Dr. Elsberry’s unprofessional conduct has significant ramifications for every professional educator in Horry County Schools. The Horry County Board of Education and the South Carolina State Department of Education should recognize that no one who holds a professional certificate in the state of South Carolina should be treated differently because of rank or position.
A teacher, guidance counselor, librarian, assistant principal, principal, district level administrator, and superintendent, for examples, are all charged with acting professionally and competently. Everyone makes mistakes. No one is perfect. However, a serious lapse in judgment, which has major implications, cannot simply be dismissed. It must be dealt with as a professional, not a personal, matter. That is why there are numerous reasons one can lose his professional certificate, two being “unprofessional conduct” and “incompetence.” I have publicly alleged “unprofessional conduct” and possible “incompetence” against our superintendent.
Although Dr. Elsberry has many admirable, personal qualities and has garnered praise and accolades for our district’s accomplishments, the ends never justify the means. It is not so much about whether “you win or lose but how you play the game.”
Dr. Elsberry was highly unprofessional in how she involved professional educators in the support of our Race to the Top – District grant application for the FY 2013 competition. Teachers were pressured to support something she wanted, without sufficient time to consider our grant proposal. This did not happen in isolation, to one teacher, as was the case last year, when Dr. Elsberry questioned my professionalism in an email to the board and news media.
Although I was right, in violation of no policy or law, her questioning my use of my planning time as unprofessional to inappropriate audiences, was an action against me. In simply trying to sign up to speak at a board meeting on behalf of my students and their welfare, Dr. Elsberry said that I should have been planning lessons for my students. She obviously was unaware of policy, law, and court rulings on teachers’ first amendment rights, especially during their professional day.
(Please note that I am composing this professional email during my planning time.)
I could have pursued this matter as “unprofessional conduct,” but I chose not to, realizing that good people can make mistakes, and since it was an action only against me. I had originally only demanded an apology, something I believe I deserved but never received, but then decided to drop that demand as an impractical expectation.
However, the current issue is not just about me. If a superintendent can get away with this kind of behavior and still hold a certificate in the state of South Carolina, it has major implications for all of us. The power and influence he or she could assert would reach dictatorial levels.
In addition, in its unwavering support of Dr. Elsberry, despite all of the evidence of improper treatment and involvement of professional educators in the development and support of our grant application which it received, before our application was submitted to Washington, the Horry County Board of Education cannot be counted on to ask for Dr. Elsberry’s dismissal. Its conduct in this matter becomes quite suspect.
Voters cannot simply wait around to elect a new board, as some have suggested, to see justice done. This would be time consuming and an impediment to justice. Therefore, my public appeals must go beyond the Horry County Board of Education to the Office of General Counsel at the South Carolina Department of Education and the Office of Inspector General at the US Department of Education in Washington, the former to consider my charges against the superintendent for “unprofessional conduct” and possible “incompetence,” and the latter to determine my charges against both the superintendent and the board for fraudulent behavior.
Both the superintendent and the board must be held accountable now.
The South Carolina State Department of Education should act immediately to have Dr. Elsberry’s professional certificate revoked.
This matter is independent of my public charge that the superintendent and board fraudulently submitted our Race to the Top grant application. A determination of innocence or guilt by the appropriate authorities in this matter has absolutely nothing to do with whether or not Dr. Elsberry has demonstrated unprofessional conduct.
Even if the superintendent and board had accepted my plea and did not submit our grant application, no crime having been committed, Dr. Elsberry’s conduct should be seen as unprofessional.
“Incompetence” is plausible, for it would seem that Dr. Elsberry should have known better, especially if she understood the requirements of the application and the Executive Summary document. If she did not understand or was not familiar with the requirements, that would definitely be a question of “incompetence.” If she did understand them, that would be a matter of deliberate subjugation of professional educators. That would not be incompetence, as much as outright chicanery.
No teacher should ever have to be put into the position of quickly certifying his educational beliefs and support for anything. The vast majority of teachers in Horry County Schools had no idea about the content of our grant application, were not given anywhere close to sufficient time to consider what they were doing, and then were urged to sign a document because the superintendent said it would help them with what they were doing in the classroom (You Tube video – Sept. 12, 2013).
If a teacher can easily be dismissed for grade changes, crossing the line on the administration of standardized testing, and/or making improper judgments about what he considers to be in the best interest of his students, all examples of legitimate reasons for loss of a professional certificate, why should not a superintendent be dismissed for something which has similar, if not larger, implications?
No one is above the law, and a strong message needs to be made in Horry County Schools for the sake of students, teachers, parents, and our various communities, not to mention in our state and nation.
A teacher, guidance counselor, librarian, assistant principal, principal, district level administrator, and superintendent, for examples, are all charged with acting professionally and competently. Everyone makes mistakes. No one is perfect. However, a serious lapse in judgment, which has major implications, cannot simply be dismissed. It must be dealt with as a professional, not a personal, matter. That is why there are numerous reasons one can lose his professional certificate, two being “unprofessional conduct” and “incompetence.” I have publicly alleged “unprofessional conduct” and possible “incompetence” against our superintendent.
Although Dr. Elsberry has many admirable, personal qualities and has garnered praise and accolades for our district’s accomplishments, the ends never justify the means. It is not so much about whether “you win or lose but how you play the game.”
Dr. Elsberry was highly unprofessional in how she involved professional educators in the support of our Race to the Top – District grant application for the FY 2013 competition. Teachers were pressured to support something she wanted, without sufficient time to consider our grant proposal. This did not happen in isolation, to one teacher, as was the case last year, when Dr. Elsberry questioned my professionalism in an email to the board and news media.
Although I was right, in violation of no policy or law, her questioning my use of my planning time as unprofessional to inappropriate audiences, was an action against me. In simply trying to sign up to speak at a board meeting on behalf of my students and their welfare, Dr. Elsberry said that I should have been planning lessons for my students. She obviously was unaware of policy, law, and court rulings on teachers’ first amendment rights, especially during their professional day.
(Please note that I am composing this professional email during my planning time.)
I could have pursued this matter as “unprofessional conduct,” but I chose not to, realizing that good people can make mistakes, and since it was an action only against me. I had originally only demanded an apology, something I believe I deserved but never received, but then decided to drop that demand as an impractical expectation.
However, the current issue is not just about me. If a superintendent can get away with this kind of behavior and still hold a certificate in the state of South Carolina, it has major implications for all of us. The power and influence he or she could assert would reach dictatorial levels.
In addition, in its unwavering support of Dr. Elsberry, despite all of the evidence of improper treatment and involvement of professional educators in the development and support of our grant application which it received, before our application was submitted to Washington, the Horry County Board of Education cannot be counted on to ask for Dr. Elsberry’s dismissal. Its conduct in this matter becomes quite suspect.
Voters cannot simply wait around to elect a new board, as some have suggested, to see justice done. This would be time consuming and an impediment to justice. Therefore, my public appeals must go beyond the Horry County Board of Education to the Office of General Counsel at the South Carolina Department of Education and the Office of Inspector General at the US Department of Education in Washington, the former to consider my charges against the superintendent for “unprofessional conduct” and possible “incompetence,” and the latter to determine my charges against both the superintendent and the board for fraudulent behavior.
Both the superintendent and the board must be held accountable now.
The South Carolina State Department of Education should act immediately to have Dr. Elsberry’s professional certificate revoked.
This matter is independent of my public charge that the superintendent and board fraudulently submitted our Race to the Top grant application. A determination of innocence or guilt by the appropriate authorities in this matter has absolutely nothing to do with whether or not Dr. Elsberry has demonstrated unprofessional conduct.
Even if the superintendent and board had accepted my plea and did not submit our grant application, no crime having been committed, Dr. Elsberry’s conduct should be seen as unprofessional.
“Incompetence” is plausible, for it would seem that Dr. Elsberry should have known better, especially if she understood the requirements of the application and the Executive Summary document. If she did not understand or was not familiar with the requirements, that would definitely be a question of “incompetence.” If she did understand them, that would be a matter of deliberate subjugation of professional educators. That would not be incompetence, as much as outright chicanery.
No teacher should ever have to be put into the position of quickly certifying his educational beliefs and support for anything. The vast majority of teachers in Horry County Schools had no idea about the content of our grant application, were not given anywhere close to sufficient time to consider what they were doing, and then were urged to sign a document because the superintendent said it would help them with what they were doing in the classroom (You Tube video – Sept. 12, 2013).
If a teacher can easily be dismissed for grade changes, crossing the line on the administration of standardized testing, and/or making improper judgments about what he considers to be in the best interest of his students, all examples of legitimate reasons for loss of a professional certificate, why should not a superintendent be dismissed for something which has similar, if not larger, implications?
No one is above the law, and a strong message needs to be made in Horry County Schools for the sake of students, teachers, parents, and our various communities, not to mention in our state and nation.
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