While our community may continue to question the motives of a college student pursuing a seat on our constituent board, one thing is for sure. By his recent posting on this blog, it sounds like he has a mind of his own. Although I'm tired of the College of Charleston's pseudo partnerships with our schools, maybe Mr. Shalosky represents a different perspective. I say, "Welcome, Mr. Shalosky." You may be just the breath of fresh air our community needs, especially if you can think for yourself and quickly educate yourself on the history of our constituent district. Our District 20 board has been played by the big board as "never being happy" for years, simply because the District 20 board has refused to rubber stamp what the CCSD "experts" want.
I don't know all the facts, but evidently CCSD now wants a rush job on changing attendance lines in the districts where schools are scheduled to close next year. And guess what? CCSD officials have to do what they hate to do, turn to the constituent boards for approval. From what I understand, District 4 did what they do so well...they avoided their duties as elected officials. Yet according to Mr. Shalosky, it sounds like we can count on the District 20 board to do what we elected them to do.
Changing attendance lines should be taken slowly and seriously. This process should be put on hold until the community is properly informed and their voices are heard. What's the rush anyway? CCSD is rushing the closure of Fraser the same way they rushed our Courtney children to Rivers and then our Rivers' children to Rhett. And look at the mess Burke middle is still in. When does it end?
The District 20 board should create attendance lines for Buist Academy. They should also fight for Fraser children to remain at Fraser. To ask those children to move to Archer in August and then move to the new Sanders-Clyde in January is shameful. I assure you it would never be expected nor would it be tolerated in Mt. Pleasant. So why do we tolerate it downtown?
I urge District 20 residents to call your board members and let them know "we're still not happy." Our District 20 board needs your support.
In the meantime, I'll look forward to any information anyone has on where this process stands. And isn't it time to march?
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5 comments:
Underdog,
Its me again! Thanks for the post! Yes I will try to do everything possible to insure that the constituents are happy with the new school lines. CCSD introduced us to the idea that we should begin redrawing the lines 2 weeks ago, and then at this past weeks meeting, they informed the board that we needed to have it done by next week! We all know this can not be done properly in such a short period of time. I do realize that the redrawing of the lines should be first priority, and done as quickly as possible, but the key is to be done as quickly and as responsibly as possible. The two are not exclusive. I would also like for all the constituents to know, that I am glad and hopeful that they will contact me to give me their feedback and ideas on this issue. Please work with the district 20 board not against us. We know who we are responsible to, and understand the importance of our jobs. I know that many may be concerned that I do not know enough about downtown schools to be holding this responsibility, but I realize that I am not as experienced as some, and that is why I am looking to my constituents to push me in the path that suits them, not me leading them to the path that I feel is right. So constituents of District 20, lets work together not against each other to come up with solutions that work for the students of downtown schools! If you would like to contact me my email is nshalosky@hotmail.com. I will try to return emails as soon as possible!
And I suppose the District 20 board is asked to okay changes without any statistics on how many children will be affected as well?
Well, the funny thing is, when the district 20 board received our first presentation regarding the demographics of downtown and the like, the presenter showed us maps of District 20, and maps of district 20 that were hard to read. Then he told us that there wasn't anyone in 40 calhoun that really understood the software and that they had to bring in a specialist to run the software. Apparently, the specialist will be flown in to help 40 calhoun to make their presentations. I am assuming that all the recommendations will be made within a couple of days since the specialist will only be here for a few days. Scary!!!!!
Another waste of school money on "experts"...when does it end?
I think you mean 75 Calhoun. It's just another detail we know too well.
I agree this is another example of CCSD not knowing how to run its ship without bringing in more experts. I can understand doing it once, but they never seem to learn from the contractors they pay to teach them to run the software.
A school district this large and this RICH should be able to develop economies of scale. Instead CCSD does what school districts a tenth of its size have to do; hire outsiders. Only problem is, CCSD then does this ten times as often at twenty times the expense.
In the end we still are likely to find out how many CCSD students live here and go there. There's something to be said for small classes, small schools....and smaller school districts.
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