CCSD: Forced to Repeat the Past with $8 Million School?

Sometimes I wonder how long the collective memory of the Charleston County School District really is. Can it be true that those now proposing a "new vision for alternative education" in a nearly $8 million dollar building have any passing knowledge of past attempts at such a program? Spokesman for the proposal is Jennifer Coker, whom the paper neglects to identify as principal of Daniel Jenkins. She certainly knows (or should know) how CCSD reached this point. It isn't a Turning Point!

What purpose is served by constructing a multi-million-dollar building when at least two present (and fully renovated) high schools--Burke and North Charleston--have more than enough room for the proposed 200 students it would serve?

Put that way, the answer seems obvious: CCSD must deliver new projects to keep its building contractors in the money. No wonder Michael Bobby approves.

Get a grip, folks!

Summerville School Administrators Need to "Get a Grip"

First, Summerville High School suspends a student for writing an essay about killing his neighbor's dinosaur with a gun. You can't make this stuff up.

Now an eighth-grade boy at a Summerville middle school [unnamed] has been suspended for listing the gang of 14 students who have been bullying him, labeling it "People to Kill," and dropping it in the hall for a teacher to find.

According to DD2's Pat Raynor,

The principal brought the student into her office and asked him to tell her who had been bothering him. He mentioned the same names as those on the list, according to the report. The student said he made the list to relieve stress and didn't plan to hurt anybody. He said he meant to throw the list away.

The deputy notified the student's parents. They told him he didn't have access to any guns, according to the report. 

The student was suspended until a disciplinary hearing, District 2 spokeswoman Pat Raynor said Wednesday.

All the parents of the 14 students on the list were also contacted.

Don't you wonder what was said to parents of the gang of 14 bullies?

Do you wonder why the teachers didn't already know the student was being bullied? Or, if they did, why nothing was done?

How about wondering why the student felt he couldn't tell anyone what was going on? Consider that we're talking about a 12- or 13-year-old boy.

Gee, DD2 nipped that Columbine in the bud.

Not.

CCSD Proposal Highlights McGinley's Failures, Sales Tax

We will run out of fingers if we count the failed programs that have wasted millions of taxpayer dollars in the Charleston County School District under Superintendent McGinley's watch. Associate Superintendent Jim Winbush (who wouldn't sneeze unless McGinley recommended it)'s proposal of an alternative high school program for "at-risk" students is a case in point.

Just in case you've forgotten, McGinley's failed solution to the problem was the "discipline school." McGinley brought in the Broad-recommended edublob called Community Education Partners to set up and run the school. Not only was the company contracted to run it, but the $9 million school building was designed and built according to its specifications. As the reporter so quaintly puts it, when "the company didn't produce the expected results, its contract ended." That was more than five years ago.

Supposedly the gently-named Community High School would be more than a "discipline school." Board member Michael Miller rightly wonders if it would be a "dumping ground," since Chief Academic Officer Lisa Herring suggested perhaps 500 students would fall into categories such as lagging in high school credits, pregnancy, low test scores, and return from juvenile detention. This way, McGinley could show how Vision 2016 has succeeded by taking low-scoring students out of local high schools. Genius.

No doubt the proposed school will require, if not a new multi-million dollar building, at least multi-million dollar retrofitting of an existing building--all part of the new campaign to extend the one-cent sales tax.

"Charlestowne Academy" Building Example of CCSD's Failures

It's not Charlestowne Academy on Rivers Avenue that may become a homeless shelter if the Charleston County School District's agreement for a land swap with Mayor Keith Summey goes through.

No, it's the Charlestowne Academy--Charleston County Discipline School--Bethune Arts and Community Center--Bethune Elementary School campus. The building's construction date seems lost in the mists of time. Perhaps a reader has a long memory and can fill in the blanks. What is certain is mismanagement of this CCSD asset by multiple superintendents and School Boards.

What happened to Bethune Elementary School's use of 5841 Rivers Avenue is unclear, but probably the (black?) school was a victim of integration and consolidation in Charleston County. It was vacant. By 1982 this albatross was rented for $1 per year to the city of North Charleston for use as an arts and community center, an agreement that lasted for at least 10 years. How's that for a great return on investment? One would hope that CCSD got something else in return!

Before 1996, CCSD decided to use the building for its first "discipline" school during times in the nineties when students were actually expelled from CCSD's other schools in large numbers. That lasted until CCSD built a special campus as a discipline school, an idea that was ultimately rejected as non-PC.

Notice, none of these decades involved an entity named Charlestowne Academy.

1996 was a banner year for formation of magnet schools in the district. Not only Charleston Progressive but also Military Magnet and Montessori schools were approved, with some opposition, by the district. Charlestowne Academy was formed as a magnet school with no academic entrance requirements that would focus on "back to basics," starting as K through 10. The school focused on academics (no athletic programs) including the Spalding Method (http://www.spalding.org/) and Core Knowledge ( http://www.coreknowledge.org/) in its lower grades.

In its first years, this school was more successful in the results in its lower grades than any of the other magnets, with the exception of Buist Academy. Parental involvement was required; the school had an effective discipline system; and, of course, its curriculum was parent-driven, not district-driven. It was so successful that the lower grades used a lottery system to select only one-third of applicants. And, it was more integrated than almost any other school in the district.

What happened? It's true that the high school portion never really got off the ground. In hindsight, the plan should have started with perhaps kindergarten through fourth and add-a-grade per year, as many new schools have done. Sticking students in trailers at the Bonds-Wilson campus apparently was not a turn off, but in 1999 the school moved into the old discipline campus.

No, the school's success was its death sentence. As new superintendents and new school board members arrived, they saw that the school made the other non-magnet schools look bad by comparison, so one by one they stole away the details that made it successful. One of the first to go was required parental involvement. Next, the school was informed it must use the same ineffective discipline program as the rest of CCSD. Maria Goodloe-Johnson pulled the rug all the way out when she decreed that all CCSD schools must use the same curriculum. These developments should serve as a warning to the folks at Meeting Street Academy that hope for a deal with the district!

Since 2009 the campus has been for sale with apparently no takers except for member Chris Collins's lease agreement that was finally dissolved this year. So of the thirty or forty years that the school has existed, how many were utilized with full use of the property by the district?

How many other properties also lie fallow?

CCSD's Self-Created Lawsuit

It started with a Tweet, a truly insensitive and juvenile one to be sure. The Tweeter was white; its target, black. For Tweeting the n-word to her classmate, School of the Arts senior Ashley Patrick served a five-day suspension.

Seems straightforward so far, doesn't it? But then district administration got involved. Patrick was sentenced to finish her senior year at Twilight, a computer-based district program for serious offenders. Put Patrick with those out on bail and/or violently disrupting the classroom.  

Maybe her continued presence in her classes would be disruptive, maybe not. Apparently the majority black constituent board didn't think so. Its considered decision was to institute strict probation limiting extracurricular activities.

District administration (notice we don't have a name yet) rejected the advice of the constituent board, appealing it to the CCSD Board of Trustees. Needless to say, the matter was discussed behind closed doors. The Board upheld the constituent board's decision, unwisely interpreting that Patrick would also not "walk the stage" at graduation or go to the prom. This interpretation later was dropped, but Patrick must serve 20 hours of community service and write an essay,

Really, the penalties for the Tweet are not the problem. No, the problem is conflict of interest on the part of district administration. The target of the Tweet just happened to be the daughter of Associate Superintendent Lisa Herring, who oversees CCSD's behavior and discipline programs. Did Associate Superintendent Lou Marten reclassify Patrick's offense to a more serious level because of Herring's position? Did Herring recuse herself because her daughter was involved?

Could CCSD have avoided another costly lawsuit? The plot thickens as Patrick's attorney is the husband of former CCSD Board member Toya Hampton-Green and a protege of Mayor.Riley.

You can't make this stuff up.

Disgrace at Ashley Ridge Assembly

Given what happened at Ashley Ridge High School last week during a junior assembly, people must be wondering if the school has any effective discipline.

Imagine jeering and critiquing (loudly and inappropriately) a speaker whose goal is to save lives! Not only that, the speaker speaks from personal experience with drunk driving, experience substantiated by her severed left arm and many scars.

Sarah Panzau travels the country for Anheuser-Busch telling teenagers about her near-fatal decision 10 years ago to drink and drive.

About 20 percent of the class was so disruptive that after 45 minutes, she finally quit speaking when one obnoxious student "mocked her appearance." Some students laughed at the joke.

Dorchester District 2 schools spokeswoman Pat Raynor reported that "one male student" is facing disciplinary action.

So where were the proctors? teachers? vice-principals? Afraid to step in?

Ask yourself: what mentality mocks those who are maimed? Chilling, isn't it?

Grimm's CCSD Future Predictable

Let's cut through the racist rhetoric of Dot Scott and her buddies of the Charleston NAACP (all five of them): the problems facing the newly-appointed principal of North Charleston High School, Robert Grimm, concern his lack of authority.

Make no mistake: Grimm is Superintendent McGinley's choice; the Board of Trustees was merely convinced to go along with it by a 6 to 3 vote. Apparently, in order to get those votes, McGinley decided to undercut Grimm's authority on the night of his appointment by agreeing to place some of it in the hands of Associate Superintendent James Winbush, former principal of Lincoln High School in McClellanville. Of course, we don't know what went on behind closed doors, but reading tea leaves and comments suggests that Grimm's record of enforcing good discipline at C.E. Williams probably garnered Elizabeth Kandrac's vote.

Was the Superintendent unable to find a qualified (according to the search committee's own parameters) applicant? Or did she decide by putting in someone who has never been principal of a high school of any size she was guaranteeing his failure, and, therefore, undercutting his authority made her long-term plans all the more possible.

Make no mistake about it. McGinley plans to combine Stall and NCHS as soon as it becomes politically correct. Such a merger will allow her record of eliminating failing schools to look that much better.

Still the mystery persists as to why McGinley decided to move former NCHS principal Middleton to the Early Head Start program. Did Middleton simply want out and desire a larger salary? Or did she comply with McGinley's wishes to stay on the superintendent's good side? Clearly, removing Middleton and putting Grimm in her place does not appear to be a move forward.

Grimm should be having second thoughts about taking the position; however, knowing McGinley's tactics, he may have no choice.

Combine & Conquer: One Less Failing School

The superintendent of the Charleston County School District is ready to do anything she can think of to fix North Charleston's high schools except what would actually work!

This comes as no surprise to McGinley-watchers, but the boldness of her latest move merely confirms that the superintendent, and not the elected Board of Trustees, is in control of what happens in CCSD. Why not? She has a ready contingent of bootlickers, including the education reporter for the P&C, who are willing to consent to any lamebrained scheme she throws at them as long as it comes replete with educational jargon--and a promise to get funds from the state .

Given the state (no pun intended) of South Carolina's budget, I wouldn't hold my breath on that one.

Basically, McGinley is giving her lackeys two weeks to determine the futures of 1500 high school students who are zoned for Stall and North Charleston High Schools. Despite their being no evidence that combining the two and separating the grade levels as she proposes has ever improved graduation rates anywhere, this is her solution to their on-going problems, many of which her own policies have created.

For example, how many magnet high schools are located near these two high schools?

She complains that parents actually choose to send their children to magnets!

Infuriatingly, three years ago millions were spent on upgrading North Charleston High School so that it could meet the needs of its 9-12 students, including career and technology aspects. Now she wants to can that and make it for improving reading and math skills for 9th and 10th graders only. And the technology and career improvements will need to be made (and paid for again) at the NEW Stall High School, which unbelieveably costs much more to run than its old 1960s building.

Explain that one.

Not even McGinley knows all this movement, change, and busing will improve these schools.

Hello. Common sense suggests that until both schools get a handle on discipline (and, in particular, the discipline of the unreasonably high number of students who have I.E.P.'s), nothing will change.

Truth is--because these schools have been failing for so long, the state has the right to step in and run them instead, thanks to NCLB, and, for McGinley, that would be the worst solution of all. She has to upset the fruit basket or face losing control.

Discipline for Dummies:It's the Principal

In its yearly survey the Charleston Teacher Alliance (what passes for a teachers' organization in these parts) found considerable dismay over discipline problems in some schools. [See Discipline Problems Still an Issue in Sunday's P&C.]

Pointing out that teachers always want more discipline (!), CCSD Superintendent Nancy McGinley was quick to voice her rebuttal. Her tough response to the complaints was to send emails:

"McGinley planned to e-mail all of the principals of schools where more than 70 percent of teachers cited problems with the way their school handles discipline. She said she was doing so to ensure that the principals were aware of their concerns."

Well, that should be effective!

All of these emailed principals are serving at the pleasure of the superintendent. Where does the buck stop?

Surprise! Expectations for Students Make a Difference

What every teacher knows:

Without order and discipline in a school, academics suffer. So Ken Burger's column in Thursday's P&C on the turn-around at Haut Gap on Johns Island surprises only in its common-sense approach. See Order Is a Product of Expectation.

Burger touts Haut Gap as a magnet school (although statistics would prove it). And a new school building may be just the opportunity to shake off old stereotypes of poor academics and daily mayhem. (Haut Gap was originally built in the 1950s during segregation to show that black schools could be "separate but equal.")

The magnet program and new building are just the icing. What really makes the cake and drives any school's improvement is a good principal. Principal Paul Padron and Ed White, his "PBIS instructional coach" (i.e., head disciplinarian) are to be commended, as well as the rest of the staff who are making a difference in the lives of students who aren't always expected to succeed.

We can't count on all students' having interested, involved, and caring parents--even if each child deserves them!

Well-Meant Meeting on NCHS Goes Awry

What can community members do to improve North Charleston High School? Apparently, local politicians and religious leaders decided that holding a meeting of parents would help. See Sunday's P & C for Forum Draws Few Parents.

That was the first mistake. It may have been compounded by confusion about the meeting place (old North Charleston City Hall versus new North Charleston City Hall), but I doubt it. Those who showed up at the wrong place could have easily driven to the correct one.

No, parents who care have been worn out by the Charleston County School District's version of community meetings. Those are the ones where Superintendent McGinley speaks, answers no questions from the floor, and breaks up attendees into groups to share their "concerns" with CCSD-appointed leaders who report their findings, they trust, to McGinley once the meeting is over. Attempts by parents to take over CCSD meetings about restructuring of schools earlier this year are symptomatic of the cynicism born of such tactics.

Never mind that the meeting wasn't sponsored by CCSD. According to the article, "State Rep. Wendell Gilliard, D-Charleston, said the forum was a way that he and fellow organizer state Sen. Robert Ford, D-Charleston, decided to try to help parents concerned about what is going on at the school where 26 students were arrested in one day." In fact, the majority in attendance were invited by the organizers, including "Three school district officials [. . .]to provide an outline of their work in North Charleston schools." They had no names that the reporter could provide.

Parents with children at NCHS know perfectly well that one more meeting with politicians and school district officials will not change the system. No, parents at NCHS aren't perfect; parents aren't perfect anywhere else either.

If the instigators of the Sep. 2 brawl are classified as special education students, as suggested by readers, not much can be done to them.

It's the system, stupid, not the parents.

Either Middleton or Zumalt Has 'Splaining to Do

Arrested for what? Being black while outside the cafeteria?

Everyone in the Lowcountry is breathing a collective sigh of relief that during Wednesday's fight at North Charleston High School no one used a knife or gun. The 26 arrests made by the police and the school-wide lock down were enough to quell the brawl. See Police Boost Presence at School in Friday's P&C.

Now, according to NCHS Principal Juanita Middleton, very few of the 26 will be expelled because "most of those arrested didn't actually fight."

Huh?

Please explain why they were arrested. Someone.

The Good News and the Bad News for NCHS

Depends on how you look at it: 26 Students Charged in Fight.

At least administration called in the law.

Education Deficit Is Not a Learning Disability

It reads well. Has great human interest and good details. What I'm referring to is the first in a promised series of articles on functional illiteracy in Charleston County. [See Failing Our Students in Sunday's P & C.] This one addresses the plight of one student who attended Mitchell Elementary, Rivers Middle, Burke Middle, and Burke High School before dropping out. Because the article shows CCSD in such a poor light, Superintendent McGinley received an advance copy, one supposes, so that she could prepare her response [District Enhances Reading Instruction by Acting Early] for the same issue, a privilege apparently reserved for special friends of the paper's editors.

The truth is that readers never would have heard Ridge Smith's name (the student followed in the story) without the efforts of Pam Kusmider, recently chairman of the District 20 Constituent Board, not because she voted against the majority sending him on long-term suspension but because she cared enough to discover the poor reading skills that had affected his behavior. Kusmider should be lauded for her efforts to help Smith overcome his problems, but, judging from the battle she went through to do so, CCSD and McGinley probably wish they'd never heard her name.

We can all bemoan the lack of a father present in Smith's home, his grandmother's death, his mother's inability to focus on what happened to him as he moved from grade to grade. These are factors that made him a student at risk. They are also factors that no school system can remedy.

McGinley points out that's she's been Superintendent only for two years. True, and she was Chief Academic Officer for three years prior to that, during the time period when "Ridge left Mitchell Elementary School for Rivers Middle School as a seventh-grader in the fall of 2004. [. . .] He saw fights every day, and classmates brought guns to school." Wouldn't it be interesting to research McGinley's public comments regarding Rivers Middle at the time?

In her capacity as Chief Academic Officer, McGinley must have been involved in 2005 when "school officials recommended that he repeat seventh grade. His seventh-grade report card shows him being held back, and the school principal sent his mother a letter that said he would be held back.But Ridge was promoted to the eighth grade." Huh? Who made that decision?

When CCSD "moved Rivers Middle School students to the Burke High School campus in the fall of 2005, Ridge was part of the eighth-grade class involved in the change." And we all know how that one turned out--promises about A-Plus that were never fulfilled and the chaos that reigned--under McGinley's watch as Chief Academic Officer.

Ridge Smith does not have a "learning disability," although that's what officials must label his problem in order to get him assistance. To most of us, learning disability suggests that some innate defect in the student is the problem. This one is not innate. He has an education deficit. If you read between the lines of Courrege's article, it seems that at the end of fourth grade, thanks to caring and dedicated teachers, Smith had indeed made major strides towards remediation of his initial difficulties. As his fourth-grade teacher recalled, "

"More than halfway through Ridge's fourth-grade year, his reading skills ranked at an early third-grade level and his comprehension skills ranked at a late third-grade level. He could identify nouns but had trouble with verbs, adjectives, verb tense and subject-verb agreement. Wingard remembers Ridge reading fluently but struggling with comprehension.He thought Ridge's academic goals were attainable. Ridge always did what Wingard expected of him, and Wingard thought Ridge had a good, successful year. Ridge was administratively promoted to fifth grade."

What happened? Fourth grade is the point where, if reading skills have been mastered, knowledge of content begins to play a larger and larger role in comprehension. What we do know is that "He had academic plans [IEP's, as they are called] in fifth and sixth grades. Ridge was promoted to seventh grade." If the article is to be believed, Smith's reading progress stopped in the fourth grade. That lack of progress cannot be laid at the door of his grandmother's death. The buck stops with Mitchell's fifth and sixth-grade teachers, whom I suspect were inundated with students also reading at the third-grade level. How else to explain his eighth-grade science teacher's comments:

"He appeared self-conscious and uncertain as he read aloud in class, and he didn't understand what he read. Still, he didn't stand out from the class. Most of her students read on the same level as Ridge."

For sure, Burke Middle School was not an environment conducive to Smith's educational advancement. Ridge Smith is not alone in his failures and in the failure of CCSD to provide an environment that encouraged his advancement. I can well understand why his mother, a drop-out herself, assumed that "if he couldn't read, the school system would not have passed him from grade to grade." She trusted those more educated than she to do what was right.

Getting a GED is no walk in the park. Ask any student who has dropped out and attempted to get one. One hopes that Smith is motivated to do so for the sake of his son.

That brings up another point, one that the article glosses over. Smith is not married to the mother of his child. Why not? How old is she? Is she still in school? Will this sad story turn out to repeat itself with a single mother scrubbing floors and an absent father?

"Anger Management" Times at Moultrie Middle

The P & C's article about the knife-wielding thirteen-year-old at Moultrie Middle [Teacher Avoids Knifing] provides crumbs for thought but hardly the big picture of teacher Jennifer Robinovitz's classroom or even of her previous problems with this particular student.

Whatever the reason the boy brought the knife to school, these facts are clear. The teacher provoked the attack by "insisting" he take a test. In other words, she was doing her job.

Why do I think that this was not the first time that the student's behavior disrupted learning in her classroom? The reporter neglected to get any background on his previous behavior, but it is not much of a stretch of the imagination to assume that his "attending anger management classes" was not voluntary. That fact alone suggests a long history of outbursts in the classroom.

One only has to read the comments posted by CCSD teachers in the recent discipline survey to understand that this incident was most likely an escalation in an ongoing war between a disturbed student and a teacher trying her best to meet his needs while educating an entire class. Otherwise, why would one incident in which no one was harmed have produced charges of "assault with intent to kill, disturbing school and a weapons law violation."

There's a larger story here. I wrote about some of it in my post of March 28th. Consider some of the following from CCSD's teachers:

• The abuse of IEP and 504 documents has created a Teflon shield for the students who often drain each school of multiple resources. Many times these students receive little discipline and are readmitted when other offenders without 504 or IEP documentation would have received instant suspension and/or expulsion. At a given point, accountability and responsibility have to occur.
• The majority of the students at my school are wonderful. We have a few that have been bullying other kids for several years, and other kids are terrified of them. It is only a handful, but nothing seems to be done to these bullies no matter how often the teachers write referrals. It seems that the zero-tolerance for bullies has gone by the way side in an order to not rock the boat, and this is extremely sad for the kids that are terrified to come to school each day.
• There are too many students who are getting too many chances. Sure these students should have rights, but what about everybody who suffers because of them.
• There are several students in each classroom that can disrupt the entire class. If the students were put into another setting to address their behavior issues, the rest of the class would be free to learn. Usually at our school it will be 2 or 3 per class that stop instruction constantly lessening the material that can be covered and reiterated for the students who want to learn.
• Some students seem to be persistent offenders but we have not tracked offenses properly in order to document the intervention steps that create behavioral changes or eventual removal. Several behaviorally disordered mainstreamed students enjoy protections that encourage continuous non compliance w/ rules. What ever happened to earning one's way out of a self-contained setting or returning to that setting as the best least restrictive environment aimed at promoting educational goals and gains. Why do we continue to rationalize that the federal protections that certain students have are rights that override other student’s right to learn. Put them in the setting that protects theirs and others needs.
• I feel that there are many children that have serious anger, mental, emotional and behavioral issues that are not addressed and are left for the regular classroom teacher to deal with. These issues often take up a lot of the teacher’s time and takes away from instructional time for the students that come to school to learn. PBIS is a great program but it often does not work for the major behavior problems.

Kudos to Jennifer Robinovitz for her fast thinking. Anyone who teaches in middle school is racking up brownie points in heaven! Here's what she reports about herself.

Masters in Special Education
Trenton State, College of NJ
Bachelors in Education
University of Delaware

This is my first year at Moultrie Middle School! I recently moved here with my family from Rumson, New Jersey. I have taught in the public school system of NJ for 14 years before moving to Mount Pleasant in 2007. I have worked with students of varying ages, grades, and disabilities. I currently work on the 7th grade team at here at Moultrie.

A Jersey girl. I might have known.

CCSD Discipline and IEPs

If only discipline were better in the Charleston County School system, so much more learning could happen in our classrooms. That is the fervent wish of many a parent and resident of Charleston County. Many factors make classroom discipline effective, but one needs some careful inspection: the relationship between discipline problems and IEPs.

Here is a sample of blog comments regarding CCSD's discipline:

"A change in special education law must occur - fat chance - it would be political suicide for any candidate who took that on. The vast majority of violent acts in school are committed by kids who have IEPs. They have rights that supercede any wishes and desires the administration may have to expel. The Charleston area greatly lacks resources worth their weight in salt to assist kids and parents who fall into this category. Kids need it to learn how to properly socialize and handle anger, etc., while parents need it for, well, parenting special needs kids! And how to work WITH the school, not ARGUE with them when your child is a disruption, distraction, or unfortunately, dangerous."

"I strongly encourage any teacher or parent that is or has a child assaulted by one of these IEP kids to file a police report regardless of what your principal may say; there are jails full of folks that had IEPs at one time or the other."

"I believe the overuse of IEPs is a direct reflection of our current society as a whole. People look for a label or reason why their child acts out or struggles in a certain subject and an IEP is their answer."

Is this the dirty little secret of the discipline problems in Charleston County? Here is a comment from the recent discipline survey taken by the Charleston Teacher Alliance:
>"In my 30 years of teaching, the most significant negative impact to public school education has been the . . . policy on NCLB. These displaced children enter new school environments as unfamiliar to them as a foreign countries. The discipline adjustment alone is a key factor for their success and/or failure.

"In addition, the abuse of IEP and 504 documents has created a Teflon shield for the students who often drain each school of multiple resources. Many times these students receive little discipline and are readmitted when other offenders without 504 or IEP documentation would have received instant suspension and/or expulsion. At a given point, accountability and responsibility have to occur.

"In many cases the students become disposable kids dropped off in early morning hours and left unsupervised on school grounds. Principals lack the resources to monitor behavior as many hours as parents would wish. Too frequently, no matter what my principals have done to try to uphold discipline, their actions become undermined or overturned after a board meeting or through process steps of an "intervention" involving multiple staff titles and offices from an educational governmental hierarchy.

"So a student who has been a repeat offender, an arsonist--who so wanted to be apprehended that he left incriminating evidence linking himself to the fire---is likely to return to the very school in which he ignited the fires. It is a serious problem for us as a school, but even more for us as a nation. How many disturbed kids will we pass through the system? At what point do the problems escalate enough to attract attention and concern? Is it only when a Columbine or Virginia Tech tragedy occurs that our nation looks?
A Philadelphia teacher provides a comparison [See Teachers Count]

"At my school Individual Education Plans mean a student with an IEP has the right to roam the halls at will, molest children, and assault children.

"As I drink my morning coffee I see I brought home a suspension slip for a student. This student was touching a girl inappropriately. He did it last year as well. The teacher told me about it because the girl was afraid to complain and did not want him writing a pink slip on the offender. It seems she made the same complaint last year and actions taken only made the matter worse. I have the victim’s older sister in my class. I told her and she told her parents. Her Dad came down and at least got a result for two days.

"Another student just runs the halls all day. By the afternoon he is walking in and out of classrooms, knocking on doors, yelling into classrooms. It’s all on film and I’ve pink slipped him eight times in the past ten days. I could go on and on with examples but that is not the point.

"By and large most IEP students are well behaved and easy to work with. But for those exceptions, I have to question why administration is so disinclined to take action. We are told it is because of their legal rights: but regular education students have equal legal rights to a meaningful and safe education. In a case of competing and equal rights, why is it necessary for courts or politicians to intervene? Why can’t administrators do their job and insure each child is in the best possible learning environment?

"Dangerous behaviors unacceptable by societal standards are not typically manifestations of a child’s learning disability. If violence/aggression is a learning disability or a manifestation of one, then that individual child cannot be safely integrated into a larger population. Children in Philadelphia learn the dangers of snitching in schools. Other students learn that inappropriate behaviors are okay. I am told this past Thursday another boy grabbed a girl in a molesting type manner. Reportedly he was told he would be suspended if he does it again.

"The hidden curriculum in Philadelphia is dangerous to society and it shows up in our criminal statistics.

CCSD's Teachers: Discipline on Their Minds

The good news:

• Thanks to the Charleston Teacher Alliance (CTA), a consistent advocate for classroom teachers, opinions stifled by fear of repercussions from district staff and administrators have been gathered and analyzed.
• CTA's recent survey of teachers reveals that CCSD is making progress, albeit slow, in addressing its discipline problems.

The bad news:

(CTA's recommendations [verbatim] based on its survey and teachers' comments):

1. 94% of teachers surveyed believe strict zero tolerance policies need to be put in place so that students know they will be automatically kicked out of school for serious violations. Based on teacher feedback there have been cases of students bringing drugs and weapons to school yet they are allowed to return. There have been cases of teachers’ lives being threatened, attacked verbally, and/or attacked physically and the students were allowed to return. It is imperative that schools be a safe haven if learning is to take place. Teachers cannot focus on teaching, and students cannot focus on learning when weapons, drugs, and violence are tolerated.
2. 96% of teachers surveyed believe minor infractions need to be strictly enforced so that the right tone is set and larger problems can be avoided. This theory has been proven in the fields of education, sociology, and law enforcement. If students know that there is a serious consequence for “sucking teeth” at a teacher, they would be mush less likely to curse or threaten a teacher.
3. School wide/district wide consistency is the key to successful discipline plans. Consistency was the most common word found throughout the teacher comment section. Teachers who reported no discipline problems said that teachers, administrators and parents were consistent with enforcement of rules and actions of discipline.
4. Parents should not be allowed to override discipline decisions made by the teachers or principals by complaining to district leadership or board members. This was a reoccurring [comment]. This not only lets students know they can do whatever they want, it also demoralizes teachers and makes them look like the bad guy. Leaders can not be hesitant to stand up to parents if it is what is best for the rest of the students, teachers, and schools as a whole.

Note the last recommendation.

Let's face it--these are all common sense. Let's use a little.

Marriage Made in Heaven? Greg Mathis & Sea Islands

If you foolishly lease a building for a charter school that is about to be terminated, what do you do when it is? Apparently, Sea Islands YouthBuild has found the answer--turn it over to another charter school that's having a tough go: Greg Mathis Charter. [Greg Mathis Charter Expands to Include Shuttered Sea Islands YouthBuild .]

Both charters were designed for at-risk students. Greg Mathis has enrolled the remaining Sea Islands students in its school while taking over the Sea Islands-leased building. Greg Mathis's financial picture should improve. The students from Sea Islands will get their chance. Looks like win-win.

Let's hope that the administration at Greg Mathis can get a handle on its previous problems regarding truancy and discipline.

Do Students Cheat? How About Parents?

What high school teacher would be shocked by the latest poll showing that more than 60 percent of high school students admit to cheating on a test during the last year, or that more than a third used the Internet to cheat on an assignment? Not one that is in contact with reality! [See Survey Finds Growing Deceit Among Teens.]

Of course, we all hope that our own children are in the minority who do not cheat, but ask yourself: if you could cheat on your income taxes and not get caught, would you do it? If you believe that "everyone else" gets ahead of you because they cheat, would you? If you did get caught and you could blame the tax preparer or the government or ignorance and get away with without serious consequences, would you cheat?

Students today don't even know the meaning of the word "Draconian" because they and those responsible for forming their ethics make too many excuses for bad behavior, whether it be cheating, stealing, or lying. Too many teachers suffer burnout from facing the hurdles (angry parents, administrators that want parents to go away, etc.) to enforcing a cheat-free classroom. How many parents will say, "Thank you for catching my child"? High school teachers of writing require more and more class time for drafting so that they know that the work is the student's own (and not his-or-her friend's or parent's or something found on the Web).

Don't forget--this financial crisis was largely brought about by mortgage brokers who were so greedy for commissions that they didn't care what consequences ensued, even encouraging applicants to lie on applications. And the applicants did. They weren't high schools students.

What the P & C Should Ask Board Candidates

Good spread in the Post and Courier in Sunday's edition; however, many questions asked of candidates were either inappropriate or inane. [See 9 Candidates Vying for 5 Seats as well as pages 6A-7A of the print edition; questions and answers do not seem to be on line]

Question 1: What grade would you give current schools Superintendent Nancy McGinley? Why? Unless the candidate has a history with McGinley, it's better not to answer this one. The question is designed to identify McGinley supporters.

Question 2: What should the board's role be when it comes to the superintendent (i.e. would you support a more hands-on board that is involved in the district's day-to-day operations or a policy-setting body that would set overall agendas for the superintendent to implement)? This is not an either-or situation. Most candidates realized that the answer must be somewhere in the middle. Poor question.

Question 3: Should the School Board set specific expectations for the school district in terms of measurable objectives, . . .? If not, why? If so, can you give specifics on the expectations you would set. . .? Any specific objectives must be in an area that the district can't fiddle. For example, SAT scores can be raised by discouraging weaker students from taking the test; graduation rates can be raised by ensuring that students graduate by their raising earned grades or disappear down the memory hole or are shunted into district-created charter schools that are off the books. Only tests that can't be locked in a closet overnight are eligible for consideration. Poorly-worded question. Who's going to support non-measurable objectives?

Question 4: Would you support increased funding for schools (i.e. a tax raise)? Why/why not? Another poorly thought-out question. It should be, Should the state legislature vote to increase the state sales tax? Would you lobby for that? Do you think Charleston gets its fair share based on the present formula? Would you be willing to lobby in Columbia to change that formula?

Question 5:Do you think public education is adequately funded in Charleston County? If so, why? If not, what should happen? Hello, here is a function of the state legislature again. Question is inappropriate as worded.

Question 6: For the past few years, the school board has directed officials to scrutinize and improve 10-percent spending annually. Are there any areas that should be off-limits, and are there any areas that the board should be digging into more deeply? Please provide examples. Of course, the question is written as though the board wants to increase spending by 10 percent annually; what the interlocutor meant was that the board hopes that 10-percent of the spending in the area scrutinized could be eliminated! The notion that just part of the budget should be scrutinized is rubbish on the face of it. Would you want a teacher to grade a student based on 10 percent of that student's grades? The question should have been, Are you in favor of annual zero-based budgeting? Are you in favor of posting district expenditures on line? Do you favor the board's scrutinizing 100 percent of the budget every year?

Question 7: Would you support giving new charter schools space in school district buildings? Why/why not? The premise is invalid. Why would they need to be "new"? What possible reason would there be for not doing so? Is there any underutilized or vacant building that a charter school would not want to use?

Question 8: What is the district doing or not doing for charter schools that you would like to see change? Should have been worded, Should the district's policy of deliberately sabotaging non-district created (for relatives of board members) charter schools be reversed? Should the school district employ relatives of board members as administrators in its charter schools?

Question 9: Under what conditions would you support closing, consolidating or restructuring schools in Charleston? One assumes he/she means in the entire school district--poor wording again. The question covers too many possibilities: what is "restructuring schools" anyway? Is that adding a new wing? Making it into a charter school? More fuzzy thinking.

Question 10: Which school board candidates are you going to vote for in this election? Say what you mean! Who's on your team? Do you want the way the present school board does business to stay the same or do you want a change in its relationship with 75 Calhoun?

Let's add the questions that should have been asked:

11. Are you willing to reverse the unwritten policy of always building schools much larger than the ones being replaced? If not, are you willing to vote against neighborhood schools so that constituents know where you stand?

12. Are you satisfied with the transparency of CCSD's multimillion-dollar building program in its contract negotiations and expenditures?

13. Are you willing to adopt the policy that no one who has ever set foot upon a Broad Foundation campus will ever again be employed by CCSD?

14. Are you willing to adopt a discipline policy that holds principals accountable for enforcement? Perhaps a cell-phone to each teacher & policy that, every time a principal sends a misbehaving student back to class with no action, that principal will have 24 hours to justify his or her behavior to a committee created by the school board or be publicly humiliated.

15. Are you willing to investigate the burgeoning busing in CCSD that involves moving non-magnet or non-NCLB transfers out of their attendance zones? Are you ready to determine if the hours, not to speak of the dollars, spent busing these transfers can be justified?

Oh, yes. I'm confident there are more questions out there.