One more mess to correct

The Richland 2 School Board now has one more mess to clean up.

At the November 17, 2020 special-called board meeting Amelia McKie was voted on as the District's representative to the South Carolina School Boards Association. She will serve as the SCSBA's Region 8 (Richland 1 and Richland 2) Director.

The problem?

For McKie to serve on the SCSBA, she must first be a member of the Richland 2 School Board. She is not.

Because she has never taken the oath of office legally, McKie is not a member of the Richland 2 school board. She, like Teresa Holmes, is a trustee-elect (only). So McKie cannot serve on the SCSBA board of directors.

When I addressed this with the SCSBA, the executive director, Scott Price, responded on November 16, 2020 with this message:

"With all due respect, it is not up to you to determine anyone's eligibility for the SCSBA Board of Directors.  Nor is it up to you to determine whether someone is a "bonafide" member of the Richland 2 board of trustees."

McKie (and Holmes) violated state law by taking the oath of office before they filed their Statements of Economic Interests with the South Carolina Ethics Commission. They became eligible to take the oath on December 4, 2018, after they filed their SEIs. They have never done so.

One of these days the Richland 2 School Board is going to have to go back and correct everything that it has done, on and since November 13, 2018, if the vote was by votes of McKie and Holmes. 

This is not a case of "possession is 9/10th of the law." They don't get to claim their seats on the board just because they've kept them warm for two years.