CCSD Board Members' Sour Grapes over Lowcountry Leadership Charter

If for some reason the state inspection of new and renovated facilities for the Lowcountry Leadership Charter School finds construction problems, four members of the Charleston County School Board want to throw its 400 students into the snow. Well, not into the snow; in Hollywood that would be into the sand.

The mean-spirited message sent by members Coats, Ascue, Collins, and Miller is typical of those who see a racist under every proposal they didn't make themselves. Here all the school wants is to remain in the same place from month to month until its own building is ready. And it pays rent that would revert to $0 if the building is unused. Revenue from this lease even goes to other Hollywood schools.

The situation is too reminiscent of the old jingle used by the John Birchers to defeat fluoridation of water: "It's all a Commie [insert racist here] plot, you see, / To get us internally."

CCSD Board Members Must Justify Racist Voting on Lowcountry Leadership Charter School

Michael Miller, Craig Ascue, and Chris Collins need to justify their votes against the sixty-day lease of the vacant Schroder Middle School building to the Lowcountry Leadership Charter School (LLCS). Evidently each cares more about inventing racial problems than supporting the district in providing the most effective use of Other People's Money.

Any sensible person would applaud the requirements put on LLCS for use of the building as improving the finances of the Charleston County School District. Without the $128,000 in rent and additional building repairs assumed by LLCS, this asset would sit vacant and deteriorating for those two months. CCSD certainly has no plans for it! In addition, the lease cannot be renewed, and school starting time will differ from the adjacent C.C. Blaney Elementary School. So what's the problem?

First of all, none of the three opposed board members lives anywhere near Hollywood, SC, where the schools are located, so whatever ideas they have are coming second-hand. The citizens who are most affected by problems in that part of the district who showed up for the School Board meeting were overwhelmingly in favor of the charter school. The accusations that charter schools are a stalking horse for taking us back to sixties segregation are a joke with no basis in fact, although that has never stopped the NAACP from opposing them. You need only look at the racist rhetoric from the NAACP regarding the Charter School for Math and Science downtown (the most integrated school in the district) to realize the idiocy of these ideas.

Charter schools, whether approved by the state or by the district, are public schools open to all students. In this case, of the 400 students expected at LLCS, 67 percent are "low income" and 25 percent are minority. That ratio means that the school is more evenly divided both economically and racially than virtually any other school in CCSD, including Blaney. Is that what bothers our three board members?

Chris Collins, of all people, should have supported the lease, given his own history of leasing from the district. How ironic.

Chutzpah Personified: CCSD's Taj Mahal

Even Brian Hicks knows its wrong. [See Wednesday's P&C.]

Spending $76,000 on renovations to the administrative offices of the Charleston County School District? Why not, Superintendent McGinley would say. After all, we have the money just lying around unspent.

Meanwhile, it becomes obvious that CCSD Board chair Chris Fraser doesn't know Roberts Rules of Order or how to follow them or doesn't care about them because he takes his marching orders from elsewhere.

Oh, that's right. He's the voice of the Metro Chamber of Commerce, I forgot.

Why should anyone care what shenanigans were pulled to get the item back on the agenda for a second vote? What we should care about is who voted for this deaf-and-dumb-to-the-taxpayers decision. I'll list them for you.

Chris Fraser, Chair 452-9245

Elisabeth Ann Oplinger 406-6685

Craig Ascue 884-6862

Cindy Bohn Coats 529-2457

Chris Collins 813-0616

Toya Hampton Green 723-7831

I'm sure they'd love to hear from you.

Chamber of Commerce Takes Over CCSD Board

They've finally shown their true colors: electing Chris Fraser as chairman of the Charleston County School Board of Trustees guarantees that the Chamber of Commerce now controls the actions of the CCSD Board.

Chris Fraser's connections to the Chamber of Commerce are well known, as were those of his predecessor from the Chamber of Commerce. In fact, it would not be a stretch to claim that there is a seat reserved on the Board for a Chamber of Commerce representative. Perhaps Fraser's taking control was payback for the Chamber's taking the initiative to spearhead the Yes4Schools campaign to pass the sales tax increase.

What most taxpayers do not know, since it was done by sleight-of-hand, is that the Yes4Schools campaign run by the Chamber was funded by part of the $40,000 given by CCSD to the Chamber for its Education Foundation.

This was an illegal move by CCSD to fund the campaign under the radar because it was forbidden from using its own budget.

That's right. Your tax dollars at work.

P.S. The four newly-elected members have performed predictably so far, including Craig Ascue, who rapidly caved to the Superintendent's wishes when it came to a vote. Maybe he will figure out what's really going on, given time.

Craig Ascue, CCSD School Board Candidate

It's not accidental that Ascue's Paint and Body Shop sits near Charlotte Jenkins's Gullah Cuisine restaurant on Highway 17. That excellent caterer and chef happens to be Craig Ascue's aunt.

Ascue is one of three choices voters have in November for the two East Cooper seats on the Charleston County School Board of Trustees. Ascue's small business was begun by his father and passed to Craig as manager in 1996. Craig himself has a B.A. in Marketing from South Carolina State University.

Now, 14 years later Ascue aspires to move from the East Cooper constituent board to the "big time."

It's worth taking a closer look at Ascue's responses to the P&C's softball questions in its September 22th article on the school board candidates.

First of all, Ascue, unlike one of his opponents, Everett Wilcox, chooses not to grade Superintendent McGinley before being elected to the Board. Instead Ascue states, "At this time, I am not in a position to rate the superintendent." Politically saavy, perhaps, but a bit weasely.

Not surprisingly, Ascue hones in on "literacy" as the biggest problem facing the district, but his suggesting that having 43,000 students as its "biggest asset" doesn't make a whole lot of sense. How about its tax base, its buildings, its administration, its teachers?

For his goal if elected, Ascue echoes other candidates who all say, one way or another, that they will "work to ensure that all children have an opportunity to obtain a quality education." How about some specifics?

Let's face it. Not much in this article tells the reader whether or not to vote for Ascue. Does he approve of public charter schools? Is he, for example, in favor of the six-year one-percent increase in the sales tax to fund the building program? Would he vote for a property tax increase if it fails?

How about, would he support a full-scale audit of CCSD's books?

Now, these answers would be of real interest to the voters. Too bad the P&C is too chicken (0r too corrupt) to ask them.

Remember, everyone votes on the East Cooper seats, not just those living in that area.