A Filter for Choosing

Did you attend the Candidates' Forum last night? Watch it on Livestream? Planning to watch it?

Did you miss it? Watch it here: 

https://livestream.com/richland2/events/10621014/videos/233172004

I suggest this filter/lens for choosing four candidates to join the school board on November 8th.

The school district is a business. It's a huge business with about $1 Billion in Assets, a $300 Million annual budget, 3,500+ employees, and 28,000+ students.

If YOU owned that business, whom would you pick from the 12 candidates last night?

That puts quite a different slant on it, doesn't it?

What if the Columbia or South Carolina Chamber of Commerce had conducted the forum and put together the questions?

What if there had been some hardball questions last night, worthy of a $1 Billion business' board of directors? 

The teachers and the staff (yes, even the bus drivers) don't run the business. They work there.

All those questions and answers about pay, benefits, and working conditions stroked the teachers and those among the candidates who talked about pie in the sky.

The District has a fixed amount of money. The source of the money is the State and property taxes. The mindset of many of the candidates was just "Pay teachers more", without thinking that there is no "more" from which to pay.

Voters should elect people who know how to run a business! That sharply narrows your choices.

I used my Prioritizing Grid again, when I got home last night. Some of my choices changed!

36 Days to Election Day!

Early voting starts October 24.

The closest early-voting location for many of us is R2i2.

https://www.richlandcountysc.gov/Government/Departments/Voter-Registration-Elections

Penn Center - in today's news

Penn Center. Recognize that name?

That's where Supt. Baron Davis took a busload of "100 Premier Men of Color" on a field trip. What is Penn Center?

It's a museum on St. Helens Island, about 157 miles from R2i2, where one of the first schools for slaves ("formerly enslaved people) was located.

I never inquired whether that bus trip was paid for by Richland 2 or funded by separate donations.

Why was it in the news today? 

According to an investigative article in The State today, it received more than $1,000,000 from the State of South Carolina this year. And it apparently was an unregistered charity in this state.

"Richard Kenyon, finance director for Penn Center, which operates a museum on St. Helena Island in Beaufort County that was awarded more than $1 million this year, last week told The State his failure to register the charity was an oversight that would soon be rectified."

Source: www.thestate.com/news/politics-government/article266221911.html#storylink=cpy

Oh, my. Just an oversight, don't you know?

Bad side of online registration to speak

What is one major, possible, bad aspect of the new online registration to speak that is required of members of the public who wish to address the Richland 2 school board?

Suppose someone in Administration, or with influence over the Administration, decided that a certain member of the public should be blocked from speaking. Maybe that member of the public has been pointing out many errors and faults of the board and the District. Maybe the District would like to silence that person.

All that would be needed now would be to block that person's registration to speak at a meeting or, worse, accept the registration and block him or her from the list that the board chair uses to call speakers to the microphone.

If that ever happens to you, make sure you email the entire board AND let me know so that I can publicize it here. 

Also, stand up in the meeting and call out, "I registered to speak, and you haven't called on me." You should be able to get those words out before the chair summons Security to remove you.

It "probably" won't happen at the next two board meetings, and you can be more sure that it won't happen after the new board is seated.

The tide will definitely shift on November 8th. The Woke element of the board will be gone.

R2: Publish violence

Should Richland 2 School District publish information promptly on its website about gun and other weapons, fights, school disruptions?

Rumors were flying this week about shots fired at or near Ridge View High School. Some posters on social media thought they were fired on the campus of RVHS; others thought they were fired nearby. Some thought perps were apprehended in the RVHS parking lot.

Individual schools sometimes send out alerts to parents.

Why not post all the information on the District's website for all to see?

I can think of one good reason. That is that, then, many more people would know about the levels of violence and threat to the students.

Think more people would show up at school board meetings? 

Teresa Holmes and the Richland 2 logo

 

Teresa Holmes has a Facebook page that is private. I'm not supposed to be able to see it. But ...

Here's what she recently posted, after Richland 2 issued a press release that questioned the use of a District logo on a campaign ad.

Isn't that great? Watchdog Teresa is "on the move".

What she forgot to include was a copy of her own ad:

Care to play, "I spy"?

Sort of looks to me like the Richland 2 service mark. Comments?

This is NOT a promotion of Holmes' candidacy. Through her chaos-creation and antics of the last school year, she has earned the privilege of coming in #12 on election day in this race.

Notice the outright lie in her ad? She is not the "School Board Chair". That ended on June 30, 2022, before she filed for re-election!

Angela Nash on Richland 2 logo use

https://www.facebook.com/AngelaNashforR2schoolboard/videos/450883893521132/

School Board candidate Angela Nash delivered a very important and powerful message on Facebook. She began with comments on the school district's whining about someone who put together a flier with names and photos of four candidates and dared to include the District's logo. 

The District's friends in the media jumped on it like it was the biggest news story of the year. The candidates had not created the flier; it was created by their supporters.

No one in his right mind ever would have thought that the District was promoting those four candidates. People are wondering who complained to the District. Did someone? Or did someone on staff decide, "Whoa! This is a big violation. Stop the presses!"

When I saw the flier, all I thought was "those four are in the race that is happening in Richland 2." 

But Richland 2 made a big deal out of it. That's called going after "low-hanging fruit".

Then Angela addressed comments online by Chris Leevy Johnson. Chris is a good friend of the superintendent and of "certain" current school board members. One of Chris' posts referred to "MAGA-MAFIA". I saw Chris' post and he also referred to "neo-conservatives". 

One of those "certain" members is Teresa Holmes. Angela did not mention that Teresa created a campaign flier that very clearly uses the District's logo. I wonder - has Teresa removed all signs and campaign fliers with that logo?

Watch and listen to Angela's powerful message! She spoke only for herself, but her words could be those of other strong candidates in this race. Not all of them, but of some of them.

Thank you, Angela. Well said!