George Floyd - hero? martyr? Really?

The world is going crazy right now over George Floyd's death. Riots, arson, assaults, batteries, mobs, killings, violent protests. And, yes, even a few peaceful demonstrations.

Why am I posting this video? Because Richland 2 school district has a very high percentage of black students and liberal viewpoints.

Watch this video. Candace Owens gets it right.

News is reporting that $13,000,000 has been raised - so far - in a GoFundMe account for George Floyd. Seriously?

I wonder how much has been raised for Capt. David Dorn in St. Louis. Oh, you don't recognize that name? Click on the link.

As this year's graduates of Richland 2 high schools set off into the world, what good will they do? Will they try to correct the damage that has been done by the "George Floyd Movement"? Can Richland County become the epicenter for sanity and spread out to create good and dispel the violence and separation being spewed by the mouthpieces in front of the cameras at Floyd's ceremony?

Public Still Not Informed

On March 31 the Richland 2 School Board voted to suspend Board Policy BEDH until April 30. This policy is the "Public Participation at Meetings" policy. It explains how the public can comment at board meetings and it also provides the mechanicism by which the public can request an item or issue be placed on the agenda for a board meeting.

Where can you find Policy BEDH?

Go to www.Richland2.org
At the top right click on EXPLORE
Click on School Board
Click on BOARD POLICIES
On the left side, click on B - SCHOOL BOARD GOVERNANCE AND OPERATIONS
Scroll down to Policy BEDH - PUBLIC PARTICIPATION AT MEETINGS

When BEDH was suspended temporarily on March 31, you the Public lost your voice. No longer would you be able to attend Board meetings and address the board for three minutes. No longer could you present topics to be placed on the agenda for a board meeting; subject to the consent of the Board Chair and the superintendent, of course.

The temporary suspension of BEDH ended April 30, 2020.

Then, on May 12 the Board decided to suspend BEDH - period. Indefinitely. Permanently. Forever. Unless, of course, it comes to its senses and restores it, or the Public files a legal action against the Board and demands it.

But the District has never properly informed the public. If you go to the Board Policies right now, you will see nothing that indicates that BEDH has been suspended.

Why not?

Is this a failure of transparency?

Could it be that the parents of 28,000 students would object?

Could it be that thousands of voters, including Amelia McKie's "26,000" who voted for her (as she so proudly stated at a past meeting) would rise up and say, "JUST YOU WAIT ONE DAMNED MINUTE!"

I can't do this alone, folks. If you care about Richland School District Two, you have to start paying attention and acting by getting involved.

One way you can do this is to contact the District AND make a comment below that you have done so. Otherwise, your communication will just be swallowed up in that grand edifice at 763 Fashion Drive, never to see the light of day.

May 26, 2020 Regular Meeting - Ombudsman Report

"Public session starts at 5 p.m." This appeared on the holding page for today's Livestream meeting.

No, actually it doesn't. The public session began at 4:30PM, and the board quickly moved into executive session. The public session re-convened at 5:00PM.

Is there any reason that District Two cannot be accurate and correct about this?

When the meeting resumed at 5:00PM, there was a significant audio problem, and the first seven minutes were unintelligible. There was an audio loop that caused words to be repeated after 1-2 seconds, and this continued to 5:07PM.

The District should provide a call-in number to a staff member, for reports of technical difficulties.

A major item on the agenda tonight was a report by the District's Ombudsman, Kelli Johnson. She had prepared a PowerPoint presentation, and she read it to the board. She. Read. It. The presentation was/is attached to the Agenda, and you can read it yourself. Why would the superintendent not coach her to speak to the board while showing them her presentation?

As she went through her pages, I kept thinking, "This is not the role of an ombudsman." If you have been in a large business, you may know the function of an ombudsman. It's not a 4-1-1 operator. Obviously, the superintendent defined Kelli's job, and she'll do it exactly the way he says. And she won't make any waves.

That could be why she merely read her presentation tonight and was not prepared to answer the most basic questions from the board.

How does Wikipedia define Ombudsman? "An ombudsman, ombudsperson, ombud, or public advocate is an official who is charged with representing the interests of the public by investigating and addressing complaints of mal-administration or a violation of rights."

This is definitely not what the District's ombudsman does. It's a feel-good position, designed to do nothing more than listen to people so they'll calm down.

Can you imagine if I contacted Kelli and attempted to discuss the ethical problems on the Board and sought resolution? Kelli would probably lose her job, if she even allowed me in her office, so I won't call her.

She should have shown up tonight with some hard numbers and a couple of pie charts. Instead, she was empty-handed, and a board member had to ask for detailed information. Dr. Elkins-Johnson's request was put forward. I wonder when we'll find out whether the superintendent responded. Will the resopnse be provided to the public at a board meeting? Will the public ever hear the naswer to Dr. Elkins' request?

Then the superintendent gave a COVID-19 update. At the beginning he said that nothing much had changed. And 15 minutes later ...  well, he did say, in answer to one board member's question, that he does not know of even one COVID-19 diagnosis of an employee or student.

So, out of 28,000 students and 3,000+ employees, not even one.

And yet, Richland Two is shut down. How many members of the public attended tonight's meeting? The LIVE counter at the upper left of the screen held steady at "2". So, one other member of the public and I were there. Are there any community members, or even employees, who care?

Misleading countdown timer, 5/26/20

The Richland School District Two Regular Meeting of the school board was supposed to start at 4:30PM. At 4:25PM a countdown timer showed that the meeting would begin in 0 hours 18 min 45 sec. (or at about 4:43PM). Now that might cause some to go away and come back at 4:43PM.

But, surprise! The meeting started on time at 4:30PM. Mr. Manning convened the open meeting and called for a motion to go into Executive Session. Somebody began speaking, and I think somebody started talking over her. There was an audio loop that caused spoken words to be played a second time.

Somebody ought to tell the board members that, when the Chair calls for a motion, the correct response is to ask to recognized. You don't just start  talking - especially when everyone is attending remotely. After each meeting I have written to the board to suggest that they get a Zoom professional consultant to train them how to conduct an electronic meeting properly. Or maybe the superintendent could recommend to the Chair that they do that.

Teresa Holmes had a big smile on her face. Was that her dog that was barking? Again? That same Zoom consultant would have some direct words for her about putting her dog where its bark won't be heard or hiring someone to take it for a walk or even just using her Mute button to silence extraneous noises. It's definitely not cute.

Or was it someone else's dog? The same dog has barked in at least two previous meetings.

Here's the timer at 4:44PM. I caught it just before it vanished.

Next Board Meeting - 5/26/2020

The agenda for the May 26, 2020 Board meeting has been published. The Board will convene at 4:30PM, adjourn to Executive Session, and re-convene in open session at 5:00PM. The meeting will be electronic via Zoom (Livestream?).

[EDIT: At 6:30PM the District emailed a "correction" of time (which it wasn't) and the link for Tuesday's meeting. http://www.richland2.org/livestream ]

The Board again violates the South Carolina FOIA laws by failing to provide a link to the electronic meeting. The meeting is not available to the public on Zoom, as the agenda states. The meeting will probably be shown via Livestream, although that information is not on the District's website as of 4:25PM today, Friday, May 22.

The video on May 19, 2020 Special-Called Board Meeting is on YouTube but NOT yet on District website.

When the Chair called for a Motion to approve the agenda of the May 19th meeting, Teresa Holmes said, "I would like to make a Motion ..."

The correct response from the Chair would have been, "Thank you. I understand that you would like to make the Motion. Please make the Motion."

And when the Chair called for a voice vote, why did some trustees raise their hands? (Hint: they weren't listening.) In a Zoom meeting, the correct call would be for a hand vote, which is visible to and by all. If several participants signify their votes simultaneously by voice, the Chair will not really know who is voting.

There was a significant audio glitch at the beginning of the meeting, when a recorded loop of voices played during the meeting. The sound technician was called to correct it. Also, just before the start of the meeting, a woman's voice could be heard giving a countdown to the start of the meeting.

Is District Two going to figure out how to conduct a Zoom meeting professionally?

When will McKie pay?

Amelia McKie owes $51,750 to the South Carolina Ethics Commission.

A judgment was filed with the Richland County Common Pleas Court on July 10, 2019, and the S.C. Department of Revenue (DOR) should be collecting it. But is the DOR really doing anything? In ten months the only entries of record at the Court are on July 10, 2019. Nothing since!

Combine that with her failure to take the oath of office as Trustee after she became eligible to do so on December 4, 2018.

She did take an oath of office on November 13, 2018, but there were two reasons why that oath was not valid. McKie had not filed her Statement of Economic Interests Report with the S.C. Ethics Commission and one week had not passed after the Richland County Elections Commission certified the November 6, 2018 election. The election was certified on November 9, 2018, and this meant that the earliest date when McKie could take the oath of office, if she were eligible (which she was not) would have been November 16, 2018.

I wonder why the other Trustees don't have a little "sit-down" with her and tell her get her act together or resign from the School Board. McKie has been eligible to take the oath of office since December 4, 2018 but has not done so.

How can Richland School District Two have a premier school board with a person having these two problems?

McKie is not the only person on the board illegitimately.

When McKie and Teresa Holmes finally do take the oath of office, the School District will have to review all the board votes since November 13, 2018 and change all the decisions in which the votes by McKie and Holmes swayed the decision. There are many of them.

Rescind Suspension of BEDH - You can help

The Richland 2 School Board has received at least one request to rescind its suspension of Board Policy BEDH.

The request was submitted to the entire board, asking a board member to make a motion at a meeting to add an item to the next agenda for discussion and vote to rescind the suspension. (The public lost its privilege to request agenda items on May 12, 2020.)

It will be interesting to learn what the Board's response is to the request and whether it will acknowledge the request at all..

Do YOU believe the public should be able to speak at Board meetings, as it has for years?

If so, email the Board now. To make your voice heard more loudly, send a bcc to gusphilpott@gmail.com

No public mention will be made of your name. There will be no attribution, but the public will be able to know of the number of requests made. A FOIA request may be made to the District in the future for the number of requests received.

Send your request to the entire board. To ease the pain of finding all their email addresses, here they are:

jamesmanning@richland2.org, lindsayagostini@richland2.org, cherylcautionparker@richland2.org, puttingstudentsfirst2012@gmail.com, docholmesschoolboard2@gmail.com, ameliamckie@richland2.org, jamesshadd@richland2.org

If you wish to copy the superintendent, here is his email address: badavis@richland2.org

McKie and Holmes are included, even though they are not yet legitimate members of the board. I address them as Trustees-elect. As soon as they take the oath of office legally (now that they have filed their Statement of Economic Interests Reports), they will become Trustees.

Holmes and Elkins-Johnson use personal email addresses, although the District should require all trustees to use the "@richland2.org" email address. The District may face an insurmountable problem in the future, should a FOIA Request be made that includes official emails to and from Holmes and Elkins-Johnson, especially after they leave the board.