Truth or Consequences for CCSD Taxpayers

Sometimes interesting tidbits appear on the P&C's website, this time appended to the latest article on CCSD's proposed "penny" sales tax increase [Penny Tax Hike Now Up to Voters ].

Is it true:

"If the voters reject the sales tax, the district apparently already has enough borrowing authority remaining within their statutory 8% limit to complete the seismic repairs. To exceed this 8% constitutional limit would require them to pursue a voter referendum."

Same Old Excuses on SC's SAT Scores

I'll bet you folks are scratching your heads and wondering why South Carolina beat Maine in this year's SAT contest.

Usually we can thank the great States of Mississippi and Alabama (as well as Washington, D.C.) for preventing us from being dead last. [See State SAT Scores Drop in Tuesday's P&C.]

According to outgoing State Superintendent Jim Rex,

"More students taking the exam often leads to lower scores, and state educators need to figure out how to boost SAT scores while that happens, he said. Sixty-six percent of the state's students take the exam, making it the 14th-highest participation rate in the country, and its overall national ranking is 49th, ahead of Maine and Washington, D.C."

Well, Mr. Rex, how did the other 13 "highest participation rate" states fare? Better than South Carolina, no doubt, at least for 12 of them!

On the other hand, Maine requires every high school senior to take the SAT, so its rate must be approaching 100%.

Try to imagine how low SC's scores would be under that circumstance!

Softball Questions for CCSD Candidates

These are the best that the P&C can dream up:

• What grade would you give the superintendent for her leadership?
• What is the biggest problem in Charleston County School District? What is its biggest asset?
• If you're elected, what is one specific goal that you plan to accomplish?
  

[See Q&A with Charleston County School Board Candidates in Saturday's edition.]

Anybody see at least one glaring omission?

How about

Do you support the sales tax increase for the schools on this November's ballot?

What about

If the sales tax increase fails, would you support raising property taxes?

And

If elected, would you call for a forensic audit of CCSD's books?

I'm sure some readers can add to the list.

What's CCSD's McGinley Afraid of?

An important tax proposal is on the ballot in Charleston County this November: a sales tax increase planned to expire after six years. CCSD's Superintendent Nancy McGinley has thrown her full support behind the passage of this proposal to raise money for the district, and yet. . .

She refuses to appear with Richard Todd on a local radio station to answer the public's questions about her pet project.

McGinley-watchers know full well how she manages to dodge and manipulate the public whenever the slight possibility arises that someone might ask a question about the Charleston County Schools who won't be jeopardizing his or her job by doing so. One such question might raise some more even more embarrassing questions.

Who knows where that might lead, like to a forensic audit of the district.

And we all know she's planning to fall back on a property-tax increase anyway, so why answer questions from taxpayers?

No School Safe When CCSD Policy Committee Meets

Is it true? Is the Policy Committee of the Charleston County School Board about to pull a fast one on the Academic Magnet (AMHS)?

It's a well-known phenomenon that when something is working really well politicians want to tinker with it. Scuttlebutt has it that Gregg Meyers, knowing how well using his law office address worked to get his own children into Buist Academy on the District 20 list, now wants to create a similar structure for entrance to the Academic Magnet.

This marvelous system, virtually guaranteed to be finagled in like fashion to Buist entrance in days of yore, would use zip codes instead of four lists as Buist does. It would also use a lottery.

After all, why would we want only the best students to go to AMHS? Some of them should linger in other high schools to beef up their stats for Superintendent McGinley. Just think of the possibilities.

Meanwhile, Meyers has scheduled the next meeting of the Policy Committee for the last day of Rosh Hashanah, guaranteeing that any observant Jews will not interfere with discussion and offering to take the minutes himself while chairing the meeting, since the committee's secretary will not be there.

Love it.

Mysterious Surge to S.C. Charter District

A burgeoning mystery is mushrooming right now in South Carolina.

More and more parents are trying to sign up their children for charter schools approved by the South Carolina Charter District, or, as the P&C phrases it, "Parents are virtually beating the doors down to get their kids into the poorest school district in America."

See Poorest District Fights to Survive in Monday's paper.

Improving Stats, Not Student Achievement

Now that the first results are in for the hundreds of students displaced by CCSD's closing of five schools, Superintendent Nancy McGinley urges patience. [See Little Progress for Students in Sunday's P&C.]

McGinley, who promised improvements when the schools were closed now says, "'I think any conclusions that are being drawn after one year are premature because children did not fall behind in one year, and they're not going to leapfrog ahead in one year,' she said." Holy cow! She even suggests that "The trauma of moving to a new school may have affected some students."

Maybe moving to another school also rated worse that average was a factor, Dr. McGinley? Maybe getting up earlier and arriving home later because of busing was a factor? Maybe lack of parental involvement because children were scattered away from their home neighborhoods was a factor?

Nevertheless, as she bragged earlier this summer, the Superintendent can now state truthfully that there are fewer failing schools in the district under her administration.

Too bad she can't say that there are fewer failing students.

SC: Last in Eduspeak as Well

Poor South Carolina State Department of Education. Twice rejected for federal education grants. [See Education Officials Perplexed in Saturday's P&C.]

But wait! It appears that the writers of the grant proposals neglected to stuff a quorum of educational jargon into their text:

". . .The Hechinger Report, a New York-based education news organization, reported that winning applications hit on key education buzzwords more frequently than losers did.

"The words mentioned more often were professional development, data-driven, charter, evaluation, rigor or standards, assessment, accountability and online or e-learning.

"[Deputy Superintendent ]Poda said the department didn't make a concerted effort to include particular words in its application.

We must really be out of the loop.

I wonder why Jim Rex wasn't the spokesman for this report. Not.

CCSD Should Welcome Independent Audit

If the administration at 75 Calhoun and the Charleston County School Board wish votes for a sales tax increase, then . . .

Audit. Show us some transparency about where the money has gone. [See Kandrac Calls for School District Audit.] And don't get the usual suspects involved in doing it.

According to the P&C, "Board member Chris Fraser said the discussion about transparency is a good one, but he said he didn't want to burden district staff with more work, and he wasn't sure how the audit would fit in with existing audits."

Translation: A new forensic audit might uncover hanky panky with the old ones.

McGinley the Spin Doctor

Tenure or no tenure, many punishments can be imposed on teachers who disagree with administration in CCSD--banishment to a "failing" school coming at the top of the list or, worse yet, days of in-services to fix the "problem."

Even so, as Many Teachers Don't Feel Valued in Monday's P&C reveals, Superintendent McGinley's district survey of teachers that was supposed to show that the Charleston Teacher Alliance, which took its own survey, is composed of a bunch of complainers and whiners revealed

Of the 2,041 respondents, only 53 percent said they strongly or somewhat agree with the statement: "As a teacher, I feel valued by Charleston County School District." The district employs roughly 3,500 teachers.

District administration took the results so seriously, in fact, that it had sat on them since last May, despite many queries from outsiders. (Oh, how familiar it all sounds!)

Another finding:

One such area involved the support staff for schools, such as learning specialists and instructional coordinators, and whether they contributed to improving classroom instruction. Only 59 percent of teachers thought so, while only one-third of those surveyed by the alliance said those positions benefit the classroom.

So will McGinley finally rethink some of her bureaucracy from this additional result? Not going to happen.

Riley's Lapdog Attacks Kandrac

With permission from his master, Jon Butzon of the Charleston Education Network (CEN) (the what? you ask), has joined the attack against CCSD Board member Elizabeth Kandrac. [See Thursday's tirade : Letters to the Editor]

Readers of this blog may recall several postings on Butzon and his curious privileged position vis a vis the School Board. You may want to try for yourself to get any specific information on the organization at this web address: http://www.charlestonednet.com. See any references to how it is funded? Learn who its members are? Of course not.

Here's what I wrote back in January of 2009:

Jon Butzon--the executive director of the Charleston Education Network--sounds impressive, doesn't it? I'm impressed with how much he takes home (must be up to $80,000 per year by now) for attending CCSD School Board meetings and writing two or three op-ed pieces per year. And his qualifications for that are what? And what is the Charleston Education Network (apart from being part of the edublob)? [See entries for CEN and Butzon on this blog.] Who pays his salary? Who calls the shots?

Here's what a commenter wrote back in July of 2007 (just a sample of a heated conversation):

"The waste and inequities that CCSD has forced on Dist. 20 are common issues that unite both white & black downtown public school advocates. Butzon & CEN have been noticeably absent on all fronts. A united downtown is a scary prospect to some. It would seem that all the special interest groups that live off the crumbs that CCSD throws them, from Dot Scott to Jon Butzon, the NAACP to the Chamber of Commerce (what a strange mix), none can afford to have a bunch of loose cannons downtown calling for public school reforms."

My nominee for controller is Joe Riley.

Hicks: Focus on Source of Funding Problems!

Quote from Brian Hicks: "So there's the first lesson of the 2010-11 school year: They're going to make you pay, one way or another." [See Remember When 'Public' Meant 'Free?' in Wednesday's P&C]

Well, I couldn't agree more, Brian, but the headline above your column is just plain wrong. Let's hope you didn't suggest it.

Public schools in South Carolina, and particularly here in Charleston County, have never been free. You're living in a poor state; this isn't New Jersey or Massachusetts where the population as a whole is much more affluent. And SC had a much poorer tax base in the past.

We rented our schoolbooks--yes, we did. And if we didn't have the lunch money, we brought what we could scavenge from home. Not to rain on your parade, but CCSD does not verify that students need the free breakfasts and lunches that we pay for, apparently with the excuse that, if the parents say they need them, they won't provide proper food or lunch money even if the parents have it.

Fees have been charged since the beginning of public schools in South Carolina. And they fall most heavily on the poor, but maybe in ways you haven't considered.

Take the case of the cheerleading fees that you complain about ($250). That doesn't include the cost of the previous gymnastics classes and training that parents have financed for years out of their own pockets. That phenomenon means that girls (and boys) whose parents couldn't afford those classes never made the squad. Not fair, but surely you're not suggesting CCSD foot that bill?

Schools in the better-heeled communities that have vibrant and energetic parent organizations have always raised money on their own to put into non-academic activities. Again, nothing new there.

So what has changed, Brian?

Simple: our stupid, stupid, stupid change to funding operating expenses based on sales tax revenue! Anyone with half a brain (including yours truly) predicted when the change was made, this day would come. Now, thanks to the tax structure, districts like CCSD can spend multi-millions on new buildings in which they can't put a proper supply of paper.

And CCSD is getting ready to do it again.

The ordinary taxpayer doesn't understand the funding split between capital and operating expenses. All he or she sees is that the district appears to be unable to manage its money. What else but incompetence would explain brand-new buildings equipped with the latest technology and no paper for their copiers?

Catch-22: the district can't raise taxes for operating costs, but it can for capital costs. And it will.

A forensic audit of CCSD will show that sleight-of-hand deals have shifted capital monies into operating costs for years, not merely during the present economic climate.

Brian, you would be more helpful to the public by explaining how the broken tax system doesn't work instead of complaining about fees and shortfalls from the state.

Flash! Literacy Efforts Work in CCSD

Focusing on reading helps more students to read better! Who would've thunk it?

[See Tuesday's article for the full story, Reading Initiatives Post Strong Results.]

CCSD Board Member Training Expenses

Regarding the yearly training expenses for the Charleston County School Board [See District Critic Is Board's Top Travel Spender]:

• Kudos to those who are so wealthy that they need not be reimbursed;

• If the reporter had taken the trouble to provide a table showing each of the Board members' total expenses for the past three years, the public would have a clearer picture.
  

• In that case, the article would have displeased the Superintendent, who wishes to discredit her most vocal critic.
  

In fact, since the district didn't provide them, that would have meant that the reporter needed to find the reports for the previous two years by herself.

How hard could that be?

Wouldn't you like to see the training expenses for all of our associate superintendents year by year?

Why the CCSD School Board Is a Joke

More amusing tales from the Charleston County School Board's meeting: [See Board to Seek 6-year Sales Tax Hike for the full effect.]

• Nancy McGinley's staff increased its estimate of how much money the sales tax would bring per year; the Board then decided on the basis of the estimate that six would be better than eight years. Maybe we could come up with a higher estimate and have the tax for two.

• The School Board is grateful to the Chamber of Commerce for volunteering to manage the campaign for a sales tax. 'Nuff said.

• The Board entertained the results of "a survey by the Joseph P. Riley Jr. Institute for Livable Communities at the College of Charleston that attempted to gauge voter support for a tax increase. Results showed voters preferred a sales tax hike to a property tax increase. It didn't ask whether voters preferred a five- or eight-year plan." And I'll bet there was no category for "none of the above" either.

They're determined to ram a tax through while they still have a majority of turkeys on the Board. I say, vote down the sales tax because you know it will last at least six years. The turkeys will then hit you with a property tax increase.

Vote them out. It won't take six years.

Good News; Questions Linger for CCSD

Have all boats risen on this higher tide? [See Student Test Scores Improve in Saturday's P&C.]

Charleston County Schools Superintendent Nancy McGinley touts the good news that the district as a whole surpassed its performance on the PASS last year, the first year the new test was taken. Finally, we can compare apples to apples, and the news is good:

"Charleston's strongest scores were in English language arts and writing. The district outscored the state average for its percentage of students scoring 'met' or 'exemplary' at every grade in those subjects. And for the second consecutive year, the district overall did better than the state at every grade and in every subject for its percentage of students scoring 'exemplary.'"

The question that lingers: does that performance indicate that schools (and individual students) across the system have improved, or is it a result of the "good" schools getting better while the "failing" schools are not?

Only data for individual schools will tell that tale!

Meanwhile, aren't you curious about the results of the Sixth Grade Academy in North Charleston, especially since the district is now replicating its structure in the rest of the county?

The proof is in the pudding.

Tomfoolery in CCSD, Part II

Thursday's headline:

Board to consider two tax options

McGinley supports 6-year option for building projects

Tomfoolery Behind CCSD's Scenes

At its last meeting the Charleston County School Board voted to place on November's ballot a sales tax for the next eight years. It changed the number of years from five to eight, at the suggestion of member Arthur Ravenel, Jr., so that the replacement or super-outfitting of every structure in the district could be completed during Bill Lewis's tenure.

Now it appears that the Board is backtracking because the Chamber of Commerce and its ilk have objected to the lengthening of the five-year tax they agreed to prior to the official vote. [See Little Enthusiasm for 8-year Tax in Tuesday's edition.]

"The Charleston Metro Chamber of Commerce and Charleston Trident Association of Realtors had given the district their endorsement for putting a five-year, one-penny sales tax increase on the November ballot, but neither group has decided what it thinks about the longer-term sales- tax increase.

"'I don't know what the chamber leadership will decide on this issue,' said Mary Graham, the chamber's senior vice president of public policy. 'We had sound reasons for supporting the five-year over the eight.'"

Really? What were they? They're probably planning at the end of the period to support some other tax to replace it--and now that tax must wait an additional three years.

Who's running CCSD--the School Board or the Chamber of Commerce, the Realtors' Association, and the Trident CEO Council? All of these organizations hope to sock you with at least a five-year sales tax.

But if we vote it down, doesn't the Board have to vote to raise property taxes every year? And run for re-election?

Hmmm.

Start the Day with a Laugh from CCSD

Turn first in your morning copy of the P&C to any article touching on the Charleston County School District; otherwise, you may miss a good laugh. Monday morning's meets that expectation. [See Bar Rises Higher for Schools.]

Wait for it.

"Schools Superintendent Nancy McGinley said she's pleased with the district's overall results, particularly in terms of the decreasing number of schools that must give students the option of transferring elsewhere. That number has been cut in half in the past three years, and she said that's a positive for those schools and the receiving schools that might have been overcrowded. Taxpayers' money also won't have to go to transportation costs for those students, she said.

"'The investments we've been making in some of our highest-poverty schools are starting to pay off,' she said. 'And we think our focus on literacy is paying off.'"

As you can see, McGinley's goal (and that of the new PASS) is to cut transportation costs for busing students and avoid sending them to schools that don't want them. [horse laugh here] Of course, those savings can be used for transporting others from "seismically deficient" schools, or at least mask the true costs of that decision made last spring.

Now, how has the number of failing schools required to offer busing to others "been cut in half"? [horse laugh #2]

Could it be that a number of schools have been closed in order to make this claim? Nahh. We all know every decision is made "for the children." Not.

Include as well the schools that made the grade because the categories in the new PASS were changed and you see the reason for laughing.

We can count on CCSD to provide entertainment at the expense of its residents.

It Begins in CCSD: Taj Mahals for All

First, they'll hold hostage all those students being bused out of "seismically-deficient" schools, guaranteeing that they'll never set foot in those buildings again unless we pay more taxes.

The copious list of capital projects guarantees that Bill Lewis's cronies will eat at the public trough until every school and bus lot in Charleston County is state-of-the-art.

And why is fixing the woefully deficient athletic field at Burke held off until the end of the projects?

The most expensive schools for all and miserably deficient academics for most should be the new motto.

See School Board Plans to Ask Voters for Eight-year Sales Tax.

Well-timed, isn't it? Along with new state taxes and who knows what else on the federal level.

A Need for Noblesse Oblige in CCSD

Noblesse oblige is "the moral obligation of those of high birth, powerful social position, etc., to act with honor, kindliness, generosity, etc." Evidently, it is one standard yet to be met in the Charleston County School District.

Here are the facts: On April 1, 2010, MUSC announced that Etta D. Pisano, M.D., the Vice-Dean for Academic Affairs at the UNC School of Medicine for the last four years would become MUSC's new dean of the College of Medicine. Dr. Pisano "also [had] been active in the community, holding the presidency of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools' PTA council," according to a UNC alumni publication. In a July letter to MUSC's University News, Dr. Pisano related the following:

On a personal note, I am pleased that my husband, Jan Kylstra, is also joining the MUSC College of Medicine family as a retina surgeon in the Department of Ophthalmology. Our daughter, Marijke, the youngest of our four children and the only one still at home, is very excited to move to Charleston, to start school at the Academic Magnet School as an 11th grader, to get her South Carolina drivers license, and to become a South Carolinian.

No one could question that Dr. Pisano has outstanding qualifications for her new job, nor that it is great that her husband will work at the same facility. Every family with two professionals knows how difficult such tandem job switches can be to accomplish.

No, the problem concerns the application of her daughter to the Academic Magnet.

Given the timing of her appointment (April 1, 2010), it is reasonable to assume that

• her daughter did not apply to AMHS by the April 1st cutoff for juniors or
  
• applied but did not complete the on-campus writing sample required by April 1st, or
• if she managed to do both, was not a resident of South Carolina, much less Charleston County, by the application deadline of April 1st.

I submit that Dr. Pisano did not know of these requirements when she announced that her youngest would attend AMHS. At least, I would like to believe that.

But, as a condition of her accepting the job, there is every reason to believe that she was told that her daughter could get in. Remember Tinker to Evers to Chance? This was an MUSC to CCSD to AMHS double play. Someone picked up the phone at MUSC, asked Superintendent McGinley, and was told "of course."

Judith Peterson, Principal at AMHS, has spent her entire career in CCSD; she knows how things work. Her response when queried about the residency requirement was that she takes a "common-sense approach" to policies and rules.

That must be the same approach used for District 10 residency requirements for entrance to Buist. You remember that.

According to Peterson, no student was displaced because AMHS has no waiting list for the 11th grade. What about Charleston County residents who didn't make the deadline? Should they now apply? How about other residents of North Carolina? or Summerville, for that matter?

AMHS waiting lists, of course, a la Buist, are top secret, so we'll just have to take her word for it.

What's in a Name? Moultrie

Saturday's Letter to the Editor concerning the correct pronunciation of "Moultrie" [How Do You Pronounce 'Moultrie'? brings another question to mind: what ever happened to Moultrie High School?

It suffered the same fate as St. Andrews High School. I suppose St. Johns is next.

Evidently, when rebuilding high schools, past school boards in CCSD determined to wipe out any references to history--with the exception of Burke High School which, because of its history, was allowed to keep its name and even have a middle school with the same name.

Did the Board in its wisdom deign the name of a Revolutionary War hero too divisive? Was it concerned that Ohioans couldn't pronounce it? Did it ever occur to it that the many graduates of Moultrie might be more apt to support a school of that name than one named after a river? Did they really believe those graduates would be happy with a middle school of that name?

It's a mystery. Maybe someone who was living here at the time can justify the change.

Toler's Right on This One

The Charleston County School District continues to pay Superintendent Nancy McGinley compensation for gasoline that costs $5 per gallon when its price has stabilized around $2.50.

So CCSD's attorney justifies his salary by suggesting that the flexibility that hourly (or classified) workers have in taking their one-half-hour lunch break and two fifteen-minute daily breaks be taken away. How much do you want to bet that John Emerson has never been an hourly worker (sorry, billable hours as a lawyer don't count!)?

CCSD Board member Ray Toler has experienced this type of job and knows how difficult life can be for the underpaid and under-appreciated staff that keep the system operating. That explains his vote against the majority of members who again rubber-stamped something they know nothing about [see School Perk Stopped].

Since it took at least three readings of the above article to figure out what the fuss was about, the reporter perhaps needs to walk in the shoes of one of these workers for a day. The elephant in the room? Workers were taking one-hour lunch breaks and sometimes taking the two 15-minute breaks as well and no one was keeping track. Pathetic.

I'd like to see McGinley and Emerson each be limited to these breaks. Then maybe they'd see that in the course of daily life sometimes a worker needs an hour to make a bank deposit, pick up a child, you name it. And 15-minute breaks are not exclusively used for smoking cigarettes.

Prepare for Tax Hikes in CCSD

Surely the reason that incumbent CCSD Board of Trustees up for reelection this fall are en masse not running for reelection, not even eminence grise Gregg Meyers, also occurred to you.

Oh, yes. They all gave differing reasons, just not the real one: thanks to their votes during this last year, taxes in the district will rise. [See Schools Work on Seismic Solutions if you don't believe me.]

And for what? This Board has approved the hiring of five, count 'em, five architectural firms to design "new buildings for the five schools with seismic deficiencies," that list being the schools examined by the district for deficiencies in event of the San Francisco Earthquake.

Have you ever seen the old elementary school campus of the School of the Arts where Charleston Progressive is moving? Did anyone check to find out if it is "seismically deficient"?

What happened to some sensible plan to start with the building identified as MOST deficient and proceed in that order at a reasonable speed year by year to fix the rest as money is available?

No, instead it must be done all at once during the tenure of McGinley and, most particularly, her penny-pinching (not) Manager Bill Lewis.

Five firms? What is this, spread the wealth around? Would not there be some economy in hiring ONE firm?

The sales tax will be voted down. Then the new Board will raise property taxes. Gregg Meyers doesn't want to be on the Board when it does. Someone must pay for five architectural firms, readying five more buildings for temporary occupancy, and the accompanying costs for massive busing.

It's just OPM.

Churning Principals in CCSD

So what gives? Why will one out of five principals be new to the job in the Charleston County School District this fall? Check out Tuesday's list at 12 New School Leaders Hired for yourself.

Statistics that would be of interest include how many resigned "for personal reasons," since "switching schools" within the district must have been instigated by the district itself. Also of interest would be the cost of "hiring bonuses" for those heading low-achieving schools.

Most Board members found their rubber stamps to validate the Superintendent's selections. What justified ignoring, as member Kandrac put it, "a bad reference," "an incomplete application," and the committee's top choice?

It couldn't be nepotism. Maybe it's politics.

It All Adds Up in CCSD to OPM*

* Other people's money

Kent Riddle of the Charleston Teachers Alliance revealed a telling example of mismanagement in the Charleston County School District in Wednesday's P&C. [See Charleston County District Puts Teachers in Financial Bind ]. You might say it is CCSD's mini-version of math wars.

To quote:

About three years ago the district put together a team to create a large Math Coherent Curriculum Manual the year before the state math standards were going to change.

The next year a completely new, and equally large, Math Coherent Curriculum Manual had to be created and distributed with the new standards.

Last year, the district spent millions adopting a new math series that has to be taught page by page in order to be effective. Thus, teachers could no longer follow the scope and sequence of the one-year-old Math Coherent Curriculum Manual, making it obsolete.

To top it off, the "new" math series is the same math series the CCSD got rid of five years ago.

Wanna bet this flip-flopping required the purchase of all new books and materials? Wouldn't you love to see an estimate of the actual cost of the duplicate manuals that are now useless?

Riddle has some other cogent points about why the district should not lay its financial burdens on the backs of its teachers. Too bad most of them cannot speak out for fear of losing their jobs.

Oh, Duh! So That's the Reason

What would CCSD and its superintendent do without the P&C and its articles on literacy (that is, the lack of it) in the district?

Apparently, according to a story in Monday's edition, they would still be scratching their heads and puzzling over why so many students fail the state English language arts exit exam! [See Exam Illustrates Literacy Hurdles.] It seems that "two-thirds of the Charleston County high school students who flunked the state English language arts exit exam entered high school unable to read better than a fourth-grader."

In fact, according to the article,

"Of the 447 students who failed, officials could find the eighth-grade reading scores for 329 students. More than 30 percent of those students read on a fourth-grade level, while 20 percent read on a third-grade level. Twenty percent were either on a beginner, kindergarten, first- or second-grade reading level. Only 3 percent of the students who failed read on a ninth-grade level or better."

Ask yourself this question: how did more than 60 students failing the exit exam get through high school (presumably passing their English classes) when their eighth-grade reading scores showed that they "were either on a beginner, kindergarten, first- or second-grade reading level."

Scary, isn't it?

Burke's Sinking on CCSD's Rising Tide

Longtime readers of this blog will remember that two or three years ago we discovered that principals at suburban high schools such as Wando and West Ashley were encouraging their most unruly students to go to Burke High School rather than be expelled. Reports in the P&C [see Literacy Rates Show Improvement ] now show that in a gently rising tide of literacy, Burke is sinking.

CCSD uses the scores of this year's eighth-graders to predict the percentage of students entering each high school who cannot read. Notice I said "who cannot read." While I recognize that reading on a fourth-grade level constitutes literacy, it does not translate into being able to read a high-school textbook, even the ones that are written on a sixth-grade level (yes, they are out there to meet the demand).

With CCSD's loose transfer policies (the same ones that created de facto segregation at Burke), an inquiring reader wants to know how many seventh graders transferred out of Burke Middle last year in order to escape its chaos. They would be the ones who could read. How many transferred in from other middle schools who couldn't?

Until CCSD tracks each student and uses those statistics, the game as she is played will not tell the true story.

Want SC to Be Laughed at? Vote for Moffly

Hard. Soft.

That's what the choice between Nick Zais and Elizabeth Moffly boils down to. [See 2 in Schools Runoff Vastly Different]

Now, I don't know either of these candidates and actually believe that the State Superintendent of Education should be appointed by the governor. (Well, those running for governor talk about improving the schools--how are they going to do it?)

Nevertheless, some stark facts stand out when comparing these two.

• One graduated from West Point and has a doctorate; the other never finished college.
  
• One wants to improve safety and behavior in the classroom; the other says she had children in public schools for 15 years but doesn't state the reason for homeschooling them now.
• One is interested in more transparent accounting of dollars spent on education; the other hasn't managed to file the campaign finance report that was due more than two weeks ago.

Did I say that one candidate wants to reduce the number of credits required for graduation, that is, water down SC's diplomas?

Gee, I wonder which one that could be.

LOL: CCSD's Teacher In-Services

Unsurprisingly, the Charleston Teacher Alliance yearly survey shows that teachers in CCSD believe their taking pay cuts as a result of five furlough days has been chosen as the easy way out to cut spending. [See Teachers Don't Want Furloughs in Wednesday's P&C.]

I'm still wondering about Superintendent McGinley's extra monthly stipend received ever since gasoline was over $4 per gallon. Just pro forma, of course, but why doesn't she show her sincerity by giving it up?

Meriting the old horse laugh, however, is the preference of 60 percent of teachers surveyed who would rather take furloughs on teacher in-service days rather than on teacher workdays. They probably wonder about the sanity of the other 40 percent.

f you've ever experienced one of these in-services (covered earlier on this blog), you know how useful they usually are.

Not.

DD2's Obfuscation of Events?

Sometimes the reported facts don't add up.

Take the case of the Summerville High School teacher who was recently charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor, a student at Summerville High. The salacious details of sexting have been all over the news. [See FormerTeacher Faces Charge in Tuesday's edition of the P&C.]

Apart from the mind-boggling situation with a 25-year-old's behavior, one part of the report does not ring true:

Banner had been at Summerville High for three years but had opted not to continue her contract after the current session ended, said Pat Raynor, public information officer for Dorchester District 2. The district is conducting its own investigation of Banner, she said.

Banner thus has been a "former" teacher for a matter of days, not weeks. Misleading headline.

Any teacher will tell you that no teacher in her right mind would give up a job at a school like Summerville High when she was about to get tenure. That is, this was her third year of teaching. If she were to teach there next year, she would have tenure.

Of course, we could argue that since she was not in her right mind over 16-year-old boys, she was not in her right mind in general.

We could, but the most likely scenario is that she was not offered a contract for next year.

Why? Does Pat Raynor know more than she is saying? How about a little transparency?

Languages? Go Charter!

Followers of this blog know how much South Carolina lags behind in the study of foreign languages, or, as they are known today, world languages. What a delight to hear that a group of West Ashley parents not only feel the same but are willing to jump through the hoops to do something about it! [See Charter School in Works in Monday's P&C.]

The success of this private preschool that hopes to transform itself into a public K-4 charter school is addressed by parents interviewed:

Parents such as Tamara Heck say they are pleased with the education their children have received and want that to continue. Heck is a member of the charter school's organizing effort, she said her 5-year-old son is reading on a first-grade level, adding and subtracting, using computers daily, and speaking in Spanish.

Why should such a good education be available only to those whose parents can afford to pay private tuition? If the established public schools won't provide these opportunities for all children, then charter schools should fill in the gaps. It's all very well to state that the present schools are improving, but that's not soon enough for the children who could take advantage of these challenges right now.

Another member of the organizing committee of the proposed school, Alicia Brown, stated, "We just want our kids to be more equipped to be able to go out in the world and to be equipped to apply for jobs locally and internationally."

Speaking from personal experience, I can assert that Brown is thinking ahead of the curve for these children. Both of my grown children, who speak several languages each, have been able to avoid unemployment in down economic times by having that extra qualification!

The Southeastern Elementary Institute of Global Studies deserves support.

Conspiracy Theory over CCSD's Fraser

Some folks believe that Fraser Elementary was closed last year because the Charleston County School District hoped to sell the campus to the city. Now conspiracy theorists should prick up their ears.

The on-line P&C this afternoon confirmed that a necessary school overlay zone for the downtown schools which predate the zoning ordinance does not include Fraser. [See Fate of Former Fraser Elementary School Building Still Undetermined]

Perhaps the plot thickens.

No Laughing Matter to Some in CCSD

If a CEO of a private company handled her duties as poorly as Superintendent Nancy McGinley has over the seismic upgrades to schools in the Charleston County School District, she would be fired so fast it would make her head swim. Wednesday's P&C has a Letter to the Editor that lays out the dimensions of her mistakes. The letter is posted below for those of you who don't subscribe.

County school trustees face tough financial decisions to make students safer from earthquakes. They're in the hot seat, and they deserve competent support from the CCSD staff to help them make the right decisions. The staff has failed them miserably.

The superintendent should have given them FEMA's "Incremental Seismic Rehabilitation of School Buildings" report, which provides a reliable guide for prioritizing seismic safety funding decisions. It recommends starting with a seismic screening of all buildings in the system, followed by engineering assessments of those found to be most vulnerable. The staff skipped the seismic screening step altogether and squandered public funds on engineering assessments of schools they picked arbitrarily.

Bill Lewis, head of capital projects and an engineer with seismic hazards experience, should have told them about SCDOT's seismic hazards management program designed to ensure the seismic engineering safety of roads and bridges. It's based on the Virginia Tech database of seismic hazards, the most complete and advanced seismic data available for the state. If given this data, the trustees would know which schools are actually the most vulnerable to earthquakes.

Now Mr. Lewis and Dr. McGinley have convinced the trustees to commit to fund the evacuation of four downtown schools this year with no credible justification. Mr. Lewis claims the downtown schools are built on landfill, but any competent geologist can confirm they are built on the spine of the peninsula. He discounts the importance of location as a hazard factor, but the FEMA report states, "Geographic location is the most significant factor of seismic hazard."

The Virginia Tech data show that several un-reinforced masonry schools in North Charleston and Hollywood are much closer to Ground Zero, making them more hazardous than any others in the system. Mr. Lewis and Dr. McGinley aren't telling the trustees any of that.

The school board's responsibility is to reject any funding proposal that would result in gross inequities. Failure to do so can expose a school district to expensive and counterproductive legal liabilities. The board also has a responsibility to insist that public funds be spent according to a prudent plan, not tossed around arbitrarily.

It's time to step back and adopt an intelligent approach to this critical issue. What's needed is a comprehensive, system-wide planning process that first identifies the most hazardous schools and then allocates scarce public funds accordingly.

To help the trustees perform their public duty to ensure the safety of students, the CCSD staff owes them nothing less than immediate access to the best and most relevant information available.

Edwin Gardner

President

Harleston Village

Neighborhood Association

Gadsden Street

Charleston

LOL: Where's the List, CCSD?

The Saturday P&C's last editorial echoes the previous posting on this blog yet goes one logical step further. [See School Board's Tottering State.]

The writer had a very sensible solution for resolving the Charleston County School District's seismic problems:

"Experts have told some parents that other Charleston County Schools are in more danger than the five identified. The board should produce a report, prepared by acknowledged seismic specialists, that ranks all its properties and determines their comparative risks."

That would have been a logical approach--if Superintendent McGinley's purpose had been to make all the schools seismically safe, that is.

There is no such list.

Considering the totally illogical cherry-picking of those five peninsula schools for seismic investigation, suspicious parents and taxpayers may easily conclude her true agenda.

If the CCSD Board Thinks We're Ticked Off Now. . .

Congratulations to the Charleston County School Board and its foremost employee, Superintendent Nancy McGinley.

They have now managed to alienate virtually everyone who lives on the peninsula, whether they have children in its "seismically deficient" schools or not. [See Board Votes to Move Students]

But wait.

Wait until they raise taxes to pay for it.

Opinions Welcome on SC Supt of Ed Candidates

Many times newspapers can be useful when TV and blogs are not.

I'm writing of the large spread given to the candidates for State Superintendent of Education in Sunday's P&C. It's always better to have details other than sound-bites. [See 8 Candidates Vie to be Next Superintendent of Education]

Trouble is, without knowing the candidates personally, how do you decide whom to vote for? They all say the politically-correct words and put their best foot forward.

From the article, the best seems to be Kelly Payne of Columbia, but that opinion is based solely on her answers to the P&C, in fact, one in particular. She says,

"If elected, she said she would ensure that independent auditors would look at every budget in the state's school districts and the state Department of Education; she wants spending transparency."

Oh, yes. I like that. I suspect many people would.

Any further information on these eight candidates?

Literacy Series a Win for Courrege

Congratulations to Diette Courrege for her award-winning series on literacy and the initial effects the series has had on the Charleston County School District. [See Post and Courier's Diette Courrege Wins National Award for Literacy Series for her award.]

Reporting can make a difference. Let's all hope those effects will be long-lasting!

Even Butzon Has a Point

The message of Jon Butzon's semi-annual obligatory op-ed column in Saturday's edition of the P&C? [EnoughAlready: Pay the Price to Rescue Struggling Schools]

To Superintendent McGinley, her flunkies, and the CCSD School Board:

• Stop putzing around. ("The Italians call it dolce far niente, sweetly doing nothing. In the Ashkenazi Jewish diaspora it's called putzing around.")

As Butzon writes,

"Burns isn't the only school that should be seriously considered for reconstitution. We can begin with the list of the other 11 schools that appeared in The Post and Courier article last week about school report cards. These are the schools with a string of single stars by their names, indicating at least four years of failure. By the way, Charleston is the only one of the four local school districts that still has unsatisfactory schools."

'Nuff said.

Beg, Borrow, or Steal in CCSD?

Search this article for me, please, and tell me when or if or how the money borrowed for operating expenses will be paid back to building funds. Bill Would Aid Strapped Schools

Nary a mention.

CCSD School Board Opts for Long-Term Planning

Wonders will never cease. Next thing you know Superintendent McGinley will voluntarily give up the fat increase she received in her transportation allowance when gasoline was near $5 per gallon!

Well, maybe wonders won't go that far, but the CCSD School Board's common sense vote on Monday night does show that if parents are vocal enough, the Board does listen. [See Staying Put in the on-line edition.)

Now is the time to plan for long-term (and sensible) alterations to existing buildings in CCSD. How about a second opinion on those five identified "seismically deficient" ones? How about other buildings that might be at risk (such as the old Academic Magnet campus, ridiculously suggested as a place to house students from other deficient buildings).

The result for the Superintendent will be that her list of problem schools will remain the same, and Bill Lewis will be unhappy.

Meanwhile, sales tax or property tax increases? Can anyone at 75 Calhoun hear the mood of the taxpayers yet?

Reinventing the Wheel in CCSD

In Sunday's installment of the P&C's series on literacy in our schools, it becomes painfully obvious what's wrong locally (and state-wide) with our schools and our institutions that grant degrees in education: they're just discovering practices used for decades in other states.

In Working Together, an article on placement of teaching assistants in classrooms, the reader learns that "First-grade classrooms typically don't have teaching assistants." And that "The district set aside about $350,000 in federal stimulus money for the two-year program, but that money runs out at the end of the next fiscal year."

"Through the Literacy Intern Project, the district covers most of the tuition and fees for graduate students to earn a master's degree in teaching as well as their salaries to work as teaching assistants. Afterward, participants commit to teaching in a high-poverty district school for three years."

Perhaps these students need a master's degree because they have no undergraduate degree in teaching. Otherwise, the qualifications ought to be described as overkill. A teacher needs a graduate degree in teaching to teach reading? No.

By my count Charleston County has at least three large educational institutions granting undergraduate degrees in education. Why has not each of them had an ongoing relationship with CCSD in which students who plan to become teachers are in the classroom from their very first year of study, building up to being teaching assistants as part of getting their teaching credentials?

Talk about killing two birds with one stone! Too many discover during their first year of teaching that they can't handle the classroom and never return to teaching. What a waste of their time and everyone else's.

We don't need federal stimulus money to carry out such a program.

Another CCSD Dog-and-Pony Show

In regard to the five CCSD schools that "would begin to fail" in a 5.0 earthquake, we bring you the earth-shattering (pun intended) news that

• parents of children who are attending their neighborhood school are against busing their children all over creation, while
  
• parents of magnet school students are happy to bus their children to another school since the children are already being bused.
  

There.

That encapsulates all the hot air being expended in CCSD's "seismic deficiencies" meetings. [See Parents Split over Possible Moves in Thursday's P&C.]

Shakeup at CCSD's Sixth-Grade Academy

Paint it any way you wish, Dr. McGinley, but this year's Sixth-Grade Academy fell short of its promise. [See Literacy Shake-up Planned in Wednesday's P&C.]

Nevertheless, the District will forge ahead with more academies in other areas. Is it my imagination, or is the Superintendent adding yet another level of bureaucracy to these planned academies by making the original principal supervise the others?

I'm with Board member Ruth Jordan: "'I think we need to look at how it's going to roll out,' she said. 'I don't want this to just be another gimmick.'"

Amen.

Burns Not CCSD Initiative

In the misleading leads department: "The academic failure of Edmund A. Burns Elementary in North Charleston has persisted for so long that Charleston County school leaders plan to fundamentally change the school this fall." [See Burns Elementary to Be Reconstituted This Fall in Monday's on-line edition.]

Call rewrite!

What the lead should say: "The academic failure of Edmund A. Burns Elementary in North Charleston has persisted for so long that guidelines under No Child Left Behind have forced Charleston County school leaders to fundamentally change the school this fall."

So far, changes that Superintendent McGinley has seen as the most effective include assigning four different principals during the past five years.

Well, that should have done it.

SC's Appalling Lack of Language Study

Appended to an article in Wednesday's P&C regarding the study of Mandarin in two local schools [see Teaching Chinese a Bow to the Future] were the following eye-opening statistics:

What is offered

The state collected information from its more than 1,100 public schools on the foreign languages they offer this school year:

Language / Number of schools

Spanish / 420

French / 200

German / 50

Latin / 38

Chinese / 10

Arabic / 0

Korean / 0

Japanese / 0

Russian / 0

Source: S.C. Dept. of Education

Since overlap undoubtedly occurs with some high schools (the "haves") offering multiple languages (i.e., Spanish and French or Spanish, French, and German, etc.), it does appear that the majority of public high schools in South Carolina offer no foreign languages at all!

Want to bet against the majority of high schools' having football teams?

Literacy Forges Ahead in CCSD

Another in Courrege's series on literacy in CCSD appeared in Sunday's P&C. Too bad this one is marred by one-sided sourcing from those who have the most to gain by looking good. [See Literacy Initiatives Show Progress.]

By even this biased account, as the lead states, "Dozens of Charleston County students are reading better as a result of the school district's newest literacy initiatives, and hundreds more will be given the same chance next year." Let's hope that "dozens" means at least seven or eight dozen (84 or 96) and not two or three dozen (24 or 36) after all this time and effort!

See, here's the administrative attitude that's led to the present state of affairs: "Students who needed the extra help this year could refuse it without consequence, but next school year those who turn it down will not be allowed to go on to the next grade." Why were they allowed to "refuse it without consequence"? This practice equates to telling a child to go to bed and then ignoring his or her staying up all night. Neither scenario promises the student will be in good shape to learn in school.

Amazingly enough, for once I find myself in agreement with Gregg Meyers's statements about continuing the third-grade academies:

". . .board member Gregg Meyers told the superintendent at a recent board meeting that the board couldn't have made it any more clear that making sure every child can read is its highest priority. If the third-grade academies are needed and working, he said the superintendent should make sure that program happens, as well as the one for first-graders.

"This is the most important thing we do," he said. "Let's make sure we do it. … If we get nothing else right, we want to get this right. I think we need to stay aggressive about this."

Gepford said officials have been working since then to find money so the third-grade academies can continue.

I vote for furloughing two of Superintendent McGinley's associate superintendents and gutting her transportation allowance. That should help considerably.

Despite sugar-coating from Doug Gepford (he wants to keep his job), the Sixth-Grade Academy is not doing as well, at least if you count in students whose reading scores fell during the program.

What's that, you say? How can reading scores go backwards? Actually what's not clear is why CCSD chose to place students who were "higher performing" "better readers" into a remedial program with the district's worst readers. Why not have an even smaller academy instead? Were the parents of these students even aware of what was happening? Were those parents so desperate to get them out of another school that they presumed anything else would be better?

Is there some reason that the reporter couldn't ask these questions?

Finally, for all of you who have struggled through algebra out there, I have a great quote:

"Gepford said math is easier to teach than reading because it's more concrete and easier to understand. Learning to read is a more complex process that involves multiple skills, he said."

What Gepford means is that math is more objective, not more concrete, at least not once you leave the realm of 2 plus 2! However, perhaps he misspoke and meant that math is easier to learn? Or easier for the teacher to understand how to teach?

Ask anyone who's tried to raise SAT scores whether it's easier to raise the verbal or math components, and you will get the same response as the Sixth-Grade Academy's results.

Math tests measure skills; reading tests measure skills and common knowledge. If CCSD seriously wants to raise reading scores, it must teach both.

Why Does It Take a Charter School?

Don't even go there.

I mean, don't even try to imagine how much outdated technology has landed in the garbage containers of CCSD's schools over the last 20 years. We already know the stories of pulling perfectly good textbooks out of them. Let's not torture ourselves.

According to Thursday's P&C, Orange Grove CHARTER Elementary has had a better idea--recycle it to raise money. While this idea may seem obvious, apparently it never has occurred to the folks at 75 Calhoun. See School Recycling Old Technology.

If CCSD has done so before, I will be glad to be proved wrong. Meanwhile, if you wish to support Orange Grove Charter, here is a list of desired obsolete items:

The school is recycling used cell phones, inkjet and laser cartridges, laptops, PDAs, iPods, video games, GPS Systems, DVD's, scientific and graphing calculators, LCD monitors and digital cameras.

These may be dropped off at the school between April 12 and 14.

Results of CCSD Building Programs

South Carolina's school districts are running short on funds for daily classroom instruction as legislators cut funds during this fiscal crisis.

School districts continue to expand highly-paid administrative staff and raise salaries of administrators, such as Charleston County's Nancy McGinley, to unwarranted levels while begging for more funds for daily classroom instruction

Funding for elaborate new schools full of the latest technology continues independently of daily classroom necessities, thanks to the taxing and funding "systems" now in place.

Is it any wonder that ordinary citizens and taxpayers are confused about the district's need for more money? That taxpayers are likely to say "no" to a new sales tax to fund them? See Outlook for Schools Seen as Dire in Wednesday's P&C.

Here's a comment on that article that indicates the feelings of many:

"I'm confused. Every day I pass by a construction site in Dorchester 2 on Patriots Parkway where a new elementary building is going up. How is this possible if 'we're essentially out of business.'"

Unintended? I Have a Bridge for Sale

What's wrong with the P&C's reporting on education? What about the lead on Monday's article, Fewer Schools Likely to Offer Transfers?

According to Diette Courrege, "An unintended result of the state using a new testing system could mean fewer students will have the ability to transfer to higher-performing schools next year under the federal No Child Left Behind law."

I wonder if she's in the market for a bridge in Brooklyn? [By the way, "the state's using a new testing system," eds.]

Go, Marvin!

In case you don't read Brian Hicks's column in the Post and Courier, try Wednesday's:

"Marvin Stewart says Charleston County is not educating its children.

"He believes the curriculum in our public schools is not challenging enough, is uneven between "good" schools and "failing" schools. Many students who graduate from Charleston County schools aren't ready for higher education.

"Stewart says the district spends too much on gimmicks that don't work, such as partial magnet schools or arts-infused elementary schools.

"He says the district makes itself look better on paper by simply shutting down failing schools -- Brentwood, Rivers, Courtney -- instead of putting in the hard work to turn them around.

"For that reason, he's skeptical about the district's plan to shut down many downtown schools because of earthquake concerns, and questions whether those schools will ever reopen.

"These are strong charges -- charges the district disagrees with. But some community folks say the same things.

"The most amazing thing about these charges is that Marvin Stewart is not simply a mad parent; he is chairman of the downtown constituent school board.

Not a hypocrite

"Constituent school boards usually toil in obscurity, working directly with parents on transfers and the like. They rarely speak up. Stewart is the exception.

"A former high school teacher, he says his eyes were opened when his oldest daughter asked to be transferred out of her high school. He was shocked -- it was his alma mater, and she was doing well. But she said she wasn't learning anything. Stewart insisted his daughter be admitted to Academic Magnet.

"She now has a Ph.D.

"Stewart says these days there are school staffers who work at one school but send their kids to others. He doesn't blame them -- he did the same thing -- but then, he is not claiming that failing schools are actually succeeding.

"You shouldn't endorse a product you aren't using," he says.

A whistleblower

"In his 12 years on the constituent school board, Stewart has been vilified by some. A few officials aren't pleased that he praises the Charleston Charter School for Math and Science while criticizing district-generated programs.

"He saw the result of that ire when he ran for the county school board a couple years ago. The establishment came down on him hard.

"Stewart is unsure how much longer he can hold on to his constituent board job -- the entire board is up for re-election in November.

"The only reason I stay on the board is because I've helped 1,000 parents get their children out of District 20 schools," he says.

"He doesn't claim to have all the answers, but says the district needs a CEO and an external audit, as well as an outside consultant not swayed by local politics. But mostly, he says, there needs to be a consistent and challenging curriculum throughout the district.

"Whether you agree or not, one thing is certain: Marvin Stewart cares about schoolchildren. And for that reason his concerns deserve a listen."

Amen to that!

Scare Tactics in CCSD

In Tuesday's P & C [see Board Commits to Finding Funds]:

At its latest meeting, the Charleston County School Board of Trustees "unanimously agreed to either ask voters to pass a sales tax or property-tax increase later this fall." [Sorry, Diette--parallel structure alert: "to ask voters to pass EITHER a sales tax OR property-tax increase"]

In this economy tax increases should be really popular. The Board's message to the public will be that, without tax increases, children will die.

Take the left-over capital funds and design upgrades to the seismically-challenged buildings. The plans can rest on the same shelf with all of the ignored redesigns of District 20.

Budget Process: Two Years and Counting

Saturday's story of the Charleston County Council's idea for posting the salaries of officials that make $50,000 or more got me to remembering. See Council Divided on Posting Salaries.

From my posting in April of 2008:

"No one in the community will trust the budget process until CCSD's expenditures are transparent. Here is CCSD's opportunity to begin regaining trust by starting, as a reader has suggested, with a truly independent forensic audit of the entire financial operation. Not only does the District have the need, it's the perfect time with a new Chief Financial Officer just come on board.

"Several years ago the last one, limited just to cell-phone usage, saved about a million dollars in the first year by plugging the holes in the system allowing expensive and duplicate contracts while being unable to prevent abuse of the equipment by some CCSD employees.

"Here's the opportunity to take the same approach with the bus system, food services, concessions, facilities management, copy equipment, etc. CCSD could save many times annually what it recovered on the cell-phone system.

"A good forensic auditor wouldn't cost CCSD a dime. The auditor's work can be paid for by a reasonable and relatively small percentage of whatever money it actually recovers for CCSD and whatever is documented as saving the district in the first year after it identifies measurable waste and how to stop it.

"Okay, so that won't solve this year's problems. It's a start.

Unfortunately, there hasn't been a start. Déjà vu all over again.

CSSD To Peninsula Parents: Trust Us

CCSD does not know where students from six peninsula schools will be sent while earthquake reinforcements are made. Nor does it know when they will return. Also, it doesn't know how the district will pay for it.

Wow, isn't it well thought-out? [See Peninsula Parents Skeptical of Move in Thursday's P&C.]

Buist parents can rest easy in their strong organizational support, knowing full well that the magnet school, if moved off the peninsula, will get what it wants. Parents at neighborhood schools such as James Simons aren't so sure--and why should they be? As one parent said,

"she came to find out why the district seemed to be pushing to relocate students as soon as possible without a plan for when they could return. She left with the same question. She said no one explained why, after decades of use by students, the buildings were now being declared unsafe, and she believes the district intends to close more downtown schools. 'I'm all for safety,' she said. 'The whole thing is, why all of a sudden is it such a rush?'"

Isn't that what we're all asking?

Meanwhile, the state legislature is planning to cut even more funds from school districts, cuts that may affect funds for busing. And McGinley's plans will demand more busing.

Math Problems in CCSD

Quick:

Which is higher,

• the probability that a 5.0 earthquake will occur in the Charleston County School District in the next 10 years or
• that an incoming ninth grader will be unable to read his or her textbook?

[See When Do Figures Tip the Scale? in Monday's P&C.]

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?

In Another 10 Years of CCSD Planning

Welcome to 2020.

As you can surmise, we have decided that each of our school buildings built prior to 2010 is now obsolete and subject to earthquakes. We all know that even those built between 2011 and 2019 do not meet the rigorous new earthquake standards proposed this year by Bill Lewis, so those schools will be retrofitted as soon as we have torn down and replaced the others.

As part of the justification for raising taxes once again, we must notify the taxpayers that any school not now having a technology center will receive one under the new building plan. Of course, we forgot to include those technology centers in the schools built during the last decade, so they will be retrofitted with technology centers as well.

In addition, those schools now equipped with technology centers are outdated; therefore, all technology centers built prior to 2010 will be supplemented with new ones, necessitating the purchase of another 50 acres contiguous to the property of each of these schools. [See District Readies Land for Building Project.]

Anticipating the ongoing complaints of Burke High School parents, the district plans continue to call for the development of more advanced placement classes at Burke. We all know that Burke must not be allowed to have career and technology courses. However, the district has petitioned the College Board that it develop special advanced placement courses in careers so that those might be added at Burke. The Board is well aware that the misguided parents desiring career education at Burke must be placated in some fashion.

Superintendent McGinley and the School Board, as well as eminence grise Bill Lewis, look forward to publicizing this exciting new building program to the entire community. We are confident that once the voters understand that very lives and safety of our children are at stake, they will gladly accept another tax increase.

Further, CCSD's 2020 plans will create more jobs in the community for its many building contractors, those who have been so faithful to it through the years.

And isn't that what it's all about?

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]