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.
8 comments:
Gregg Meyers is a hypocrite. And CCSD is a joke. I can't believe they're still trying to decide what to do with Rivers when they moved its students to Burke before they even had HOT WATER in the cafeteria.
I'd hate to think these rumors are true, but they do seem to fit some of the facts. What the heck is Gregg Meyers's goal, anyway?
That's a great question. Does any one have an answer? What IS Gregg Meyers' goal?
It's possible that CCSD insiders also want us to believe closing Burke is their objective when in fact it is just another diversion. They really do want to stop the charter school at Rivers and have no reluctance in setting up another dumping ground for the kids they are trying to hide. The key is to hold them to nothing less than a High Tech program for high achieving students like they originally promised and not a warehouse for low achievers they are just trying to get rid of by dumping them downtown.
Advanced Security (rent-a-cop) is not a high tech job! It leads to low wage service employment. Why else would they not have discussed bio-sciences or engineering for the Rivers campus? CCSD has a history of bait-and-switch.
Nancy McGinley will have to prove she is different from all the others who’ve led us down the wrong paths and who speak with forked tongues. Her actions and statements concerning downtown schools so far indicate her policies and priorities are no different from those who preceded her.
Is Burke to be closed to make way for the Academic Magnet? I'm not sure that's their goal. It may be a rumor generated by CCSD itself as a distraction from where they are really headed. Stopping the charter school at Rivers by working to dumb-down McGinley's original High Tech plan clearly is a priority for certain county board members. It would appear to be the same for our new superintendent unless she publicly says it’s not true and guarantees in writing the quality of her High Tech High.
Looks like the Super will have a chance to clear this up next Wednesday when she meets Dist. 20's Board in the Burke library at 5:30. She meets with the public at 6:30 in Burke's cafeteria. She continues her traveling 'conversations' with this one for downtown. Both meetings are open to the public. There will probably be lots of questions. It should be interesting.
I listened to McGinley talk to a group from District 10 at St. Andrews Middle last night. She said that one thing that was working in our schools is specialized schools, like tech or single gender... This would go along with the rumor that Burke will become the new magnet schools and the Burke students will get a new vocational school.
The Community meeting begins at 6:00pm NOT 6:30....
But if you can't get there until 6:30, come anyway. The meeting at Dist. 10 at St. Andrews last week had more than 100 people. We need a crowd to show that there is grass roots support for downtown schools and new initiatives like the charter school for math and science and genuine advanced placement programs for Burke.
Date: Wednesday, Sept. 12
Place: Burke Cafeteria
Time: 6:00 - about 7:30 PM
Enter from Sumter St. (North Entrance to Main Building)
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