The following open letter was emailed to Trustees Agostini, Scott and McFadden yesterday.
When there is a call for approval of the Consent Agenda at the September 28 board meeting, will you please make a motion for Item 6.2 to be removed from the Consent Agenda, to be discussed and voted on separately? If a second is needed, will another of you please provide it?
There is a major error in the Minutes for the 9/22/21 Board meeting. The Minutes include "Call to Order".
As you will see on the livestream recording (Part 1 begins at 14.33) maskless Teresa Holmes never called the meeting to order. Holmes was distracted by giggling and didn't even have her laptop open to the agenda for the meeting. She just started reading a statement. That entire statement was unnecessary. I believe you should find out who wrote that statement for Holmes to read. Then the board went into executive session (18:10).
The Minutes need to be corrected. If Holmes refuses or the board denies, please call a Point-of-Order, so that the failure to call the meeting to order can be discussed in public.
By failing to call the meeting to order, it became illegal for the board to enter executive session. The board violated the South Carolina Freedom of Information Act by going into executive session. They cannot do so except in a formal meeting. And there was none.
It could be that the entire meeting, including approval of the superintendent's proposed revised contract, was illegal, since the meeting was not properly called to order.
The board desperately needs an in-depth FOIA training on open meetings and executive sessions. The board made an illegal decision in executive session on August 16, when it agreed on action to be taken if Manning's Motion about engaging legal counsel (getting advice) passed.
Sincerely,
Gus Philpott
