renting CCSD property. Others do, including Trident Technical College, the Park and Recreation Commission, and Durham School Services. So why this sudden worry from "the quad" that "the fee doesn't cover all of the costs associated with using the building"?

What idiot set the fee so low that it wouldn't cover costs? Are the other renters also costing the district money because their rents are too low? Is this the gang that couldn't shoot straight?

Meanwhile, the district forgoes the $1,032 monthly fee. Chump change to them. Let them make up the loss.

That will be $258 each, please, for the next six months. Put your money where your mouth is.

CCSD School Board Chair Jordan

She's not a tool of Gregg Meyers, Mayor Riley, the Chamber of Commerce, or the NAACP.

That's the good news. [See School Board Picks New Leader.]

While Ruth Jordan has not always spoken against the Meyers-Green agenda, her voting record and statements over her years on the CCSD School Board do indicate a certain independence. Superintendent Nancy McGinley fondly recites that "everything is for the children," but Jordan's record suggests that she actually believes that to be true.

So it was only fitting that Jordan made her point at Monday night's meeting. After an unapologetic attempt by Gregg Meyers to make the election of a new board chairman all about supporting McGinley, Jordan was quoted as saying, "'Frankly, I was appalled that it would come down to the mandate about the superintendent. I thought it was about the children. ... If we're truly committed to public education, we're going to do what's right for children.'"

You tell'em, Ruth!

Alliance Survey Poses Questions, Gets Stock Answers

Is it a serious morale problem, or does it come with the territory?

What does it mean that 60 percent of the Charleston County School District's teachers participating in a survey believe that they are not valued by the district? See Many Teachers Don't Feel Valued in Monday's P&C.

Part of the complaint concerns extra pay given to administrators while teachers' salaries remained the same and class sizes rose. Part is perceived inattentiveness to previously stated teachers' concerns.

In response to perceived low morale, Superintendent Nancy McGinley plans to make a video.

You can't make this stuff up.

"Board Chairwoman Toya Green said she thinks the district's leadership has a good connection to its teachers."

Well, she would know, wouldn't she?

And "teacher coaches," that many surveyed teachers say add little to educational advancement, continue to proliferate under the name of "instructional resource teachers."

You know, Don Quixote gave his old nag a beautiful-sounding name, but it was still an old nag.

Kandrac: Crackpot or Watchdog?

Were you as surprised as I was that the P&C thoroughly investigated CCSD School Board member Elizabeth Kandrac's place of residence? [See Kandrac Takes on District in Sunday's edition.]

After all of the allegations regarding legal residence for Buist students the P&C did not follow up, the story shows that the reporter can do investigations when she has the incentive to do so. Or maybe she was just handed the information by Kandrac's antagonists on the Board.

Certainly, Kandrac appears to be following the letter of the law and not its spirit in her living arrangements these days, but CCSD already set many good examples for her to follow in its treatment of Buist. And what about those rumors over the years that other Board members were not living where they claimed? Down the memory hole?

More problematic is the Board's single-minded agenda to get rid of Kandrac through insinuating that any queries she raises are simply harrassment. Green and Meyers would have the public believe that Superintendent McGinley walks on water and should not be challenged at any point. Have you ever seen either one of them do so on any point?

The goal is to make Kandrac into a caricature that folks outside of North Charleston will vote against if she decides to run again.

Picking on Kandrac Isn't Going to Work

In a pathetic display of thinly-veiled spite, at the behest of Gregg Meyers, Toya Hampton-Green dragged the CCSD School Board's rules into the public forum of its open meeting Monday night. [See Board's Behavior Discussed in Tuesday's P&C.] You know, just in case anybody [not to be named] needs reminders.

Evidently, Board member Elizabeth Kandrac has become the elephant in the room--she who cannot be named--but who every last bootlicker for Superintendent Nancy McGinley is determined to silence, one way or another. It's the let's-try-to-embarrass-her-in-the-open-meeting ploy. What Meyers et al do not comprehend is that a seasoned middle-school teacher has endured tougher battles than these dilettantes can throw at her.

Let's look at the lead on Courrege's article: "Some Charleston County School Board members have been breaking the board's rules by giving orders to school staff, being disrespectful to employees and visiting schools unannounced." Serious stuff, right? But where are the specifics? Let's hear names, dates, and places instead of innuendos.

What is ripe, though, is that Meyers asked McGinley "to evaluate the board's behavior." Who's the employee here? The Board is made up of elected officials; the superintendent serves at their pleasure, not the opposite.

Then we learn that--holy cow!--Board members actually visited schools without giving the Superintendent advance notice! It's a rule, is it? Let's ask ourselves, what real purpose does it serve?

Meanwhile, the public is probably surprised to find that its elected representatives don't have the same rights as any resident of the county when it comes to visiting a school!

The message from Meyers, Green, and McGinley to their favorite Board member: Don't ask too many questions. Don't visit schools to see what we are doing. Don't interfere with the good thing we've got going here. Don't rock the boat. And, for pete's sake, when the Superintendent speaks, smile and just say, "Yes, m'am. You are so right."

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.

CCSD School Budget Charades Successful Again

Mike Bobby could tell the taxpayers of Charleston County that the Charleston County Schools operate on a shoe-string, and no one could disprove his assertions. Most people looking at the proposed budget will immediately flash back to those days sitting in algebra class, when X2 + 4xy + 3Y2 needed to be factored. In a sentence, "Let me out of here!"

On the other hand, those knowledgeable regarding accounting will immediately flash back to prior chief financial officers and their sleight-of-hand numbers. Despite the requests and pleas for clearer outlines of expenditures, no such clarity has developed. The public, to put it bluntly, is "foiled again." And that will become "taxed again."

This week's public hearing reported in Wednesday's paper (School Budget Could Mean Tax Increase) was a charade to provide cover for the coming tax increase--and it will come! Supposedly three "community" members (i.e., non-CCSD-attached) attended the hearing; however, the only one who spoke, Jon Butzon, is a community member in the same sense that Nancy McGinley is: not. No one who has attended closed-door sessions of the School Board could represent the community at large, and anyway, he represents the Mayor! Holding a barely publicized meeting at 5 p.m. on a Tuesday was guaranteed to keep naysayers away.

Ask yourself: if the meeting had kept secret from the public, how many fewer participants would there have been? What does that answer tell you about how well it was publicized? Instead, 75 Calhoun rounded up the usual suspects from employees who have a vested interest in getting as many dollars as possible (and I don't mean "for the children"). CCSD Board members in favor of a tax increase (all but two--Ravenel and Kandrac) arranged their "cover" by voting initially for no increase. CFA Bobby obligingly came back with a budget in which, as his fellow conspirator Toya Green puts it, "the cuts that would be required if no tax increase is passed would be so painful that [. . .] those in the majority would approve some sort of increase." Which they planned all along.

These folks "in the majority" are more than happy to raise taxes. Let's not forget that those elected to the Board in the last election, those that constitute the majority in favor of this tax increase won thanks to the endorsement of the Charleston County Democratic Party.

The idea that we have a non-partisan school board is as ludicrous as thinking that this one doesn't want to raise taxes. We're stuck with them for now. Will voters' memories be long enough to "throw the bums out"?

Kandrac Is No Toya Green, Gregg

Dissension on the Charleston County School Board? Who would'a thunk it? After all, didn't they get rid of those spoilsports like David Engelman in the last election? You know, the ones who want transparency in CCSD's spending, wanted to put it on-line, for heaven's sake?

Dissatisfied with a whopping 6-2 majority, long-time Board member Gregg Meyers, whose influence put puppet Toya Hampton-Green into place as chairman, feels the need to insult those who disagree with him and his carefully written agenda. [See Dissension a Challenge for Board.] He's found out that he can't cow Arthur Ravenel, Jr., with the usual Greggisms (think of a gnat trying to annoy an elephant), so he's decided to try them out on Elizabeth Kandrac.

Mistake. Maybe you'd like a do-over on that one, Gregg. We all sense your exasperation that a Board member actually knows what's really wrong on the front lines and that all your posturing about excellence as the goal of school redesign isn't going to fix it.

Anyone who's taught for, say, ten minutes tops, knows that the most learning takes place in a classroom where behavioral expectations are clear, enforced, and supported by the principal. Why, even academic studies have proved it! Imagine that.

Kandrac's remarks should be taken very seriously:

Kandrac said the school district has way too many schools that aren't improving, and she cited the increasing number of at-risk ratings on district schools' report cards, from 22 to 24 this year.

"I think they want to fool the public," she said. "I think it's intentional. I think they want people to think we're getting better" because they're spending nearly a half-billion dollars. She said some board members refuse to admit the real problem in schools, which is discipline. Staff members are afraid of children, and that's the reason students are not excelling, she said.

So Meyers thinks this is a personal agenda? More fool he.

Buist Again? Let's Take a Step Back

Charleston County School District Board member Ruth Jordan, who lives in West Ashley and is chairman of the Board's Policy Committee, has roiled the waters by suggesting that Buist Academy not be allowed "to become segregated again." Putting her in charge of the Policy Committee is an exercise in chaos now and yet to come! Nevertheless, any suggestion that the "magnet school's admissions procedures could be overhauled to attract more minority students" coming from this quarter should be met with the derision it deserves.

Here is a history lesson that attempts to be purely expository:

• Buist began as an all-black school when Charleston's schools were segregated and not consolidated into one district.
• To meet requirements imposed by desegregation lawsuits, Gregg Meyers (a present Board member) put forward the plan to create a 60-40 school to show the Civil Rights Division that the district was integrated, and the plan was accepted.
• The school's admissions process uses four lists and a lottery to select students, but the results were required to be 40 percent minority.
  
• The school thrived while other schools in what became District 20 of CCSD disappeared or became all-black and failing.
• A lawsuit about five years ago killed the 60-40 race-based requirement.
• Since the ruling, the percentage of minority students attending Buist has declined--CCSD putting the percentage at 25; those in District 20 suggesting that in the lower grades the percentage is more like 15.

Now, the rest of the story.

The present situation couldn't appear more biased and controversial even if it had been put into effect by a White Citizens' Committee operating in cabal. And it's easy to see who is at fault: present and former school board members, their political cronies, and present and former superintendents hired by the school boards. Until the following messes are purified with the daylight of transparency, no one will accept new OR old guidelines.

Before present parents of Buist Academy start jumping down my throat, let me point out that most parents who have sent their children to Buist over its years of operation as a magnet have not played the system in any way! No, Buist's controversies derive from how CCSD has tampered with Buist's admissions to benefit the few and well-connected. The tampering has proceeded under CCSD's "trust us with no verification" policy. There are three aspects to the tampering: implementation of the lottery; verification of the lists; and abuse of "testing" procedures.

1. The potential for abusing who "wins" the lottery is immense, as has been well-documented on this blog and elsewhere. Until the Buist lottery becomes as transparent as the SC Education Lottery, its results will continue to be suspect.
2. Already well-documented here and elsewhere has been CCSD's reluctance to cull from the lists those who do not qualify for them. Due to some well-placed complaints (covered by the mainstream news media), procedures have tightened. However, due to the immense secrecy surrounding who is on what list and where and machinations when vacancies have occured in upper grades (such as allowing seats to go unfilled), no one will trust the process until the lists are public.
3. Buist's potential kindergarteners are NOT taking an "entrance exam" that is an intelligence test; therefore, the school does not select the "best and brightest," as is frequently suggested. The school's results are a combination of motivated parents, self-selection (more likely to be middle-class), and resources that CCSD has poured into the school. In fact, concerning the entering "interview" a previous commenter wrote,

"In the preface to the YCAT, the publisher states that the test is not designed to be used as the sole criteria for assessing a student and the test results should not be used as a single determining factor for directing where a child is placed in school. It further states that the test is to be used only in combination with other measures of a child's abilities, otherwise its results if taken alone may be highly unreliable, especially at the youngest age levels of kindergarten and pre-kindergarten. If that is the recommendation of those who designed the YCAT test, then why is Buist using this test exactly in the manner that the publisher has said it is not to be used?"

If that isn't damning enough for you, how about that the proctors asking the children the questions are not uniform and not qualified, and the reported results are not verifiable by any other human being.

Now, here it comes: District 20 has been such a thorn in the side of the powers-that-be that CCSD will make it a county-wide magnet without a list for District 20. McGinley and Meyers will point out that District 20 now has several "partial magnets" for its population, so why should its residents complain?

Hey, as long as the voters of Mt. Pleasant and James Island can vote District 20 residents like Toya Hampton-Green into office over the objections of residents of downtown, it's deja vu all over again. What's mine is mine and what's yours is mine.

CCSD Board Chair Green Satisfied with Five Closures

Spokesperson for Gregg Meyers, Toya Hampton-Green, allowed as how CCSD Superintendent McGinley's five school closures are okay with her [see Five Schools Recommended for Closing]:

School board Chairwoman Toya Green wanted to wait until the board meeting to discuss specific recommendations, but she said the superintendent did what the board asked, that the proposal was well thought out and that she felt comfortable with the recommendations.

"We have some tough decisions to make, and unfortunately there's nothing feel good about figuring out how to save money and cut positions," she said.

The schools recommended for closure share four characteristics: declining enrollment, excess building capacity, persistently struggling academic achievement and high per-pupil costs.

I can think of a fifth shared characteristic.

According to CCSD Chief Financial Officer Mike Bobby, the projected shortfall of $28 million will be well served by a savings of $5.3 million from these closures. Does that saving include the costs involved from the closures themselves? Where's the other $22 million coming from?

Show us how you arrived at these figures--or is that too much transparency?

CCSD's Sham Redesigns in District 20: Sue

Some people are so accustomed to deception they don't know any other way. This statement clearly is true for Charleston County Schools Superintendent Nancy McGinley and her henchmen.

The removal of Wilmot Fraser fils from Tuesday night's School Redesign meeting at Burke High School only proves the point. He wanted to change the preapproved agenda. How dare actual members of the community challenge the fly-by-night plans of outsiders (McGinley--Philadelphia; Meyers--New Orleans; Green--Germany & various army posts, etc.) telling them what's best for their community! [See 350 Jam Schools Meeting, Demand to Be Heard.] Fortunately, they didn't just fall off the turnip truck, as the School Redesigners seem to believe.

What McGinley and School Board members have received is the frustrated, pent-up anger of those who have been prevented from engaging in true dialogue for too long. True, these sham community imput meetings weren't started by McGinley, but she has been only too content to follow in her predecessors' footsteps.

Say, what ever happened to the OLD plans for downtown schools? You know, the ones gathering dust on some CCSD shelf, for which a facilitator was paid $70,000 not too long ago?

The proper derision met talk of "seismic upgrades"(TV coverage reported laughter and catcalls; the P & C quoted Sandra Perry, a supporter of Fraser, as saying, "'I've been there 50 years, and I haven't seen an earthquake knock down Fraser yet,' . . . in response to the district's position.") The community knows full well that these are an excuse to close some schools and destroy others.

Too much disinformation passed by CCSD and the media goes unchallenged. On Channel 5 Wednesday morning, viewers were blithely told that Charleston "lies on a major fault line."

No, it doesn't.

No one yet knows with any certainty why the area suffered a major earthquake about 120 years ago: not announcers, not geologists, not even Bill Lewis of CCSD! Charleston is no San Francisco; it's not even a New Madrid. No one has found a fault line; the county is in an intraplate area. To quote the experts:

Nobody is exactly sure what causes these earthquakes [in intraplate areas]. In many cases, the causative fault is deeply buried, and sometimes cannot even be found. Under these circumstances it is difficult to calculate the exact seismic hazard for a given city, especially if there was only one earthquake in historical times.

So what's the big rush now? The bond issues for these upgrades haven't even been voted on yet, have they? If we've waited 50 years, why not a couple more?

We know the answer. Those in control of CCSD have seized the opportunity of weak school funding (brought on by our state legislature, I might add) combined with so-called necessary upgrades for earthquakes and a now reeling economy plus new School Board members who don't yet realize what's going on in the dog-and-pony show to ensure that no integrated school other than Buist exists downtown and to show the Feds next time they look at NCLB results that CCSD has no failing schools. They'll simply move the schools across the street, create sham mini-magnets, and give them new names, get rid of that pesky CPA magnet that keeps asking for a magnet's assets (that might take resources away from Buist) and squash CSMS in the embryo stage so that everyone can see that an integrated school downtown is impossible. Oh, yes, and sell off Fraser and Archer to developers.

Now that's Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) in a nutshell.

Apart from lobbying School Board members to, at the very least, postpone voting on these very complex proposals in January, and, at most, to vote against the whole package at any time it comes up, residents of District 20 need to band together, pool resources, and hire a lawyer. Sue in federal court. Point out that CCSD plans to resegregate the district.

We may not be able to stop them, but at least we can slow them down. And time is valuable.

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.