Nothing will change in Charleston County unless parents sue. True District 20 parents on Buist waiting lists should sue CCSD and the parents using false District 20 addresses. The lawsuit the District 20 school board and a District 20 parent filed against CCSD over Buist Academy will make it to the Court of Appeals on Wednesday, May 27.
I hope they get a less bias ruling than they received in Charleston County from Judge Scarborough, a former Buist parent.
For a quick recap, the District 20 board ruled District 20 students should receive priority to the only excellent rated school on the peninsula a few years ago, meaning District 20 students get in first before anyone else in the county. CCSD and the County Board ignored them. Yet, CCSD embraced the constituent boards when the US Justice Department filed a desegregation lawsuit against Charleston County over twenty years ago. CCSD was able to avoid desegregation citing state law which clearly says constituent boards determine which kids go to the schools in their districts. Funny how constituent boards exist only when CCSD deems it necessary.
In CCSD land, Buist is a "county-wide magnet school" for the "gifted and talented." I'll leave the G&T part alone because anyone with half a brain knows CCSD isn't really testing four and five year olds for being gifted. Kids are tested in the 2nd grade and gifted and talented programs start in the 3rd grade for a reason. There also is no such thing as a county-wide magnet school unless the constituent boards approve it. While the District 20 board of the 1980s may have agreed to be manipulated by CCSD, the board of the 21st century said "no way no how."
Let's just hope the Court of Appeals reads what Mr. Kobrovsky sent them.
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11 comments:
I say move Buist OUT of District 20 and to hell with all of this nonsense!!!
You would think that the latest admission from Berkeley County would make the judge wake up--but maybe he or she doesn't want to rile the power structure.
I agree with you both. If CCSD moved Buist to Mt. Pleasant, it would save a lot on transportation.
Better still, in this time of financial crisis and belt tightening (if you overlook all the new administrative positions in the super's office), why not just end the magnet schools altogether and go back to neighborhood schools. Of course CCSD would have to take responsibility for them. It couldn't just say the cause of the inequities between schools were the result of "a board decision" anymore. OK, I'll concede Academic Magnet and the School of the Arts, but at least those are true county-wide magnet schools with a transparent admissions process. By the time a kid is in 5th grade (to be considered for SOA admission in 6th) or 8th grade (to be considered for AM in 9th) a student has a comprehensive track record. There's less possibility to play the system. So let's just quit playing games with Buist and all the others. They aren't open even to the qualified students CCSD has listed in its descriptions of these schools. Worse, CCSD regularly admits students to them that don't meet the criteria. This includes Buist where students in its own private SAIL program don't even qualify for that program designed for advanced students. So how did students who didn't meet the qualifications for SAIL get admitted to Buist in the first place?
Just quit with the magnets. They aren't doing what they were initially designed to do and they waste a lot of money that CCSD isn't telling us about. You can't expect us to believe 36 or more teachers at Buist for 18 classes is costing the system less than the teaching staff at a comparable K-8 school with only 400 students.
End this scam.
Amen poster one! But can you move it to Johns Island, People tend to forget there are no excellent rated schools out here either!
Well, as Gregg Meyers said to the downtown community, Mark-
Why don't you get your OWN Buist?
PS - I thought you only posted as yourself??
Believe it or not...there are other posters from Johns Island.
I don't know who "Mark" is but I welcome all bloggers, especially those fed up with schools failing our kids.
Mark Brandenburg who lives on Johns Island... BTW... I posted the first comment and I'm not Mark and I live on Johns Island
If you don't already know... Haut Gap will have a new magnet program this year... we'll see how that goes
Clearly Mark B. has something to hide. Why not fight for a Buist on Johns Island? Unless he's just so happy his kids got into our downtown school he doesn't care about the rest of Johns Island.
Darius Rucker must be one lucky dude. Both of his children hit the "lottery" and got into Buist. He can afford to send them to private school if he is concerned about their public school education
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