So I wake up this morning to a Post and Courier story informing me the Charleston County School Board is "experimenting" this year with Memminger Elementary and North Charleston Elementary. CCSD is giving both schools an extra $237,000 for a Spanish teacher, Asst. Principal, a science teacher, full-time nurse and guidance counselor (shouldn't every school have that?), art and what else? Oh, yeah, a parent educator. So much for that point system we all keep complaining about, huh? There are so many problems with this "plan", I don't know where to begin. Can you help me??
Evidently we need to thank Toya Green and Arthur Ravenel. Your school can have these things if these two board members say so. Mr. Ravenel is hoping the white people will come now. What does that mean? I'm all in favor of integration, don't get me wrong. But does he think we need white people in our schools for them to improve? OUCH! Mrs. Green "picked" the school because Memminger's Principal is the former Asst. Principal at Buist. What does that have to do with anything? Is Mrs. Green feeling a little guilty that her child will be attending Buist, receiving the education that so few of us living on the peninsula are apparently entitled to? Oh, that's right. Mrs. Green's child is SMARTER than our children. THAT'S why she gets to go to Buist and not us. Silly me, I keep forgetting that part of this ridiculous joke of a school system. I'm sure it has nothing to do with the fact that she's on the school board. She was lucky in the lottery, just like so many other attorneys, AND she has a smarter child, just like so many fundraisers, Yacht club members, doctors, and rock stars.
Now don't forget, we have ONE year to show CCSD a Spanish teacher, a science teacher, and a nurse (etc...) will help improve student achievement (a/k/a PACT scores). Otherwise, I guess they might take our guidance counselor and all the other goodies away. Do they have Spanish on the PACT test?
C'mon people, forget those deposits you've made on your private schools and forget that transfer you fought so hard to receive, get your child to Memminger! I heard they have open enrollment, so it shouldn't matter where you live, you can go there. I wonder if Arthur and Toya asked any Memminger parents what they thought of this idea. Better yet, did they ask any Memminger teachers? I heard the Dist. 20 Superintendent didn't even know anything about this. I wonder what the Principals at our other city schools are thinking...
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Show me any county school board member who applied to Buist but whose child wasn't admitted. There aren't any. What are the odds for that?
As for this sudden infussion of interest in creating a "Buist Lite" at Memminger, I wonder if they considered the needs of any of the kids "admitted" to Memminger under its "open admissions program" last year from the upper eastside's Bayside Manor. Whatever happened to the academic enrichment plan the mayor and Goodloe-Johnson worked up in a PR frenzy last year for that neighorhood's school, Sanders-Clyde?
I guess it'll only be when county school board members like Toya Green, Nancy Cook and Brian Moody decide to send their kids to schools like Memminger that we'll know if this was a good plan or not. Like so many half baked, half finished, half committed plans by CCSD, this one is designed to fail. It has no roots in the community.
As for Earl Choice, I'm not surprised he didn't know about it. He doesn't know much about anything. That's why he was chosen to oversee Dist. 20 in the first place. I'd be surprised if he could find his way to Memminger without a map (or even with one).
The District 20 board approved sending all correspondence regarding Buist Academy to the US Justice Department. I think it's time the US Justice Dept. make another visit.
Good luck and keep up the fight, Dist. 20 board.
Yes, keep fighting the good fight District 20! Sometimes the good guys win! Buist Academy has been run by corrupt individuals for a long time but bigger crooks have been caught before.
What will really show Ms. Green's "true colors" is how she votes in regards to the Charter school. I remember voting for her because the Post and Courier endorsed her. They said she supported charter schools. Yet the community is telling another story.
She was Gregg Meyers' goffer last night. Toya Green didn't mind placing one potential road block after another in the lease negotiations for the Rivers school, including a racial quota. What kind of attorney in their right mind would do that? If she was really interested in protecting the rights of downtown students and residents she'd start with forcing Buist to clean up its corrupt admissions process and then she'd start meeting with her constituents to discuss how to provide Dist. 20 schools with the resources they really need. The Memminger deal that excluded the staff and parents at Memminger and that left CPA out all together is an example of exactly how she doesn't know how to represent the people who elected her. She's not participated in any discussions, certainly no public discussions or any other meetings with organizers, involving this charter school proposal. She's been absolutely no help to downtown schools in general, to African-American kids on the peninsula or to her husband Dwayne's political aspirations.
Real estate is EVERYTHING in Charleston....it's no coincidence that Riley owns a real estate company, Ruth Jordan sells real estate and Toya Green is a real estate attorney. No doubt the plan was to turn Rivers into a condo complex...what do they plan for Fraser really? Sanders Clyde won't be rebuilt until the Gin Company further "improves" the neighborhood with their fancy golf courses on East Bay. Who will go to the new Sanders Clyde?
In a discussion with Mayor Riley during within the last month, Dr. McGinley reportedly put a $20 million price tag on Rivers school. I wonder if downtown residents know another deal to sell off more public school property may be in the works. As with all the other school property sales, the mayor's office has taken more than a passing interest.
Don't give her such a hard time. Afterall, we do need to build another Buist, Memminger, AND James-Simons, right? These are earthquake disasters waiting to happen, according to Mr. Lewis. Remember he's witnessed the devasting destruction in Europe. I'm sure the poor man is losing sleep over the imminent danger our students are currently in. And Dr. McGinley DID say she wanted to retire here, right? Now how do you expect her to retire here if she doesn't help Mayor Joe out?
The Super gets a D+ on her first District 20 report card and this is just the first quarter. How she performs on the Buist address verification process will be her next test. She's rapidly loosing the trust and confidence of downtown residents. If Ruth Jordan really does want District 20 schools for District 20 children first, then she'd do right to make sure that Dr. McGinley does well on this test.
Considering this corrupt atmosphere concerning Buist, all school board members should publicly announce where their children have attended school while in office. They should also have to report any relatives attending Buist and the list that the children got in on should be public too. Public officials should be expected to uphold a higher standard. It would not get rid of the problem with political favors in Buist admisssions but it would be a start.
Why not suggest that all senior administrators, say those making more than $100,000? Shouldn't they declare where their kids (or grand kids go to school)? The what about the big time contractors and vendors? Should any of those contractors be required to say where their kids go to school? Say, the legal advisors who receive more than a million dollars a year? What about Mr. Hood, Pres. of First Federal, who is so quick to say what's best for CCSD from his position on the CEN Board? Do their kids attend ordinary public schools in Charleston County? Magnet schools, private schools or schools in Berekeley County don't count.
So Demetre's kid is still at Buist, huh? What a joke those residency affidavits were.
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