According to the Buist Foundation website, the Charleston Garden Club has adopted Buist Academy. Maureen Ray, a member of the Garden Club and a grandmother to several Buist students is "honored" on the Buist Foundation website. Excuse me, while I gag.
According to a reliable source, Maureen Ray is the wife of dentist Dr. Ray who allegedly insisted his sons use his downtown property to enter his grandchildren into Buist. Afterall, Dr. Ray pays taxes on his downtown property, right? Evidently, one son had moved his family to the St. Andrews Math and Science school zone, but that wasn't good enough for Dr. Ray, who is also a Yacht Club member. That son allegedly used daddy's dental office to get the eldest grandson into Buist.
The other son used daddy's condo at Vendue Range. I guess it's just another one to add to the "Who's Who" list at Buist, huh?
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20 comments:
I feel bad for all of you that didn't get your kids into Buist but it isn't for everyone. If my kids hadn't gotten in I would have tried to integrate Memminger.
What about putting your kid in Sanders Clyde? Isn't it doing better all of the time? It would be very educational for a child to be the first white kid in a school. Why not? That might be more educational than the IB, SAIL, and foreign language. The child could get a first hand civil rights lesson. In fact, your child might be quite popular for being unique.
Until middle class people start putting their kids in these underperforming downtown schools nothing will change. You can make a difference by integrating the downtown schools. It's not the fault of Buist that black downtown kids aren't there.
I don't know what planet the previous commenter is living on, but the ideas expressed are ridiculous. Integrating Memminger? Isn't it already integrated? Is he/she suggesting that the schools can be improved only if more white students attend? And, no, Sanders-Clyde isn't doing better all the time. And what makes he/she think that people who are annoyed about cheaters at Buist all have children who were excluded? Maybe we don't like people with money and influence who believe the rules are made to be broken.
Thanks, Babbie. It's nice to know you have the patience to respond to this craziness. I'm evidently still not calm enough to make any sense of their ridiculous comments, much less actually respond to them.
I recently got the report card from St. Andrews and it wasn't good. But part of that is due to the state raising the standards to a point that the schools just couldn't keep up. But what was even worse was that if the Caucasian and African American scores in Math, Science, Social Studies and English were inverted.
Example:
District Proficient/Advanced %
English
White 75.3
African Am. 29.8
Math
White 74.3
African Am. 27.0
Science
White 63.0
African Am. 13.0
Social Studies
White 60.0
African Am. 16.0
St. Andrew's is well integrated so there really shouldn't be much of an issue in the classroom. The real problem is parental involvement. Most schools can improve, but without parental involvement it's unlikely.
Schools have a mission: to educate young people so that they can meet the challenges of a competative world as adults. It's a fact that some kids have rich parents and other kids come from low income families. Some parents are involved and some aren't. What school bureaucrats need to quite doing is blaming parents, teachers and candlestick makers for why Johnnie can't read in the 10th grade and as a result is disrupting the class. Somehow I think that the way these educrats have played around with the numbers & funding games has more to do with this than they want us to believe. Just because a parent isn't there doesn't mean the kid has to be written off...in the first grade...which is what CCSD has been doing for years. No wonder Johnnie can't read in the 10th grade and is disrupting class. Maybe the parents finished CCSD schools twenty years ago and can't read either. Hey, this shoe fits CCSD all too well, so quit blaming others.
Perhaps some of Dr. Ray's patients who are residents of downtown should ask him to explain why cheating downtown kids out of a chance to not attend failing school is OK. I'm sure his grandchildren have school choices that downtown kids have never been allowed to have...thanks to the cheaters. And why have those vacant seats in the upper grades at Buist not gone to qualified District 20 students? In the end they didn't go to anyone...except to allow the eighth grade classes at Buist to each have 21 students. Tell that to a parent at St. Andrews Math & Science or at Moultrie where they have 30 or more students in elementary and middle school classrooms. How about an answer Dr. Ray or did you just raise your children to cheat?
Dr. Ray believes he's "entitled" - not cheating...don't you see? That's the only way they can continue to look themselves in the mirror.
If there is one thing on which everyone should agree, it's that special enrollment criteria used only by Buist either needs to be thrown out or all proposed new "magnet" schools need to use exactly the same rules that Buist is using. If the Super wants to change anything, then it should be to eliminate the double standard used for admissions to some schools but not for others.
The list keeps growing. Charleston is too small a town to be doing this sort of thing. Why does CCSD look the other way? Valid downtown people on the waiting list should sue CCSD and the people that used false downtown addresses. Perhaps some should join forces and make it into a class action law suit. This has been going on for so many years that there would likely be hundreds of plaintiffs.
Keeping out true downtown residents has clearly been all about racism. They allowed the wrong people to take most of the downtown seats in order for it to not be obvious. Most true D20 children were kept out in order to keep the black kids out.
Ask most any long term black resident and they will tell you that they don't even know anybody that got into Buist. Why is it downtown? It was put downtown to cover for the fact that CCSD was not going to do anything for downtown children, in other words black children.
I think the issue is with Black/White students is that CCSD knows that it is not the schools that is failing as much as it is the family involvement in students education that is failing. And what can CCSD do to help the families? Nothing. So while it is true that Buist may be unfair on who it admits, it is in no way the overall problem with the CCSD. Test scores show blacks are doing worse than whites, parental involvement happens more with whites than blacks, but whites also have a higher socio-economic level than blacks, and that translates to less parental involvement. So what can we do to help the families of these failing kids rather than complain that those kids aren't getting into Buist?
This seems to be more of a social services issue than an education issue.
To Anonymous 3:15 PM: You don't seem to get it. Academically qualified students for District 20, both white and black, are being cheated out of seats in this school. If by a lack of parent involvement, you mean parents who will lie and cheat to get their kids in, then maybe that's the kind of parental involvement we want to keep out of our schools, not just Buist.
If you are refering to the low percentage of minority kids getting into exclusive public schools in Charleston County like Buist, relative to the total number of minority students in the public school system, well then you may be correct in saying that a lack of social services plays a part.
But that's off the subject. We're not talking about "affirmative action" or lowering the academic bar for some because of perceived inequities...we're talking about denying access to qualified students because of outright fraud that has been officially sanctioned by this and previous county school administrations.
Anon 4:39, would you need Buist if the school in your district (other than Buist) was as good as Buist? That is the real issue. Why do people want to send their kids to Buist..Because it's a very good school. But why is that? Because they require parental involvement. They aren't teaching the ABC's and 123's any different than at Angel Oak. Fix the parental involvement in your local, non-Buist, school and they would all be doing just as well.
Maybe some here should spend more time fixing the problems at their non-Buist school rather than bitch about our kids not going to Buist. Even if CCSD enforced the rules to get into Buist, there would still be more applicants then spaces. Then if your kid didn't get in, what would you complain about? Hell, here's a novel idea, why doesn't CCSD start 3 or 4 more Buist schools across the county?
Your anger is disturbing. Why can't we teach our kids without parental involvement? Let's pretend we'll never get parental involvement. Are we just going to continue to pass our kids through the system blaming the parents?
I agree we should "fix" our other schools, but the CCSD board is the only one who has the power to do that. In the meantime we should continue to "bitch," as you put it.
And do you know why? Because our kids deserve an excellent rated school to attend today. It'll take years to fix the damage CCSD has created in our schools. Where do you suggest our kids go in the meantime? Our kids are in these below average schools and they're not being challenged.
I also agree that CCSD should start Buist schools throughout the county...maybe if we "bitch" enough, they will.
One more thing, according to Mrs. Ballard there is no child on the District 20 waiting list for the current kindergarten class. There goes your "theory" of there being more applicants than spaces. AND according to my source, if CCSD had simply asked the parents who used false addresses to go elsewhere in 2006, all of the District 20 kids who applied that year would have had a space as well.
Why don't the parents who spend so much time changing driver's licenses and fabricating leases, etc...use a fraction of that time to improve their neighborhood school? Why? Because most parents only care about me and mine, that's why. As long as their child is taken care of, they could care less who they step on in the process and who's left behind. It's a sick concept, but it's reality.
I have met parents that don't even know that Buist has a lottery. So why are there no Dist. 20 kids on the waitlist? Hmmmmm, ask the parents that didn't sign their kids up.
And once again, to assume that a child is going to get a good education without parental involvement is ignorant. I showed you the test scores of kids at St. Andrews, a very good school. Black kids and kids with discounted lunches that attend this very good school aren't making the grades. What more do you want the teachers to do. IF those same failing kids at St. Andrews walk through the doors at Buist, are they suddenly going to become smarter?
As a teacher, I agree with Underdog and I believe all children can learn with or without an involved parent. I very rarely meet a parent but I'm still teaching my students. Then again, I believe they can learn and I teach outside the box. We have too many teachers in over their heads. The St. Andrews kids are struggling because the classes are too big (probably due to false address use) and the demands of the students can't be met under current conditions.
If given the right environment and a teacher who truly believes, any child can learn. But we have to start as soon as they get to us. Unfortunately, too many teachers shuffle them through because the system is broken. Then when it's time to take PACT, the kids are already too far behind.
FYI, teachers can't stand that stupid test on which you base your theory.
I agree with the teacher's comments above. We need more teachers like you. I'm confused as to what "side" the anonymous poster 1:53 above you is on...he/she seems to be talking out of both sides of his mouth.
I know many parents don't apply at Buist because they don't trust the system. Is that to what you're referring? And do you really believe the curriculum is the same at Angel Oak and Buist?? Are you kidding me? When was the last time you entered a kindergarten class at either school?
Come clean and make yourself clear. I'm starting to close my ears to your comments because they don't make sense.
I agree with the responders, a lack of parental participation shouldn't be an excuse for turning your back on kids. As for the overly broad generalization that "Black kids and kids with discounted lunches that attend this very good school aren't making the grades", Anonymous 1:53 PM just described what keeps the Buist defenders fired up. Their fears at Buist are all about racism, classism and exculsion, pure and simple. It's not parent involvement or even academic potential...it's making sure "they are our kind of people".
For your information, the comments are correct about overbooked classes and teachers that are unable to work as closely with the students as they have in the past at St. Andrews...hopefully temporary problems. These are at the heart of the challenges now facing St. Andrews. CCSD administrators also forced them to accept a number of those turned away by Buist...which we have just discovered has had empty seats for years. St. Andrews gets overcrowded while Buist has room to stretch, what a difference smaller classes make for those "difficult" middle school grades at Buist!
It's not an issue of race & income levels at St. Andrews, but it seems to be just that for those fearful people barring the doors at Buist. Very few minorities or low income kids live in the St. Andrews attendence zone. So the minorities & low income kids they do have at St.Andrews would have had to meet the school's academic entrance requirements. That shoots your theory of what pulls a school down.
And what about Sanders-Clyde? It's 100% black, 99% reduced lunch & 90% public housing. It's smaller classes and teacher involvement supported by an extended day educational system (what Hillery Douglas calls "free daycare") appears to be paying off (or at least that's what the data shows that CCSD is holding up). Sanders-Clyde's success is based on a specifically tailored program designed to meet the needs of those kids in the same situation. So don't try to change the subject and suggest that a couple of hundred middle class families transfer in who don't need the special programs Sanders-Clyde supports.
So that brings us back to Buist. Why does Buist rate a different admissions process than other magnet schools that also have academic standards. It's not the academic standards that are being challenged...it's the corrupted admissions process that is being targeted along with those who are bending over backwards to defend what can't be defended.
As long as the powerful and influential are safe within Buist, there will be no more push for similar schools like Buist all over the county. But seriously threaten these people by taking their entitlement to Buist away...watch how fast more schools like Buist get the green light from CCSD. But not until then.
Yup, parenting is so over-valued in education. Parents involvement in a child's education is completely unnecessary. Buist is the answer. Get your kids in there and all will be fine.
Oh, and any teacher that says parental involvement is not necessary should be looking for a new job.
Wow...what we don't need more of is sarcastic cynics. We have enough of those. Who are you to tell a teacher who's truly teaching that he/she "should be looking for a new job?" Is this a Buist parent to whom I'm talking? Is that the problem?
No one is saying that parental involvement isn't needed, only that it isn't always there or possible. Good teachers know all too well that where parental involvement isn't there, there has to be more of the other things needed to support the student's advancement. Too often the lack of parental involvement is used as an excuse to not do anything more...rather than to bring other resouces to the table to compensate. Good teachers know how to do this, but bad administrators don't understand it and often redirect the needed resources away from the teachers that request the help and the students who need it the most. Sure, it's a burden when parents aren't where they are supposed to be, but it's the system that writes them off (because of no parent participation) that is the cause of the most tragic failures. Good teachers are tempered idealists. Most know that a majority of parents aren't doing what they need to be doing on behalf of their child's education, but they also know that those same children have both needs and untapped potential that they can still reach...somehow. These good teachers have to have hope in order to continue teaching in the face of so many challenges...not just the lack of parental involvement. But any teacher who says because Johnny's parents are loosers is the reason they aren't going to work with Johnny...no, that's the person who needs to get out of teaching altogether. It would seem from these kinds of comments that Buist is a haven for this type of narrow minded thinking.
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