CCSD Superintendent Preys on Public Ignorance

What is it about "scholarship" totals that educrats like Superintendent Nancy McGinley can't comprehend? I've blogged about this idiocy previously, but McGinley's latest letter (posted on the CCSD website) brings it to mind again.

After parroting all of the usual platitudes regarding "Charleston Achieving Excellence" [sorry to nitpick, but shouldn't that be "Charleston's"? or "Charleston: Achieving Excellence"?], McGinley writes,

"Already, we are seeing results. We just got our scholarship information in, and the numbers are exceptional. CCSD seniors earned a total of $42,257,783 in scholarships in 2008. This was an increase of $5,934,282 over last year."

I may be accused of beating a dead horse here, but this is a phony-baloney number in ANY year! The number is the self-reported sum times four of all money offered to students by every school the students applied to. For example, if a student applied to Charleston Southern and was awarded a package of $8000 for the freshman year (including loans and grants) because of financial need, that $8000 was multiplied by four and $32,000 was added into McGinley's total. The "scholarship" part of this merely is that the student was accepted at Charleston Southern. Now assume that the student applied to three such schools. That would make the student's total $96,000. Sounds good, doesn't it? Of course, the student may have decided to attend Trident Tech instead, meaning that all the money awarded from those three institutions became moot. As more and more students apply to multiple schools, the "scholarship" total will rise accordingly. The poorer the students are, the faster it will go.

Of course, some of the total represents real scholarship (that is, based on academics, not financial need), but in the last thirty years or so the bulk of money awarded has been based on financial need. If a student gets into Harvard and needs a "full ride" financially, that's what he or she will get; if the same student were very wealthy, he or she would get nothing. Does that mean the wealthy student isn't a scholar?

Look, McGinley knows these details full well. She and others like her quote such numbers to prey on the ignorance of the public at large. After all, $42 million in scholarships sounds great. Of course, the present superintendent didn't start this idiocy, but she could stop it.

Does Spelling Count? Not in the Media

It drives some of us crazy. Watch the captions on local TV. Look at the CCSD website.

No, I'm not talking about spelling errors by non-professionals. A student is not going to fail a literature test because he or she can't spell "villain" or "conscience." And while I try to hold myself to a high standard in posting on this blog, spelling errors in readers' comments bother me not at all.

It's just that, as I explain to students when they ask that question, if you are presenting yourself as a professional, spelling errors suggest that you are deficient in other ways as well. Would a sign company stay in business if even 10 percent of its signs were misspelled? My son, who was recently recruiting bloggers for on-line jobs, was inundated with emailed applications. The ones with misspellings in the application were the first to reach the circular file.

What set me off on this rant was the title of a story on Channel 4's website: Litter Is More Than an Eye Soar on Folly Beach.

At first I thought the headline on Channel 4's home page might have been a joke, but then I read the story. I'm still trying to imagine those eyes soaring on Folly Beach.

Al Parish's 24 Years Not Long Enough

Did you ever hear such nonsense as from those who have bought into Andy Savage's "I didn't really know what I was doing" defense of "economist" Al Parish? It's hard to explain why some folks are still making excuses for him. I've even heard some blame-the-victim comments! Why?

Let me guess.

• Charleston isn't accustomed to business fraud on such a scale;
• Parish's defenders, such as the Metro Chamber of Commerce, can't accept that they were bamboozled;
• Even though Parish was "investing" in $4000 suits and trips to Ireland, they still think he meant to make money for them;
• Parish used his religious connections (church and Baptist College--excuse me, Charleston Southern) to defraud while many others use religious connections to generate business;
• He's a white male who is non-violent;
• Bankrolling his flamboyant lifestyle was worth it for the entertainment value?

Brian Hicks said it rightly in Friday's P & C:

Parish's greatest asset was not his gnome collection but his air of respectability. He worked for a Baptist college, he was the toast of city officials and the chamber of commerce, he was in the newspaper. He fooled everybody in town. But really he was just a lowlife in a purple jacket, a man who would rob not only senior citizens but his own friends and neighbors.

Why Teachers Hate In-Service Days

Making the rounds is this video of teachers in the Beaufort area complying with asinine preparations for teaching Everyday Math. No matter that the dance has absolutely nothing to do with math. No matter that Everyday Math is hated and reviled in all other parts of the country as being ineffective and detrimental to student math proficiency, these hapless victims of in-service bravely attempt to follow an idiotic dance with varying degrees of enthusiasm.

FYI--almost all teachers have encountered some idiocy like this one on an in-service day. During one particularly inane and demeaning exercise, I walked out, ready to confront anyone who got in my way. Probably the rest thought I was ill or had an emergency. More likely, at least half were wishing they had the nerve to follow.


Thanks to The Palmetto Scoop for the memories!

Feel Free to Rant About Comcast

Did you ever hear a good story about dealing with Comcast? Apparently one was posted on a Maryland-based blog my daughter regularly visits. She became so incensed that she responded with a blast regarding her three-month-long battle to get reliable internet service.

Well, our battle took only two weeks. I could rant on about incompetent management and disappearing personnel; however, I am grateful to the final installer who performed his work professionally. I'm sure he's unhappy with his fellow workers who give Comcast a bad name.

But then, how about the following story from last October:

75-Year-Old Woman Takes Hammer to Comcast Office

After not showing up for appointments, 75-year-old rampages through local Comcast office.

Photo Credit: By Richard A. Lipski—The Washington Post

By Jason Unger
10.22.2007 — If only we could actually do the things we sometimes think about doing.

Mona Shaw, a 75-year-old Bristow, Va. woman, did.

Shaw recently went on a rampage at her local Comcast office after the service provider missed a scheduled appointment, came without completing the installation, and then cut off her service.

When she went to the local office to complain, she ended up waiting for a manager—for two hours. And then the manager never came.

After a weekend of “stewing,” she went back to the office ... with her hammer.

As the Washington Post reports:

Hammer time: Shaw storms in the company’s office. BAM! She whacks the keyboard of the customer service rep. BAM! Down goes the monitor. BAM! She totals the telephone. People scatter, scream, cops show up and what does she do? POW! A parting shot to the phone!

“They cuffed me right then,” she says.

Her take on Comcast: “What a bunch of sub-moronic imbeciles.”

Wow! We’re not going to condone this action, but it is pretty interesting.

Shaw received a three-month suspended sentence for disorderly conduct, a one-year restraining order from the local Comcast office and a $345 fine.

Now I feel much better.

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?

Jim Rex Confuses Buildings with Standards

Hard to believe, isn't it, that State Superintendent of Education Jim Rex is so confused that he equates buildings with academic standards. Rex revealed his confusion at a Rotary Club meeting in Columbia Monday. As reported in the State, Rex said:

"More political courage is needed by the state’s 170 lawmakers if they are to fix the state’s ailing public education system. [. . . ]

Rex said state lawmakers often tell him they want to stand up for public education but are afraid of being targeted by powerful [so powerful they cannot be named] groups in their home counties. Rex said that within an hour’s drive of Columbia, there are public schools that look like something in the “third world.”

The state’s 700,000 young people in public schools will be the dominant population in the state, so it makes sense to spend money on them, Rex said. A “tsunami” of bad consequences is rushing toward South Carolina if it does not raise public education standards, he said."

Let's follow the logic here: South Carolina's "Corridor of Shame" has "third-world" school buildings. Therefore, the state should replace and/or renovate the buildings. As a result, "public education standards" will rise. Oh, yeah. Better buildings = higher standards.

Listen, I didn't vote for him.

Charter School for Math & Science: Elite?

Let's go to the dictionary for this one.

Elite: the choice part; the best of a class ; the socially superior part of society; a group of persons who by virtue of position or education exercise much power or influence; a member of such an elite —usually used in plural (Merriam-Webster On-Line).

With CCSD School Board Trustee Ruth Jordan's recent words about the "wealthy elite" desiring a charter school downtown, we need to look at the present demographics of the group of about 170 students enrolling so far. [A previous post has the black-white breakdown]:

• 78% from Charleston County Public Schools
• 19% from private schools
• 3% from home schools
  

Also

• 22% of private school students are African American
• 60% of home school students are African American
  

And

• 34% are eligible for Free and Reduced Lunch

Well, Ruth?

Brinson's School Funding: Five W's and an H?

At the end of a long, fuzzy-thinking op-ed piece aimed, I infer, at the problem of funding the building of more schools for overcrowded Dorchester County [see Public School Funding Requires Rising Above Interest Groups ], Ron Brinson, an ex-associate editor of the P & C makes the following statements:

This is not rocket science. Reliable and equitable school funding models have evolved in many high-growth states.

No further details. Unnamed states. Why wasn't the entire op-ed piece about them? No wonder he's an ex! How about

• who
• what
• when
• where
• why and
  
• how?
  

Show Me the Teacher, Joe!

Dorchester District 2's math scores have been slipping on the elementary level. To forestall further deterioration, the district is taking action. Sunday's P & C carefully enumerates Superintendent Joe Pye's plans, developed at his request by a curriculum specialist. [See Dorchester 2 on a Mission to Change Math Instruction ]

But when Pye made the statement that "no longer will teachers lecture for 40 minutes," every fact that had previously been presented was called into question. Lecturing for 40 minutes in a math classroom? Lecturing for 40 minutes in any high school classroom? You must be joking, Joe.

Remember "Show me the money"?

Well, "show me the teacher"!

If DD2's superintendent really believes that 40-minute lectures are being given in high school classrooms in his district, he is totally out of contact with reality. In fact, his brain has been left in the 19th century, not the 20th. No, that's not the likely problem. Instead, he has revealed himself to be an educrat, part of the problem and not part of the solution.

Maybe the problem is that third-grade teachers are spending more time on "dot plotting, mode, and range" than making sure that students are proficient in basic math skills such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division without a calculator.

Personally, I cringe every I see high school students dive for one to figure out what percentage 47 out of 50 is!

CCSD Politics: Airheads at Play

Now obvious to the public is the political deal made between CCSD School Board members Hillery Douglas and Nancy Cook. Let's face it: the two of them may be the biggest racists on the present board, so maybe that's what they have in common.

The conversation clearly went something like the following:

Hillery: If I run for mayor of North Charleston, you'll support my candidacy.
Nancy: Yes. And then if you lose, I'll let you be Board Chairman while you support my candidacy for Charleston County Council, even if I have to run as a Republican.
Hillery: Why do you want to be on the Charleston County Council?
Nancy: Well, remember, the CCSD Board can't send funds to my shelter any longer, the way it did with the Derthick Fund. If I get on the Charleston County Council, I can get some funding from the county to replace that money. After all, the County Council puts lots of earmarks right into the budget, even if its slush fund has been under the gun lately.
Hillery: That's true. It's a deal.

Of course, the former was only an IMAGINED conversation, but it does explain Douglas's reaction to airhead Nancy's stupid remarks made earlier this week on local talk radio.

In case you've been hiding under a rock, the comments, which Cook now claims have been taken out of context, concerned sterilization and taking babies away from what used to be called "welfare mothers." THIS is her solution to high dropout rates in our nation's schools. AIRHEAD is not too strong! [See Cook's On-air Remarks Draw Fire]

Cook: We're not paying for another baby, maybe one baby, but after that, we're taking the baby. And maybe you get sterilized. I know that sounds kind of extreme and radical, but we're in times to where — think about America.

Out of context? Here's what Douglas said in response:

Cook was trying to give an answer to a problem that has most people perplexed.

"Sometimes when you try and do that off the cuff, the wrong things come out," he said. "I'm almost certain she really doesn't mean that that's the solution to it by sterilizing. I just think it was something that was said that should not have been said."

Why was it said? Because Cook is after the racist vote in North Charleston, that's why. She's no Republican. Don't kid yourself that she really doesn't think this way.

Can you imagine the firestorm from Douglas and his cronies if Sandi Engelman had made remarks even one-third as racist as these?

Chickens So Predictably Roosting Everywhere

Changes in funding of school operating costs from local property taxes to increases in the sales tax, etc., were touted everywhere in 2006 as the answer to all problems. Some of us, even in the midst of all that hullabaloo said, "Yeah, right."

Now, even the most vociferous proponents of this change are beginning to see its serious consequences. For example, why is CCSD Superintendent Nancy McGinley touring the district explaining a projected $23 million shortfall in the school budget? Because under the new taxing rules, CCSD loses out to districts that are poorer. Duh. Predictable. Years ago California fooled around with property tax caps, and its stellar school system tanked as a result. We're not even stellar.

The P &C has finally recognized the unintended consequences of the new laws. According to Monday's business section,

"There was such a groundswell of support for property tax reform, it was hard for a legislator to get in the way and ask what the long-term effects are going to be," said Otis Rawl, vice president of public policy for the South Carolina Chamber of Commerce.

But the bill's consequences are becoming clear as county reassessment offices start sifting through last year's sales to figure out the new assessments. Charleston County Deputy Assessor Bobby Cale estimates that the prices of properties were about 45 percent higher than the appraised value in late 2003, when his office last gathered assessment data.

What that means is, on average, properties sold in 2007 will have a taxable value 45 percent higher than the previous owners paid.

As a result, the new system discourages the purchase of real estate, and not just for buyers who are new to South Carolina, said Nick Kremydas, president of the South Carolina Association of Realtors. Most people move every seven years, and most homes in South Carolina are sold to people who already live in the state, he noted.

"Fifteen or 20 years into the future of this, it would be a huge deterrent from moving out of a home because it might be more expensive to buy a smaller home," Kremydas said.

Lee Walton over at the blog Charleston Watch has a few good comments on the overall effects of the 2006 legislation:

Growing tax revolt pressure in locations with skyrocketing property values has led to numerous attempts to curb property tax increases by substituting various forms of regressive sales tax reforms, often coupled with homestead property tax and food sales tax exemption provisions. Invariably, such hybrid taxing policies punish the poor, the young and upwardly mobile, businesses, commercial property owners, new homeowners, and trap retirees who’d like to sell their homes. . . .

All sales taxes are regressive – poorer people and those on limited or fixed incomes pay a larger percentage of their income in sales tax than more wealthy residents. As sales taxes are substituted for property taxes, the tax burden shifts further downward to the less affluent. This regressive imbalance is especially evident in localities where some foods, medicines and utilities are subject to increasing state and local sales taxes. A 1999 North Carolina study by Gardner found that an increase in sales taxes burdened the poorest 20% six times more than the wealthiest 1%. . . .

[A current legislative] bill would eliminate property taxes altogether on “homesteads” for homeowners 65 and older and eliminate 28-30% of the current property tax of all 4% and 6% properties – all for just another 1% increase in state sales tax. The likely result of this ill-conceived action would be the demise of the middle-class, a quantum impact upon the already struggling poor, and old-timers trapped in their homes until the end of their days.

Well said, Lee. I hope someone's paying attention.

Shock and Awe, Cane-Bay-High-School Style

We've got to be more impressive than Wando High School!

At least, I guess that's the purpose of this two-story entrance and court for the new Cane Bay High School. Who knows, maybe it's the same architect.

According to Saturday's P & C the new Berkeley County high school's teachers

"demonstrated excitement and awe as they walked under a canopied entrance designed with seven archways.

"They then viewed the two-floor common area, which serves at the school's central gathering place and leads to the cafeteria, auditorium and media center."

Has anyone inquired why so much space needs to be wasted? What does BCSD think it's building--a cathedral?

Your tax dollars at work.

CCSD Teacher Coaches: Another Failed Idea

Sometimes you wonder--what were they thinking? Then you remember, they probably weren't thinking at all. They were simply responding to stimuli from NCLB to get those failing schools up to standards.

What else would explain taking more than 60 experienced teachers out of the classroom to make the lives of teachers IN the classroom more difficult by increasing the paper workload? Or assigning individual teacher coaches to "coach" entire faculties of larger schools? Or asking teacher coaches to "coach" outside of their academic areas?

The answer, of course, is that these *bright* ideas come from those administrators who have spent little, if any, time in an actual classroom teaching an actual academic subject.

Thanks to budget problems (!), as reported in last week's P & C, these missteps may be on their way to the dustbins of history in CCSD. Ask yourself, would CCSD's Superintendent McGinley have continued this ineffective program that has been costing the district (by my estimate) roughly $300,000 per year if there were no budgeting problems?

Or would the taxpayers of CCSD be told how the program is paying off? Of course, the P & C article neglects to mention whose idea these coaches were, but the reasonable guess is McGinley herself. Wasn't she Chief Academic Officer? Too embarrassing to remember, I guess.

CCSD Super Stumbles Again

Would you believe that Charleston County has a long history of depending on private schools?

I wouldn't either. Yet that's exactly what Superintendent Nancy McGinley told the P & C as quoted in Monday's article on new charter schools. According to McGinley, " the local interest in charter schools also could be tied to the area's strong history of private schools, and many parents have started looking to charter schools as an alternative to those tuition-based schools."

Get real, Nancy. For a city of its size, over its history Charleston has had a relatively SMALL percentage of its students enrolled in private schools. Check any other metropolitan area over the last 100 years, and you'll see what I mean. What McGinley should have said is that participation in private schooling has increased over the time period since the consolidation of Charleston County school districts. Even so, probably home schooling has been growing at a faster rate.

How long has she been in Charleston now? Or is she still taking her cues from some mentor at the Broad Foundation?

If You Made This Up. . .

Archbishop of Canterbury's Rowan Williams has caused quite a stir by suggesting that Great Britain should observe sharia law as equal to and/or parallel to British. But, of course, if you're Episcopal these days, even outrageous and damaging nonsense coming from Williams is not a surprise.

However, in Los Angeles, the inmates have also taken over the asylum. To whit, a statement made by the Bishop of that Diocese and reported happily on Indian blogs:

Episcopal Christians Apologize to Hindus

India Abroad, Posted: Feb 10, 2008

LOS ANGELES - The Bishop of the Epsicopal diocese of Los Angeles has issued an apology to Hindus worldwide for what he called "centuries-old acts of religious discrimination by Christians, including attempts to convert them" reports India Abroad. The apology was given in a statement read to over 100 Hindu spiritual leaders at a mass from Right Reverend J John Bruno. The ceremony started with a Hindu priestess blowing a conch shell three times and included sacred chants.

This meeting was the result of a dialogue, started three years ago, between Hindu leaders and Rev. Karen MacQueen, who was deeply influenced by Hindu Vedanta philosophy and opposes cultivating conversions. "There are enough Christians in the world," she said. "What we need to see is more Christians leading an exemplary life and truly loving their fellow man." However the apology has triggered considerable debate among pastors across the US.

I wonder what they are debating:

• If they've fallen down the rabbit hole with Alice?
  
• If the Bishop of Los Angeles should get a medal or be tarred and feathered?
  
• If it's possible to send both Bishop Bruno and the Rev. MacQueen to Canterbury where they can comfortably debate sharia law?
  
• When the Rev. MacQueen will suggest that Christians be persecuted for attempting to convert Hindus?

Dumb and Dumber: Graduate at 16

Would someone please throw Gov. Sanford a lifeline? He's gone off the deep end again.

Beyond the occasional genius, usually a genius at math, no teenager needs to enter college early. So when I saw the headline in Sunday's P & C, Educators split on cash for early grads,
I cringed. Apparently it's not enough for Sanford that today's colleges and universities have multiple remedial classes for students who can't handle college-level curriculum, now he wants South Carolina to encourage students who are not mature enough to handle the peer pressures of college life to march happily off to Columbia or Greenville or wherever, out of sight of parental control, straight into the arms of the anything-goes cultures that roam our campuses looking for victims.

What is he thinking? Probably not much. Then, Superintendent Rex chimes in to agree, proving that brain cells have not been put to work: "Jim Rex, a Democrat, said he's on board with the governor's idea as long as minor questions are addressed, such the impact on the state's on-time graduation rate. "'On the surface, I really like it,' Rex said. 'I think the concept is a good one.'"

What a self-serving statement! "Surface" is right. Does it occur to anyone else that Rex knows nothing about education? I had seen rumors that he views the post as a stepping-stone to running for governor. Now I believe them.

CCSD Superintendent McGinley was mainly concerned with district's finances: [her] main concern . . . was whether the college scholarship money would come out of the kindergarten through 12th-grade budget." Well, that's where her priorities lie.

To give the devil his due, so to speak, at least CCSD's Janet Rose made noises about the effects of such a goal on the students themselves, saying "it's not in kids' best interest to leave high school early." And "Berkeley Assistant Superintendent for Learning Services Mike Turner said district principals are unanimous in their opposition."

Well, duh.

And the incentive to make a choice that could haunt both student and parents for the rest of their lives? A mere drop in the bucket in the sea of college expenses--either $1000 or $2000. Does Sanford think our colleges and universities still act in loco parentis? Or that all of these younger students will live at home with parents? Or that students who are mentally advanced are always more emotionally mature?

What planet is he on?

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?

CCSD: You Thought We Were Going to Follow Our Policy?

Clearly what CCSD needs is a Chief Obfuscation Officer, such as the one suggested for the New York City Schools [See DOE Announces New Administrative Positions]. Then slip-ups like the one below wouldn't occur.

Board trips over policy on expenses

By Diette Courrégé

The Post and Courier

Friday, January 11, 2008

Charleston County School Board members haven't followed their policy to publish their expenditures and share what they learned with their colleagues.

The school board approved a policy that requires it to publish the yearly expenditures for its members each August, but the board failed to do that last year. The Post and Courier began asking for that information in early October and submitted a Freedom of Information Act request for it in late November. The district supplied the information in early December and provided more details later that month.

Board member Gregg Meyers said it was inappropriate that a Freedom of Information Act request was needed and that the information should have been available in August. He said he planned to let the superintendent know the district should follow the board's policy.

School board Vice Chairwoman Nancy Cook was chair of the board until November. She said she forgot the board was supposed to make this information public, and district officials should have reminded the board about this. The board doesn't have anything to hide, but this disclosure wasn't on her radar, she said.

"They should've been on top of that," she said.

School Superintendent Nancy McGinley said she wasn't aware of the policy's requirement until recently, and the responsibility to ensure such a report was generated would have fallen under the chief financial officer. She said that she relies on the heads of district departments to follow policies and that this issue wasn't brought to her attention. [Note: And the chief financial officer said, what?]

Job description for this new CCSD official could be modeled after the one [satirically] proposed by New York parents:

"Chief Obfuscation Officer: Heads the PR Department division responsible for explaining all DOE restructuring issues to the public."

Add to this administrative position the responsibility for explaining the School Board's arcane financial decisions and unequal treatment of District 20 and North Charleston, and I think we've got a winner.

Idiocy of the Day: Riley to Head League's Youth Council

According to Thursday's P & C,

"The National League of Cities has announced that Charleston Mayor Joe Riley has been appointed to chair the league's 2008 Council on Youth, Education, and Families.

"The council works to assist municipal leaders in identifying and developing effective programs for strengthening families and improving outcomes for the children and youth.

Riley should really be helpful regarding programs to strengthen education. Look what's happened to the penninsula schools during his tenure.