The Echo

http://www.islandpacket.com/news/local/story/1019488.html

School chief to refuse bonus, cites tough economic times for district


By KATE CERVE
kcerve@beaufortgazette.com
843-706-8177
Published Saturday, October 31, 2009

Beaufort County schools superintendent Valerie Truesdale announced Saturday she will refuse any bonus the Board of Education might award her this year for boosting student achievement and meeting other goals.

"I just don't think that's appropriate," Truesdale said at the board's annual fall retreat.

She said money is tight during these challenging economic times and it would be unreasonable for her to personally gain from the collective efforts of the district, including its teachers and other instructional leaders.

The board met Saturday to evaluate Truesdale's performance during the 2008-09 school year and determine whether she should receive the annual performance-based bonus listed in her contract. Truesdale received a $17,500 bonus last year.

However, after a three-hour closed session, the board said they would postpone Truesdale's formal evaluation until January, when scores on the state-mandated Palmetto Assessment of State Standards are expected to be available from the S.C. Department of Education.

The new test, which third- through eighth-graders took for the first time last school year, replaces the old Palmetto Achievement Challenge Test. The board's academic goals for Truesdale are tied to student performance on PASS tests.

"I would like to personally commend Dr. Truesdale not only for her contributions, for what she has done throughout the year, but for her willingness to forgo a pay bonus for all she has achieved," said board chairman Fred Washington Jr.

Other topics discussed by the board on Saturday included:

Federal desegregation agreement

Washington said the board is negotiating with the federal Office of Civil Rights regarding the district's 1970 desegregation agreement.

"We'd just like to leave it at that," he said.

The desegregation plan became an issue this summer when OCR ruled the projected racial composition of Riverview Charter School in Beaufort did not comply with the plan and required the school to take several steps to boost minority enrollment.

John Reagle, an attorney with Childs & Halligan in Columbia, spoke to board members about what would be required to terminate the district's agreement with OCR and prove it has eliminated vestiges of prior racism.

The process is extensive, Reagle said, and would require a review of several years of data demonstrating the district has fully complied with the desegregation agreement and that the district's programs operate in a non-discriminatory manner.

"This is a very involved, detailed and time-consuming process, and one which, in our view, would not be successful until a couple of years after Whale Branch High School has been operating and the current requirements of the desegregation agreement relating to Riverview have been complied with," Reagle wrote in a Aug. 13 letter to the district.

Reagle also told board members other constitutional and federal regulations prohibit discrimination against any racial group. The authority of the federal government would exist with -- or without -- the desegregation plan, he said.

The plan is a monitoring document that gives the district flexibility, Reagle said.

"On the practical side, what it allows you to do is have greater latitude to take affirmative actions to integrate your schools," he said.

Attendance zones

The board directed district administration to better distribute students among the four existing high schools and Whale Branch High School, slated to open this fall in Seabrook as an "early college" magnet program.

Bluffton and Beaufort high schools are now overcrowded, while there are empty seats on Hilton Head Island and at Battery Creek high schools.

"If we add up the number of kids and seats, we have more seats than kids, but we just don't have them very balanced right now," board vice chairman Bob Arundell said.

The board asked administrators to consider moving some Bluffton High students to Hilton Head High next fall, either by zoning some students who live in Bluffton to that school or allowing students to voluntarily transfer to Hilton Head.

"If there's an option for voluntary movement instead of mandated, let's try that first," board member Laura Bush said.

The board also asked administrators to consider moving some Bluffton High students to high schools north of the Broad River with available space.

The board voted Friday to establish an attendance area and student body for the Whale Branch Early College High School no later than March 15. Rising seniors in the Whale Branch attendance area would stay at their home school next year, the board decided.

The board directed the district to eliminate overcrowding at Beaufort High when setting attendance zones for Whale Branch High, likely by shifting some Beaufort High students to Battery Creek.

"When opening this new school, with the extra space at Whale Branch, we need to solve that," board member Jim Bequette said