MidKnight Gallery

Well, the new bridge over the Cooper between Mount Pleasant and downtown Charleston is finally opening up today. Hopefully this does a little bit to relieve congestion getting in and out of the downtown. I’m not sure how much of a help it will be while still primarily dumping three lanes into a two-lane rt. 17, but there will also be offramps for Coleman blvd, and other major routes. That and having three lanes means a stalled car or accident won’t bring everything to quite such a screeching halt (followed by more accidents).

The fireworks show two nights ago was impressive, even for a pretty jaded fireworks observer like me. The view was wonderful from our vantage near the Mt. Pleasant side of the old bridges, and the radio was turned up so we got to hear Neil Diamond’s Coming to America segue into the 1812 Overture and Stars and Stripes Forever. The waterfall shower of sparks over the side and launches off of the bridge platform proper were a beautiful touch. Stations as far away as Deland (near Daytona) FL carried at least some coverage of the fireworks show.

It’s an impressive and beautiful bridge, especially all lit up. You can see if from miles away (such as on the Isle of Palms Connector). I’ve been up and down the east coast and not seen anything quite like it.

Just wish they’d put it up earlier. We’ve been needing it for a while.

… and I want to post a big set of kudos to my youngest daughter’s teacher. We’ve had our differences, I caught her out in a mistake or two, and yes, she harps on about private schools not having to meet state standards, but all in all she has done an utterly fantastic job of getting knowledge and a love of learning into my little girls’ head.

Bravo.

My wife may have something to say about the whole concept of multi-age classrooms. We’ll go into more detail later, but the long and the short is that, like all things, it has its own set of weaknesses. nevertheless, in the hands of the right teacher, it really allows for the flexibility to teach at the child’s level while still having minimum standards and accountability for advancement.

I know, I know, “minimum standards” and South Carolina schools is sort of redundant.

Nevertheless, color me impressed.

By now, almost every parent in Charleston County has heard that the school schedule for the upcoming year is getting pushed back. While there has been some protest that this wouldn’t allow adequate time to prepare for standardised tests, I think what really floored everybody was the nearly complete and utter lack of warning. We, the parents, were apparently notified of this a mere four months before school starts.

This might not sound so bad, but keep in mind, the parents were not the only one’s caught by surprise. Among other organizations left going “hunh?” were the county recreation department, the various day-care centers, the PTA, and the after-school care program run at the schools themselves. All of these groups have already set up and published schedules for the upcoming year, planned around what they thought was the published school schedule.

Several of the school board members were on the 1250AM afternoon talk show, and my wife called in to ask about this, because one of our concerns is that, as two working parents, we suddenly have a two-week period where full-day, summer-style day care for school-age children is currently, flat-out unavailable. While I’m sure we’ll figure something out, it just struck us as very poor prior planning.

The response we got back was that this had been voted on a year ago and everybody should have known about it.

My first thought was that if it had been decided a year ago, it was obvious that nobody else had been informed. So we did some research. From my wife’s letter back to the radio station:

I’m so glad I had a chance to call in and “ax” my question to the Chas. Co. School Board members today. I grew up in So. Florida and schools in Miami (or Me-ah-me) didn’t start until after Labor Day, so I support the later start date, but not on such short notice! What’s so upsetting is that the school board didn’t give any consideration to the local community summer programs through churches, rec departments, etc. who’ve already planned their summer programs. Add to that an additional $800 childcare care expense not budgeted for this year for a dual income family with 3 school age children!

I checked the CCSD website’s board meeting minutes and found no mention of the proposed calendar change that Sandi Engelman said was communicated last year. I did find a P&C report published on 2/11/04 about the school calendars being set for next three years:

The Charleston County School Board has approved calendars for the next three school years. Under the calendar for the 2004-05 school year, classes would start Aug. 9. Winter break would begin Dec. 20, with students returning Jan. 5. Spring break would last from March 25 through April 1. The following years, school would start on Aug. 8, 2005, and Aug. 7, 2006. [sic] Teachers would have four workdays each year before the students start school. This is the first time Charleston County has approved school calendars for three years at once. [emphasis mine]

The link to the Post and Courier article is here .

So far it simply looks like a debatable move to a schedule that I personally thiink is perfectly fine. It won’t change the number of teaching days in the year. On the other hand, the execution of this change has been executed with the typical total lack of brilliance I’ve begun to associate with the local school board.