Mount Pleasant Magazine Jan/Feb 2015

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“I don’t know what was in the
agreement Dr. McGinley made with
the previous board,” Darby explained.
“But I was looking forward to work-
ing with her, and I would be open to
a discussion about her returning.”
Staubes, who indicated that a
new superintendent would be in
place sometime in 2015, said “no
doors are shut” concerning Mc-
Ginley’s future with the Charleston
County School District.
What criteria will the new board
use to choose a new leader for the
district? Staubes and Darby both
said the next superintendent should
be a strong leader; a team builder;
have an education background but
be business-minded; know how to
delegate; be a strong communicator;
and be a visionary who understands
what’s unique about the Charleston
area. They are confident that a person
with these qualities exists, either in
the Lowcountry or somewhere else
around the United States.
Meanwhile, Staubes, Darby and
seven other school board members
are working on providing more room
to serve the educational needs of a
district that is growing by approxi-
mately 1,500 students a year. Staubes
is concerned that some students must
eat lunch as early as 10:30 a.m., while
others are attending class in tempo-
rary trailers. Plans are already under-
way to build a new East Cooper high
school at the site of the old Wando
High School. Serious work can’t be-
gin, however, until Laing Middle and
Jennie Moore Elementary students
move out of the old Wando build-
ing and into their new, permanent
home when the school year begins in
August 2015.
In addition, a new elementary
school will be built in Carolina Park
in north Mount Pleasant.
A permanent superintendent
and new schools are the board’s top
priorities, but re-establishing the
public’s trust in the board also is
vitally important, according to the
two new representatives from East
of the Cooper.
“What we hear is distrust of the
school district,” Darby said. “The
board needs to communicate better
with parents, the community and
teachers. For example, some people
don’t know how to apply to a magnet
school. We need to make it easy and
accessible to do that.”
“I’m not going to agree on every-
thing with everyone on the board,”
she went on to say. “But we will hear
each other out and be civil.”
“We need to start the healing
process,” Staubes concluded.
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