CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) – Charleston County School District says it’s already seeing positive changes in its first few months of not having a constituent board.
The school district joined the rest of the country this past April after several people raised concerns about the fairness of disciplinary action.
“Everybody’s up to speed with what the laws are, and so you’re not going to see policy violations, violations of the law and violations of due process rights. So, at the end of the day, the value to the community is a peace of mind that your child is getting a fair shake,” Charleston County School District Board of Trustees Member for District Seven and Chairwoman of Finance and Audit Leah Whatley said.
Although it’s early in the school year, school district officials say with this new change, they’ve already seen improvement in attendance, efficiency and consistency in disciplinary action and even saving district money.
“Everything is now much more expedited. You’re not having children waiting on their trial basically with no due process,” Whatley said.
With this faster system, the district processed 58 incidents in three weeks regarding discipline referrals. Without the constituent board, they saved 600,000 dollars a year, half of that going to general funds, with the other half funding the new hearing panels.
“So by us switching now, we’re going to have continuity with the decision-making with hiring the panel and everything. So it’s going to be streamlined,” Whatley said.
Dr. Shavonna Coakley, Charleston County School District Associate Superintendent of School Support, said the absence of the constituent board does not necessarily mean there’s an absence in community voice if they have concerns.
“What we are more focused on is to talk about the CCSD discipline hearing process as safe and orderly school environments, but also making sure that our schools have a climate that’s conducive for learning,” Coakley said.
She said in order to create that environment, they needed to make sure kids were still in school learning in an appropriate manner for the students’ sake and the parents’ sake. So when it was out with old and in with the new, they formed two hearing panels made up of a certified administrator, a classified administrator and also a community member.
All are able to provide three different perspectives with their expertise. The certified administrator is one who has experience in education, the classified administrator is one who has experience in mental health and social services, and the community member provides perspective as someone who lives in the community day in and day out.
“All of the members have gone to the State Department training to receive discipline hearing training for this school year. And two members, myself and another individual within my office, have actually had the hot topic and school law training over the last three weeks to make sure that we are really ready and prepared to support,” Coakley said.
District officials say they are eager to see more accurate data towards the end of the quarter to compare to last year’s numbers.