Residents offer feedback

Downtown residents brought a host of concerns coupled with their support to Charleston school leaders during a town hall meeting Tuesday night.

Some of the school district's toughest critics and most- challenged schools are on the peninsula, but it seemed that most of the approximately 50 residents who gathered at Burke High were supporters of the district.

They asked questions about efforts to educate parents and the recruitment of quality teachers, and they offered suggestions on ways to build consensus around a tax increase.

Schools Superintendent Nancy McGinley has been meeting with residents in each of the county's eight constituent districts since late September to tell them about school-based and district-wide initiatives, as well as hear their feedback.

Each downtown principal gave a brief overview about what was happening at their schools, and McGinley highlighted the district's emphasis on literacy and her vision of creating more choices within each area of the county.

Officials spent the last 45 minutes of the two-hour meeting fielding questions and listening to residents.

Edwina Gadsden, a Burke High alumna and retired educator, said she was glad to hear about the new Advanced Placement Academy being offered at Burke High, and she asked whether administrators were going to elementary and middle school students to tell them about it and encourage them to come to the school.

"I know our enrollment is not what it should be," she said.

Gadsden said after the meeting that she came because she wanted to learn more about the status of schools downtown and across the district. She wished that more people, parents in particular, would have come to Tuesday's meeting because they need to know what's going on in their schools, she said.

David Mack Jr., a former associate superintendent and teacher in Charleston, told the crowd that the district needed to define its problems, be strong despite the criticism of some school board members, and work to solve its issues.

He said he's disappointed in what he's seen happen in the district through the years, but that the blame could be spread among parents, students and the community.

He wants to see higher expectations and tougher assignments for students, and he asked parents to get behind teachers, principals and the superintendent.