There will be a briefing on the candidates of the upcoming school board election on October 31 at Kiawah Island River Course ballroom from 5:00 – 6:00 pm.
If you plan to attend, please RSVP to Jim Ramich at jimramich@gmail.com in order to facilitate gate passes on to Kiawah.
The Charleston County School District has major failing school problems.
- 23 of 80 District schools are rated “failing” by the State
- Only 20% of African American third graders are reading at grade level
- Less than 40% of eighth graders are proficient in math.
- This situation has existed for years and the School Board has made little to no progress reforming the failing schools
- Only by focusing the Board on this problem is there a chance for reform
RISE and Coalition for Kids are hosting this event where they will discuss a questionnaire that the candidates responded to.
The two organizations have come together to evaluate the list of candidates for the school board on November 6.
- RISE is an organization of parents, grandparents and other citizens who are affiliated with students who are most affected by the failing schools. There are over 100 RISE Fellows who have recruited several thousand supporters for school reform
- Coalition for Kids is an organization founded by some of the most active people in the school reform movement. It includes Mayors Reilly and Summey, the head of the local NAACP, local heads of major employers, and major education philanthropists such as Ben Navarro (founder of Meeting Street Schools) and Anita Zucker.
- These organizations formed a group to evaluate the school board candidates and unanimously selected a slate of 4 candidates which they are endorsing in the November election
-Submitted by Anthony Willard