Two board members need official District email addresses

Richland 2 School District should create District-server email addresses for Trustee Monica Elkins and, if and when Teresa Holmes ever becomes a legal board member, for her.

The District did promptly establish an official email address for Mrs. McFadden, after she became a legal board member, by her being properly sworn in and taking office in accordance with State law.

The District has improperly allowed Ms. Elkins and Ms. Holmes to use personal email addresses for school board business.

Almost everyone is familiar with the Hillary Clinton email scandal that was created by her personal email server in her home.

Why is a District server-based email address important?

All official email is subject to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). 

There is no way to know if, from time to time, Elkins or Holmes deletes an official email. There are, or should be, procedures in District Policy for deleting official email. The rule is probably "Don't delete anything."

More importantly, official emails are subject to FOIA. If the District were to ask Holmes or Elkins to search for a certain email or group of emails, how would the District be certain that the search was thorough and that every pertinent email had been found?

One of these days Elkins will no longer be on the board. What happens then to all the emails in her account? Will she just delete them? And then, if asked to produce one or more, say, "Oops"?

And what about Holmes and her personal email address? She has been acting "as if" she is a board member since November 13, 2018. All of the emails to/from her personal email address that are about school board business are official emails and subject to FOIA.

If, one of these days, it is finally decided that she has not been a legal board member, will she have to turn over all those emails to the District? Or if, one of these days, she is not re-elected to the board, what happens to her emails then?

Richland 2 is one of the largest school districts in the state and has a massive email system. With a $300,000,000 budget and even more in assets, it is not one of the tiny, financially-strapped school districts unable to afford its own email system. 

It is time for the Board to "tell" the superintendent to set up official email addresses for Elkins (and they'll do it for Holmes, too) and tell the women to use only the official email address for school district business. The District can avoid huge problems in the future by having control over retention of all official emails to and from its board members.

Will Richland 2 Board Lack a Quorum today?

When the Richland 2 School Board convenes for a retreat today at 10:00AM, will it have a quorum?

And, if it doesn't, can it legally meet, even though no decisions are to be made?

Why would there even be a question about a quorum?

The reason is that there are two women on the board illegally.

According to Board Policy, a quorum is five of the seven members. Two women on the board (Amelia McKie and Teresa Holmes) have never taken the oath of office legally; thus, they are not legal members of the school board.

They are usurping public office, which is a serious crime in South Carolina. But apparently not one quite serious enough for the Office of the Attorney General to haul them before the S.C. Supreme Court. If that office did so, they would have no defense, and the Supreme Court hearing would likely last about five minutes.

The Justices would need to ask only two questions:

1. On what date did you take the oath of office?

2. On what date did you file your Statement of Economic Interests?

State law (S.C. Code of Laws 8-13-1110(A) says, first you file your Statement; then you take the oath of office, then you begin your official duties.

McKie and Holmes took an oath on November 13, 2018, before they were eligible to do so. Neither had filed her Statement of Economic Interests with the South Carolina Ethics Commission. After The Independent Voice of Blythewood & Fairfield County called them on their failure to file, both filed on December 4, 2018. On that date they first became eligible to take the oath of office legally and, after doing so, begin their official duties.

But they have never take the oath of office. Not on December 4, 2018. Not since December 4, 2018.

So, if McKie and Holmes are not legal members of the board, they cannot be counted toward the requirement of Five for a quorum.

The legal board members are Manning, Agostini, Elkins, McFadden and Caution-Parker.

Which one(s) will be absent today? Elkins has said she will not attend any in-person board meeting unless all board members are wearing facial masks. Holmes does not. She wears a face shield. (If she sneezes or coughs, well, we know that a face shield does not prevent her breath from escaping her immediate presence.)

So one non-member of the board keeps one board member away. Why doesn't the Chair order Holmes to wear a mask?

Speech Control?

Does the Richland 2 School District in any way attempt to control speech by teachers, staff, students, parents or community members?

Read this article about efforts in Loudoun County, Virginia by the public schools. They are trying to muzzle teachers who would speak out against the school board's racial-equity plan.

How many parents, staff or even teachers know what the racial-equity plan is for the Richland 2 schools?

The article says this about the Loudoun County Public Schools Board: "The speech code is hidden inside a "professional conduct" policy proposal, which prohibits behavior that undermines "the views, positions, goals, policies, or public statements of the Loudoun County School Board or its superintendent."

Is there anything similar buried in Board Policies for Richland 2?

And another sentence from the article reads "Loudoun County has come under fire for spending $422,500 on diversity training inspired by critical race theory, which claims racism is inherent in nearly every aspect of America. "

How much is Richland 2 spending on similar training? 

Do you even know what "critical race theory" is? Or The 1619 Project? Or whether Howard Zinn's "masterpiece" is being used as a text in Richland 2 schools?

Are Richland 2 students being taught to think for themselves? Or to think the way that they "ought" to think?

When Trustee Monica Elkins attempted to speak out at a recent board meeting about the lack of support from other board members, Chair James Manning shut her down. 

Dumb Stuff Coming out of Washington

TO: Parents, students, R2 staff, teachers, and all readers,

President Joe Biden is trying to kill America.

It is imperative to examine critically every dumb plan he is implementing and proposing and to vigorously persuade our elected representatives to take a strong stand against him. You'll have to bear down on your U.S. Senators, too, so that all the Democrats don't ban together for 50 votes. Any tie is broken by the Democratic V.P. of the U.S. All Senators should stop voting down party lines and vote for what is best for the People of the United States.

Ex., the stand-down of the military to address white nationalism and to clear out "extremists and racists". The black SECDEF looks like a piece of work. Lloyd Austin should be reminded that blacks in the USA comprise 14% of the population. Is he just using his authority to protect interests of his race?

Race relations improved in this country for many years. They took a huge hit during the Obama Administration. And now Biden is running down the same path.

And then there is Biden's dumb plan to forgive $50,000 in student loans. Who do you think is going to pay for that "forgiveness"? YOU are. Your children are. Your grandchildren are. Are you willing to bankrupt your heirs for some stupid thing that Biden wants to do with the stroke of pen and no thorough cost-benefit analysis or examination of cause and effect?

Who is going to pay for all the "free stuff"?

Saturday Retreat, then Board Meeting Tuesday

The Richland 2 School Board will meet tomorrow (Saturday, February 6) for a four-hour retreat, and then it will meet for a Regular Meeting on Tuesday, February 9.

What would guess the "Appreciative Inquiry Presentation" could be? This is the focus of Saturday's retreat.

When you look at the agendas for the meetings, you just have to scratch your head and wonder what the heck is going on. It seems to me that very little consideration is being given to the time of the individuals who serve as board members.

Somewhere along the way, during my work years, I heard this: "Work expands to fill the time allotted."

Having witnessed board meetings for two years, this Board wastes considerable time. The board could cover in one hour what it takes 2½-3½ hours to finish. One thing that would help immensely would be for board members to make clear, concise, brief statements and then stop talking. Unfortunately, what does happen is that certain board members get diarrhea of the mouth and just keep on talking. Several of them should learn not to rattle on and on, thanking everyone in the District by departments for the work they get paid to do.

The Chair could control it; he doesn't. And not just the current Chair. The past two Chairs are equally guilty of failure to run efficient meetings.

The board decided not to livestream Saturday's retreat. As an official meeting of the board, it is open to the public, if you have the endurance to show up at R2i2. As soon as it starts to drag, will there be one or two (or more) board members who speak up and insist that business move forward or the meeting end?

The public (open) session for Tuesday's Regular Meeting starts at 6:00PM, according to the Agenda. That follows a scheduled 30-minute Executive Session. Don't be misled by the District's Calendar, which shows the Start Time as 6:30PM.

Ed.D. = Dr.?

I had occasion to look up a Richland One elementary school today for a reply to a reader. YES! Readers do write to me. They know I will never repeat what they say in a way that can identify them, as they wish to avoid any "special attention" that might result in retribution or retaliation or other disfavor toward their children in Richland Two. And I will never identify them without their explicit permission.

When I looked up Brockman Elementary, I saw the Principal's message and name. She is Mrs. Sharonda Giles, Ed.S. The only grammatical improvement I would offer is (Mrs.) Sharonda Giles, Ed.S.

The very first thing I noticed is that she did not elevate herself with a title! And Richland One knows how to hire a great person without a doctorate as a principal.

I would suggest to the Richland Two school board that it review its practice of identifying non-teaching persons as "Dr.", when the degree that they hold is Ed.D. (or any doctorate). 

Of course, the Richland Two school board will never go for it, because of the three board members who hold the doctorates that were issued many years ago. 

One school board member proudly stated recently that she has 40 years' experience. I immediately wondered if she meant one year of experience - 40 times. Did she become a better educator every year or was she like the geology professor I had in college who taught the same course year after year and never changed a thing. It could have been a recorded lecture. Of course, rocks don't change from year to year, but students do.

During school board meetings would you rather hear the Board Chair call on "Trustee _____" or "Dr. ____"? My choice is, skip the Dr. They are all equal as Trustees. And the same with the superintendent. He can be Supt. Davis, not Dr. Davis.

Please comment below (if you are brave enough). Or write to me at gusphilpott@gmail.com  Your name will not be published without your permission, which likely means "will not be published".

Does BLM hurt black students?

Read this article about Carol Swain on FoxNews.com.

Of course, if I said anything like that around here, I'd be labeled a racist. In fact, racial motives for my continuing to call attention to the illegal status on the board of Teresa Holmes and Amelia McKie have already been alleged - in writing.

Their being black doesn't have anything to do with it. If they were white or brown or red or yellow or green, I'd still be after them until the take the oath of office and become legal members of the School Board.

Swain is mentioned in the new video called "Uncle Tom", which can be viewed on Amazon Prime Video, among other places. 

Is the BLM curriculum destructive to the black community? Swain suggests going to its website and seeing how it does not benefit our society. 

It's Black History Month. A good time to determine what's right and what's not.