Thursday, July 23, 2020

More on Holmes' 7/21/20 Attack

Now that the July 21, 2020 school board meeting video has been posted to YouTube, it was possible to listen again to trustee-elect Teresa Holmes' vicious attack on Trustee Lindsay Agostini.

Mrs. Agostini had asked proper, intelligent questions about the proposed policy that was under discussion.

In his defensive response the superintendent had sniped at Mrs. Agostini.

At approximately 1:06:43 on the recording, Holmes jumped in with "Mr. Chaaaiiiiirrrrr."

Then she led off with how she had been sitting there and listening to "this" and she just "had to" say what she was about it say. First of all, she didn't have to say it, but she intended to.

Holmes proceeded down the path of its not being a board member's job to run the day-to-day operation of a school.

She neglected to comprehend that Mrs. Agostini had NOT tried to run the day-to-day operation of a school. Mrs. Agostini had asked for one email that was sent to staff that did not agree with a board decision on certain monies to be spend by the end of the fiscal year, June 30.

Such an inquiry is fully within the scope and duty of a Board Trustee.

But Holmes kept hammering away on something that Mrs. Agostini had not even done, and she said it louder and longer as if that would be sufficient to persuade the public that Mrs. Agostini had acted improperly.

And then Holmes, as had (trustee-elect) McKie at a recent board meeting, tried to lecture Mrs. Agostini on the role of a board member. My guess is that Holmes hasn't even read Board Policy BBA - Board Powers and Duties, where there are 11 topics enumerated as board powers and duties. It's far beyond selecting and retaining a superintendent.

Board Chair Shadd should have cut off Holmes. But he didn't. Why not? Because Holmes is one of the votes that put him into the Chair's seat for this school year. Shadd would do well to put a stop to the long, rambling, defensive statements by the superintendent (just answer the question in as few words as possible) and the back-biting by at least three of the board members toward to the "minority".

Richland 2 voters and taxpayers deserve to have knowledgeable people on the board. If the threshold for board election were "knowledgeable", at least three of them would be left in the dust on the side of the road.


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