Sensitivity Training Overdue in Charleston County School District

Former board member Larry Kobrovsky certainly nailed the problem in the Charleston County School District with his letter to the editor published in Thursday's edition. 

Brian Hicks is a gifted writer and often provides valuable commentary on issues of interest. He also has an obsession with Elizabeth Kandrac. 

Mr. Hicks is entitled to his opinion on Ms. Kandrac, but it's quite a stretch to blame Kandrac for the recent turn of events surrounding the fate of Dr. Nancy McGinley.

Ms. Kandrac has not been on the board for over two years and did not participate in any way, shape or form in the public debate over the treatment of the coach or football team.
Now that Mr. Hicks has brought Kandrac's name into this, I would like to suggest a much more compelling connection.

A federal jury found and a federal judge upheld the verdict that a public school in Charleston County was a racially hostile place to work.

The testimony in federal court was that Ms. Kandrac was subjected to vile and vulgar racial slurs and obscenities on a daily basis. Two 14-year-old students also testified that they went to school every day terrified solely on the basis of their race.

The defense of the district was that the offensive behavior was the culture of the students and that there was nothing they could do about it.

To this day the district has not spent one minute talking to or apologizing to the students who had to attend school while suffering racial slurs on a daily basis.

Nor has a single adult employee of the district been forced to undergo a minute of "sensitivity training" for allowing this to happen. 

Rather than blame Elizabeth Kandrac for the school board's recent action regarding Dr. McGinley, maybe Mr. Hicks could reflect on how the administration failed to show any compassion or concern for the two young men who testified that they went to school every day bullied and harassed solely because of the color of their skin. 

Larry Kobrovsky
Meeting Street
Charleston

CCSD Shill for Charleston Chamber of Commerce Brags of Noblesse Oblige

Imagine you had a job to do that required several meetings a month a distance from your home. Your only compensation was $25 per meeting. Would you bother to fill out the paperwork to get your expenses paid? Or would the money mean so little to you that you couldn't be bothered?

Chris Fraser, the place marker for the Charleston Chamber of Commerce on the Charleston County School Board of Trustees, brags that he doesn't need the money, so he doesn't file. Fraser reveals himself squarely in the rich man's corner--those who need reimbursement should feel embarrassed for taking the taxpayers' dime. In fact, from Fraser's point of view only people who don't need money should serve on the Board.

Maybe some day Fraser will live in the real world. 

Meanwhile, Brian Hicks remains more than willing to share Fraser's bragging while inserting snide remarks over Elizabeth Kandrac's reimbursement for training sessions--and Kandrac left the Board some time ago. 

Hicks still bristles over the thought that a white teacher had the nerve to sue CCSD for racial harassment, won her day in court, and then voters elected her to the School Board. 

Neither Fraser nor Hicks reveals that Fraser frequently absents himself from meetings. If he asked for reimbursement, a record would reveal how often he doesn't bother with attending. Maybe we need a member who's more dedicated who takes the $25.

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.

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.

As Compared to What, Kandrac Asks

Outer Slobovia? Suburban Port-au-Prince? Newark? Detroit?

The Charleston County School Superintendent is patting herself on the back for hiring another of the EDUBLOB to facilitate "goals" and "satisfaction" surveys for the district, at the rate of about $80,000 per year of OPM* for the next three years. The Studer Group facilitated a survey. For $80,000 it used its canned computer programs to run responses to its prewritten one-size-fits-all surveys. Then it announced that the satisfaction index in CCSD is greater than four other similar districts which must remain nameless, that is, nebulous. See above.

Superintendent McGinley blames some principals for not giving parents proper access to satisfaction surveys.

Wait a minute. Why would principals be responsible when Studer is paid the $80,000?

And why should anyone consider the results valid when fewer than 15 percent of parents responded to the survey?

* Other People's Money

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 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.

Fun and Games at 75 Calhoun

They're laughing it up at the Taj Majal these days. It seems that Charleston County School Board member Elizabeth Kandrac sent in her evaluation of the superintendent by mail. Strangely, 75 Calhoun reports it was never received, so Kandrac's comments could not be used for the superintendent's evaluation this year. These would have been the only negative comments. The minions at the office suggest that she should have phoned to make sure it arrived.

Yeah, right. Blame the Post Office.

Word of advice to new board members, whoever you may be: if you disagree with the superintendent, sent everything by registered mail.

CCSD Should Welcome Independent Audit

If the administration at 75 Calhoun and the Charleston County School Board wish votes for a sales tax increase, then . . .

Audit. Show us some transparency about where the money has gone. [See Kandrac Calls for School District Audit.] And don't get the usual suspects involved in doing it.

According to the P&C, "Board member Chris Fraser said the discussion about transparency is a good one, but he said he didn't want to burden district staff with more work, and he wasn't sure how the audit would fit in with existing audits."

Translation: A new forensic audit might uncover hanky panky with the old ones.

Riley's Lapdog Attacks Kandrac

With permission from his master, Jon Butzon of the Charleston Education Network (CEN) (the what? you ask), has joined the attack against CCSD Board member Elizabeth Kandrac. [See Thursday's tirade : Letters to the Editor]

Readers of this blog may recall several postings on Butzon and his curious privileged position vis a vis the School Board. You may want to try for yourself to get any specific information on the organization at this web address: http://www.charlestonednet.com. See any references to how it is funded? Learn who its members are? Of course not.

Here's what I wrote back in January of 2009:

Jon Butzon--the executive director of the Charleston Education Network--sounds impressive, doesn't it? I'm impressed with how much he takes home (must be up to $80,000 per year by now) for attending CCSD School Board meetings and writing two or three op-ed pieces per year. And his qualifications for that are what? And what is the Charleston Education Network (apart from being part of the edublob)? [See entries for CEN and Butzon on this blog.] Who pays his salary? Who calls the shots?

Here's what a commenter wrote back in July of 2007 (just a sample of a heated conversation):

"The waste and inequities that CCSD has forced on Dist. 20 are common issues that unite both white & black downtown public school advocates. Butzon & CEN have been noticeably absent on all fronts. A united downtown is a scary prospect to some. It would seem that all the special interest groups that live off the crumbs that CCSD throws them, from Dot Scott to Jon Butzon, the NAACP to the Chamber of Commerce (what a strange mix), none can afford to have a bunch of loose cannons downtown calling for public school reforms."

My nominee for controller is Joe Riley.

CCSD Board Member Training Expenses

Regarding the yearly training expenses for the Charleston County School Board [See District Critic Is Board's Top Travel Spender]:

• Kudos to those who are so wealthy that they need not be reimbursed;

• If the reporter had taken the trouble to provide a table showing each of the Board members' total expenses for the past three years, the public would have a clearer picture.
  

• In that case, the article would have displeased the Superintendent, who wishes to discredit her most vocal critic.
  

In fact, since the district didn't provide them, that would have meant that the reporter needed to find the reports for the previous two years by herself.

How hard could that be?

Wouldn't you like to see the training expenses for all of our associate superintendents year by year?

Churning Principals in CCSD

So what gives? Why will one out of five principals be new to the job in the Charleston County School District this fall? Check out Tuesday's list at 12 New School Leaders Hired for yourself.

Statistics that would be of interest include how many resigned "for personal reasons," since "switching schools" within the district must have been instigated by the district itself. Also of interest would be the cost of "hiring bonuses" for those heading low-achieving schools.

Most Board members found their rubber stamps to validate the Superintendent's selections. What justified ignoring, as member Kandrac put it, "a bad reference," "an incomplete application," and the committee's top choice?

It couldn't be nepotism. Maybe it's politics.

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, Part 2

A new low in public relations and transparency for Superintendent McGinley--see What's a Board Member to Do?

In a meeting of 200 administrators and principals, the mere presence of School Board member Elizabeth Kandrac so frightened Superintendent Nancy McGinley that she slandered Kandrac in comments to the P & C. Although the reporter was not at the meeting, she gave the accusation by McGinley and "staff members" already unhappy with Kandrac's questioning of edicts issued from 75 Calhoun credibility in handling the information.

In a poor attempt to sound even-handed, Courrege wrote the following:

"'They actually believe I'm here to harass the superintendent," [Kandrac] said. "I'm here to represent my constituents in the county. That's why I'm here."

"She said others are lying about what happened in order to protect the superintendent and to make Kandrac look bad because they don't like her.

"Associate Superintendent Terri Nichols and Elliot Smalley, the district's executive director of planning, marketing and communications, gave consistent accounts about what happened."

So these people whose employment relies on good relations with the superintendent provide unbiased proof of what happened? Give us a break.

According to the smear campaign, "principals and administrators gathered at the district office [felt] intimidated, distracted and unable to have frank conversations." What a bunch of pantywaists. There were 200 of them and one of her. I hope they have more nerve when they're dealing with students.

Imagine this. Meyers and company are attempting to draft board policies that will prevent Kandrac from attending meetings in that "gray area." Once they have done so, and the majority of bootlickers on the Board have approved such rules, will they employ bouncers? Stay tuned.

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."

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.

Meyers, the Poster Boy for Chutzpah in CCSD

English words have failed me (effrontery, gall, arrogance, brass, nerve, audacity, cheek, hubris--oops, sorry, that last one was Greek), so I must fall back on the little Yiddish I know to describe Charleston County School Board member Gregg Meyers's reactions to CCSD's literacy problems: chutzpah. At least, that was my reaction toThursday's newest article on literacy problems in the district [Literacy Requirements Debated].

How many years has our erstwhile friend served on the School Board?

How many years has the problem existed?

Meyers should be forced to resign in shame.

Think of the major role he played in creating safe-haven magnet schools for his own children (both Buist and Academic Magnet) while allowing deterioration of schools for poorer students downtown (District 20) and elsewhere during his "service." Apparently, Meyers lives by the motto, "Them that has, gets." Imagine the nerve that went into the following Meyers statement: "If we don't stake out what is most important, then this [learning to read] simply becomes one of many important things." If any one person could be held accountable for CCSD's literacy failures, it would be Meyers himself.

On the other hand, Board member Ruth Jordan's remarks reveal that she still doesn't understand the problem. The article quotes her as saying, " it's not acceptable for students to be so far behind when they reach ninth grade, but [. . .] some district teachers are ineffective. Tying promotion to reading ability would penalize students for their teachers' ineptitude."

So, Ms. Jordan, under that politically-correct condition it would be okay to send students "so far behind" that they can't read their textbooks on to high school? Isn't that what caused the problem in the first place? Use some logic here, please!

To top the CCSD's committee meeting off, "community member" (see previous post) Jon Butzon was allowed to sit in deliberations and provide his two cents. When was he elected to the School Board? Why isn't Elizabeth Kandrac on the committee? Isn't she the board member who has the most direct experience in teaching students who can't read on grade level? Where are Butzon's credentials (besides being a friend of the Mayor)?

Nowhere in the article does the reporter mention that the original goal of No Child Left Behind was to make sure that every third grader was reading prior to entering the next grade. Not relevant here, among NCLB-bashers? Or were the reporter and School Board members even more ignorant than we thought?

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.