Shortest board meeting ever? 9/24/21

The September 24th Special-Called board meeting was called to order at 5:30PM and adjourned 16b minutes later.

The video-recording of the meeting (www.livestream.com/richland2) starts at 09:17. Holmes raps the gavel 5-6 times. One rap would have been sufficient. It's not like she had to silence a roomful of people talking and laughing. She calls the meeting to order.No roll call is taken, but one can see that Holmes, McKie, Caution-Parker, Manning and McFadden are present. Agostini and Scott are not present. Holmes does not announce that a quorum is present. They go into executive session.

When the board re-convenedin public session, the music over-ride wasn't canceled, and there was some type of recording glitch.

Then normal recording resumes.

The board then approved the agenda and the consent agenda. Then the board handled the important business of the evening.

Student Appeals 

Students 1-3 to Blythewood Academy for 90 days

Student 4 to Blythewood Academy (45 days) with LRADAC

Vote 5-0  (The correct vote is 5-0-0-2)

Admit Students 1-4 to the Adult Education Program

Vote 5-0 (The correct vote is 5-0-0-2)

Adjourn at 5:46PM

Now, about what could possibly go wrong in a short meeting.

Note how short the executive session had to be for careful consideration of the appeals of four students. In the past, the trustees have not voted unanimously on the recommendation of the superintendent. Now we can see that the absence of Agostini and Scott substantially shortened any discussion of the appeals. Did any of the students and parents show up? If they had only two days' notice, was that fair to them? And holding a meeting involving student appeals late on a Friday and at 5:30PM, when many working parents are still on the way home? Bad decision by the board!

And, most importantly, there was NOT a legal quorum present tonight. Who attended? Holmes, McKie, Caution-Parker, Manning and McFadden. Five.

BUT Holmes and McKie are not legitimate members of the board. Neither has ever legally taken the oath of office. They did take an oath, but that was three weeks before they were eligible to do so. They took the oath on November 13, 2018, but they did not become eligible to take the oath until December 4, 2018. Neither has taken the oath since November 13, 2018, according to the District.

So there were THREE legal board members there tonight, not Five. No quorum. And no quorum means  no meeting and no voting.