Tea Partier Replacement a Rubber Stamp for McGinley

After months of dilly-dallying over the selection of a replacement for elected CCSD Board of Trustees member Mary Ann Taylor, who resigned in disgust last November, our Charleston County legislative delegation labored mightily and brought forth a mouse. A mouse that claimed "tea party" credentials, you know, as a mover and shaker. Our delegation looked for someone compatible with Taylor's views. Right. Chip Campsen and friends should be ashamed.

Brian Thomas, with his meek vote to support the unpublicized sale of part of the Memminger property (exactly which part only Michael Bobby and McGinley know), has shown his true colors--as a wimp.

Mary Ann Taylor should be even more disgusted. So should all taxpayers and residents of Charleston County. The Superintendent now has a safe majority of 5 to 3 made up of trusting lackeys to do as she pleases.

Thomas plans to run for election next time around. You know what to do.

Tea Partier Thomas Finally on CCSD Board

Will sparks fly?

Will newly-appointed Charleston County School Board of Trustees member Brian Thomas (replacing the resigned Mary Ann Taylor) join the majority of toadies to the superintendent, or will he have a mind of his own?

Given several contentious problems on the front burner in coming weeks, it shouldn't take long to find out.

Tea Partier for CCSD Board

In surprise move, the Charleston County legislative delegation has selected tea partier and Drayton Hall parent Brian Thomas to replace the resigned Mary Ann Taylor. Governor Haley must act on the recommendation before Thomas can take his seat.

While readers of this blog know I hoped the delegation could see its way to select Henry Copeland, this outcome probably is about the best second choice. For one, Thomas is a charter school supporter (he is a Drayton Hall parent, after all). Also, the majority Republican delegation chose a Republican to replace a Republican (Copeland is a Democrat).

Which brings me to point out once again that the emperor has no clothes.

Our school board is (shock! gasp!) populated by partisans. Every election, the Democrat party backs its slate of "nonpartisans," and the Republican Party backs its slate of "nonpartisans."

I detest charades.

Copeland for CCSD School Board Appointment

Time for a reasonable replacement for Mary Ann Taylor on the CCSD Board of Trustees!

Henry Copeland on the Savage Report

CCSD Charter Enemy Support from Riley & McGinley

As I write, Mayor Riley (he who has no legal power in the Charleston County School District) and Superintendent McGinley (she who hates Mary Ann Taylor's ideas and probably her guts) are lobbying the Charleston County legislative delegation to appoint former CCSD Board Member Brian Moody to the seat vacated by Mary Ann Taylor.

Moody has a record of serving the district all right--to its detriment. First of all, why should the Chamber of Commerce be given even more power on the school board?  Chris Fraser already gives a blank check to the superintendent. Is that what the voters wanted when they elected Taylor? No.

Second, Moody opposes public charter schools. Yes, opposes. Our legislators should pay attention to what their constituents want: more charter schools, not fewer. Take a poll of voters if you don't believe me. The present charter schools in CCSD are practically beating off students with a stick. While on the Board, Moody voted for the moratorium on new charter schools in the district.

Disgruntled voters in the sending district for Drayton Hall Elementary have just learned that their efforts for a more creative charter school in its place have been squashed by litigation from CCSD. Moody voted in favor of funding that litigation.

Supporters of Moody can point to his experience as a CPA all they want; the record shows that Moody was asleep at the switch in the 2005 train wreck that raised property taxes. Moody admitted a year later that he just took the word of administration. He didn't do the job that he was elected to do. The district raised property taxes that year by nearly 30 percent while telling the voters it was doing just the opposite.

Administration has lulled the toady majority of the Board into the same shell game in 2011. Legislators, do you really believe Moody would have held his ground against the administration this time around? As legislators you should care about rising taxes--unless you wish to be pegged as in favor of them!

The reality of Moody's prior service to the district is that he was a place marker. If the legislative delegation chooses to appoint him over someone like Henry Copeland, who will take his position seriously, it deserves defeat in the next elections.

Call or email your representatives now to give them some backbone to repel Riley's and McGinley's attempts to put a travesty back on the Board of Trustees.

Senate: Larry Grooms 803-212-6400; Michael Rose 803-212-6056; Glenn McConnell 803-212-6610; Robert Ford 803-212-6124; Chip Campsen 212-6016; Paul Campbell 803-212-6016; Clementa Pinckney 803-212-6148

House: David Mack 803-734-3192; Chip Limehouse 803-734-2977; Wendell Gilliard 803-212-6793; Mike Sottile 803-212-6880; Seth Whipper 803-734-3191; Bobby Harrell 803-734-3125; Peter McCoy 803-212-6872; Robert Brown 803-734-3170

Anyone with email addresses for this delegation can append them in a comment. Time is of the essense!

Sullivans to CCSD: We're Not Happy

Imagine! Those pesky residents of Sullivans Island don't want to go in lockstep with Superintendent McGinley and the Charleston County School District Board of Trustees. It seems that its former mayor and more than 200 petition-signing residents think that one-size-fits-all cookie-cutter schools don't fit the island.

Never mind that CCSD plans to build a 500-student school on a barrier island prone to hurricanes, or that the island is served by a swing bridge that will interrupt the busses traveling daily bringing more than half of the student body onto the island.  The major complaint is that the school will be out of scale for island life and change the character of its surroundings.

Funny. That's exactly what Superintendent McGinley has planned for all of Charleston County, and, thanks to her toady majority on the Board of Trustees, she's well on her way to accomplishing it.

The petition drive for a referendum of island residents is well meant but too late. Better to focus on the next school board election and getting the sycophants off the Board. Better yet to contact your legislative delegation this week and tell them that they should appoint someone to fill Mary Ann Taylor's vacant seat who will not be a rubber stamp.

That's what caused this problem in the first place.

Copeland on Savage Report This Week

Local attorney Andy Savage is not known for asking puffball questions.

Tune in to the Savage Report this coming week on Channel 2 at either 11:30 a.m. or 8:30 p.m. to see his interview with Henry Copeland, candidate for the open seat on the Charleston County School Board of Trustees. Also questioned are resigned member Mary Ann Taylor and Elizabeth Moffly, still a member of the Board.

The Charleston County delegation will make its choice later this month after interviewing all of the candidates.

Choice of 14 CCSD Board Candidates Down to 6

Apparently, the opportunity to sit on the Charleston County School District Board of Trustees is a coveted one. How else to explain the plethora of individuals willing to serve out the unexpired term of Mary Ann Taylor? Maybe some of these individuals would like to serve but not to run for election.

Recommendation #1: Any candidate not planning to run for election when Taylor's term expires should not be appointed. Rationale: The district doesn't need a bench-warmer who will take most of the term to figure out what his or her responsibilities are and what's going on in the district--if that's possible.  That eliminates Brian Moody, who actually volunteers just to warm the seat, not that we need any more Chamber of Commerce lackeys on the Board--it has enough clout already!

Recommendation #2: The Board needs members with business or financial experience who can question the budget process. Bringing transparency and public confidence to the district's finances should be the candidate's first priority. That eliminates a few more: Luther W. Seabrook, who doesn't state his background but is retired from education; Jan Roberts, also retired from educational administration; Susan Milliken, non-practicing attorney of unspecified legal speciality; Deborah Bootle Ducker, retired teacher and principal; Rew "Skip" Godow, Jr., retired from Trident Technical College administration; Craig H. Jelks, middle school history teacher; and Trent Kernodle, practicing attorney specializing in products liability and construction law.

We have six candidates who have business experience in some form.

As we all know, there's business experience, and then there's business experience. What would prepare the individual for the task at hand? Remember those outside directors at Enron? (see previous posting)

Is Brian Hicks Naive or Ignorant?

Following the party line?

So it seems with P&C columnist Brian Hicks in his latest column on the support of Charleston County's charter schools for Henry Copeland's appointment to replace Mary Ann Taylor on the CCSD Board of Trustees. Hicks echoes an article published earlier this week attempting to suggest those schools were illegally pushing for Copeland.

Has he been paying attention? Hicks goes so far as to suggest, based on her affirmation, that Superintendent Nancy McGinley is pro-charter.

Excuse the horse-laugh.

Maybe Hicks needs to visit a few public schools during school board elections. Oh, that's right! No politicking goes on there!

Please!

CCSD Needs Voice for Taxpayers

As the editors of the P&C have correctly stated, the newly-appointed member to the Board of Trustees (to replace the resigned Mary Ann Taylor) should be a person who reflects Taylor's views.

In fact, it makes no sense to appoint either of her opponents, Miller or Seabrook, to the Board because the voters have already rejected them once in favor of Taylor.  Nor does it make sense to allow the Chamber of Commerce another seat on the Board in the person of Brian Moody. After all, the Chamber already controls the Board in the person of Chris Fraser.

No, the most feared appointee will be one who can read financial statements and ask intelligent questions, one who will guard the interests of students in the district by guarding the wasteful spending of taxpayer dollars. That attitude alone will put that person in the voting minority--at least until the next school board election.

Do we really want another go-along-and-get-along member as the superintendent's salary and those of her close administrative staff reach for one million dollars a year? 

Yes, Henry Copeland, has locked horns with the Taj Mahal over wasteful expenditures, uninforced policies, backroom decisions, and lottery shenigans. He sounds perfect.

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.

Taylor's Irresponsible Resignation

While I have the greatest respect for now former Charleston County School Board member Mary Ann Taylor, I must also respectfully disagree with her decision to resign from the Board over the salary issue.

Perhaps Taylor just didn't understand fully when she ran how nasty and vindictive CCSD's administration can be. Certainly she has gone several rounds with them previously. But Taylor was one of the sane voices on the Board of Trustees. Whoever replaces her is unlikely to know as much about the inner workings of the district or to have as level a view.

Having said that, what does Taylor want for the Board? Perhaps we need a ballot initiative: should only rich people serve on the Board of Trustees? Will anyone take a Board seriously that basically is treated as "volunteer" and paid gas money? A board that supposedly oversees a multi-million dollar enterprise with a "CEO" that packs away more than a quarter of a million dollars per year? Are the districts in Columbia and Greenville simply spendthrifts for the salaries paid to their trustees, or do they simply take their trustees more seriously?

The Post and Courier only added to the confusion by its outrageous headline today. Should we pay the county or city council members only $25 per meeting?

Think about it!

CCSD's Taylor Speaks Truth to Power

Speaking truth to power is perhaps the oldest and, certainly, one of
the most difficult of ethical challenges because to do entails personal danger.
From the day humans descended from our ape-like ancestors until only very
recently, tribal leaders, clan elders, kings, and just plain bosses were men who
ruled by force. To question their decisions was to risk death.--James O'Toole

Fortunately, in the Charleston County School District these days, speaking truth to power risks defamation of one's character, not death!

The latest attack perpetrated by Superintendent Nancy McGinley (with the total cooperation of the P&C) on a duly elected member of the Board of Trustees, Mary Ann Taylor, is the case in point. Imagine that a retired teacher with 27 years of experience in the classroom would dare to disagree with a graduate of the Broad Institute! What is this world coming to?

In a four-page letter to the superintendent, Taylor expressed her views concerning the role of the local NAACP chapter in running CCSD. Naively. Why, she actually assumed that the content of a private letter to the superintendent would not be bandied about the offices of the Taj Mahal at 75 Calhoun, handed directly to Dot Scott, or excerpted for the P&C! Strangely, Taylor assumed that McGinley was an honorable colleague who had the best interests of CCSD's students at heart.

We've seen two or three paragraphs from the letter so kindly reprinted by the P&C. Don't you wonder what the rest of the content concerned? Whatever it was, it wasn't good for slander.

Now Taylor has hired a lawyer versed in school board law to defend herself against Chris Fraser's additional ill-conceived and false accusations, which to this day McGinley's minions are distributing.

Clearly, McGinley's goal is to hound Taylor off the Board or shut her up. Not going to happen, Nancy.

P&C HIt Job on CCSD's Taylor Coming

The P&C had to figure out just the right angle from which to attack CCSD Board member Mary Ann Taylor. That must explain the long delay in its reporting what has been in the wind for several weeks. The attacks on Kandrac and Collins over, on to discrediting Taylor!

The on-line teaser put out on Sunday hints at malfeasance without providing the least amount of information--how typical. As character assassination, the editor believes being a Republican is enough.

Fortunately, Taylor has been wise enough to hire a lawyer with expertise in the field.

Stay tuned.

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.

P&C Sits on Taylor-Fraser Confrontation

As if.

As if it weren't enough to print press releases from 75 Calhoun as though they are news reports, or carry out the wishes of the CCSD Board Chairman to disparage only members who disagree with his high-handed attitude, now comes the clincher.

What justifies the Post and Courier's sitting on the blockbuster news of an illegal threat of removal made to Board member Mary Ann Taylor by Chris Fraser?

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.

Darby Creates "Straw Man" to Argue for Rivers

• In his (dare we say it?) bi-monthly column Thursday masquerading as an op-ed piece for the P&C, vice-president of the Charleston Area NAACP, Joseph Darby, uses demeaning language against Charleston County School Board members Moffly and Taylor. He also insinuates that those two Board members are racist for raising the possibility of putting Lowcountry Tech (that phantom school) at the Burke campus.


• Darby, a non-native of Charleston, non-graduate of its schools, and non-resident of its peninsula, lectures Moffly and Taylor on Burke's history as a "place for minimal vocational training" and "'a place to supply cooks, maids and delivery boys,'" information that he has gleaned from reading about CCSD's history.


• Carrying his arguments to their logical conclusion, putting Lowcountry Tech at Burke would be a racist action. Strange, isn't it? A program providing access to future high-tech jobs he rates in the same category as training cooks, maids, and delivery boys?


• Darby's prism seeks out white racism at every turn, action, and word. There are no exceptions. The reality is that Darby himself is racist. Such an attitude should disqualify him from his post with the NAACP and ought to give those pause who view him as a Christian pastor.

New CCSD Board Members Ask Too Many Questions

New board members should be seen and not heard.

That's how the adage goes, isn't it? Well, at least in the world of Superintendent Nancy McGinley and the obsequious chairman of the Charleston County Schools Board of Trustees, Chris Fraser.

Fraser posits the unusual idea that when new members are elected, they should stick with the opinions of those they replaced instead of representing the taxpayers who elected them. Rather like President Obama's announcing that, despite being elected as a Democrat, he intended to reinforce all of the policies of the previous administration (admittedly, some would say that he largely has! Still).

Why did Fraser sent an email to all board members asking them not to revisit old issues (at the bequest of the Superintendent, no doubt)? Because Mary Ann Taylor and Cindy Bohn Coats are asking too many questions that were ignored in the past and remain unanswered. Why, good grief, Taylor and Coats even set up a meeting with Bill Lewis, Michael Bobby, and Troy Williams to get some answers. Heaven forbid! That one had to be nipped in the bud before causing too much "work" for the district.

Where have we heard this song and dance before?

Sample questions include such old chestnuts as

• What are the benefits of rebuilding versus retrofitting Sullivans Island Elementary?


• Have any contract service providers (such as Heery) ever been approached by any CCSD employees or school board members (past or present) seeking and/or initiating favors?


• Where are the demographic data to support CCSD's choices for where to place schools? To size them?


• What is the CCSD transportation bus cost?


• Where have Fraser students been transferred since its closing? What tracking data have been kept on each to see if the new school's program is effective?

It's a good list. Fraser and McGinley will do their best to ignore it.

McGinley & CCSD Board Putting Students at Risk?

The list in Tuesday's P & C of "waves" of CCSD school construction financed by the one percent sales tax deserves a Bronx cheer.

After years of alarm concerning seismic deficiencies leading to the transfer of students from five schools and massive busing of same, Superintendent McGinley and the Charleston County School Board have decided that further exploration of seismic problems in other school buildings can be safely put off until some later date as yet unnamed. Apparently, the only Board member to object was Mary Ann Taylor. Chris Fraser, the Board Chair, has some 'splaining to do.

Either an earthquake is imminent, or it's not. Fraser and the Board can't have it both ways.