I couldn't help but notice the irony of The Chronicle's front page last week. The top three featured articles are authored by Barney Blakeney, Arthur Lawrence, and Brenda Nelson. We are all very familiar with Mr. Blakeney and Mr. Lawrence. Yet who is Dr. Nelson, or should I say REVEREND Nelson? She says, she has "had the opportunity to really listen to the heartfelt concerns of many..." Well, duh, woman. We can't dispute that. Don't you get paid close to $100,000 a year to show up to CCSD's dog and pony shows? I'm sure you are listening, but are you really HEARING us? I doubt it. In your article, you actually insult our intelligence when you feel it necessary to 1) identify yourself as a "Minister" and 2) quote a passage from the Bible. Your audacity to quote Hosea 4:6 really turns my stomach. As you quote, "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou has rejected knowledge."
HUH?
I'm a true believer in separation of church and state, but I decided to thumb through the Old Testament and read a little. The passage Ms. Nelson quotes from continues "Because you have ignored the law of God, I also will ignore your children." Now THAT makes sense to me. We could place quite a few political cronies in place of God in that sentence and it makes even more sense to me.
Cut to the chase. Ms. Nelson is part of the problem. Her "testimony" in The Chronicle makes it clear she does NOT understand. She is black, yet she is out of touch with the black community. She knows CCSD is not teaching our children the basic skills necessary to function in society, yet she says nothing, reaping the rewards of her paycheck and kissing a little "you know what" to make sure it keeps coming.
I believe it was Ms. Memminger, a Fraser parent, who inquired about Brenda Nelson at the Burke Community meeting. She asked: Who IS she? And WHAT does she do? Close out her salary and others like her before you close our schools. Clearly if an active parent like Ms. Memminger doesn't know who CCSD's Community Outreach Coordinator is or what she does there hasn't been a heck of a lot of reaching going on.
Mr. Lawrence's article suggested merging our two downtown magnet schools to create true integration. I heard he got a phone call from Ms. Nelson reaching out to him the next day on what a bad idea that would be. Mr. Blakeney's article quotes Rev. Lewis and retired educator David Mack Jr. and the obvious fact all of the schools proposed to be closed are predominately African-American and the lack of quality funding and education taking place in these same schools year after year.
Which brings me back to Ms. Nelson. These communities were blind-sided by CCSD. That's not reaching out. That's p--sing people off. Many of the schools, such as our own Charleston Progressive won't exist under any of CCSD's options. Can you imagine if CCSD did that to a predominately white school? One day a school is advertising for 2009-2010 applicants, the next day they have no building.
I believe our community really wants integration. Yet CCSD is going about it the WRONG way. Communicate with the parents at CPA, Buist, and Community Montessori PRIOR to your proposal. Give them a chance to propose options. Instead, CCSD has pitted school against school, which unfortunately is creating more racial tension. How can you close a predominately black school with no prior warning and give its building to a predominately white school without creating racial tension? I pray at tonight's school board meeting the parents of these schools will unite and realize who the real devil is in this sick process.
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I'm sorry that I don't read The Chronicle. It sounds like Mr. Lawrence and I are on the same page when it comes to Buist and CPA's being merged. Ms. Nelson is yet one more example of the tin ear CCSD has for hearing what the community wants.
And I'm sure Community Montessori is thrilled about being put in the middle like this. They've been campaigning for some time to get the School of the Arts building once SOA moves to the new campus. I guess that just wouldn't be disruptive enough to suit CCSD.
My kids attend a Montessori charter school, and I'd love to see a public Montessori school downtown. Why not put one in the Archer building? (I swear I think that was proposed once in the past in one of those Harvey Gantt studies, but maybe I'm hallucinating.)
It's a sick and mean spirited leadership that has proposed to pit one school against another like this. Two good schools have been turned on each other, as if for sport, by a callus and sadistic superintendent. Now when will the public accept responsibility for allowing this waste to continue?
Yes, I agree about the public "outreach officer" McGinley hired to placate the NAACP. Don't we have enough inept tokens hanging around? What nobody's talking about is the number of highly qualified and experienced professionals, Black and White, who have made a well worn path while exiting Charleston County. These people have headed for better jobs, in adjacent counties if we are lucky, where they are properly appreciated by their peers, employers and the public they serve.
CCSC has long been a safe haven for the incompetent and the mediocre. We can't keep the good ones. The few we have find a hole and stay out of the line of fire. It's no joke that good principals and teachers are more afraid for their jobs here than anywhere else. There are all too many sycophants ready to turn them in if it might advance their standing with the superintendent. And what an entourage she has starting with the "outreach specialist".
The good Reverend Doctor Brenda Nelson is a prime example of one of these useless individuals. She needs to go. The savings to CCSD (and the taxpayers) would be much better spent in a downtown classroom. What a disgrace she has been serving as a Judas goat, leading those still trusting among us to the slaughter.
The Gantt plan developed in 2003 did clearly identify Archer as the proposed site for a Montessori school. You're not hallucinating, but McGinley certainly seems to be.
This website address so many of the concerns about the problems and racism, bigotry and lunacy that exists within CCSD.
First off I am a middle aged white man, very conservative, with my youngest daughter a third grader at one of the elementary schools in this county.
I formerly worked within the Taj Mahal downtown for over 5+ years and now work for Berkeley County Schools.
The average citizen of the Charleston County has no idea how horrible this district is. Failing schools, failing students, teaching to mediocrity, teacher turnover that is outrageous (they recruit heavily in Ohio, Penn, Mich, Va because those "in the know" do not want to teach here). All of this with substandard facilities, lack of technology in the schools (Do you know that EVERY Classroom in Berkeley County at all levels has a "Smartboard" and some the individual tablets for students!), poor curriculum, stressed school admiinistration (unbelievable turnover in Principal's). Wow this district wears me out.
Now you know I worked in the Taj Mahal. I worked there for over 5 years. For the sake of my privacy, I will have to be a bit vague.
The CCSD Department I worked in is a complete wreck. Leaving for Berkeley was my choice and I left CCSD on good terms. Having the insight of working there I feel I have some opinion on 3 issues: Money, Racism, Incompetency.
Money. CCSD is awash in money. Don't let them fool you. These mergers are not about saving money they are about MAKING money.
As I mentioned, these recent mergers of the schools, are not about saving money but about MAKING money (for the District). Take your failing schools, rename them, combine them, put in a twist on curriculum and what have you got? Instant Grants. You see these schools will be now "startups", these students come from failing schools, and best of all.....the test scores from these schools will not count for 3 full years, against CCSD. Wow look at what McGinley did and poof....the test scores are rising in CCSD! More Grant money, job security for McGinley, and everyone sings her praises about the rising test scores.
One problem though, what about what is best for the students and parents? NO ONE in the Taj Mahal cares about your children, they only care about their jobs and resumes.
Racism. Tough subject to give my opinion about, being a white male. All I can say is that it exists at the Taj Mahal. Keeping the black schools poor and dumb seems to be a goal not out of overt racism, but again as a money issue. CCSD poors money in its misguided way toward the black schools. But poor accounting of programs, the failure of programs is nuts.
Example take St. James/Santee. 96%Black school. The district spends over $18,000 per student here. Hum...for what? Failure. I say lets pay the tuition at Bishop England or Porter Gaud and save the taxpayers money. I bet you 100% those students would acheive well at either of those schools, because they would be EDUCATED!
What I am saying is how can you justify spending this kind of money and NOT SHOW RESULTS. While students at Chicora get $7,000 per student? Or Mary Ford? Or EB Ellington? Or Pepperhill? My belief is each school should be equal in its spending on students.....including BUIST (don't get me started on that school).
Final point of Racism. How is it that Charleston escaped desegregation? How is it that a school like Mt. Pleasant Academy is almost 100% white (except no child left behind children), and Mitchell 100% Black? Please get the picture, there is deep rooted racism in this community...Blacks don't want whites at Burke....Whites don't want blacks at Buist. OK well lets all just keep failing.
Oh my favorite incompetency. Yes this district is so top heavy in outrageously high salaries
it is sickening. The Department I worked at CCSD currently has 42 employees, in Berkeley the exact same deparment is operated with 14employees. At CCSD of the 42 department employees, 12 of those employees make over $60,000 per year (add about 42% for benefitson top of that),in Berkeley there is 1employee of the 14 employees in the Department that make $60,000 or more. The Budget differences are huge. In case you were wondering the differnce in size between Berkeley and CCSD, well CCSD has 5500 full time employees, Berkeley has 3800. Just think of how many departments in Charleston and that disparity is throughout CCSD as compared to Berkeley. Total incompetency. As I tell my wife CCSD needs to let every downtown District employee they hired in the past 7 years and let them go. Start over.
These incompetent boobs running this District, have no regard for our children. They are all worried about THEIR jobs, so you can imagine the back-stabbing, rumor spreading, hate filled atmosphere that is down there. The Taj Mahal is horrible to work at.
Thank you for this website. I wish resonable peoples could come together to ensure our children a A+ education and to help our children acheive their potential as individuals. Don't count on CCSD for any help.
And you wonder why Mayor Riley wants to start a school with no ties to CCSD???
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