At the December 14, 2021 school board meeting, Mrs. McFadden related that she has been "ex-communicated" from speaking with the superintendent, was under an "order of confidentiality" and wondered whether she ought to be consulting with an attorney. You can heard her comments on the livestream.com/richland2 recording, beginning at 4:43:35 on the timer.
How does a superintendent get away with severing a professional, business relationship with an elected and legal member of the board?
What does "ex-coimmunicated" mean in this context?
Does it mean that she cannot speak to him? Or that he will not speak to her? Just how would the superintendent keep her from speaking to him?
For the record, Mrs. McFadden has not spoken to me about difficulties with the superintendent. If she has to get an attorney, the District should absolutely be on the hook for the bill. That will require the Board's approval. What will the Core Four* decide, if a Motion is made to pay her legal expenses?
Mrs. McFadden has identified a serious problem for the School Board. The superintendent apparently wants every request for information filtered through him. Will all Trustees be afraid to perform their fiduciary duties?
Recently, the superintendent got the Board (well, the majority, anyway) to go along with a request from him to deny board member requests that he considered unreasonable. If, in his opinion, staff will have to spend too much time answering such a request, then the superintendent can nix it and say he will only respond if the request comes from the full board.
We all know what happens when a member of the minority on the board makes a Motion. The seven board members (five legal members and two illegitimate members) seldom agree.
A good solution will be for voters to replace the Core Four in the November 8, 2022 election. Bring in smart, educated, business-oriented people who understand they are running a business. The business is education. Board members need to be, first, good business people, not educators.
Watch carefully what happens over the last six months of this school year. The next election of Board Officers will be June 28, 2022. Begin lobbying the board to elect as officers (Chair, Vice-Chair, Secretary) only trustees who are legal board members and who have the ability to run meetings professionally, smoothly, politely, and quickly.
* The Core Four are Trustees Manning and Caution-Parker and trustees-elect Holmes and McKie.
