Let’s hope that after putting three reporters on the case, the Uptown paper of record has convinced itself — and the community — that allegations that Myers Park High School had a system to root out and remove weak students from the school have very little, if any, substance to them.
As we said from the beginning it was hard to tell if former Principal Bill Anderson had a problem with some students or some guidance counselors at the school. The claim advanced by Anderson’s critics, although rarely out loud, was that he somehow profited from removing weak students the school.
With that context it is possible to make sense out of these grafs which pop up in the middle of the Observer’s report without much context at all:
Dropouts rates are a small part of the formula used to determine the raises principals receive from CMS and whether they get state bonuses, up to $1,500.
In 2003-04, Anderson, whose salary at the time was more than $118,000, received a CMS bonus of $400. The next year, he received a $750 bonus from the state. During his three years at Myers Park, he got raises of less than 2.6 percent — never more than $3,100, CMS says.
In other words, Bill Anderson did not get rich by sending weak students packing.
The real scandal is that, one, CMS record keeping, especially for enrollment at high schools, is so shoddy. And, two, that CMS is still paying a lawyer to investigate this matter with dollars that could be used to help children who want to learn.
