Grab Your Wallets - Policy BID under "Review"

At the November 16, 2021 board meeting Board Policy BID is up for review. This policy is Board Member Compensation and Expenses. Grab your wallets and purses, folks.

Of course, you know what the board members will really do, don't you?

They will reduce their monthly stipend (salary) from $800 to $400-500. Or maybe they'll change it to $100/meeting. Not likely.

And those expenses? 

I remember Teresa Holmes' photos on her Facebook page when she attended a national meeting of the National School Boards Association in Washington, DC in January 2019, only two months after being elected to the Richland 2 School Board on November 6, 2018. And BEFORE she ever took the oath of office as a board member legally.

Need I mention one more time that Holmes has never taken the oath of office legally? Nor has Amelia McKie.

How many more NSBA meetings has she attended at Richland 2 expense? How many SCSBA meetings has she attended? She has never taken the oath of office legally and, therefore, is still NOT a legitimate member of the Richland 2 school board. How much has Richland 2 spent on expenses for her?

How much does Richland 2 budget for board of trustees expenses? How much does Richland 2 actually pay for trustees' expenses?

Is anyone foolish enough to think that the board will be reducing its own allowance?

If the District does reimburse a trustee for expenses, the trustee should have to provide documentation and confirmation that s/he actually attended general and workshop sessions and didn't just go to the meeting to party.

The public deserves to know what the numbers are.

Also, Board Policy BID should be amended state that no increase in stipend/per diem or expenses will be effective during the current term of any board member. In other words, they can't vote themselves a raise.

Please spread the word

Please spread the word about this blog throughout the Richland 2 world and beyond.

It's easy to do. Just ask friends, coworkers, neighbors, family to visit www.Richland2.info

If you want to share a specific article, you'll see at the bottom of each article a row of small boxes. The left box, "M", will open a new page on which you can enter your name, your friend's email address, and a message. Try it now.

If you wish, you can send to more than one email address. 

If you send to multiple email addresses, the recipient will receive only his own copy and not see the other email addresses.

Check that you aren't a robot and then hit Send Email.

No record is kept of your name, your friend's email address or your message. I don't see it. It's a one-time use only, and only by you.

THANK YOU.

View the CRT presentation for Nov. 16; then

The presentation about the difference(s) between Critical Race Theory and Richland 2's Culturally Relevant Teaching is available for your inspection on the Richland 2 website.

Parents and others may read, review, study and learn it (and about it) before Tuesday's board meeting on November 16 at 6:30PM.

Study it now and email the questions that you would like board members to ask Mrs. Helen Grant and her team.

What a shame and waste of time it will be, if Mrs. Grant is just allowed to read the PowerPoint presentation to the board and the audience. Presumably, the board members will have read and familiarized themselves with the presentation before the meeting. Some of them will; some of them won't. 

The trustees should use Tuesday night's time with Mrs. Grant to ask her specific questions and get clear, complete answers from her. There should be no "I'll get back to you with that" responses.

Where will you find the presentation? 

Go to the District's website. www.richland2.org

At the upper right, click on EXPLORE.

Click on School Board

Click on AGENDA

Click on Regular Board Meeting

Click on View the Agenda

On the left side, scroll down to Item 10.5

Click on Item 10.5

Click on the link for Board Presentation

Scroll down through the 28 PowerPoint slides

Know where to find the email addresses for the school board?

Click here:  https://www.richland2.org/School-Board/Members

Or just paste the following email addresses into the To: field of your email:

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

Open Letter to Board about 11/16 board meeting

The following email has been sent to the Richland 2 School Board Ms. Holmes and Ms. McKie are addressed as trustees-elect because they have never taken the oath of office legally. Because they have not, they have never become legitimate members of the school board. 

Good morning, Board Members and trustees-elect Holmes and McKie,

At the board meeting on this Tuesday, November 16, Mrs. Grant will entertain you with Item 10.5, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, a 28-page presentation apparently intended to respond to the Board's request for information about the July 22nd In-service Training for staff on the difference between Culturally Relevant Teaching and Critical Race Theory.

Hopefully, Mrs. Grant does not intend to read all 28 pages to you. You'll notice on Slide 1 that Mrs. Grant has a new title, even though the District's website has not been updated. Her titles are key evidence of the presence of Critical Race Theory right here in Richland 2.

May I encourage you to take a couple of hours to read and study carefully this presentation? To save your time, print the 28 pages. Put a big X across the irrelevant pages. As you study it, continually ask yourself if you are seeing the differences between Culturally Relevant Teaching and Critical Race Theory. Write YES or NO on each page.

Please prepare your questions. When Mrs. Grant begins her presentation, cut her short and start asking questions, so that her long presentation doesn't consume all the agenda time that the chair and superintendent may have allocated to that Item.

Slide 2 is worded to mislead you and to re-direct your attention from Critical Race Theory. The Culturally Relevant Pedagogy of Gloria Boutte and the superintendent's preference for a face at the front of the room that looks like the faces in the classroom seats (i.e., black) is what you want to examine. Many pages have nothing to do with CRT1 vs. CRT2. Don't be misled.

One of your first questions might be: "What do you mean by 'intentional focus on providing an equitable education for all of our students'. Explain 'equitable'."

Ask "What is the District's Mission?" and "What is the District's Vision?" Those should be short, but important, answers.   https://www.richland2.org/About/About-Us  Is this the truth? Is it achievable? Is it correct?

Ask what and where the videos are that in-service attendees were required to watch during break-out sessions.

Ask the titles of the break-out sessions.

Ask where the hand-outs for the break-out sessions are.

Ask if the break-out sessions were recorded and where the recordings are.

Were attendance sheets for each break-out session kept?

Otherwise, you will be spoon-fed a carefully-prepared presentation designed to give you what Administration wants you to see, which may not be what you have asked for.

An R2 teacher called me this week and told me that everything I have written on my blog is 100% accurate. I was told that teachers are afraid to speak up. Are R2 students being indoctrinated, as suspected by an increasing number of parents? Your job is to root that out and return R2 to the business of Education.

Example, Page 3 Equity. Richland 2 has 28,000+ students. It is impossible to deliver on that statement of opportunities and supports. Richland 2 is not a Montessori school or a private institution with unlimited funding.

Slide 18. Saying it does not make it so.

If you study the presentation carefully, do you understand the differences? Since almost no information is provided about Critical Race Theory, how can you understand the differences?

Respectfuly,

Gus Philpott

www.Richland2.info 

Is there a difference? CRT vs. CRT

At the November 16 board meeting, a presentation will be given by Helen Grant, now "Chief Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer." On the title page for the presentation appears "Formerly known as the Office of Diversity and Multicultural Inclusion." Does the board know about that change?

That change must be new. The District's website hasn't even been updated yet. On 11/12/2021 at 4:48PM it still reads

Dr. Helen Nelson Grant

Chief Diversity and Multicultural Inclusion Officer

This presentation should be "interesting", since the words "diversity, equity and inclusion" are key components of critical race theory. 

The title of her presentation is "The Difference Between Critical Race Theory and Culturally Relevant Teaching."

Her dog-and-pony show consists of 28 PowerPoint pages. You can see and study them on the agenda for the November 16 board meeting. Go to the agenda and scroll down on the left side to Item 10.5 "Update: Diversity, Equity & Inclusion" When you find that, click on it. The PowerPoint presentation will open up.

Be sure to look at them carefully.

I spoke with a teacher this week who attended the In-Service Training that was provided to Richland 2 staff. I was told that my blog (this one) was 100% accurate. And that teachers are afraid to speak up. 

Of course, they are. If they express a different opinion to the "right way to think", they put their jobs and future at risk. And they know it. 

The board meeting will be eight hours long if Mrs. Grant reads every word on every page. Almost every professional presenter knows that you never prepare this type of presentation with page after page of narrative. You use bullet-points and then tell your story.

But the "show" Tuesday night must be told exactly right. If she gets off-script and trustees interrupt with questions, the temperature will drop 40º. Bring your parkas and mittens.

"The core idea (of Critical Race Theory) is that racism is a social construct..." PowerPoint 11.slide.

"The construct of race ..." / STAMPED, by Reynolds & Kendi, Inside front dust cover.

On the second slide is mentioned "culturally relevant pedagogy". That is a pet program of Gloria Boutte of the University of South Carolina. The Board was treated to an explanation of that exact program on March 26, 2019. Richland 2 implemented and has been using Boutte's program. That was the meeting when then-Board member Jamie Shadd said something about how young black men just talk loudly. Also at the meeting Board member James Manning reluctantly rose to the defense of white teachers.

Keywords on Slide 2: "...intentional focus on providing an equitable education for all of our students."

Let's hope the board stops Mrs. Grant after about five minutes and starts peppering her with direct questions. Don't let her waste 50+ minutes of time speed-reading her slides.

"Dr." Grant is a lawyer by education. She is not the school district's lawyer. She has an administrative role in the District. She should be addressed as Mrs. Grant, not Dr. Grant. Have you EVER heard a lawyer anywhere being addressed as Dr. (last name)?

Agenda for Nov. 16 now out

Remember when the agenda for a board meeting was accompanied by an announcement that was halfway friendly?

It just laid out the information and didn't threaten anyone. Now?

Be good, boys and girls. Behave. Don't loiter. Don't protest. Don;t be loud. Don't try to socialize in the lobby at the Taj Mahal. 

And you'd better fit into that group of people who are "allowed" to speak. I say, remove the category of public officials! If they live in the District, fine. If not, why should they get preference?

Now, the one good thing is to keep a safe distance from the board of trustees. You'll notice that all EXCEPT ONE wear a mask and keep the mask on during the meeting. Teresa is special. She takes off her Darth Vader mask (I keep looking for the breathing tube) and keeps it off for far too long. 

Maybe I'll ask for a plastic protective shield in front of her, so she can't breathe on the audience.

Look at all the subjective conditions for getting kicked out: "any person attending the meeting who is out of order, loud, disruptive, making inappropriate comments, and/or a safety concern"

Who decides if a person is loud? disruptive? making "inappropriate." comments?

If I say to someone at R2i2 that Teresa Holmes and Amelia McKie should be removed from the board because they are not legitimate board members, is that an "inappropriate" comment? Even if I can prove it? If I have a copy of the state law (8-13-1110(A)) and copies of their fraudulent notarized oath-of-office documents? the documents that prove they violated the State law?

If I explain to someone at R2i2 that Holmes filed a harassment report against me at the sheriff's department and the deputy's report of her complaint contained nothing buy false statements, will I be considered disruptive? 

I'll tell you what this District needs. It needs four new board members at the November 2022 election AND a new superintendent. The board needs to return to a constituent-friendly public body. Sooner, rather than later.

Oh, say; can you hear?

Do you attend Richland 2 board meetings in-person? Can you hear all of what is said?

If you cannot hear all of what is said by board members, the superintendent or staff who answer questions from the board, will you please indicate to the board that you cannot hear?

Board members and the audience are supposed to be able to hear everything. There should be no side conversations during the meeting, just like board members are not supposed to be surfing the internet, playing Solitaire, or sending or receiving text messages or email. 

A couple of years ago I was offered a hearing assistance device. But those devices must have "grown legs" during the pandemic, because now they are nowhere to be found.

A good solution would be for the sound engineer to turn up the volume in the room. Volume on the livestream broadcast and recording is substantially better.

Or find the devices and post a sign at the room entrance that such devices are available; after they have been found. Or purchased again.

If you can't hear everything, post a comment below and send an email to Tony Kenion at   akenion@richland2.org