Principal 4 An A+ Day

Each day, every day, our students pledged. This is the first step in becoming a patriot scholar.

FIRST LADY MELANIA TRUMP: "A child's soul knows no borders. No flags. We must foster a future for our children. Which is rich with potential security and complete with free will. A world where dreams will be realized rather than faded by war. Much has unfolded since President Putin received my letter last August. He responded in writing, signaling a willingness to engage with me directly and outlining details regarding the Ukrainian children residing in Russia."

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/16J1RgkTgy/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Rosetta Douglass-Sprague (1839 June 24 - 1906) was a prominent African American teacher and activist. She was a founding member of the National Association for Colored Women. Her father was Frederick Douglass.

Rosetta was born to Anna Murray Douglass and Frederick Douglass in 1839, in Bedford, Massachusetts. When she was five, she moved with her parents to Lynn, Massachusetts. Rosetta was a critical thinker like her father, but struggled against the demands of gender roles during her time. When she was six, she stayed with Abigail and Lydia Mott, from Albany, New York. Abigail taught her to read and write, and Lydia taught her to sew. At eleven, she assisted her father in making and packaging his newspaper. On December 24, 1863, she married Nathan Sprague. Her husband was an ex-slave and poorly educated, and struggled to find his footing and a job. She did not support her father's in*******al marriage after her mother's death. She had seven children, and many grandchildren.

In 1845, the Rochester Board of Education closed public schools to black students. Frederick Douglass sent Rosetta to a private school rather than send her to an all-black school that Rochester set up for black students. She eventually was tutored from age 2 to 7. In 1848, Rosetta was admitted into the Seward Seminary in Rochester, New York. Rosetta was segregated from the white students while she was there, and her father spoke out against this in his newspaper. She also attended Oberlin College’s Young Ladies Preparatory and New Jersey’s Salem Normal School.

Douglass worked as a teacher. She eventually became primarily a homemaker and wife. She wrote the paper My Mother as I Recall Her in 1900, as well as the paper What Role is the Educated Negro Woman to Play in the Uplifting of Her Race?

Douglass worked along with her father, and had a keen sense of social justice issues. She advised her father against accepting the presidency of the Freedman’s Bank. She went on to become a founding member of the National Association for Colored Women.

What would be the implications for a school that promotes 85% of its 500 students who read at a 17% ELA proficiency level, and what accountability measures should be taken regarding educators and administrators? Is there any justification for the faculty to be employed for decades with the same principal despite historically low performance?

Step by step, we will get the kids reading again!

"The first 100 days of Trump’s presidency were a whirlwind of wins for families, students, and the American workforce."

Read Chairman Tim Walberg's statement praising the Trump administration's accomplishments within its First 100 Days:

https://edworkforce.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=412399

What are your thoughts on eliminating the Department of Education?

COMMENTARY
Hicks: Charleston County constituent school boards, the bell may (finally) toll for thee ...
By Brian Hicks [email protected] 5 hrs ago


Constituent school boards decide which children go to which school, which is about the only reason those boards draw a crowd. State Rep. Joe Bustos wants to abolish the eight constituent boards, a system of governance not used anywhere else in the country.

Folks have been trying to get rid of Charleston County’s constituent school boards for nearly 60 years.

That is, ever since the day they were created.

But these boards, originally designed to keep local schools blissfully segregated, have been nothing if not resilient. The Justice Department, the NAACP and a long line of state lawmakers all failed to shut them down.

Today, critics argue the eight boards are just another source of political infighting and inconsistent standards for Charleston County students. They're not entirely wrong.

Basically, the constituent boards are collectively one big pain in the school district.

So state Rep. Joe Bustos, chairman of the county’s legislative delegation, called for disbanding the boards.

“They don’t do anything the district couldn’t do otherwise, and they’re costing us $500,000 a year,” Bustos explains. “We are the only county in the state — or the country — that has constituent school boards, and most people want to see 'em gone.”

Anyone who’s followed this half-century of melodrama might expect Bustos' legislation, filed last week, to end like all past attempts. But there are a couple of big differences now.

First, most people nowadays don’t even know Charleston has constituent school boards, so there likely won't be widespread protest. No one defended constituent boards at a recent delegation meeting, but a few showed up to complain about them.

Second, and more importantly, Bustos has wide bipartisan support.

That all could spell doom for the constituent boards.

This matters because it could mean the district would draw attendance lines for schools — as opposed to people elected by very few voters, under a school governance system created by the grandchildren of the people who brought us the Civil War.

Since this is likely to become a thing, some history is in order.

More than a decade after the U.S. Supreme Court declared segregated schools unconstitutional, Charleston County’s various school districts were finally “consolidated." But at the same time, the old boards were transformed into “constituent school boards.”

These elected bodies were given power over personnel appointments in their schools and — most importantly — the authority to set attendance zones.

Which meant no student could transfer from a school in one part of town to another without the blessing of two separate constituent boards.

See how that works?

Supporters argued that, with a main school board elected countywide, constituent boards were the only way to ensure community input. But the feds and NAACP said it was simply a ruse to keep schools segregated.

Lawsuits from the two kicked around for nearly a decade, but ultimately failed. And here we are.

A few years back, the delegation changed the Charleston County School Board to a single-member district system, which coincidently neutered the original argument for constituent school boards.

And the school district has wrestled some control from these boards over the years. They no longer pick their own principals and teachers, and their disciplinary rulings can be appealed to the countywide school board.

The district's position on constituent boards has been positively Swiss: It has no official position. But it’s safe to say no one at 75 Calhoun would be despondent if they were nuked ... especially since district officials told lawmakers they could set up a single panel to hear all discipline and transfer cases.

Which would make decisions more uniform. Hint, hint.

Now, all this isn’t to say there aren’t some good people serving on these constituent school boards. Many of these public servants take their jobs seriously and genuinely want what’s best for Charleston County students.

Unfortunately, they're outnumbered by people with partisan agendas, outsized ambition and wildly different standards for doing business.

You know, politicians.

Here’s an example: Not too long ago, a student carried a gun into a Charleston County school. He gave it to another student, who posed for photographs brandishing the gun on campus.

The constituent board with jurisdiction over this case decided the kid who brought the gun should be expelled, but for whatever reason the one carrying it around was allowed to stay ... despite federal law that dictates both should've been gone.

Yeah, the district had to step in.

Bustos is using that example pretty effectively in his arguments to colleagues. And Republicans and Democrats mostly agree it's time to end the constituent boards, although veteran state Rep. Wendell Gilliard says they shouldn't rush major change without weighing the consequences.

“I just want us to be fair,” Gilliard says. “We need to listen to both sides.”

That is a fine policy in every decision, and he's not wrong. But most of his colleagues have heard enough.

And finally, after more than half a century, the constituent school boards' luck may have run out.

Brian Hicks is The Post and Courier's metro columnist.

We are working closely with NIAF. Join US!

Voyage of Discovery - The National Italian American Foundation NIAF Scholarship Program NIAF La Scala Scholarship ITAMCAP Legal Scholarship at Luiss University NIAF Italpress Internship in Journalism