Forget the Economy: CCSD Board Sinks to New Low

I hate profanity. If anyone called me a bitch to my face, I'd probably slap him. My father, who as a former Marine probably knew plenty, never used profanity at any time around me when I was growing up. Arthur Ravenel, Jr., revealed to me by his choice of words to a woman that he is no Southern gentleman, but then I never thought he was. I am still offended by any profanity that I hear used by my peers and can't even imagine the duress I would need to be under to use it in the classroom. There.

That said, can we get real here?

Monday night's CCSD School Board meeting was a classic of its kind. [See New Behavior Standards for Members Proposed]. It's politics, folks. This is appeasement of our lovely, ineffective NAACP, as represented by Dot Scott. Why, if the new policy were made retroactive, Hillery Douglas himself would be in the dock! I'll support the policy when every student who calls a teacher a bitch will be sent to Murray Hill Academy or expelled. That will be a cold day in hell.

The Meyers faction is proposing to use its 5-4 majority to expell ELECTED members of the Board who oppose it, pure and simple. Ravenel not only opposes them; he has the contacts to do it effectively. [BTW, there was a time when I wouldn't have believed that I would ever defend Ravenel!] You don't really believe this is about bad language, do you? If so, please see me later about my bridge in Brooklyn.

We have yet to hear from CCSD's new attorney on the legality of the Board's ousting an elected member. Frankly, until I hear otherwise from state sources, I refuse to believe it. Even Meyers admitted that taking such action would be a "'zoo.'" Zoo? It would be a witch hunt! Can you imagine the trumped up charges that would routinely appear in attempts to get those who don't "go along to get along" with Meyers?

This is about intimidation of members who choose to disagree. The P & C is happy to go along with it. If you read the article carefully, you will see that Ravenel's original outburst concerned failure to put an item on the Board's agenda. It states, "He also told McGinley he'd have her job if she didn't put a certain item on the school board's agenda, according to McGinley's account." Our wonderful newspaper neglects to mention what that item was. Can you guess what?

It was approval of arrangements for CSMS to use the Rivers campus. If the item had not been added to that agenda, CSMS would have lost out on using the campus. See, the plot thickens.

P & C Takes Sides in CCSD Dispute

Splashed all over the front of the P & C Friday morning was one of the most important stories to come out of CCSD this year! At least it must have been to receive the place of honor above the fold. So, was this startling information about the school district banner news about its achievements or even its failures?

Of course not. It was about a spat among CCSD school board members facilitated by employees of 75 Calhoun. [See Threats to McGinley's Job Alleged ].

Lost in the explosion about "he said--she said" was the reason for the anger. Found in the detritus was a stick to beat members of the school board (mainly Arthur Ravenel, Jr.) who don't take directives from Gregg Meyers et al. Seizing the chance to overreact in an election year, Douglas and his toadies made noises about changing the policies of the Board so that language might be a cause for public censure: "A board member who violates the code could face public discipline."

Spare us the sanctimonious simpers. No one excuses foul language, not even Arthur Ravenel, Jr., as it seems from his later TV interview today, and his explosion of temper was truly uncalled for, for the person who took the agreement with the Charter School for Math and Science to use the Rivers building off the Board's agenda was not present. In fact, no one has said who took it off, so we must read the tea leaves. Judging from remarks regarding the Superintendent, it must have been McGinley.

Needless to say, the P &C ignored the issue, hoping not to pick at the scab that has formed over the ongoing dispute between organizers of CSMS and the school board, which is seething quietly over its inability to stop CSMS's fulfillment. That continues to be the real story.

Oh, and one other observation. Courrege apparently parrots whatever Meyers et al say to her. How else to explain the statement that, "Cook and Toler frequently vote with Ravenel on controversial issues"? That statement was, of course, made to cast doubt on their neutrality in the dispute. Instead, it reveals the reporter's ignorance about the relationship between Cook and Ravenel.

May we get on to the topic at hand--when IS the CCSD board going to grapple with the CSMS agreement? When hell freezes over?

YouthBuild Builds at Last: CCSD Soap Opera

The long, sad odyssey of Sea Islands YouthBuild Charter School seems to be coming to a resolution, if a temporary one. Today's P & C reports that the school finally has a building. [See Sea Islands YouthBuild Home at Last ]

At the end of the school year. The school managed to dodge the cut-off of district funds several times during the year [see several postings on this blog], but this summer the CCSD School Board will be forced to choose: is it going to fund this school in the future or not? Has the school met its obligations to remain in good standing?

Comparisons have been made between Sea Islands and the new Charter School for Math and Science over the last few months. It's time to take stock. The two charters certainly have been treated differently by the CCSD School Board; that's because, leaving aside differences in their missions, these two charters are entirely different in genesis, motivation, and parental involvement. Perhaps there are some lessons to be learned.

• Sea Islands was encouraged by 75 Calhoun to form under the well-meaning guidance of a former employee of CCSD and friend of 75 Calhoun in order to meet the needs of older at-risk students who would no longer be eligible for Murray Hill Academy because the district changed its policies regarding Murray Hill. The students targeted for YouthBuild were unlikely to have much parental support or involvement in its organization.
  
• Charter School for Math and Science started as a grass-roots effort among parents of District 20 students who were discouraged by their choices of failing schools. From the beginning, it seems, the CCSD board was miffed that it did not control the actions of this group.
  
• When the CCSD Board of Trustees approved YouthBuild, it failed in its duty to these needy students by trustingly accepting the word of its organizer that a facility that would meet state standards was available for use. Such was not the case.
• The CCSD Board of Trustees never trusted CSMS in any regard because it hated the idea of a charter high school downtown, with members repeatedly hinting that its organizers were racists. Strong grass-roots support among all races downtown won over public opinion.
  
• The lack of a building and monthly perambulations of YouthBuild from pillar to post, coupled with lack of busing, guaranteed a major reduction in the number of students in attendance. Meanwhile, the district continued to pay funds based on initial numbers of students. Records of attendance were not made available to the district when requested.
• When CSMS organizers saw the old Rivers High School building sitting vacant and requested its use, the School Board attempted to quash and/or gain control over it by suggesting exorbitant rent, then raising the number of millions needed to bring the building up to standards (never mind that the building had been vacant for a very brief period) to a ridiculous figure.
• Perhaps as part of its agreement with CCSD to keep getting funding despite its not following the rules, Sea Islands did not ask for space in public school buildings, although certainly such space exists. Now it has signed a three-year contract to rent an old warehouse that students themselves will renovate.
  

According to Larry Blasch, chairman of YouthBuild's board, "the school will spend another $30,000 improving the space so it can clear state and local inspections and be occupied by students." So the space will finally meet requirements just as school is getting out for the summer?

Given that expenditure and the signing of a three-year contract, it seems reasonable to assume that the fix is in, even though the Board will be not updated in regard to continuing its support until its meeting later this month.

Taxpayers deserve to know what CCSD has gotten for their money in regard to students at YouthBuild: How many credits have been earned per tax dollar? How many diplomas?

And has CCSD learned its lesson?

CEN's Butzon Butts in on Charter School Rent

Don't you just love the edu-blob? It pretends to have the best interests of students at heart, when in fact it has its OWN interests at heart. Take Jon Butzon, of the Charleston Education Network, a Riley and Chamber-of-Commerce front--please take him!

Monday's P & C's op-ed page has a message from Butzon: The sky is falling in CCSD. Run for your life.

Butzon tries to link CCSD's financial woes to its failure to charge rent to the new Charter School for Math and Science. For example,

"Locally sponsored charter schools are already a financial albatross for school districts. When charter school proponents complain about the slow growth of charter schools in South Carolina, they typically attribute that slow growth to anti-charter sentiments among educators and school boards. But as the law is currently written, having charter schools is a financial disincentive for school boards."

What you really mean, Jon, is that school boards lose control of the money that goes to those students. I agree it's a financial disincentive but only because many on the school board have other agendas than the best interests of the students involved. You and I both know that the amount of money alloted per student in the district does not change--only who handles it.

More to the point, why should the Charleston Education Network get a chair at the table? Who elected it to decide what policies the district should have about anything? Why do so many friends of Riley and Democratic activists sit on the committee? What qualifies Jon Butzon to sound off on the finances of the district and its funding? Let's see his credentials.

As I inquired in a posting last July 27th,

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"[as of 3 years ago] come from?
What are Butzon's qualifications for sitting in on CCSD meetings?
Why does CCSD list CEN under "parent" organizations?

Well, Jon? Why did CEN leave its offices at the Citadel? Why is it that on CEN's website not a single member of the committee is listed under "Who We Are"?

Don't you just love it?

SC Senate District 42: The CCSD Connection

Have you ever tried reading the contributions reports of candidates running for office? They can easily be found on the website of the State Ethics Commission. Inspired by the P & C's report of contributions made to State Senator Robert Ford and his challenger Dwayne Green, I tracked down the senate district number (42) and scrolled through both lists of contributors. [See Green Passes Ford in Senate Race Cash ]

Although I said months ago that Dwayne Green, husband of Toya Hampton-Green of the CCSD Board of Trustees, planned to be mayor of Charleston someday, I must now qualify that by admitting that Green wants to replace State Senator Robert Ford first. I don't know Sen. Ford, nor have I followed state politics closely enough to know if he is vulnerable to this challenge. But what I do know is that the Greens have been enjoying the perks of being Charleston's young black "power couple." Toya's election to the school board after representing CCSD for a local law firm was well bankrolled by local Democrats, and she won despite lack of support from District 20, the constituent district she represents (oops, I mean the one she lives in, since she claims that she represents the WHOLE county). Strangely enough [sorry, the sarcasm just slipped through] the Greens' child was a winner in Buist Academy's "lottery." Readers of this blog will understand that we are using the word "lottery" loosely here.

Toya-Hampton Green has been one of the most vocal critics of CCSD's allowing the new Charter School for Math and Science to use the Rivers building, so I certainly should not have been surprised to see the name of Alice Paylor, present attorney for CCSD, as a contributor to Dwayne Green's campaign.

Cozy, isn't it?

Toya's Op-Ed: It's a Gusher for CCSD

If you've given up subscribing to the P & C, you probably haven't seen the latest puff-piece in support of the CCSD School Board in Wednesday's op-ed piece, "One School Board Member's Update: Grounds for Optimism" by school board member Toya Hampton-Green. I'll spare you the bulk of it, since much of it rehashes the rent controversy over the Charter School for Math & Science and explains how the district's budget is being affected by the changes in funding. Needless to say, her viewpoint is indistinguishable from that of Gregg Meyers, et al.

However, some statements were interesting.

According to Green, "We would be fortunate to have [Superintendent McGinley] in Charleston until she retires, which is something she has stated she is interested in doing." Since McGinley's already worn out her welcome in many quarters, that longevity seems unlikely. On the other hand, who else would pay her as much as we do?

Also, Green states, "A board majority voted in favor of allowing [CSMS]'s use of a facility with a rent charge." Although she rehashes the legal issues involved, Green never mentions the unusually high rent proposed nor the racial-quota aspects of CSMS's getting it lowered, an aspect clearly against the law.

Green touts as the Board's accomplishments the release of funds to increase the pay of principals and administrators in the district with a new evaluation process as adjunct. Yes, CCSD officials are fleeing the district due to non-competitive pay in the "Southeast region."

Finally, Green suggests that a strategy to get experienced teachers employed elsewhere in CCSD to "voluntarily transfer to schools in the district that are rated below average or unsatisfactory" is the fruit of eliminating the input of teacher hiring and transfer oversight by constituent boards. What? You mean the district has tried to provide incentives previously? When?

Most ironically for some of us who can recall Hampton-Green's position that she does not represent District 20 but the entire district, she states, "Keep the inquiries coming." Does THAT apply to District 20 also?

Finally, she challenges the P & C to provide more "positive" coverage of the district, providing her own ironic ending.

P & C Charter School Piece Good for a Laugh

CCSD is an "incubator"! Why, thank goodness. Our failing school system has a positive aspect as an incubator for charter schools, no less! I'm sure the various folk involved with the new Charter School for Math and Science got a good chortle over that one this morning, but maybe Courrege is right--just not in the positive way she spins it.

From Merriam-Webster's On-line Dictionary:

one that incubates: as a: an apparatus by which eggs are hatched artificially b: an apparatus with a chamber used to provide controlled environmental conditions especially for the cultivation of microorganisms or the care and protection of premature or sick babies c: an organization or place that aids the development of new business ventures especially by providing low-cost commercial space, management assistance, or shared services

Yes, we can agree that CCSD has provided the "controlled environmental conditions" needed for the spread of charter schools. That would disastrous policies and poor planning that have led to the mess we are in today, one that encourages parents to get their children out of traditional public schools in any way they can.

Even in a back-handed way, we can agree that CCSD has aided "the development of new [charter schools]," albeit in a negative fashion. That is, as more and more diverse groups of constituents find common cause in jumping ship from its sinking system, new charter schools are being born. However, someone needs to read the last part of the definition to CCSD: that of "providing low-cost commericial space, management assistance, or shared services." Well, actually these charter schools can thrive without the last two!

In fact, if trends keep up, perhaps the CCSD School Board will no longer need to exist.

See School district has most charter schools in state, expected to grow

Bill "Tear-em-Down" Lewis Continues CCSD Rampage

My prediction is that, when Bill Lewis gets through with CCSD, there won't be a building left standing that wasn't built on his watch.

The latest controversy is over tearing down the Jennie Moore Elementary building in Mt. Pleasant. See [Group fights to save school .] Funny thing, those most affected are objecting. Today's P & C neatly encapsulates Lewis's philosophy of razing. According to the article,

Bill Lewis is executive director of the school district's building program.

• which qualifies him to tear down every ante-Lewis school in the County.
  

The preservation group [Gullah Heritage Foundation] has been invited to participate in the planning process for the new schools to ensure the Gullah heritage is incorporated in the new campus. . .

• a plaque? a picture?
  

but the school district isn't in the position to give a building to them because the Jennie Moore land is needed for new schools, [Lewis] said.

• because of the way he's planning to utilize the property
  

The school district has been able to buy the land adjacent to Jennie Moore, which is an ideal spot for the new Laing

• which brings up another school that shouldn't be moved, but when Bill Lewis talks, CCSD listens--or is it the other way around?
  

and creates a similar synergy to the schools in Park West, Lewis said.

• "Synergy" is a 50-cent word for "traffic jam"
  

Jennie Moore will be expanded from 500 to 800 students,

• so that it will lose its small-school atmosphere and become another "government learning center" to warehouse students
  

and the cost to renovate, expand and ensure that it meets current codes would cost almost the same as a new building, he said.

• well, then don't expand. Anyway, after what's happened with Lewis's figures on renovating the old Rivers High Building, does anyone trust his calculations?
  

Laing Middle also will be expanded,

• so that it, too, will become another government learning center to warehouse students
  

and its current site is too small to hold a new school with the desired capacity.

• let's see--who's desiring this capacity? Lewis or the parents of students now slated to attend Laing?
  

The district plans to sell the Laing site and use the proceeds to help fund its new building.

• Sell? No kidding. I wonder which developer with ties to CCSD and Joe Riley will be buying.
  

All schools are built to be community centers, Lewis said.

• Well, now that's clear!

CCSD's Douglas: We Won't Hold CSMS Back

Can I quote you, Hillery?

Acting on the advice of CCSD's "experienced educators," the Charter School for Math and Science's organizers had pared down their original plans for two sections of eighth graders to a request for one, or about 20 students, in their 180-student school.

Turns out the waiting list for eighth grade was another section long. Why should that be a surprise? Could it be that many parents of rising eighth-graders want their children better prepared for high school?

According to the P & C's report on Monday night's CCSD Board meeting, the Board unanimously agreed to allow another section without any discussion. [See Math & Science School to Grow ]

My favorite comment? from Board Chairman Hillery Douglas: "'We would not want to hold them back.'" It falls into the same category as Gregg Meyers's statements about not charging rent for the Rivers building, although he can't seem to get around to putting that item on the agenda.

Would You Believe. . Broad Lectures on Charter Schools

Strange, isn't it? Our local CCSD superintendents and administrators have fought the new Charter School for Math and Science with all they've got. In fact, they're not finished yet--even though the end game is at hand.

So it seems hilarious that the P & C published on Monday's op-ed page a long piece by Eli Broad, founder of the Broad Foundation that produced Maria Goodloe-Johnson, Nancy McGinley, and Randy Bynum. In it Broad earnestly touts the benefits of public charter schools.

Maybe they didn't listen in class?

Charter School's Lottery & Results: Diverse

Showing that a real lottery can work, the results of registrations for the first year of the Charter School for Math & Science are in. As reported by Octavia Mitchell of Channel 2,

Enrollment numbers are in for the new Charleston Charter School for Math and Science, proposed for the Rivers Middle School site. School officials say they're on track with diversity goals.

Park Dougherty, chairman of the Charter Committee says they sent out 180 enrollment packages to students selected in a lottery. Parents had two weeks to return forms confirming enrollment, and for the first time they now have a clear picture of the school's diversity makeup. Fifty-two-percent of 120 students who returned their enrollment forms are White; 41-percent are African American; and 7-percent are Hispanic, Asian, or multi cultural; 30-percent are on free or reduced lunch.

Charleston-branch NAACP President Dot Scott, who has opposed the school at every turn, is left to mumble about keeping diversity. Pitiful, isn't she?

"First Take the Log out of Your Own Eye"

Not again!

The Reverend Joseph Darby again opines on the P & C's op-ed page in response to an editorial supporting legislative efforts to allow public charter schools to use public school buildings (already the policy in many states). As is his wont, he strongly implies that the new Charter High School for Math and Science is really a plot to introduce segregation to downtown Charleston, when in reality it is a plot to introduce integration to downtown Charleston.

See Tie measurable diversity goals to free rent for charter schools .

Nothing will be gained by another reasoned response to such willful disregard of the facts. Clearly, the Rev. Darby has an ax to grind, and for whatever reason, the P & C sees fit to provide the grindstone whenever Darby wants it.

Notice what is part of his argument here:

". . .the Charter School for Math & Science is a 'start up' charter school that simply wishes to claim a public building and not pay its way. Should the school district choose to allow them to do so, then the same thing should be done for all future and existing charter schools, like the YouthBuild Charter School.

YouthBuild has had considerable struggles in finding and paying for operating space. Should the Charter School for Math & Science be given a free building, then the same should be done for YouthBuild.

Gee, I haven't heard Darby call for "diversity goals" for YouthBuild.

The reasoning here just doesn't hold water. YouthBuild is in its horrible circumstances because CCSD encouraged it to take on students who the district determined would not return to Murray Hill Academy [for reasons having to do with failures in its McGinley-selected for-profit administration]. The CCSD Board of Trustees was so anxious to have these students at YouthBuild that they didn't look too closely at YouthBuild's director's assurances that a suitable facility had been arranged.

Unlike the charter school under discussion, YouthBuild has never asked for use of a public school building. You might ask yourself why. Obviously that is a solution to its housing problems, as I have said before, and such space does exist.

But don't hold your breath waiting for Darby to call for "diversity" in YouthBuild's classrooms. The de facto segregation in District 20 and in CCSD's other charter schools is part of the outmoded racist thinking of the Charleston branch of the NAACP: under the present segregated conditions it can wield greater power (and get long op-ed pieces into the P & C).

Who cares what's best for the students involved, black or white? Maybe the organizers of CHSMS?

$24 Million for What, Hillery?

Is anyone else as tired as I am of the obstructionist ways of CCSD Board of Trustees Chairman Hillery Douglas? Friday's P & C provides yet another example of his smug, you-can't-touch-me-but-I-don't-support-charter-schools-I-can't-control remarks. See Bill would bar district rent charges for charter schools].

Apart from the question of a public [charter] school's paying rent to use a public school building, Douglas is quoted as asking,

whether the district should pay for an upgrade to a district building [that's a building owned by the public, Hillery] that a charter school wanted to use. That's what's happening in Charleston: The school district has agreed to let the math and science charter school use the former Rivers Middle School building, but making the building safe for students is going to require $24 million. Decisions about such situations should be left to school districts and charter schools, Douglas said.

Douglas would have us believe that giving space in CCSD buildings to charter schools [note--not controlled by Douglas and his ilk] will cost the district MILLIONS of dollars it otherwise would not need to spend. How disingenuous is that?

Charter school organizer Park Dougherty hits the nail on the head:

"there's always another way to attempt to block us." The point of contention involving the math and science school has shifted from rent to the "alleged needs" of the building, he said.

Because, new legislative bill or not, the rent issue is dead on arrival. Even Gregg Meyers is ready to throw in the towel on that one.

Twenty-four million dollars to renovate Rivers? "Alleged" is right. Maybe just a few of us remember that it wasn't so long ago that the district was using that building? That, when first approached by the Charter High School, the district's own estimates of making it usable again were less than half what Bill Lewis claims is needed now.

Where are the brakes on this out-of-control spending on brick and mortar? Only the very gullible--and those with a financial interest--believe that the Rivers building isn't "safe" without these millions. If Lewis announces in February or March that the costs have escalated to $50 million for renovations, who's going to call him to account? Not Douglas, obviously.

Reality Check: $14 Million Elephant in the Room

Does anyone with an office in the Taj Mahal EVER admit a mistake?

If the results of CCSD's hiring of Community Education Partners (CEP) also portend the results of Superintendent McGinley's newer plans, we're in real trouble here. The P & C 's article Tuesday regarding Murray Hill Academy was as polite as it could possibly have been, given the circumstances of this major fiasco. Probably CCSD school board members at Monday's meeting also veiled their comments.

It's time for a reality check here.

1. Would CCSD have hired CEP if then-Chief Academic Officer McGinley had not recommended they do so (probably at the urging of her Broad Foundation helpers)? NO
2. Did McGinley assume that Charleston's problems were analogous to Philadelphia's? YES
3. Did CCSD spend $5 million to "warehouse" perhaps a total of 600 students over a period of 2 and 1/2 years? WOW
4. For this princely sum, did CEP ever provide an effective principal and enough certified teachers for students to get credits? NO
5. Did McGinley negotiate a contract with CEP that required students to attend for 180 days but now claim that is too long to be effective for CCSD's students? YES
6. Did the building never reach capacity because CCSD didn't assign enough students? YES
7. Was the $9 million building built specifically for CEP according to its specifications? WHAT FORESIGHT
8. Did CCSD assign fewer than 70 students to that new $9 million building this fall? YES
9. Is McGinley suggesting rooms in this specially-built school be used for office space? YES
10. That would be because the Taj Mahal has grown too small for all its bureaucrats or because it is falling apart? WHO KNOWS?

This list could be longer, but what would be the point? According to McGinley, "Charleston has been fortunate to have the company run Murray Hill." What does she think would happen if she admitted a mistake? Would the sky fall? Or would community members begin to be more confident that she's leveling with them?

More importantly, how can we hold CCSD more responsible for spending in the future? Just think of all those lovely building and renovation projects Bill Lewis has on the table and his escalating estimates for the renovation of the old Rivers High School building. Is anyone watching the store?

Don't Just Talk the Talk, Rep. Clyburn!

Well, here it is again--the need for public charter schools to use public school space.

According to Friday's P & C, "On the first anniversary of becoming the third-highest ranking member of Congress, House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn . . . stop[ped] at Charleston Development Academy Charter School on the peninsula, where he emphasized that school choice is an innovative learning method that must be embraced."

I've blogged before about CDA and its success [see Gadsden Green's Heroes ]
Notably, the school's principal,Cecelia Gordon Rogers did not miss the opportunity to ask for expansion, saying,"'We have outgrown our building here. Give us a little space.'"

South Carolina is one of the few states that does not provide public school space by law for public charter schools. This issue will only grow in urgency as more charter groups provide more choices.

If public charter schools do not receive public space, their long-term success will always be an issue. Only those charter groups that have several "Mr. Moneybags" on board will be able to thrive. Is that what Rep. Clyburn foresees? Will it continue to be necessary to settle the issue with expensive lawsuits? Let's hope not.

Oops! We Forgot to Negotiate--Hillery Douglas

Hope you're ready to pay more in legal fees for the Charleston County Board of Trustees. The Board is moving full steam ahead to confront the Charter High School Committee's appeal to the State Board of Education over the rent issue, now scheduled for hearing on December 11.


Apparently, Charter School organizers, who must come equipped with the patience of Job, have been waiting since early October to get together with a committee from the CCSD Board to talk over differences. When no such meeting occured they had to fish or cut bait at Tuesday's deadline for its appeal.


Hillery Douglas, new Board Chairman, said that, well, they were supposed to meet. His solution is that he might "try this week to set up a meeting." That, of course, would be after the filing deadline. But then, what naif believed that the Board's committee planned negotiation in good faith with the Charter School proponents?


Douglas pouts that the "school is relying on legal arguments" that the "board hasn't had the opportunity to address"! He plans that opportunity for when hell freezes over, or at least the last possible moment on his delay-linger-and-wait agenda. That apparently is the next board meeting.


Meanwhile, CCSD's lawyers continue to rack up legal fees. Too bad we can't spend the money on education.


Which do you think the CCSD Board prefer: new charter schools or vouchers? They seem to believe that they can go on forever without either.

For a look at the Charter School's plans visit charlestonmathand science.org

As Long as We Need to Restructure Burke

Now that Burke High School (among others in CCSD) has failed to meet AYP for six years, it faces restructuring, according to NCLB. May I remind you of some highlights of Burke's trials over the past 18 months? I'm sure many readers can add the tribulations of the many previous years.


Let's begin with June of 2006. Burke was almost taken over by the State Department of Education, Inez Tenenbaum then Superintendent. It had failed to implement recommendations made by the state review board during the previous year. What happened next? Promises, promises! In fact, Mayor Joe Riley promised at the time to make (and I quote!) Burke "'a renowned national model for excellence.'" Goodloe-Johnson promised that, after a string of six principals over seven years, the new one would do the trick.

Barely three months later, the P & C (of all sources!) broke the scandal that Burke has been used as a dumping ground for troublemakers from other schools in CCSD. [See my posting of You Can't Make This Stuff Up! for details.] Is anyone on the school board following up on these questionable transfers? What percentage of Burke's students do not live in District 20? Do these transfers continue? How about telling us how many students who live in District 20 are bused to CCSD high schools in other parts of the county? Now, that number would be revealing.

Of course, in May of 2007 CCSD held its famous $77,000 meeting at Burke regarding the use of the Rivers High School building. During that meeting (and at various times since) CCSD has hinted that Burke may get an "AP Academy" or other speciality program. As it is, Burke doesn't even offer enough world language courses to qualify students for USC or Clemson, not to mention other deficiencies in its course offerings.

If plans exist to improve Burke, it appears now that the Superintendent will spring them by surprise upon the residents of District 20. Is she going to meet with District 20 constituents (especially PARENTS) to ask what they would like to see with the restructuring of Burke? Surely that's an important step that needs to be part of any restructuring!

Meanwhile, Burke has plenty of room in its practically-new building.

Why not take all those applicants to Academic Magnet who will be rejected for the coming year's class but meet the old generic standard and create a second "academic magnet" at Burke?

Don't like that?

Why not take all 75 students from Sea Islands YouthBuild Charter (who don't have a school building) and create a spectacular building trades program in the space at Burke?

Don't like that either? What about replicating some vocational programs now at Garrett and offering them at Burke?

Most importantly, what does the downtown community as a whole see as the best solution for Burke? And I'm not talking about NAACP officers who live west of the Ashley!

NAACP's Segregation Rally at Burke

Negro Americans, What Now? (1934), a book that argues for integration as the only reasonable solution to America's racial problems, includes James Weldon Johnson's exhortation to "meet any well-meaning white people halfway." That is exactly what was NOT happening at the "Rally for Our Public Schools" at Burke High School last Sunday night, which should have been called the "Rally Against the Charter High School."

In fact, the event, as all participants knew, especially the sponsoring Charleston NAACP, was an anti-integregation rally against the looming possibility of a integrated Charter High School for Math and Science. About 60 attended; who knows if any actually represented downtown constituents (certainly not Darby and Scott). For sure, the participants are confused about who their opponents are. It's not the committee organizing the charter school; in fact, the "enemy" is CCSD itself.

According to the P & C's Adam Parker, "participants [...] decried what they perceive to be an inequitable system whose leaders overlook the needs of minorities [italics mine] in favor of experimental solutions that undermine the public schools." As the presence of CCSD Board members Douglas, Jordan, and Green showed, the "leaders [who] overlook the needs" of those segregated downtown schools were PRESENT at the rally. That leadership gives lip service to "experimental solutions" [read charter schools] but in reality works to undermine solutions and to maintain the status quo. Where are the solutions of Douglas, Jordan, and Green to make Burke a successful and diverse community?

Dot Scott is fond of saying, "if only more white students would attend [Burke]," but she has no plan to bring that diversity to fruition by putting pressure on those very CCSD leaders who hypocritically stood beside her. No one can blame the downtown community for losing faith in CCSD; look what it has done to undermine Burke and the other downtown schools over the last 30 years. Her "Why not Burke" issue is a red herring meant to divert community leaders (who have the overwhelming support of the downtown community) from establishing a desegregated school on the penninsula.

Anyone stating that the charter school is an attempt to bring segregation to downtown schools simply is not in contact with reality or, more likely, is being disingenuous to further other agendas. In less than a decade District 20 has lost 30 percent of its students. Only the threat of a successful charter school has brought CCSD's attention to making Burke a successful school also.

Where are its plans to do so? What are they? All promises and no follow-through, as usual. Why don't Scott, Darby, and the NAACP turn on the perpetrators of the crime instead of those trying to find solutions? If the charter school should fail for any reason, CCSD will again neglect Burke's improvement. Just ask Arthur Peter Lawrence.

Charter HS Rent Illegal: Even Meyers Agrees

Oops! Fuhgedaboudit.

In 2006 the S.C. State Legislature passed a law specifically for CCSD. It inadvertently (0r deliberately) insures that a charter school cannot be charged rent for using a public school building. Park Dougherty and friends can thank the citizens behind the chartering of Orange Grove Elementary for the favor. When CCSD was threatening to put THEM out of business and glowering at James Island Charter High School, our local representatives guaranteed that paying rent for their own buildings would not become an issue.

So what happened this summer with the Gang Who Couldn't Shoot Straight, a.k.a. the CCSD School Board?

Most likely Gregg Meyers drew up the invidious "incentives" plan on his own without consulting the school board's attorney. Embarrassing. Well, it was summer, after all. Or maybe Alice Paylor forgot all about the law until this brouhaha surfaced its memory. She still counsels that the law doesn't apply, but Meyers now disagrees.

Actually, we really don't know what Meyers thinks about its applicability; all we do know is what he's said to the P & C. However, once he has changed his mind, can anyone doubt that at least two more, if not three more, members of that majority vote on the Charter High School rent will change theirs also?

What we have here is much ill will created by a lapse in memory and judgment. So, what does each participant take away?

• No one in the group behind the Charter High School for Math and Science should have illusions left that the CCSD school board is his or her friend;
• Supporters of the CCSD "incentives" package have been left hanging by this bungle; and
• The community at large may assume that the CCSD school board as presently composed doesn't know what it's doing.

Hmm. Could be worse.

La-La Land: Darby on CCSD Charter Schools

Gregg Meyers, CCSD School Board member and former civil rights attorney, and the Reverend Joseph A. Darby, pastor of Morris Brown AME Church and vice-president of the Charleston Branch NAACP, have much in common.

First of all, both opine on the pages of the P &C practically at will, promulgating their lockstep views on CCSD. The question becomes, is this access obsequious deference, or is it veiled support?

Second, both are stuck in the sixties on race relations. Both believe that by default any group of people not controlled directly by CCSD or the NAACP must be racist. Sure, racism still exists, perhaps especially in their own minds.

In Saturday's P & C Darby denigrates the motives of a diverse group of parents and citizens behind the Charter School for Math and Science, presumably Lonnie Hamilton among them. One wonders what universe Darby inhabits these days when he makes the following (serious?) comment on the new charter school's use of the Rivers High School building:

"Charleston and South Carolina will be set back a half century to the days when education was separate and unequal and when those of the right color and the right social class had their way without question, and the descendants of those who protected segregation 50 years ago will have succeeded in promoting not diversity, but re-segregation."

• Aren't we already there in District 20?
• And on your watch, Rev. Darby?
• Isn't District 20's education "separate and unequal"?
• Don't "those of the right color and right social class have their way without question" where Buist Academy is concerned while ignoring Charleston Progressive, thanks to the likes of Gregg Meyers?
• Where were you as Burke High School deteriorated to its present state, with students now lacking textbooks in core subjects?

The Rev. Darby knows perfectly well that, should he step inside any public school in District 20 (with the exception of Buist Academy!), he will experience re-segregated, or never-integrated, schools and classrooms.

So a charter high school's going to make that defacto segregation worse than it is now?

That's mathematically impossible.