To mask or not to mask - Special Board Meeting on Monday, 4:00PM

Just before 6:00PM today Richland 2 School District announced to media that the school board will hold a Special-Called Meeting on Monday, August 16, 2021 at 4:00PM. The meeting will be held at R2i2 and is open to the public, with social distancing requirement and masks "suggested", but not required. The Special-Called Meeting will also be broadcast on Zoom. After a Health and Safety Report, the board will head into executive session.

Because it is a Special-Called Meeting, there will be no Public Participation. So you are welcome to show up. But sit down and shut up.

On July 6, 2021 State Supt. of Education Molly Spearman issued this Memo about Proviso 1.108 to all school superintendents.

The Memo would have reached Richland 2 on July 6. The Board just met on August 10. What's the rush to meet again? I'm reminded of the well-known line in the movie, Cool Hand Luke. "What we have here is a failure to communicate." Perhaps the August 10th meeting should have been organized differently by the board chair (usurper) Teresa Holmes and the superintendent.

"RE: Proviso 1.108 Guidance and Face Coverings on School Buses Update The purpose of this memo is to provide guidance related to Proviso 1.108 (SDE: Mask Mandate Prohibition) and update the face coverings on school buses requirement. Proviso 1.108 was adopted by the General Assembly in the 2021-22 Appropriations Bill and reads as follows: 

"1.108. (SDE: Mask Mandate Prohibition): No school district, or any of its schools, may use any funds appropriated or authorized pursuant to this act to require that its students and/or employees wear a facemask at any of its education facilities. This prohibition extends to the announcement or enforcement of any such policy. 

"The South Carolina Department of Education (SCDE) interprets the above language to mean that school districts are prohibited from requiring students and employees to wear a facemask while in any of its educational facilities for the 2021-22 school year. Educational facilities include all property owned and operated by the individual district. 

"The SCDE has previously enforced the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s January 29, 2021, order that requires the use of face coverings by people on public transportation conveyances and hubs, which includes school buses. Effective immediately, the SCDE will exercise its enforcement discretion granted within this order and will no longer enforce the face covering requirement on state owned school buses. The use of face coverings by students and staff on school buses and within school facilities remains a recommendation of state and federal public health officials and Proviso 1.108 does not prevent districts from encouraging the wearing of face coverings in these settings. 

"However, districts may not create or enforce any policy, which would require the wearing of face coverings. Should a district decide to act contrary to this law, state funding may be withheld. 

"Please contact Katie Nilges at knilges@ed.sc.gov with any questions."

Richland 2 - proud of McKie?

Richland 2 trustee-elect Amelia McKie made the news today.

In a Post and Courier article published late this afternoon, McKie is mentioned for - wait for it - her $57,000 debt to the South Carolina Ethics Commission.

Great way to get news; right? Richland 2 School District should be so proud. Her friends on the board should be proud, too. Even her fellow trustee-elect, Teresa Holmes, should be proud of McKie.

Why aren't some of McKie's proud friends harping on her to PAY HER DEBT?

Ask them. Ask Holmes, Caution-Parker, McFadden, Manning and Scott (Elkins)

Reporter Avery Wilks spread the fame around quite a bit. He didn't just pick on McKie.

EDIT: This is the lead story on Sunday, August 15.

Open Letter to R2 School Board

The following letter is being emailed to the five legal trustees of the Richland 2 school board and the two trustees-elect who are usurping public office by acting like board members. A copy is being sent to the attorney for the District and to an attorney who has previously provided FOIA and Robert's Rules of Order training to the board.

Members of the Board (and trustees-elect Holmes and McKie),

Last night's board meeting opener was memorable, and not in a good way.

When Mrs. Agostini asked for her Nay vote to be counted in the vote to approve going into executive session, Holmes replied, "I don't need to ask. I'm conducting this meeting, Ms. Agostini, and I'll conduct it how I see fit." 

Wow! If this portends the manner in which future meetings will be conducted, I urge you to purchase your own copy of Robert's Rules of Order and to hire Attorney Helen McFadden to return and conduct a thorough training in the correct way to run a meeting, including Open Meetings and FOIA. The District should hire an independent parliamentarian (not an employee, who would be subject to termination for going against the chair or the superintendent). I urge you to confer with your personal legal counsel to determine the extent of personal liability you have, should you not object to abuse of procedures.

The "Holmes Way", the "I'm the Queen and I say so", is not the right way to run a meeting. Please review Board policy about respecting one another. 

Robert's Rules of Order §4:35, reads, in part: "The chair must always call for the negative vote, no matter how nearly unanimous the affirmative vote may appear ...if any member objects, the chair must call for the negative vote."

Board Policy BC Board Member Conduct states, in part, "Work harmoniously with other board members without trying either to dominate the board or neglect one's share of the work." Did Holmes violate that policy last night? What are the consequences for violating a board policy?

Holmes owes Mrs. Agostini an honest, sincere and public apology.

Later Holmes was incorrect when she advised parents with questions about masks to contact the Ombudsman or a board member. The correct answer is to contact District Administration. 

Is there even still an ombudsman? I emailed her on July 10, 2021 and have not received an acknowledgement or reply.

Holmes is not even a legitimate member of the board, and she was not eligible to be nominated to the position of board Chair. McKie is similarly not a legitimate board member or legitimate board Secretary. Teresa Holmes and Amelia McKie have never taken the oath of office (legally). The oath that was administered on November 13, 2018, has no meaning whatsoever, because neither was eligible to take the oath on that date. And they have not taken the oath legally since becoming eligible on December 4, 2018.

The District filed fraudulent, notarized oath of office documents with the South Carolina Secretary of State. Holmes and McKie are usurping public office, and Holmes and McKie should be prevented from taking seats at the board. The five legal members of the board can act.

As a resident in Richland 2, I ask each of you to step forward and insist on a correction to this most serious problem.

Sincerely,

Gus Philpott

www.Richland2.info

8/10/21 Board Meeting - The Start is a Must-see

At first, I wondered why Richland 2 didn't record the start of its board meeting. The meeting was scheduled to start at 5:00PM.

Did something occur during the beginning minutes of the meeting that the District would prefer the public not to know about? You bet! See below.

While normally the Board quickly adjourns to Executive Session, that is not always the case. A board member might have a comment to make, and the public is entitled to hear it.

The first video I viewed was actually the end of the August 10th meeting and the recording started with Holmes calling the meeting to order (re-convening) and asking for a motion 

For the first 17 seconds, background "noise" (unintelligible conversation) can be heard on the recording of the meeting. At 00:17 on the recording Holmes (or someone else) can be heard saying, "OK, ummm". At 00:34 Holmes asks, "Y'all wanna go home?" At 00.39 Holmes says, "My people, y'all wanna go home?" The video comes on, and Holmes giggles. At 00:47 she raps the gavel and asks for a motion to come back [sic] out of executive session.

Can you believe that? Who are "My people"? If I had been sitting on the board last night, I would have stood and walked out. Right after marching up to Holmes and stating, "I am not 'your people'!"

The six seated there are not "her people". They are fellow board members. EQUAL board members. Well, except for McKie and Holmes herself, who have never taken the oath of office legally.

I emailed the District and was directed to https://livestream.com/richland2. Once there, I saw three video panels to the right.

The top one (Length 03:20) is the end of the meeting and begins after the second executive session.

The middle one (Length 2:15:50) starts at 20:35. The video begins with the re-convened meeting after the first executive session.

The third video (Length 17:07) is the beginning of the 8/10/2021 meeting. The video starts at 14:54.

 This is the one you want to see. This is where the first fireworks are. Holmes, acting as chair even though she is not a legitimate member of the board or the legitimate chair, calls the meeting to order. A motion was made and seconded to enter executive session. When discussion was asked for, Holmes was looking around and then recognized Trustee Agostini. 

Agostini requested that the board postpone discussing the superintendent's evaluation, because she just received materials the day before after 5:00pm. Holmes said Agostini's concern was noted and asked for further discussion. Agostini restated that she wishes to make a motion to postpone the evaluation. Agostini's motion failed for lack of a second. (NOTE: Robert's Rules of Order 49:21 Procedure in Small Boards (less than a dozen members): "2) Motions need not be seconded.") Holmes moved on to the vote, while tapping her fingers (I'd say, in annoyance). Watch Holmes' expression. 

There was a hand vote (Agostini did not raise her hand). Holmes announced that the motion passes, without referring to a count of votes. Agostini stated to Holmes that Holmes had not asked for those opposed.

In a very snippy tone of voice, Holmes said, "I don't need to ask. I'm conducting this meeting, Ms. Agostini, and I'll conduct it how I see fit."

SMACK DOWN! Wow! Is this an indication of how future board meerings will be run?

It's Teresa's way or the highway. 

I will watch the rest of the meeting later.

Pitiful Example of Board Meeting

The August 10, 2021 board meeting was to start at 6:30PM. Where were they? The livestream screen says they are still in executive session. Why does the board disrespect the public by managing its Executive Session time so poorly that the Regular Open Session doesn't start on time?

Who's in charge? Oh, that would be the (illegitimate) board chair, Teresa Holmes.

But there are six other board members, and they ought to be calling for the Executive Session to adjourn  and to get into the main room at the R2i2 conference center and hear what the public has to say tonight.

6:43PM Well, here they are! 

No one spoke during the public hearing. Have all the parents given up?

Holmes was lost when attending to the order of business. She should stop fooling around with her tablet and work from a printed agenda. Somebody should tell McKie to lose her mask so that she can be heard and understood; she finally did remove it. What was that garbage that she read? Nobody wants to listen to her act like she is reading to second-graders. Isn't there a copyright on that book she was reading from?

Agostini asked whether her vote would be counted tonight, since it was not counted when entering into Executve Session. Holmes was really snippy in her response.

The Board still has not figured out how to take votes expeditiously.

Holmes didn't even know she had the list of speakers for the Public Participagtion segment.

Holmes didn't know how long public participation was supposed to be. Holmes wouldn't even answer a simple question about masks for young students. The superintendent was sitting right there and could have answered simply and easily. Holmes told the speaker to email the Ombudsman or any one on the board. WRONG!!!

I emailed the District Ombudsman on July 10 and have never received a response. Mask questions get directed to Administration, not to the Board.

During Public Participation parents made comments requiring responses. For the first time ever, after public participation the superintendent asked for staff to catch up with those parents before they left the room. I've never seen that happen in 3½ years.

Manning made a motion to extend the superintendent's contract to June 30, 2025. Agostini said she will not support the contract extension because she does not trust the superintendent. On the video that is 2:15:50 in length, Manning's motion is at 41:43, and Agostini's remark is at 42:30.

A long delay occurred while a staffer typed up Manning's motion. His motion was poorly worded and unnecessarily long, stating the superintendent's evaluation and to extend his contract. Motion passed 6-1. Of course. All the followers piled right on. No other board member asked for discussion about Agostini's refusal to follow the herd.

Holmes didn't have her glasses and couldn't read the Board Policy to be considered.

I bailed out at 7:10PM. Pitiful.

R2 Board - Two Vacancies?

Could the Richland 2 School Board really have two undeclared vacancies?

And two vacant officer positions (Chair and Secretary)?

Should the Richland County Council be calling a Special Election to fill two seats of the 2018-2022 term of office?

If the District won't declare the seats vacant, who will do it? The Richland County Board of Elections? The South Carolina Supreme Court?

How much longer with the public and the taxpayers allow two women to usurp public office?

In March 2019 a simple solution was presented to them. Just take the oath of office - legally. But they have not done so. The District hasn't made them do it. The other board members have not made them do it. They have not voluntarily done so. 

A serious problem of the District itself is that, since November 13, 2018, it has been disbursing public monies (taxpayers' dollars) to the two women illegitimately on the board. SLED and the FBI should be investigating that. 

Clarendon 2 just got caught in a wrong-way deal over a townhouse that it provided to its superintendent - free. Of course, the superintendent there knew he wasn't paying for it and should have stepped up and caused the situation to be fixed. Read all about it in the Post and Courier.

R2 Board really cares - or does it?

A last-minute media release about tomorrow night's school board meeting changes the location for the board meeting. It will be in the conference center at R2's Taj Mahal, a/k/a R2i2. Frankly, there have been too many errors in announcements in the past few months, and you can expect an amendment to today's release, correcting an obvious error in the boiler-plate about signing up for public participation.

The board will meet in Executive Session from 5:00-6:30PM. At 6:30PM the board will re-convene in open session.

This morning's announcement includes: 

"Public session will resume at 6:30 p.m. at which time a Public Input Session will be held. During the input session, the public has the opportunity to share comments related to the district's plans for the safe return to in-person instruction and continuity of services and for the spending of federal emergency relief funds (ESSER III funds)."

Now read this and spot what's wrong:

"Public Participation is on the agenda for the August 10 meeting. The Board sets aside a maximum of 30 minutes (15 minutes at the beginning and 15 minutes prior to the end of the public portion of the meeting). As each speaker is allotted three minutes, Public Participation will be limited to the first 10 people who sign up to speak (five during the first Public Participation and five during the second Public Participation). The sign-up to speak will open at 5 p.m. and close at 5:45 p.m. on August 10 in the lobby of R2i2."

The announcement is unclear. It fails to clarify that the Public Input session precedes the Public Participation segment of the meeting. How many parents will be allowed to speak during the "Public Input" period, and for how long?

Why in the world should you have to sign up between 5:00-5:45PM for a meeting that starts at 6:30PM???

And does the Board really care about what "the public" (parents!) will have to say about safe return to school? If it really cared, it would listen to more than ten people. Some school boards are having hundreds of parents show up for board meetings, such as when parents want to sound off about Critical Race Theory. 

Obviously, the boiler-plate should have been altered to close sign-ups at 6:15PM, which is 15 minutes before the scheduled resumption of the open session. But why should sign-up even close then?

The lucky first five get to speak during the first segment of public participation. Why does the board make the 6th-10th signed-up speakers wait until almost the end of the meeting which, based on recent trends, could be 2 hours (or more) later. 

If the board really cared about what parents think, it would listen to 20 or more parents in an hour, non-stop. The board could save time by calling up the next speaker and announcing the names of the next two speakers, and have them stand in waiting. Ex., "The first speaker will be John Smith, followed by Mary Jones, followed by Tim Parent."

Of course, then the board members might complain about being hammered by parents. Would that be so bad?