Wednesday, January 4, 2023

Leevy Johnson and Manning - both wrong.

Yesterday Chris Leevy Johnson, preacher at Brookland Baptist Church Northeast and Baron Davis' preacher, posted this while at R2i2:

"There is a Special Call [sic] Meeting this Thursday at Richland County School District Two (no time has been posted yet) Please spread the word and we need the community to come out to support Dr. Davis and remind the board of the phenomenal job he is doing!"

What Johnson fails to realize is that it doesn't matter one whit whether his tribe shows up to cheer for the superintendent tomorrow night. All they'll get to do is sit on their hands and observe. If they cheer or clap when Davis' name is mentioned, they'll be escorted out of the meeting.

The chair may need to caution the audience to keep quiet, or a board member may need to make a motion for order in the peanut gallery.

Today, about 1:30PM, former board chair James Manning posted this comment to Johnson's message. (Manning has two Facebook pages. The one with 183 Friends shows that he "works at Richland School District Two". Seriously?)

"Don’t let the board make decisions in a vacuum. Show up to ensure they have to look you in the face when making decisions. There is a good chance they will fire the superintendent at this meeting. [emphasis added.] This is based on previous examples of school districts having done this same thing post elections. They want a weak leader who will do their bidding. Not be a true leader."

Read it again. And then again.

The board is not going to care who is sitting in the audience.. It will make decisions based on information and facts, not on glares and stares from Baron's buddies.

Will they fire Baron Davis tomorrow night? Not a chance. There are 360,000 reasons that will not happen tomorrow night. That's the really sweet severance package that Manning and his cohorts in the board majority gave Baron Davis when they renewed his contract (was it in 2021?).

What the board may do is remind Baron that he is am employee of the District. If he does his job well, he'll keep his job. 

The board wants, and will insist on, a strong leader. Remember - Baron is the guy who was running the District when the Inspector General investigated. If Baron had been doing a "phenomenal" job, there wouldn't have been any I.G. investigation.

Put that in your pipe and smoke it, Chris. 

Baron is going to find out that he is accountable to the board. He no longer will be allowed to control the board. Those days ended on November 21.

The board tells Baron what to do. His job is to do it. He plays a high-risk game to defy the board.