While work kept me away from Thursday's "hearing", news travels fast in this small town. Word has spread and evidently the Queen of Hearts has spoken. Our District 20 board representatives and community members sat through the "mock-trial" on Thursday and much to no one's surprise, the County board members ruled against District 20 residents receiving priority to Buist Academy. This should make for good news to the Office for Civil Rights' pending investigation. I thought the constituent boards were to blame for our segregated schools, not CCSD. Chop, chop on that transcript, please.
Did Mrs. Ballard keep her facts straight during her testimony? Please correct me if I'm wrong on this. I can only imagine what interesting reading the official transcript will be. Was she or was she NOT made aware of the District 20 board's new policy? Was it June when she first received a letter outlining their changes? Or was it in February? Evidently, Mr. Choice the Superintendent testified he had spoken to her on the phone within a day (or so) of the new policy being approved in January of 2006. Yet, she clearly ignored the new policy.
On another note, Ms. Alice Paylor is doing quite the juggling act. Has she advised the CCSD board on this matter? Is it a conflict of interest that she represents Mrs. Ballard in front of her clients, who are also serving as the judge in this joke of a case? She stated she had not advised them. Why, Ms. Paylor, how DID you file that Answer to the Complaint the District 20 Board filed in the Court of Common Pleas? Through telepathy? Oh, yes...we get it...you're employed by CCSD, not by the CCSD Board of Trustees. But isn't it the CCSD Board of Trustees who approves your employment? How DO you keep that straight face?
Keep up the fight, District 20 representatives and Mr. Kobrovsky. I did not have the pleasure of taking a "sick day" to hear the fiasco, but I look forward to the comments of anyone who did.
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Saturday, September 22, 2007
Buist Vacancies?
According to the CCSD 10-day attendance report, we once again have vacancies at Buist Academy. Hmmm...I wonder when these vacancies will be filled. Will it be like last year when we had as many as 11 vacancies in the 7th and 8th grade for the entire school year? Principal Ballard has stated it's difficult to fill vacancies in the upper grades. Has she considered offering those vacancies to our children at Burke? Surely, we have students at Burke who meet the academic requirements. In fact, I bet we could have those vacancies filled by the end of the week, IF that's what CCSD really wanted. I find this very interesting. I thought everyone was fighting "tooth and nail" to get into Buist. There's obviously a few parents out there who don't believe Buist is all it's cracked up to be.
Sunday, September 16, 2007
Toya Hampton Green: But We Do Things Differently At Buist
It was interesting to follow the article in this morning's P&C about the latest fruit basket upset being proposed for the administration of CCSD. It sounds like just a lot of deck chairs and the Titanic again.
It’s bad enough that this appeared to be the product of yet another extra legal meeting behind closed doors by CCSD and its board, but the article referred to a particularly annoying comment made by one of the board members. The final couple of paragraphs focused on an exchange between CCSD officials and the presumptive resident board member from downtown. It was almost laughable if Ms. Green wasn't so condescendingly out of touch with her neighbors and their ongoing cry for improving the seven failing public schools located within a mile radius of Buist.
The writer, Diette Courrege, also left out a rather important observation relating to Ms. Green in her coverage of this exchange. The details might have been of interest to her readers and made Ms. Courrege’s article more relevant.
As it was presented in the P&C article, the seemingly attentive and concerned downtown representative on the county school board was quoted as an advocate of CCSD requiring more reading for elementary and middle school students. She used her own child's Buist Academy experience as an example to make her point. Ms. Green volunteered using her child as an example but the writer failed to carry the example any further based on knowledge that Ms. Courrege as an experienced reporter already has.
It is important to remember that as of the date of her remarks, Toya Hampton Green's daughter was barely into her fourth week as a kindergarten student at Buist Academy. According to Ms. Green, her daughter is required to read four books a week. If that’s true, Buist requires 144 books to be 'read' by each child in a Buist kindergarten class between now and next May. That would compare to the twenty books per year that CCSD is only now proposing as the minimum for all Charleston County elementary school students.
I can understand how Ms. Green may be struggling to appear to want the same standards for every other school that Buist already has, but what’s her point? This would appear to mean that she wants 'the Buist experience' for every child attending all other elementary schools in Charleston County. Ms. Green is practicing the art of grandstanding but Ms. Courrege is letting her get away with using an imaginary grandstand.
Ms. Green’s suggests that “the Buist standard” should be applied to children who have been denied access to CD classes. As a county board member Ms. Green decided CCSD couldn't afford to make additional pre-kindergarten classes available where they are needed most. Then there is the fact that Ms. Green wants all those children not lucky enough to win the Buist lottery to reach for those many required books from the partially empty library shelves found at schools that CCSD's budget failed to fund sufficiently.
I think Ms. Green's superficial comments say much about her total disconnect with the realities of public education in Charleston County beyond the closed universe that is otherwise known as Buist Academy. Ms. Green needs to get a grip on the reality that exists outside the closely guarded gates of Buist Academy. It’s a very difficult and inequitably reality that she helps to maintain by continuing to be so out of touch with her constituents.
It’s bad enough that this appeared to be the product of yet another extra legal meeting behind closed doors by CCSD and its board, but the article referred to a particularly annoying comment made by one of the board members. The final couple of paragraphs focused on an exchange between CCSD officials and the presumptive resident board member from downtown. It was almost laughable if Ms. Green wasn't so condescendingly out of touch with her neighbors and their ongoing cry for improving the seven failing public schools located within a mile radius of Buist.
The writer, Diette Courrege, also left out a rather important observation relating to Ms. Green in her coverage of this exchange. The details might have been of interest to her readers and made Ms. Courrege’s article more relevant.
As it was presented in the P&C article, the seemingly attentive and concerned downtown representative on the county school board was quoted as an advocate of CCSD requiring more reading for elementary and middle school students. She used her own child's Buist Academy experience as an example to make her point. Ms. Green volunteered using her child as an example but the writer failed to carry the example any further based on knowledge that Ms. Courrege as an experienced reporter already has.
It is important to remember that as of the date of her remarks, Toya Hampton Green's daughter was barely into her fourth week as a kindergarten student at Buist Academy. According to Ms. Green, her daughter is required to read four books a week. If that’s true, Buist requires 144 books to be 'read' by each child in a Buist kindergarten class between now and next May. That would compare to the twenty books per year that CCSD is only now proposing as the minimum for all Charleston County elementary school students.
I can understand how Ms. Green may be struggling to appear to want the same standards for every other school that Buist already has, but what’s her point? This would appear to mean that she wants 'the Buist experience' for every child attending all other elementary schools in Charleston County. Ms. Green is practicing the art of grandstanding but Ms. Courrege is letting her get away with using an imaginary grandstand.
Ms. Green’s suggests that “the Buist standard” should be applied to children who have been denied access to CD classes. As a county board member Ms. Green decided CCSD couldn't afford to make additional pre-kindergarten classes available where they are needed most. Then there is the fact that Ms. Green wants all those children not lucky enough to win the Buist lottery to reach for those many required books from the partially empty library shelves found at schools that CCSD's budget failed to fund sufficiently.
I think Ms. Green's superficial comments say much about her total disconnect with the realities of public education in Charleston County beyond the closed universe that is otherwise known as Buist Academy. Ms. Green needs to get a grip on the reality that exists outside the closely guarded gates of Buist Academy. It’s a very difficult and inequitably reality that she helps to maintain by continuing to be so out of touch with her constituents.
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Peninsula Project
According to the Superintendent at the community meeting held last night at Burke...there IS a plan. The new name for the plan is the Peninsula Project. Catchy title. I like it better than the "Reconfiguration Plan." Gotta hope there's no pun intended, but I can't help but think of Mayor Riley. We all know he's not a fan of the "projects."
Supposedly Dr. McGinley has been "working" on this for a few months (???) and will "unveil" it soon??? Sorry, folks. I'm not buying it. Been there...done that...I thought we had learned some lessons from the last chick. You need community involvement, Dr. McGinley. You had the community there last night. Why didn't you present "the plan" to them prior to the meeting and get their feedback at the meeting? Time's a wasting and our kids aren't getting any younger. They need a decent school TODAY. And please don't tell us you're going to expand Buist. We don't want Sallie Ballard's version of Buist. Put Buist in Mt. Pleasant and save the taxpayers the money spent on transporting them over the rivers. We don't want to expand a school full of cheaters. C'mon, Dr. McGinley, show us you're different. Talk to us! You have some incredible community members wanting to be involved in public education. You should be dividing them into different groups and meeting with them regularly. Don't let another 10 weeks pass us by. We're waiting...
Supposedly Dr. McGinley has been "working" on this for a few months (???) and will "unveil" it soon??? Sorry, folks. I'm not buying it. Been there...done that...I thought we had learned some lessons from the last chick. You need community involvement, Dr. McGinley. You had the community there last night. Why didn't you present "the plan" to them prior to the meeting and get their feedback at the meeting? Time's a wasting and our kids aren't getting any younger. They need a decent school TODAY. And please don't tell us you're going to expand Buist. We don't want Sallie Ballard's version of Buist. Put Buist in Mt. Pleasant and save the taxpayers the money spent on transporting them over the rivers. We don't want to expand a school full of cheaters. C'mon, Dr. McGinley, show us you're different. Talk to us! You have some incredible community members wanting to be involved in public education. You should be dividing them into different groups and meeting with them regularly. Don't let another 10 weeks pass us by. We're waiting...
Sunday, September 2, 2007
Watch Burke HS Carefully: Now You See Us…Now You Don’t!
Closed Door Deals Continue Between CCSD & City Hall
A rumor from a high level within the administration is saying that Gregg Meyers, Toya Green, Joe Riley and Nancy McGinley are working on a deal to change the direction of plans for a new building to house the Academic Magnet High School (AMHS) in North Charleston. They reportedly are now looking downtown in a deal that may cause Burke to soon be history, at least on its present campus. This is still a rumor, but it’s beginning to fit the context of other actions that have been documented already. It deserves more explanation since it is a potential bombshell if the rumored deal is even remotely true.
Here is some background on the latest from the rumor mill. The projected cost of a combined campus for both the Academic Magnet HS (AMHS) and the School of the Arts (SOA) in North Charleston has become too great (reported to now exceed $85 million). This is making some CCSD officials and county board members very nervous. Both schools (AMHS & SOA) see sharing gyms and other campus facilities as a problem. The proposal Gregg Meyers is now supposed to be floating, unofficially and behind closed doors, will establish only a very basic trades and job training program at Rivers. This is in response to years of pleading from the Burke community to restore what was once a very successful vocational and technical stills program at Burke. The thought is that if vocational programs were placed at Rivers, with Burke students given access, then that will finally satisfy Burke supporters. The Charter School for Math and Science is seen as totally unrelated. If McGinley has her say the charter school will eventually be a non-issue.
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