Imagine that. A school board being held accountable! Who could have such an outrageous idea?
Listen to this podcast that features John Pritchett, a consultant who founded Focus on Students PAC. It is on today's email from The Daily Signal, part of The Heritage Foundation.
Richland 2's school board has seven members who oversee administration of an annual budget of over $300,000,000. That's 300 MILLION dollars.
Now go and look at the qualifications, education, management background, financial expertise of the members of the Richland 2 School Board. (That won't take you very long.)
Then you'll realize that school board members don't need to be qualified for the job. They just need to be on the top of the heap on Election Day. Pitiful, right?
Pritchett mentions Critical Race Theory and how it might be a pet project of certain board members. (Is that happening here?) Pritchett talks about the board's not holding their superintendent accountable and how the superintendent is flying around the country giving speeches.
From Baron Davis' 2020 Statement of Economic Interests Report filed March 9, 2020 with the South Carolina Ethics Commission, he picked up a $4,500 fee as a panelist on July 18, 2019 in Philadelphia from ERDI. ERDI is the Education Research and Development Institute. Learn here what the Charlotte Observer had to say about ERDI on October 16, 2019, when its reporter wrote "The Education Research and Development Institute has been in the news for its questionable relationship with school administrators." Be sure to watch the reporter's video about ERDI.
Pritchett speaks about the need for "intentional culture" from a responsible school board to the superintendent to the principals.
In Richland 2 the Board does not direct the superintendent. The majority of the board (the Squad) just lets the superintendent run the show, and one board member has said on several occasions that the board just hires and fires the superintendent; it doesn't manage him. This reveals a complete misunderstanding of the function and responsibility of a school board of trustees.
How can we get more parents and community members involved in Richland 2? I don't mean baking cookies or having PTO room-decorating parties.
Show up at board meetings. Look at your board members. See which ones sit there like lumps and never say a word. Guess which ones never read the Board Packets to know what they are discussing or voting on. Which ones do you think don't deserve to be on the board of a $1,000,000,000 "company"?
These are the ones who deserve the boot in 2022 at the next election! Find some highly qualified people to run for the board - people with financial decision-making experience and with clear vision.
