Who's in Charge: CCSD Superintendent or School Board?

Amazingly, the Charleston County School Board has done something not first pushed by Superintendent McGinley: moved Lowcountry Tech from the Rivers building and voted to allow the Charleston School for Math and Science the use of the building instead of multiple trailers. It's a nightmare!

Well, it's a nightmare for McGinley. What this sensible vote suggests is that her long domination of the Board that is legally her boss may be ending. When did the Board last go against her wishes? Not in my memory.

McGinley is beholden to special interest groups who have no real interest in the education of Charleston County's students. They have a political agenda instead. That political agenda does not allow for a fully-integrated school on the peninsula that they do not control through the superintendent.

It would be nice to say that this disagreement with the elected school board is the handwriting on the wall, but don't hold your breath waiting for McGinley to resign, even if she's reduced to stating idiotically that Burke doesn't have room for the tech programs.

So now CSMS must wait for passage of the not-a-penny sales tax extension?

Please.

CCSD Should Pay Attention to More Than Squeaky Wheel of NAACP

Would you believe that the Rev. Joseph Darby surmises that the Charleston County School District's Charter School for Math and Science will be entirely white by 2025?

Really, CSMS has been an embarrassment to the district from its beginnings by a group of diverse parents, to its fight with CCSD administration for trailer space at the old Rivers campus, to its present status of the MOST INTEGRATED SCHOOL IN THE ENTIRE SCHOOL DISTRICT.

Shame on Darby. His ritualistic op-ed columns provide the equivalent of "waving the bloody shirt" of earlier times.

Here's the skinny: Charleston County Schools administration (i.e., Nancy McGinley) made a foolish promise to the NAACP and Ministerial Alliance in order to get their undying support. The aforementioned have no problems with having all-black schools in the district. For a group of grass roots parents to create a well-integrated school on the peninsula without their blessing added insult to injury.

Lowcountry Tech at the Rivers building has never made any sense given that Burke is half-empty and many Burke alumni and parents want the tech classes there. It has never made any sense to bus in students from around the county when their participation precludes participation in sports and other activities or adds two hours to the school day.

The sole purpose of LTA at Rivers at this point is to preclude CSMS from using the rest of the building and to keep the NAACP's support of McGinley.

It's not about the children.

CCSD Caught Violating Open Meetings Law

And not by the P&C, which habitually ignores such FOIA trespasses, except when its own ox is gored.

The whistle-blower is the SC Press Association, which correctly points out that public was not notified of the tour of the Rivers building where a quorum of the Charleston County Board of Trustees showed up.

The wrong-headed decision of the Board will go forward now that the renovations have been finished.

Lowcountry Tech will share the Rivers campus with the Charter School for Math and Science (CSMS).

CSMS will remain in mobile classrooms ad infinitum.

The NAACP and Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance, both intentionally de facto segregated , will continue to complain that CSMS is 50 percent white. They also assume, and are determined to enforce, that Lowcountry Tech be 100 percent black.

Burke Middle High School will continue to be half empty and 100 percent black.

One bad decision after another. Decisions have consequences. Charleston County students must live with them.

Rivers Campus at the Crossroads

When will the Charleston County School District finally stop kowtowing to the Chamber of Commerce and self-appointed spokespersons for the black community about the Rivers campus?

Against all common sense, Superintendent McGinley and the "Citizens United for Public Schools" (a misnomer if there ever was one!) insist on creating a phantom "tech" school at the newly-renovated Rivers campus in order to forestall the growth of the highly-successful and totally diverse Charter School for Math and Science. Low Country Tech will not even be a school in its own right but a series of classes with students bused in from other schools in the district!

In CCSD, absurdity has no limits when it comes to the disdain of the superintendent and the NAACP for the wishes of the community. In order to force CSMS to continue using mobile classrooms on the Rivers campus, the superintendent will leave Burke Middle High nearly half empty and spend money busing Burke students to Rivers.

Will the insanity never end? The Burke community wants the program at Burke. Only the superintendent's stubbornness prevents an obvious (and cheaper) solution to the need for tech programs in the district. Dot Scott and her crowd have been proven wrong about the supposed conspiracy to create an all-white charter school in District 20.  How soon we forget (and that goes for the reporter too) that Rivers space was provided to CSMS practically over the dead bodies of the above.
Never was there consensus on sharing the building, no matter what the superintendent's sycophants pushed through in 2007.

It's time to face facts in CCSD. Low Country Tech does not exist. CSMS does and is thriving and outgrowing its facilities. Why can't the district allow success to succeed?

Charleston's NAACP Silent on School Closings

McClellanville, North Charleston, Johns Island, downtown Charleston--name all of the areas most affected by the School Redesign proposals of Charleston County Superintendent of Schools Nancy McGinley. Notice what percentage of the neighborhood schools put forth for destruction are almost all black--that would be 100%. Notice which communities will be most affected by destruction of neighborhood centers--that would be traditionally black communities.

Then ask yourself: where is Dot Scott? How about Joe Darby? Developed laryngitis, have they? Has the NAACP taken a year-end vacation? Did it take the Ministerial Alliance with it?

Or have they sold out?

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

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

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

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

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

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

Say It Ain't So, Joe!

Why would Superintendent McGinley and a representative of the charter high school committee meet in the office of the mayor of Charleston four days before McGinley announced her commitment to charging a high rent on the Rivers building that insisted on an illegal quota system and sharing of the building with a phantom "Lowcountry High Tech" school?

According to a well-placed source,

" Mayor Riley and Dr. McGinley called a meeting in the mayor's office with a representative of the charter school group in order to dictate terms for the occupancy of the Rivers building. The lone charter school representative who was allowed to attend the meeting was essentially ambushed. This meeting was four days before the county school board's vote (last Monday) and several days after Mayor Riley had assured representatives of the NAACP and the Ministerial Alliance that he would 'take care of the matter.' Mayor Riley and Dr. McGinley agreed in advance that they would make the environment so objectionable at Rivers that the Charter School would be unable to attract the numbers that it would need. The rent discussion was just a distraction for what would really KILL the charter school outright which is what both officials appear to want."

The only person with the authority to "call a meeting in the mayor's office" IS the mayor. The last time I looked, Mayor Riley had no legal standing in CCSD. In fact, although once the Charleston city schools functioned under the aegis of the mayor and council, as a result of the Act of Consolidation that is no longer true. Not "legally." That never stopped Joe Riley apparently. It's unlikely that he called this meeting in his role as a board member of the Charleston Education Network.

It's not difficult to understand that, although McGinley gives lip service to the concept of charter schools, she really hates them. After all, public charter schools COMPETE with the other public schools run by the district and its school board. As with James Island Charter High School, the probability exists that sooner or later authorities in charge of the other public schools will look like bad managers (for obvious reasons). What is not so clear is why Mayor Joe Riley wants to kill the downtown charter high school.

What do the NAACP and Ministerial Alliance hold against integrated high schools? Does Joe Riley really believe that his opposition to the charter high school will guarantee the support of African-American voters? Why? How can he even look them in the eye after what has happened to downtown schools on his 32-year watch?

CEN's Big and Little Shots: Who's Playing in CCSD

Not too surprisingly, the Board of Directors of the Charleston Education Network (CEN) is comprised of big shots, money bags, and even the occasional educator.


Jon Butzon, its executive director, reports to a chairman, co-chairman, and 24 directors. Since the tax reports of 501(c) organizations (such as CEN) must be available to the public, through a helpful reader I am able to provide the names of these mysterious eminences, at least as of two years ago. Perhaps you can add some pertinent information to my groping attempts to identify all of them.

1. Neil C. Robinson, Jr., a lawyer with Nexsen Pruett, a director who states he is a founder and past chairman of CEN on the firm's website;


2. John Barter of Kiawah Island, listed as past co-chair, on the Board of Directors of Spoleto Festival USA and Board of Investors of the Noisette Company;


3. James Etheredge, vice-chairman for operations, has an MUSC email address;


4. Wilbur Johnson, lawyer with Young Rivers Clement;


5. Sybil Fix, former education reporter for the P & C;


6. Katherine Duffy, of Katherine Duffy and Associates, a marketing research firm, former director of the Palmetto-Lowcountry Health Systems Agency;


7. Lee Gaillard, former principal of Burke High School and present interim principal at Murray Hill Academy;


8. Edwin Halkyard, former president of the Charleston Symphony Orchestra;


9. Thomas Hood, president of First Financial (better known in Charleston as "First Federal");


10. Robert Lurie, retired founder of Bright Horizons Corporate Day Care, who lives on Kiawah;


11. Cathy Marino, also of Kiawah, active in Gibbes, Etc., and WINGS;


12. Elizabeth Marshall--no clear information available;


13. Sara Davis Powell, professor in C of C's School of Education;


14. Allan Rashford, M.D., downtown practitioner whose patients include former police chief Reuben Greenberg;


15. Retired Bishop (and former chairman) S.K. Rembert of the Reformed Episcopal Church;


16. Joseph P. Riley, Jr., who needs no introduction;


17. John Thompson, whose name is so common that no reliable identification can be made here;


18. Ruth Baker, another activist in community affairs from Kiawah;


19. Nella Barkley, director of Crystal-Barkley and first general manager of Spoleto Festival USA;


20. Johanna Carrington-Martin, co-chairman previously identified here;


21. The Rev. Willis T. Goodwin, chairman of the Charleston Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance;


22. Alicia Gregory, identified as Secretary, also on the board of directors of the Children's Museum along with Robert Lurie, its president;


23. Paul Hines, Co-chair of the Blue Ribbon Education Committee that opposed the A-team in the last school board election;


24. Rita O'Neill, General Manager of Channel 5;


25. Theron Snype, Minority Business Enterprise Manager for the City of Charleston and CCSD school board candidate in 2004;


26. Elisabeth Oplinger, former principal at Memminger Elementary.

In 2005 CEN listed its address as Capers Hall, Room 330. In that year it received almost $93,000 in "public support," $65,ooo of which went for Butzon's salary as the only employee.

Considerable overlap exists between this group and the members of the Charleston Planning Project for Pubic Education (C3PE) that produced a year-long study of public education in Charleston County in 1998. That organization's work was described by the Charleston Business Journal as

"the Equity and Excellence Study funded by private donations generated through a volunteer committee, the Charleston Planning Project for Public Education. C3PE is an education planning group consisting of business leaders and educators who are dedicated to the overall improvement of Charleston County schools."

Is that study the blueprint for the Charleston Education Network?

Who calls the shots in this unwieldy committee of 26?

Who decides what policies to push?

Where does more than $92,000 in "public support" come from?

What are Butzon's qualifications for sitting in on CCSD meetings?

Why does CCSD list CEN under "parent" organizations?

Any and all answers will be appreciated!

NAACP: Wearing Mental Blinders

Protesting that they "had no idea" that Monday was McGinley's first day on the job as superintendent, the NAACP and Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance rallied yesterday before the former Rivers Middle School to insist that CCSD not allow a charter high school on its premises. You have to wonder just whom they think they represent. How many of the participants in yesterday's rally actually live on the penninsula? NAACP President Dot Scott doesn't.

Many statements made to the media (and this was an event staged solely for the benefit of media coverage) are simply untrue. Channel 5's reporter even was told that the building should not be used, that "nothing needs to be done with it." Channel 5 was also told that the "School Board has proposed making it into a District 20 charter school." Would that it were so! The truth is that the NAACP was caught flat-footed by the groundswell of community support--both black and white--in evidence at last month's meeting on proposals for Rivers.

Dot Scott's remarks to Channel 5 (reported on its website) become increasingly disingenuous. First, she practically states that the school will become a private one and then suggests it will end up like Beaufort Academy. The latter is not, nor does it appear ever to have been, a charter school; it is a private school, pure and simple. She also suggests that, contrary to state law, the school will become one for the privileged and white. Why does she continue to ignore the obvious community support among black residents on the penninsula for the charter high school? Why is she ignoring state-mandated requirements for charter schools that will prevent such an outcome?

Scott's statement in today's P & C calls for those who are "really serious about diversity" to "choose [Burke High School]." Just exactly what does she have in mind here? Burke is a failing school because it has been run by CCSD; that continues to be the case. Maybe Scott should consider starting a movement to turn Burke into a charter school. Except, of course, state law would require it to be "diverse." She really doesn't want that.

James Island Charter High School uses a public school building. Scott would like readers of the P & C to believe that it's not fair for another charter high school to similarly use a public school building. Nonsense. In fact, since Rivers was originally the name of a high school, let's bring back the old name.

Rivers Charter High School. Now, doesn't that sound good?

CCSD, NAACP, & Ministerial Alliance: Unholy Trio

Sunday's Post and Courier story on youth recruitment by Charleston's NAACP contains both interesting facts and revealing quotations. For example, the local branch has a membership of 625, only five percent of whom are white, as opposed to Columbia's branch (size not given) that has a membership that is 35 percent white. Why the great disparity?

Now, of course, statistics don't always tell the full story, as I recently noted regarding Academic Magnet's success in Newsweek's index; however, perhaps these percentages do give a clue to the orientation of local leadership--namely, their continued position that true integration of downtown schools is a BAD idea, not a good one. From everything I have heard and read since returning to the Charleston area six years ago, the NAACP has worked closely with Joe Riley for more than 30 years while supporting the positions of CCSD and its school board. The results are de facto segregation in District 20 and miserably failing schools.

But, of course, many of the youth affected by this sorry state of affairs are poor. In the same article William Jenkins, of the Father to Father Project in North Charleston (and an NAACP member), suggests that the poor he works with see "the NAACP as a middle-class organization out of touch with their needs." That certainly fits with the residence of its local leaders in West Ashley and the attitude of Toya Hampton-Green, the one Board member who resides in District 20 but claims to represent the interests of the whole district instead.

The Post and Courier has reported several times now that the NAACP and the Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance, supposedly representing 10,000 downtown residents desirous of CCSD's opening a tech school in the Rivers building, "staunchly" oppose the creation of a downtown charter high school for math and science. Their reason? To prevent further segregation of downtown schools.

You mean the half-dozen white students who now attend District 20 schools (excluding Buist, of course) would have to leave?

What's the REAL agenda?