Roll Call Needed

The Richland 2 School Board should change the way it starts meetings and take a roll call by name at the beginning of each meeting.

When the Board Chair calls the meeting to order, the first order of business should be to ask the Secretary to call the roll. The name of each board member should be called, followed by a verbal acknowledgement by that board member. Silence would indicate absence, which should be verbally acknowledged by the Secretary.

If five Board members are present, then the Secretary should inform the Chair that a quorum is present.

Why is this important step omitted by the Richland 2 School Board?

Amelia McKie was absent from the January 7th Special-Called Meeting. Perhaps it didn't matter, because she is not a legal member of the board, having never taken a legally-administered oath of office.

Teresa Holmes falls into the same category, because she too has never taken a legally-administered oath of office.

Five legal board members were present at the January 7th meeting, constituting a quorum. But there have been meetings where one of those five has not been there.

If a board member is attending by telephone, that should be announced at the beginning of the meeting. Then it is imperative that all board members must be able to hear and be heard. Dr. Elkins-Johnson attended by phone recently, and no mention of that was made. She could not be heard throughout the room.

Was she able to hear everything that was said by other members?

It would probably be hard for her to say that she heard everything. She wouldn't know what she didn't hear. Would she?