Open Letter to School Board re COVID-19

The following is being emailed to the Richland 2 School Board:

Members of the board and trustees-elect McKie and Holmes,

I hope you will ask the superintendent on Tuesday night, during Item 8.2, just exactly how many (or how few) student cases there actually were in this report on TheState.com today.

Richland 2

• Catawba Trail Elementary: Fewer than 5 employee cases
• Forest Lake Elementary: Fewer than 5 employee cases
• L.B. Nelson Elementary: Fewer than 5 student cases
• Muller Road Middle: Fewer than 5 employee cases
• North Springs Elementary: Fewer than 5 employee cases
• Richland Northeast High: Fewer than 5 student cases
• Spring Valley High: Fewer than 5 student cases and fewer than 5 employee cases
• Windsor Elementary: Fewer than 5 faculty cases

"Fewer than five" means 1-4.

Re-stating The State's numbers:

Richland 2

• Catawba Trail Elementary: 0 student cases; 1-4 employee cases
• Forest Lake Elementary: 0 student cases; 1-4 employee cases
• L.B. Nelson Elementary: 1-4 student cases; 0 employee cases
• Muller Road Middle: 0 student cases; 1-4 employee cases
• North Springs Elementary: 0 student cases; 1-4 employee cases
• Richland Northeast High: 1-4 student cases; 0 employee cases
• Spring Valley High: 1-4 student cases and 1-4 employee cases
• Windsor Elementary: 0 student cases; 1-4 faculty cases

Summary; for eight (8) schools,

3-12 student cases

6-24 employee cases

Please ask 

How many student cases, exactly?

How many employee cases, exactly?

The Day 10 enrollment was 27,822.

12/27822 = 0.043%

Does this justify keeping schools closed?

Thank you.

Gus Philpott

 

Will 11/2020 be a repeat of 11/2018?

Now is the time for the Richland 2 School Board to review the timeline for seating newly-elected members after the General Election in November.

Hopefully, it will avoid the legal errors made in November 2018, which remain uncorrected to this day. The result of those errors has been that two women have been allowed to usurp public office and pretend to be board members for almost two years. And get paid with public monies for doing so.

Here's the timeline:

November 3 General Election. Three seats on the Richland 2 School Board are to be filled. With ten candidates in the fray, could there be some ties that would have to be broken in a run-off?

November 6 Expected certification of the election by the Richland County Elections Commission, if there is no run-off.

November 10. School Board meeting. This date is before the legal beginning of the 2020-2024 term-of-office.

November 13 The legal Beginning Date of the 2020-2024 term-of-office of newly-elected board members, if the election is certified on November 6. (S.C. Code of Laws Section 59-19-315)

December 8 First school board meeting after the legal Beginning Date of the 2020-2024 term-of-office of the three trustees elected on November 3.

While a qualified trustee-elect could be sworn in after the election is certified on November 6 (if it is), the trustee-elect can only take the oath of office after she or he has filed the Statement of Economic Interests Report with the South Carolina Ethics Commission. This is where Amelia McKie and Teresa Holmes ran afoul of State Law in 2018. Neither has ever taken the oath of office legally.

If Lindsay Agostini and Monica Elkins-Johnson are re-elected, they would continue serving in their 2016-2020 terms until November 13. Then they would begin their new terms.

If James Shadd is not re-elected, November 10 will be his last meeting. The Board Chair's position will be vacated.

In normal times the Vice-Chair would ascend to duties in the absence of a Chair. However, the Vice-Chair is Teresa Holmes, who is not a legitimate member of the Richland 2 School Board. In spite of her never having taken the oath-of-office legally, the Board elected her as Vice-Chair on June 30, 2019.

The Richland 2 School Board should hold an election on December 8.

SECTION 59-19-70. Chairman and clerk of board.

"The trustees shall, as soon as practicable after the appointment of any new trustee, organize by the election of one of their members as chairman and another as clerk of the board. The chairman shall preside at meetings of the board and perform other duties imposed on him under the law, and the clerk shall keep a record of the proceedings of all meetings in a book provided for that purpose and perform all other duties required of him by law." 

Richland 2 ignored that law in November 2018. It routinely elects officers for the following year at the last meeting in June, which coincides with the end of the fiscal year. Doing so creates a problem with continuity of the officers. If a trustee holding a position as an officer is not re-elected, then a successor must be elected. 

Students (and Parents): Pay Attention to SCOTUS Appointment

Today's students have an infrequent opportunity to pay close attention to a Presidential appointment to the Supreme Court of the United States. SCOTUS has only nine judges, called Justices, and this year's opening is attracting great attention because it is occurring during an election cycle.

Read this two-page summary of Amy Coney Barrett, who is President Trump's nominee for appointment.

Read about and understand the political battle that is raging. Get the facts, Understand why this appointment is so important. Understand the legality and the timing.

In other words, educate yourself.

Don't fall for the pitch that the nomination should be deferred until after election day (November 3) or after the Electoral College votes (December 14) or after Inauguration Day (January 20). Don't fall for the pitch that it's "unfair" for President Trump to get to appoint to the Court. President Trump is the President, and it is the President's right and duty to fill the seat on the Supreme Court. Why should he not do so?

Do you know how the Electoral College works or votes? Do you know when the Electoral College votes are counted? Do you know what a Faithless Elector is?

A full Court of nine Justices means no tie votes. The Court's business continues, as it should. 

Re-elect Lindsay Agostini

In the 2½ years I have been attending board meetings of the Richland 2 School District, Lindsay has been the single board member who has arrived at board meetings prepared with questions and comments on agenda items. She spends many hours every week on Richland 2 business, far beyond her specific board duties.

The board should have elected her as Board Chair on June 30.

Eighteen months ago she was Board Secretary, and she resigned from that office rather than attest to the signature of Amelia McKie as Board Chair. Lindsay disagreed with statements in a board resolution and wisely chose to avoid becoming personally liable by signing to something that was not true.

The rest of the board should have agreed with her and corrected the problem by requiring McKie to take the oath of office and become a legal board member. The board should also require Teresa Holmes to take the oath of office and become a legal board member.

This year Lindsay suffered the indignity of disrespectful comments by the superintendent and also a racial slur by a personal friend of the current Board Chair. Reference to that slur was posted on Facebook by a local attorney who benefits financially as a result of the superintendent's direction to the large school-bond law firm that handles Richland 2 bond work. 

Lindsay is often the Lone Ranger on the board, when it comes to toeing the line on proper and legal ways to do business. 

She deserves the support of every voter on November 3rd.

School Board to Silence Free Speech?

Should teachers have the right to criticize a school district's racial-equity plan? Should a school board be able to control "all forms of public and personal communication" of teachers? Control any form of it?

It's not happening in Richland 2 School District (yet), but an attempt is being made by the Loudon County (Va.) Public Schools Distict Board to do just that. Loudon County is northwest of Washington, D.C. - you know, that bastion of freedom, free speech,  protector of all rights? Yeah, sure... that one... One media source reports that the proposed provision is "hidden" in a professional-conduct policy proposal.

Imagine that. Buried in a "professional-conduct" policy proposal. Who would ever think to look there?

Whenever words like "equity", "discrimination", "injustice", "restoration", "cultural diversity" etc. begin appearing in proposed policies, it is time (actually, it is past time) for the public to not only sit up and take notice, but it is time for the public to stand up and speak out 

It's harder now, because the Richland 2 School Board continues to shelter-in-place behind Zoom and Livestream, preventing the public from showing up at "public", open meetings. The Board makes small talk about re-opening schools, but nary a word is heard about re-opening school board meetings. The public is forced to line up between about Friday 2:00PM and Tuesday 1:00PM and only submit written comments.

Those comments are then speed-read to the board, while some on the board could be napping behind turned-off cameras (but sometimes forgetting to mute microphones). Who knows if they are even still "in the room"? They could be in their kitchens, waiting for the pizza to show its golden-brown crust and come out of the oven, or chatting on the phone with other members of their clique. 

By the way, when you hear a board member's voice while Mrs. Roof is speed-reading a parent's letter, that may not be the only board member who is not paying attention. To whom was she speaking? Someone passing through the room? To another board member on the phone?

This is why board members' cameras should be on at all times. The audience is entitled to know who is listening and who is rolling her eyes at what a parent has written. The audience is entitled to know which board member is not paying attention and who is reading or sending email or texts. 

The School Board's practice? To turn off the cameras while Mrs. Roof is reading the letters. A bad practice. I have complained about it. Has anyone else? 

How could "black" for freshmen be a problem?

Blythewood High School ...

Spirit Week ...

During the week before the homecoming game, The State newspaper reported that "students were asked to wear different colors for their class — 

gold for seniors, 

white for juniors, 

blue for sophomores and 

black for freshmen."

Now I know that school administrators are overworked, overwhelmed, stretched beyond limits - - can't have open schools, but let's have a football game.

What could possibly go wrong with picking "black" as the color for freshmen? I guess there was no time to think through that one.

Maybe administrators at Blythewood H.S. should be in the sights of the District Administration, not a freshman student.

What, exactly, did that freshman post on social media that provoked a two-page press release by the District? And what did the Blythewood H.S. principal put in his "oh, I'm so sorry" letter to parents?

Does anyone know? If you'll let me know, I'll post it right here, so all lcan know. Email it to gusphilpott@gmail.com  (I'll leave your name out.)

OMG - it was blackface

This article in The State explains what happened at Blythewood High School that prompted a two-page press release by Richland 2 School District

Somebody's panties got twisted over a student's posting into blackface.

Does anybody still wonder why racism is alive and well in Richland County, in Columbia, in South Carolina, in The South, in the USA?

The article mentions the school's Spirit Week, which includes wearing of the color-of-the-week as black for freshman. So a freshman wore black, including blackened arms and face.

I hope this student and his parents sue Richland 2 for violation of his First Amendment right of free speech. I can recommend an attorney. The one who beat CNN over the head on behalf of Nick Sandmann. And the ones representing Kyle Rittenhouse, who are suing Joe Biden and his campaign for libel.

Pretty soon the case will be in Richland 2 that they will prohibit using the word "black". You'll be required to say Black.

So much for sensitivity training and cultural awareness. 

The Blythewood principal was quoted in The State as saying, "we will Be The Change". Where have I heaerd that before??? I didn't like it then, either.