McKie's Debt - Still $51,750

How fiscally responsible should a school board trustee be?

Should a board member be able to add and subtract? And get a correct total?

Previous Board Chair and trustee-elect (since Nov. 13, 2018), Amelia McKie, still owes $51,750 to the State Ethics Commission. She has not paid one penny in two years toward her debt. A judgment was filed more than a year ago (July 2019) in the Richland County Common Pleas Court, and apparently the S.C. DOR has not been able to collect on it yet.

Each quarter McKie must file a Campaign Disclosure Report with the South Carolina Ethics Commission. It's a simple report; just a few lines. If you keep decent records, it should take about five minutes to complete and file online. It's a public document. To view her reports, go to ethics.sc.gov  At the top right, click on Public Reporting. Click on Individual Financial Reports. Click on Candidate Reports. In the Candidate Last Name field, type McKie. Click on Next. Click on her name for Election Date 11/6/2018. Select a report; any report.

And it's even simpler and faster to complete and file, if you've had no activity since the last quarterly report. But that doesn't mean you should blindly copy the previous numbers, assuming an error hasn't been made.

McKie has a problem filing the quarterly reports on time. The Report due January 10, 2020 was late (2/11/20). The Report due April 10, 2020 was late (4/16/20). The Report due July 10, 2020 was late (7/16/20). The Report due October 10, 2020 was early (9/10/20) and then amended (10/8/20).

A cursory glance at the Report filed for Filing Period October 10 (and amended) shows an error that is easily noticed, if the filer is paying attention.

McKie reports $8,943.25 in Total Contributions, including none received in the quarter ending 9/30/20.

She reports $5,725.78 in total Expenditures, including none in the quarter. And this is where the error is. 

She lists In-Kind Expenditures of $17.50 and Expenditures of $5,208.28. OK, now you do the math. You've heard of approximating? rounding off; right? If you are using the left side of your brain, you know the sum is going to be approximately $5,225. You know it is not going to be $5,725.78.

Where is the elusive $500 in missing expenditures? This arithmetical error goes back for several reports. Proof, I guess, that the S.C. Ethics Commission doesn't care what you put on your Report; just so long as you file it.

Will any of this matter when McKie is up for re-election in two years? 

Is McKie ever going to pay off her judgment and debt to the Ethics Commission? If she applied her entire School Board Trustee gross monthly income of $800 to it, it will take her 65 months to pay it off. That's 5 years 5 months.

If she pays only $100/month toward it, it will take her 518 months to pay it off. That's 43 YEARS.

Do she intend to pay any of it?

Remember that blackface Tweet at Blythewood H.S.?

On October 1 I submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Request to Richland 2 school district for the text of the freshman's tweet that riled up the principal and, therefore, the District. In my FOIA Request I specifically did not request the name of the student.

The FOIA Officer of the District today denied my request, deeming the information protected so as not to identify the student. The District relies on its belief that I would be able to identify the student, if I knew what he had said. I guess I have better investigative or psychic powers than I thought I had.

The District did acknowledge that I could access publicly any social media post that might exist. How nice of them.

The District did provide a copy of the message sent out by Principal Matt Sherman. I would post it here but it is a .pdf copy.

Principal Sherman did state, in part, "We immediately recognized that the tweet was inappropriate and insensitive and took measures to have the post removed."

The school had been "tagged" in the tweet, and I wonder whether the School demanded that the student delete the tweet from his personal Twitter account or only took down the "tag" to the high school. If the school demanded that he deleted his tweet from his personal account, I consider that a gross violation of the student's First Amendment rights.

The principal also used these words: "disappointed and hurt"; pain.

Further, he wrote: "As your principal, I'm even more motivated to help create a culture where everyone is valued and respected." 

Does that include the 9th Grader who posted the tweet? Is he to be valued and respected?

Squashing that student is a good example why Richland 2's cultural sensitive programs and efforts to "promote unity" will fail. Rather than using that tweet as a learning experience, it teaches students (and employees to be secretive and to post comments under names that will not identify them. 

I would like to meet the 9th Grader and his parents. I would like to read that tweet. If you can help me, please email or call. Confidentiality is guaranteed.

Voting Date - coming up

Election Day, Tuesday, November 3, 2020 is 21 days away. 

Many voters have already cast their ballots, either in-person Absentee Voting or by mail-in Absentee Voting. Many will wait and go to the polls on November 3. 

Have you picked your three school board candidates yet?

If not, how will you pick them?

There is candidate information furnished by the League of Women  Most of the candidates have a website. Voters.at https://onyourballot.vote411.org/race-detail.do?id=22656543

Good luck in wading through their positions.

How many of the candidates have the background and education to serve on a school board? A position on the board is a Management and Executive position. A school board trustee has a fiduciary responsibility to the voters who provide the funding for the school district.

This is what irritated me to the max when so many board members expressed sympathy for the teachers on May Day 2019, when Richland 2 had to close its schools because so many teachers decided to take the day off to demonstrate at the State House grounds. 

The Board failed to make certain that a day of education was provided to 27,000 students. The Board failed to direct the superintendent weeks ahead to take such actions as would keep the schools open. The superintendent failed to direct principals to accept only a limited number of requests for personal days off and to forestall the ploy by teachers to violate their contracts by a common stop-work action led by SCforED. Many on the board spoke in support of the teachers and said they would attend the demonstration. That's Management???

The Board is the Employer. The teachers (and staff) are the Employees. But the current board has not acted as Executives, Managers, Employer. 

Search the candidates for those who will direct, not follow. 

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.