Education Committee

TOWN OF MOUNT PLEASANT, SOUTH CAROLINA EDUCATION COMMITTEE Monday, December 3, 2018 Municipal Complex, Committee Meeting Room, 3rd Floor 100 Ann Edwards Lane, Mount Pleasant, SC 29464 MINUTES MEMBERS PRESENT: Guang Ming Whitley, Chair, Kevin Cunnane, and Tom O’Rourke STAFF PRESENT: Eric DeMoura, Town Administrator ALSO PRESENT: Dr. Gerrita Postlewait, Superintendent, Charleston County School District; Anna Dassing, Principal, Lucky Beckham High School Ms. Whitley called the meeting to order at 9:01 a.m. 1. Approval of Minutes from the November 5, 2018 meeting Mr. Cunnane moved for approval; seconded by Mr. O’Rourke. All present voted in favor. 2. Public Comments [None] 3. Presentation by the Charleston County School District Dr. Gerrita Postlewait stated that she would like to review the goals for CCSD for 2018 – 2020. She stated that the goals document is much lengthier; however, she would like to review the highlights. She stated that the first goal is the mission of District #2: To ensure that significantly more children are leaving their schools ready for college, career and citizenship readiness. She said currently they are structured as a batch processing system, similar to an old assembly line. By the time students get to high school in South Carolina, they must take 24 Carnegie units. Those units may or may not be related to what they need for an  Education Committee December 3, 2018 Page 2 of 15 interview at Boeing, Intertech, Bosch, Volvo or one of the tremendous working opportunities in our area. She said they are looking at what High School should really be like, what the students need to know, understand and be able to accomplish. She said they are looking at moving children through the system in Mathematics based on proficiency, not grade level. She said you do not move from whole number sense into multiplicative reasoning until you understand about the concepts of putting things together and taking them apart. She said this would be a big change for the system; however, their #1 goal is to make sure that every child who comes to them has more opportunities when they leave than when they first came. They would like to ensure that more of their children show one year’s growth. Nationally, the way they set the average is to find where 50% of the students grew, which is called one year’s growth. In Charleston County, they are getting approximately 54% which is above the national average; however, CCSD needs to be at 65% or 70% to beat the national odds. She said these are based on national statistics with the average at 50%. She said we need for all children to make one year’s growth and if they come into the school system behind, they need those students to grow more than one year. She stated that she wanted to spend more time on the first goal, because it is actually the mission and their new accountability  Education Committee December 3, 2018 Page 3 of 15 system is helping them measure both portions; who is ready on the continuum of learning, and who is growing at an above average pace. Ms. Postlewait stated on the second goal, this district has tried everything over the past twenty years and they still have schools that are languishing. She asked who in the United States works with children like our children and is making a significantly better difference that CCSD? What are they doing and how can we replicate that model no matter what it looks like? She said if it happens to be a private charter, a private partnership, or specially trained teachers, whatever it takes, this is what they intend to try to do with their lowest performing schools. She stated that on the third goal, every study they have had has come back and told the CCSD Board that our district needs to work on the District Leadership, the cohesiveness among Board members and the Superintendent, as well as looking at the unintended consequences of having these eight constituent districts, all of whom, bound the attendance lines of children within their districts. She said this was part of a Civil Rights settlement back in 1968 and it is constraining this district’s growth in ways that may not be healthy. She said in the fourth goal, here in Mount Pleasant, there is great enrollment and the sizes of the schools here allow students in Mount Pleasant to achieve at higher levels, because they have more opportunities, more exposure, more support from teachers and a wider breadth of curricular offerings. She said if there is a high school with fewer than 400 students it is very difficult and almost impossible to offer the same kinds of opportunities that children in a school of 2,000 or 4,000 students have. She said CCSD needs to find the optimal size and build to that size. She said there are far too many small schools in Charleston County and it is diluting their resources. She stated that on the fifth goal, they need to focus on the right materials, better training and better supports for teaching reading and math in our district. She stated on the sixth goal they need to revamp their magnet and choice schools to make sure that they are not diminishing the quality or  Education Committee December 3, 2018 Page 4 of 15 the opportunities for the children who are in them, but expanding opportunities for the children on the wait list and kids who do not have the readiness skills to get in those schools, because they could not access the private tutoring and private portfolio preparation that some of the students are able to access. Dr. Postlewait stated that on the next goal, they currently receive approximately one-third of their funds from the state and the other two- thirds are generated locally. She said they must determine how they distribute those funds to ensure that schools with have students who are way behind grade level are getting adequate resources to address the needs of those students. She stated that on the next goal, this simply means that the quality of a school is largely determined by the capability of its leader. She said there are some schools where they have very strong building managers who are not very adequate at the instructional piece and then there are schools with individuals who are great at instruction but cannot get to the four “B’s”; bussing, building, bandwidth and the beans. She stated on the last goal, career programs, programs in the arts, making sure their health, wellbeing and substance abuse programs are up to par, which is beginning to become a worst problem than they would like, and then focusing on safety measures. Dr. Postlewait stated that for the first time ever, they became accredited. She said Charleston County Schools has never been an accredited district and if your school is not accredited, schools in other parts of the country do not have to take the course credits that we are losing from our school to theirs. She said most high schools in the district were accredited, but the district itself has never achieved national accreditation. She stated that they use an international crediting agency. She said there is much work to be done and they barely achieved accreditation. She stated that the Clemson Office of Inclusion and Equity did a study and advised the district what they already know. CCSD has too many disparities and too many gaps. The majority of the schools in Charleston County are segregated. There are fewer than twenty children of a different race in  Education Committee December 3, 2018 Page 5 of 15 school and that is inappropriate in 2018. She said it does not provide children with an opportunity to learn and work across cultures and the poverty bands are most highly associated with children of color. She said it creates schools of 90% poverty, which means that children coming from households where both parents are working fulltime, or one parent in the house is underemployed, the students are not getting the support they need at home, because parents are working, and the schools do not have the social capital they need to create PTA’s that are active and thriving. Dr. Postlewait stated that the Shared Future Project emerged from the Clemson study. A group of approximately 40 diverse people from the community, from all walks of life and all geographical areas, have been meeting for three days a month for the past three months. She said they developed four scenarios and will be coming to the Town and many community groups and need thousands of people in Charleston County to look at the four different scenarios that they have developed and to select a scenario that would represent what all of us want Charleston Schools to look like in 2035. She said if we understand what we would like our schools to look like in 2035, then we understand what we must begin doing today. She said we must be intentional, courageous, bold and willing to do some things differently. She said the last three points  Education Committee December 3, 2018 Page 6 of 15 indicate what needs to be done to get ready for this. She said they are investing in teachers and want them to be the highest paid in the state. She said there is a national crisis in terms of recruiting teachers. She said they want not only to fill the classrooms but fill them with the highest capable teachers in the state. She said there are a number of accountability measures that are difficult to understand and what CCSD is looking at are the national indicators such as ACT and SAT. She said Charleston County has had historical increases in SAT scores. Dr. Postlewait added that Lucy Beckham High School is in the process of being built and should open in 2020. She stated that the Moultrie Middle School expansion is ongoing at this time, to ensure they have the room needed to handle the number of students who will be attending. They have an alternate bid to put in a few extra classrooms to teach the comprehensive curriculum (drama, career technology education, the arts). Dr. Postlewait stated that the challenges with Lucy Beckham High School are rezoning which is very controversial. Beckham will open in 2020 with ninth and tenth graders and will phase in for eleventh and twelfth, but that zoning is not complete.  Education Committee December 3, 2018 Page 7 of 15 She stated that Act 388 caps the amount that they are allowed to use for tax revenue, so they must be very careful about reallocating resources, so they are not taking away from the good programs that children have in place in order to supplement programs that are not up to par in other places. She said Act 388 means that CCSD cannot raise their taxes and this is where it creates a problem for them. She said if the state gives teachers a $1,000 pay raise, Charleston County receives approximately $333.00 of this $1,000 and the people of Charleston County must come up with the other $667.00 which is challenging for CCSD because it puts paying their teachers, reducing people/teacher classroom size and providing greater programming in competition. She said it all comes from the same source of funding. She said when the state does not provide their fair share and tells them that they must pay more without allowing them to increase any kind of taxes, it is very difficult. Anna Dassing, Principal of the new Lucy Beckham High School stated that as you begin to look at schools East of the Cooper, they have used the profile of the South Carolina graduate. She stated that Dr. Postlewait was one of the key leaders in making this a reality for them. She said it provides a very simple roadmap, but likely not as easy to implement. Focusing on what our student need to know, what skills do they need to  Education Committee December 3, 2018 Page 8 of 15 possess, and those life and career characteristics that are the most difficult to get to, but very important. She stated that some of the things she wanted to share related to both Wando High School and the new Lucy Beckham High School is that all of our schools are preparing for those core academic courses for all levels.  Education Committee December 3, 2018 Page 9 of 15 She said all of these core areas will be at both schools. She said they are really focused, for example, at Moultrie Middle School with the CTE programs coming in, called “Project Lead the Way”. She said one of the areas they received a number of questions about is how the students access the Center for Advanced Studies (CAS). She said Project Lead the Way curriculum that students receive at the Middle Schools are continued at both Lucy Beckham High School and Wando High School. She said the third and fourth levels are students who will actually travel from Lucy Beckham High School to the CAS to take the third and fourth levels. She said students at Wando High School will also travel to the CAS to take those third and fourth levels. She said this is just an example of one they have worked through, which is the Project Lead the Way “Biomedical” and “Engineering”. She said Wando High School and Lucy Beckham High School are working together to provide programming to students on both ends of Town without having to replicate them at both sites. She said another discussion that has come up a number of times is, will Lucy Beckham High School also have all the arts opportunities. The answer to that question is yes.  Education Committee December 3, 2018 Page 10 of 15 She stated that they are providing all the same athletics opportunities at Beckham as they do Wando, but because of its size, Wando, may actually have more levels of teams (B Teams, JV Teams or Varsity Teams), for these sports, but for every area that Beckham’s students want to play or participate in those athletics, they will have them as well.  Education Committee December 3, 2018 Page 11 of 15 She stated that when we think about the number of students we have, it is a natural tendency to want to compare programs. To say that Beckham will have every single program that Wando has would be unrealistic, mainly because of the allocation formula they have in the district which is based on the number of students enrolled. She said there is a divisor which determines how many teachers or full-time equivalencies they are able to have at each school. She said Wando currently has approximately 4,000 students, with approximately 203 teachers. She said when Beckham opens, they will have approximately 74 teachers at capacity. She said they will not reach capacity the first few years, but when they do, they will have approximately 74 teachers and Wando will have approximately 125 teachers. She works very closely with the Wando High School principal, Dr. Sherry Eppelsheimer, on how to provide the programs at their individual schools and how to work together at the Center for Advanced Studies (CAS) to provide even more opportunities. They are both very focused on Lucy Beckham’s vision that all the students in Charleston County, but particularly east of the Cooper, have access and opportunities across the Town. Mr. Cunnane stated that he is no mathematician, but it looks like we are losing four teaches as a result of the new school opening. He said there are 203 full time equivalents and we are going to what he thinks should be 199, if his math is correct. Ms. Dassing stated that this may have to do with the divisor being different. Mr. Cunnane stated that it looks like a net loss of four teachers. Ms. Dassing stated that she does not believe they will lose four teachers. Dr. Postlewait stated that additional guidance and assistant principals, need to be considered. Mr. Cunnane stated that in other words, we are shifting from teachers to administrators. Dr. Postlewait stated that guidance is not an administrator. She said the slide represents the pupil – teacher ratio. She said when the whole  Education Committee December 3, 2018 Page 12 of 15 formula was being revisited, this was part of that. She said what they are looking at in the future is revisiting that formula. Mr. Cunnane stated that 203 is four more than 199. Dr. Postlewait responded in the affirmative. Ms. Dassing stated that Beckham is on track to be substantially complete by March of 2020. Mr. O’Rourke thanked Dr. Postlewait and Ms. Dassing for coming. He said this is so ambitious and they are not able to do anything without a plan. He appreciates the work that everyone has done to put those plans in place. Mr. Cunnane stated that in reference to the zoning issue and knows there is a constituent board that looks at it or decides those issues. He said it is two-pronged and knows they are aware of both of them. He said the Moultrie zoning basically deferred to the Islands and had Sullivan’s Island and Isle of Palms stick together no matter what. He said there are a lot of parents up in the Belle Hall area who are not very happy about that. He said the Town of Mount Pleasant is deferring spaces in the schools in our Town where we deal with the traffic, we deal with the construction, we deal with all of it, 365 days a year. He said the Islands having to stick together hurts our citizens in Mount Pleasant. As far as the Beckham zoning goes, you have the Long Point issue in play. You have kids that are going to be able to bike to Beckham and he is not on the Transportation Committee but is sure the Town would work to make those bike trails are as safe as possible for Belle Hall (he stated that he does not live in Belle Hall but is relaying concerns that are brought to him). He said those kids should be able to go to Beckham, especially because it is bikeable. He said the buzz is that we are going to stick to the middle school zones and that may not happen and that is problematic. He asked if there is any input on this yet or are they deferring to the Boards on this. Dr. Postlewait said there are three important points; (1) there is currently an appeal in process filed by some of the parents in Belle Hall and that appeal will need to play out. She said she does not know if it will play  Education Committee December 3, 2018 Page 13 of 15 with the Constituent Board and the CCSD Board or if it will play out in the courts. (2) When she was discussing the governance system and the recommendation of every set of advisors that comes in and tells them that the very thing they are talking about is an anachronistic element of our whole governance system and that it should be eliminated or changed significantly, their board has not taken a position on this. She said this is something by law, the Constituent Board for District #2 and the Moultrie Constituent Board, is charged with deciding. (3) She said there are three new elected members to the District 2 Constituent Board who will have to take into consideration all of these elements when they determine the zoning for Beckham High School. She said when they listed one of the big challenges which was the zoning for Beckham High School, the points Mr. Cunnane made are those to which they were referring. Mr. Cunnane stated that the district does not take a position on changing that state law to get rid of those Constituent Boards or to change them in some way. Dr. Postlewait stated that the Board has not yet taken a stand on this. She said the Board usually determines its legislative agenda in December or January. The recommendation from the Clemson study was very strong on changing the governance system with respect to the duties of the Constituent Board and the agency led with that recommendation. The way that the 1968 settlement was entered into as a way to (as she understands it), avoid a federal desegregation order created some unintended consequences that leave many children in many areas of the district without fair representation. Mr. Cunnane stated that his understanding was that some of this was geographic related. He said the rivers have not changed much since 1965 so it is virtually impossible to transport across the whole district because of the geography and because it is also a very long 90-mile county. Dr. Postlewait stated that she does not believe that anyone was recommending bussing. Mr. Cunnane stated that he knows, but that was hot when this case was going on.  Education Committee December 3, 2018 Page 14 of 15 Dr. Postlewait agreed. Mr. Cunnane asked Dr. Postlewait to advise the Town, once CCSD is aware of what their legislative position is going to be on this, as he believes this Education Committee should probably stand behind their citizens and work to do something about that board, because basically, the Isle of Palms has more power than the 86,000 people in Mount Pleasant right now and that is pretty sad. Dr. Postlewait stated that they will communicate the Board’s legislative agenda widely. She believes that what she has heard some of the board members say is that constituent boards can serve a really important role in representing a voice of a community. She said in some other areas of South Carolina where constituent boards may have existed at one time, they exist no longer in the current manner in which they serve in Charleston County. But they are advisory boards that give a voice for a local community in a very large district without having restrictive powers over zoning and discipline issues, as well as which children are allowed to transfer in and out. She said those are their three main responsibilities at this time. She said until 2006, they actually hired and fired all the teachers, so it is a matter of taking a look at what adjustments can be made without eliminating the boards. She believes their board feels that those constituent boards can serve a very important role. Mr. Cunnane stated that he would like to provide some “food for thought”. He used to live in a city of approximately 10,000 million people and the commute and how long it took to get to work, affected how you felt when you were at work. He said it affects your attitude and how you perform. He said for kids, he believes it is the same thing, if not worse. He said if you are making a kid travel 45 minutes in order to accommodate that all the surfers have to stay in school together, it is hurting these kids and he thinks that CCSD should consider it from that angle. He said this Committee recently had the principal of Oceanside Academy here and she mentioned that they chose their school’s start times based on being opposite Wando High School to help with the traffic. He said this was a very simple thing but when you think about it, imagine if we looked at  Education Committee December 3, 2018 Page 15 of 15 Wando or Beckham this way and planned around the traffic patterns to help everyone have a better day. He stated that he believes it would affect the school’s discipline problems, too. He said a kid that takes ten minutes to get to school gets an extra thirty-five minutes of sleep probably. So, it is something to think about. Dr. Postlewait stated that it is much easier when you are planning for 500 rather than 50,000 but it is a great concept. Ms. Whitley thanked members of CCSD for attending and hopes to see them in the next 4 or 5 months to report back. 4. Adjourn There being no further business, the meeting adjourned at 9:31 a.m. Respectfully submitted, Barbara Ashe December 3, 2018