Gasp! Reporters Discover CCSD's Segregated Schools!

If you really want a quick run-down of de facto segregation in the Charleston County School District, I recommend the left-hand subject column of this blog. What you will discover is that, silly me, for my first five years back in Charleston after more than 40 living in various parts of the country, I actually thought CCSD's schools were integrated! It's a subject that our local paper has chosen not to explore--until now.

The Jonathan Green mural at Sanders-Clyde and the school's curriculum specializing in the history of slavery are a case in point. The mural greets children as they enter--but only black children, since no white faces appear. This message seems appropriate for a segregated school. Well, Sanders-Clyde does have one white student; evidently, CCSD administration never planned for any more. Meanwhile, fully 40 percent of its 720 students have transferred in from other schools. You can't insinuate, as Parker and Hawes do, that only white and not black parents request voluntary transfers based on race. They aren't making these choices based on the school's performance.

Learning of these statistics, what conclusion can you reach except that many black parents want a segregated school? If you know of some other reason, please comment. "Convenience" is the buzz-word for voluntary transfers, and CCSD does not provide transportation.

Let's not forget that federal government policies after World War II started the move from the peninsula to the suburbs as it granted returning veterans VA loans only on new construction. Talk about unintended consequences! But it's ridiculous to suggest that white movement off the peninsula in the seventies and eighties caused downtown schools to re-segregate: the population on the peninsula has remained (and increased) as majority white since the sixties.

It is remarkable to think that the only high school in this majority-white downtown has merely one white student; it's even more remarkable to realize that nearly 30 percent of Burke's students have transferred from other zones. Again, what gives? It's not the lure of its football team!

Parker and Hawes also try to make the case that Berkeley and Dorchester counties lack these fully segregated schools. They cite that Dorchester District 2 "doesn't have a single school lacking in diversity." Of course not: it has Dorchester District 4 to take that position!

Berkeley County is a different story. Traditionally a rural and black population, only in the past 30 years has it developed as a suburb--and new construction disperses whites from Ohio into the diverse mix. The Charleston peninsula has an entirely different, and much older, history.

Kovach Indictment Cramps CCSD's Style on Not-a-Penny Tax Extension

When the Charleston County School District last kicked off its Yes4Schools campaign in 2010, the initial press conference was held at Sanders-Clyde Elementary. What a difference a little fear can make!

This time the press conference's appearance in a vacant lot opposite Dunston Elementary School on Remount Road shed any perceived impropriety that the tax is being pushed by CCSD. The Chamber of Commerce spokesman carefully pointed out that "no school employees were at the campaign kickoff."

Crimping Nancy McGinley's style. Too bad.

Quagmire for CCSD's Downtown Middle Schools

Keep Burke Middle School at Burke High in order to keep the building full?

Move Burke Middle to the Rhett Building?

Add middle grades at Sanders-Clyde?

Add middle grades at Memminger?

Create an entirely new middle school on the Fraser campus?

What is going on with multiple proposals from Superintendent McGinley to mend the community's dislike of downtown middle schools (with the exception of the Charter School for Math and Science)?

She's trying to get enough projects going in District 20 that its voters will approve of the next referendum on the one-percent sales tax for a new district-wide building program.

Hence, James Simons third floor remains unfinished, even though the school was listed on the last referendum.

Meeting Tuesday night will reveal what is really the Superintendent's choice, despite being labeled for community input.

CCSD's One-Cent Sales Tax Extension in Full Swing

Ruminations of a superintendent

How do we get more millions of OPM, Superintendent McGinley asks herself, when people don't want more taxes. To get the last sales tax passed we had to pretend it amounted to pennies, promise to build or renovate school buildings in every corner of Charleston County, and count on voting during an even-numbered year so that voters showing up to vote in Congressional or Presidential elections wouldl check that box, i.e., more Democrats.

First, we need to get some laws changed so that the tax will appear on the 2014 ballot. Shockingly, state law doesn't allow us to extend the tax until it has only two years left.  Michael Bobby, CCSD's chief of finances and operations, says that if he has to wait another year for the vote, "that would delay some construction projects." Michael always has my back, even though he has known all along what the law is and could have planned accordingly. The audit and finance committee of the School Board, stacked with my supporters, is happily going along with the request to change the law. It has been a blessing that I can control district audits; who knows what might have come to light otherwise.

I'm running out of options on replacing or renovating the downtown schools, so I'll be forcing the change of Sanders-Clyde from elementary to middle-school status, That way new renovations will be needed in District 20 and we'll get those downtown votes. People have short memories, so they'll have forgotten just how new the Sanders-Clyde building is. Those downtown voters who don't want it as a middle school have been kicked off the community task force and replaced with district employees, so by hook or by crook they'll approve my plan.

I already have the Mount Pleasant votes since they've been asking for a new elementary school since 2005. I've deliberately dragged the district's feet so that it can be rolled into the sales tax extension.

Then there are the rich. I can appeal to them by suggesting that a sales tax extension can be used to lower property taxes. John Barter has helped by pointing out that 30 percent of the revenue comes from tourists. No one cares about the 70 percent of locals, many of whom are poor, who must pay more to see that property owners taxes go down.

I just need a good carrot for West Ashley and it's a done deal. Maybe I can suggest that West Ashley High is seismically challenged. Michael's working on that for me, and I can count on my board supporters to lend a hand.

Yes, it's all coming together. I know I can count on the local press to print my public relations handouts without investigating too closely. Look at the headline: "Schools want law changed." Success is at hand. After all, who ever heard of a tax that had an expiration date, despite what I said in 2010? It'll go on forever.

Broken Promises for CCSD's Renaissance Elementary Schools

"Despite original intent, first-year teachers are big part of Renaissance project at 4 Charleston County Schools"--so reads the headline on Monday's paper. Maybe CCSD Superintendent McGinley hoped residents would be too busy watching football games to read the paper. Maybe she believes affected parents don't read the paper.

So, what happened?

McGinley "expected" no first-year teachers would be hired, but 44 percent are just that! How could she be so out of touch? Burns, North Charleston, Sanders-Clyde, and Memminger--the elementary schools at most risk for state takeover--have become part of yet another experiment costing over $1 million. McGinley's promise convinced the School Board that she was serious.

What the reporter's statistics do not reveal is how many of the 15 teachers in the group who did not get a contract renewal were first-year teachers. Half? All? If so, how many of these 23 new ones will last more than a year? (We can discount the two-year Teach-for-America contingent.)

"Schools where the majority of students are low-income often have higher teacher turnover rates, and they struggle to attract and retain the most effective teachers."

This truism describes exactly what happened in the hiring process. You have to wonder what McGinley was thinking when she promised the opposite.

The reporter manages to help the superintendent put the best face on the facts. Now the enthusiasm and extra training of first-year teachers will make up for their lack of experience. If that were the case, why would the superintendent have promised experienced teachers in the first place?

Don't get me wrong. Enthusiasm and idealism can go a long way with children; however, nothing beats the experience of an effective teacher.

In a final irony, two of these "low-income" schools, "where more than 95 percent. . .live in poverty" are not located in low-income neighborhoods! They are de facto resegregated schools, one in a high-income area of the peninsula (barely above Broad!) and one in a middle-class neighborhood of North Charleston.

CCSD's previous policies created this mess. Can it be trusted to fix it?

CCSD's Definition of Insanity: McGinley's Tin Ear on Improving Schools

According to Sunday's print edition, "It’s the cliché promise of second chances: “This time, it’ll be different.”

That’s how some say they feel about Charleston County School Superintendent Nancy McGinley’s newest effort to improve four low-achieving schools — and they’re not buying it.

“This isn’t a new concept,” said Kent Riddle, who leads the Charleston Teacher Alliance, a teacher advocacy group. “They’re saying it’s different, but it’s not.”

The Renaissance Schools Project aims to transform four schools, Burns Elementary, North Charleston Elementary, Memminger Elementary and Sanders-Clyde Creative Arts.

This isn’t the first time the district has tried to turn around a school by changing its some staff, but officials said they have learned from past experiences.

“We’ve never put the package together the way it is now,” McGinley said. “It’s not the same old, same old. This is taking what we know are the essentials of effective schools ... and we’re putting the package together.”

The school board signed off on the plan in January, and officials are moving forward with making it a reality.

The reality is that Superintendent McGinley is fresh out of ideas from the Broad Institute. And unwilling to listen to insistent voices in the community that have different ideas about how to turn around failing schools.

How long will the rubber-stamp school board travel on this ship of fools?

P&C Editorial Ignores McGinley's Motives

I'm always happy to see a sensible editorial in the P & C, especially when its topic is the Charleston County School District. Thursday's agreed with Todd Garrett, CCSD School Board member and downtown parent, that the district should not rush into a decision creating a better middle school on the peninsula (District 20), one that would attract rather than repel most parents, as Burke Middle does at present.

Is the writer naive? The "rush" is to save middle schoolers from any state takeover of a failing school (Burke High/Middle) and to erase another failing elementary school (Sanders-Clyde) from Superintendent McGinley's list of failures.

Some of us could provide a long list of her failures during her decade of leadership in the district. But who's counting?

McGinley's Downtown Plans: Wrong, Wrong, Wrong!

Do you ever wonder if the superintendent of the Charleston County School District hopes to close all downtown schools and sell off the properties to outside investors? I do.

No rational person could believe her attempts (largely successful, thanks to a fawning school board) to move students around the peninsula like so many pawns in a game are for the purpose of improving their education. Burke Middle School is a case in point: have the students who were moved there from Rivers Middle under that aegis actually excelled? No. Quite the contrary.

To much fanfare, the Sanders-Clyde elementary school was rebuilt to serve as a neighborhood school for the surrounding east side community, largely made up of low-income housing. Students could walk to school; their parents, many of whom have no access to cars, could easily come for events and conferences.

Now, in order to increase her stats by closing failing schools, McGinley wants to take the building from them and refurbish it as a middle school. Those students would be loaded on buses and parceled out to the remaining elementary schools in the peninsula. The superintendent probably figures that their parents don't have enough pull or saavy to prevent losing their neighborhood school.

Let's face it: McGinley never met a neighborhood school she liked. She also has no interest in luring back to the peninsula schools those white students who live there but go to school elsewhere. For whatever reason she wants to keep downtown schools de facto segregated.

The Neighborhood Planning Team, even though stacked with McGinley supporters, has its own ideas that she should listen to. As Arthur Lawrence says, "What's the rush?" Why shouldn't we make sure this time around that these upheavals will do some good?

However, what sounds sensible to you and me does not to Superintendent McGinley, a situation that reveals her agenda to be more about self-aggrandizement than better education for students.

Surprise! CCSD Super Ignores Neighborhood Planning Team

Strangely enough, the District 20 Neighborhood Planning Team (NPT) took its duties seriously over the last few months and produced a masterful plan to create D20 schools that actually reflect the makeup of its neighborhoods on the peninsula.

No matter. Superintendent McGinley has her own agenda, especially regarding a stand-alone middle school. You see, Burke High/Middle is on the verge of state takeover yet again (can you say, deja vu?). The superintendent has determined to keep Burke's middle school students out of the clutches of a state takeover.

Now, would you believe it, she wants to turn the new Sanders-Clyde elementary school building into a stand-alone middle school, complete with retrofitting that will keep CCSD contractors on the payroll. The plan not only "saves" Burke's middle-school students; it distributes Sanders-Clyde's student body among the remaining elementary schools. Thus, the super can declare she has yet again reduced the percentage of "failing" elementary schools on the peninsula. Masterful.

You can't make a parody of this; it already is.

Raising Teach for America Questions

Is Charleston County School District's Sanders-Clyde Elementary unable to fill its vacancies with graduates having teaching credentials? If so, filling vacancies with Teach-for-America (TFA) graduates is appropriate. If not, their two-year employment at Sanders-Clyde and other "failing" CCSD schools raises troubling questions.

Why not fill vacancies with graduates of colleges and universities who do have teaching credentials? Given the economic climate and constraints on hiring new teachers, many new teaching graduates must be scrambling for any other kind of job they can get. On the other hand, TFA graduates presumably either do not intend to remain in the teaching profession or did not plan ahead.

Today's P&C highlighted the enthusiasm of a recent Charleston Southern University student who will work for TFA. CCSD will pay her salary and benefits and another $4000 per year to Teach for America. Why wouldn't CCSD simply hire a Charleston Southern graduate who has a teaching credential instead?

Makes no sense to me.

Cheating in Atlanta? Who Copied Whom?

Teachers and administrators in Atlanta are facing criminal charges for changing student answers on standardized tests over the last decade in order to show improvement and gain the rewards. Why does the story sound so familiar?

Can anyone say "Sanders-Clyde"? How about MiShawna Moore, darling of Superintendent Nancy McGinley, who escaped to North Carolina? McGinley put her in charge of two schools because of the rocketing scores at Sanders-Clyde, and then came. . . the fall.

According to the media, NCLB "made" them do it. Please.

At Least One Attractive Aspect of Sanders-Clyde

Maybe they hoped to overcome the ugliness of the building itself! [Centerpiece at New Sanders-Clyde School]

Why So Unattractive?

Thinking that the P&C must have photographed the new Sanders-Clyde from its most unattractive angle, I checked out the building myself this morning. [See Sanders-Clyde School Ready for Reopening in Sunday's edition.] After all, in the photo it looks like a maximum-security prison.

No, it turns out that this is one of the few angles where the mud-colored brick cannot be seen.

For an "arts-infused" school, is there any reason why it must be so ugly? Surely $26 million could have purchased design more pleasing to the eye!

Let's hope that inside it's more appealing.

An Answer on Sanders-Clyde Delay

Would you believe that "vendors who provide furniture, install fire alarms and security and set up technology and equipment were overloaded"? Thus goes Bill Lewis's excuse for the delayed opening of both Sanders-Clyde Elementary downtown and Haut Gap Middle on Johns Island. See 3 School Construction Projects Face Delays in Tuesday's paper.

You mean that the vendors that Bill Lewis contracted with were incapable of handling all of the business he gave them? So what rocket scientist scheduled all four schools (including North Charleston's renovation and the new School of the Arts) to open at the same time?

Could it be that the other schedules had slipped, and everything piled up at the end? Such thoughts are never "thunk" by reporters at the P&C. Beyond the pale.

And if Sanders-Clyde parents were told months ago that the school wouldn't be ready until February, why is the announcement of the delay in the news on January 19th?

Yes, I know, more damage control from the Charleston County School District.

Whatever Happened to the New Sanders-Clyde?

Remember when those District 20 schools were closed last year? Remember questions about the size of the school being used temporarily while a new facility was being built? No? Here's a clip from last August's P&C:

"Changing the identity of a school doesn’t happen in a day or a week, but downtown Sanders-Clyde Elementary plans to do as much as possible this year to begin transforming into an arts-infused school.

"The genesis of the idea to take the highest poverty school in Charleston County and give it an arts makeover dates back about three years to the tenure of former Superintendent Maria Goodloe-Johnson and a partnership she developed with nationally known artist Jonathan Green.

"They hatched the idea to give Sanders-Clyde a new arts-related focus that would coincide with the opening of its new building, slated for January 2010."

Okay, it's January 2010. Where's the news about the move to the new building?

Where's the P&C story about why the building is not ready?

McGinley's Hard-Learned Lesson Detrimental to Sanders-Clyde

When something looks too good to be true, it probably is.

This is the lesson that CCSD Superintendent Nancy McGinley learned from MiShawna Moore's brief tenure as principal of Sanders-Clyde and, then, at McGinley's insistence and at the same time, as principal of Fraser Elementary. We'll never know exactly what happened during PACT testing there, but it would be hard to find any rational person who believes that nothing untoward did.

What is most troubling about the entire fiasco is what it reveals about the Superintendent's readiness to grasp at any straw to show how she has improved failing schools. This is not "for the children"; it is for the reputation of an educational professional planning to use CCSD as a stepping stone to bigger and better job opportunities.

Thus, while McGinley did not put Moore into her position at Sanders-Clyde, she was only too happy to receive its amazing test scores as a sign that her policies were working, to the point that she trusted a second school to Moore over the objections of many in the district. Why look a gift horse in the mouth?

Putting the best gloss on it requires some prevarication. [See Test-score Investigation Ended for her latest attempts.] The reality is that until the state testing agency brought to McGinley's attention that Sanders-Clyde's test copies showed unusual patterns of erasures, the superintendent never suspected or checked to see if the PACT scores tallied with other measures of performance for the school. The district had no choice about investigating once it was contacted by the state. Let's at least keep the record straight.

Given that no one has been disciplined or charged with any crime in the matter, what message has SLED (and the district) sent to other administrators desperate to polish their resumes by raising test scores in illegal ways? MiShawna Moore got an assistant superintendent's job out of it.

What did the kids at Sanders-Clyde get?

Go Fraser! Get Some Answers from CCSD

Heard in passing on the TV news last night: a group of parents from the soon-to-be-closed Fraser Elementary are suing CCSD. No one likes the idea of taxes going to pay for CCSD's legal expenses, but, let's face it, when a district behaves like that of Charleston County, what other choice do concerned citizens have?

Children now at Fraser will be moved first to the Archer building next fall and then to the new Sanders-Clyde when it is ready mid-year. Parents want some answers:

• Why two moves?
  
• What will become of the Fraser building? [Rumor has it that the city wants it for a police academy]
  
• Who's looking out for the Fraser children at 75 Calhoun?
• Why are district figures on the attendance zone and students living in it unavailable, to the point that District 20 residents have been forced to file a FOIA request?

Unreported Stories About CCSD's Machinations

Call it loss of staff, or call it loss of interest. Whatever deserves the blame, the Post and Courier has ignored at least three stories making the rounds in the Charleston County School District:

• Students now at Fraser will be forced to move three times (from Fraser to Archer to the new Sanders-Clyde) because the City of Charleston wants the current Fraser Elementary for use as a police academy. True or not true?

• District 20 constituent board members are being railroaded to accept new district attendance lines without input from the communities they serve or the information they need for informed opinions. And the changes to boundaries are top secret, right?

• While promising an explanation to District 20 residents over the removal of grades 7 and 8 from Charleston Progressive, Superintendent McGinley continues to be as absent from class as, well, a truant. Would you place money on District 20's ever getting an explanation? Not me.

CCSD Plans for Segregated Sanders-Clyde

What white or Hispanic parent, given a choice, will send a child into a school with a curriculum specifically designed for African-Americans?

If you ever suspected that the Charleston County School District not only accepts segregated schools but actually works to create them, the plans for the revamped Sanders-Clyde will prove it. The truth of this statement is hammered home in the story in Saturday's P & C [ see Green Wins NAACP's Image Award] of artist Jonathan Green's success in receiving the Key of Life NAACP Image Award .

While Green's involvement with Sanders-Clyde reveals his admirable desire to inspire children who might otherwise not know of black artists, CCSD plans for a school that will not be as welcoming to students of other races. First CCSD approved the mural depicting only African-American children (shown here) to grace the new building's entrance.

Here are the latest components:

"Several years ago, Green began a partnership with Charleston's Sanders-Clyde Elementary School.

"'I think the school is important because the African-American and Gullah-Geechee culture must be preserved. But also, kids should be taught more about their own African-American heritage. In school, they mostly learn about the European influence in our country.'

"The artist adds, 'These kids, from the first through the fifth grades, will learn that 40 percent of the slaves in this country came through Charleston, and they will also learn the great contributions these African-Americans made to our culture today.'

"To teach these lessons, Green says the school will bring in local historians and speakers from the College of Charleston's Avery Research Center for African-American Culture, among other resources.

"'Our goal is for this curriculum to become a role model for the nation because all over the United States, African-Americans don't know very much about their own heritage and its importance; also, those in the private schools, which consist mainly of white students, don't know about this either.'

[snip]

"'Jonathan has been very much involved in the design and curriculum of this school over the past three years,' says John Dinkelspiel, a community activist involved in the project. A 16-by-25-foot mural designed by Green will grace a new building at the school."

Here is an excellent example of why CCSD needs content standards. All elementary school students should learn about African-American culture, not one school singled out on the basis of its present racial makeup. CCSD clearly intends that Sanders-Clyde will remain segregated forever.

Can you imagine the uproar if a newly-built school in Mt. Pleasant put up a welcoming mural that depicted only white students? We'd all be on the Today Show.

'Splaining to Do over Stuffing Archer Building

Maybe it's a mathematical deficiency. After all, not everyone really absorbs the meaning of numbers. Nevertheless, Charleston County Superintendent of Schools McGinley had months to figure out how many students could be stuffed into the Archer campus that Sanders-Clyde is using while it awaits completion of its new facility.

First, in her initial School Redesign proposal McGinley seemed to believe that somehow all of the Charter School for Math and Science students would fit into the building. Now, she seems to think that all of the students at Fraser can join the Sanders-Clyde throng at Archer next fall, even though the total exceeds building capacity. But wait--

She wants to crush some of the students displaced from the seventh and eighth grades at Charleston Progressive Academy into the mix.

What is this? Is she trying to see how many students she can stuff into a phone booth?