Holmes' Car Rental, April 2022 - - $807.30

When Teresa Holmes went to the April 2022 National School Boards Association conference in San Diego, she rented a car at District expense. She rented a white Dodge Grand Caravan.

The hotel was 4.0 miles from the airport.

The conference center was 0.2 miles from the hotel.

Why would she rent a car, when she could have taken a shuttle or a taxi (or Uber or Lyft)?

The first day of rental was Friday, April 1.

The conference was April 2-4 (Saturday-Monday).

The car was due to be returned April 5.

Was the car rental really for personal use?

The basic 5-day rental was $227.00.

The "other" charges were $360.30. *

Total - $587.30

In addition, the District paid $220 for the car to be parked at the hotel. The cost was $55.00 for overnight valet parking each night.

At a recent school board meeting she made a big deal out of telling other board members and the public that she had gotten pre-approval to rent a car so that she could provide transportation to other other members. 

But did she? At least two of the other four board members, and possibly a third, did not know she had even rented a car.

The return mileage was not shown on her receipt. How many miles did she drive after meeting hours? Wasn't that personal use?

Was it reasonable and necessary for her to rent a car? Did the car remain parked most of the time? If she used it at night or on Friday or Tuesday for other than from or to the airport, that was personal use.

* The "other" charges were

$120.00 Upgrade

$  99.96 Collision Damage Waiver

$  50.10 Airport Concession Fee

$  15.64 CA Tourism Fee

$  36.00 Airport CFC

$    3.96 Vehicle License Fee

$  34.64 Sales Tax

$360.30

Did the District ask Teresa to pay for the Upgrade?

Does the District have a blanket damage waiver for rental cars that could have been used to skip that $99.96?

The entire $807.30 ($587.30 + $220.00) was a waste of District money.

But she ought to end up paying for all of it, because she was $2,529.27 over her $7,000 travel/training allowance, and the District should collect ALL of that from her.

Trustee Monica Scott - new email address

The District has finally created a District-server email address for Monica Scott. Her official email address is monicaescott@richland2.org

How many months ago (years?) did I urge the District to do that? Two years? Three?

Having all official emails on the District's server is essential under public records laws. As I wrote then, one day in the future that trustee (or trustees, as the case was, because Teresa Holmes also used a personal gmail address) would no longer be in office, whether by death, resignation, completion of term, failure to be re-elected, retirement, etc.

And then, very recently, the State Inspector General's Report was released, and bingo! Monica now has a District email address.

Why didn't the District just use common sense when the suggestion was made way back then? 

The District created an official email address for Teresa Holmes earlier this year, but it allowed her to continue to use her gmail address and published it on the District's website. I guess the District just couldn't figure out how to say NO to Teresa. Was the "equity" at work? Or "privilege"?

That personal email address has now been removed from the Board Member webpage.

Maybe Richland 2 will create a Wall for me at R2i2 and recognize me for the highest number of good suggestions submitted - and never considered or implemented.

And the Winners Are ...

Congratulations to the winners of the Richland 2 school board election!

Angela Nash, 14.06%, 17975 votes

Tamika Schuler Washington, 13.32%, 17022 votes

Niki Porter, 10.35%, 13324 votes

Joe Trapp, 9.78%, 12504 votes

They join Lindsay Agostini, Monica Scott and Lashonda McFadden as Trustees.

Assuming that the Richland County Elections Commission certifies the vote by November 11th, these four will be sworn in as Trustees at the special-called board meeting on November 18, 2022, at 5:30PM, at R2i2. 

The District began complying with State law in 2020, after disregarding it for ten years and installing newly-elected board members one week after the election. The law is that the term-of-office begins one week after the election is certified.

After these four are sworn in and seated, the full board will need to elect officers for the balance of the School Year (to June 30, 2023). All current officers will have left the board.

Your "board member on the move" - You know who.

From the Report of the State Inspector General, Page 43:

"Board member discussion of parental involvement

"The SIG identified derisive comments among Board member text messages. This was especially true in a group text message among Board members McKie, Manning, Caution-Parker and Holmes for the period of 6/14/22 – 8/5/22. 

"An example of the Board members’ disregard for the parents of District students occurred on 6/16/22 and the inaction of safety and security ad hoc committee chaired by Board member Scott. At 8:17 on 6/16/22, Dr. Holmes group messaged: 

“That's why I said in Exec. Let's just push forward. We do not need parents to decide. I think to let them fill [sic] involved we simply hold a parent only input meeting no committee members from them. That way they all were heard but we are moving on.”

The I.G. did not comment at this point on the illegality of such a group text involving four members of the school board. That's a majority of the board, although not a quorum (five).

Holmes clearly reveals her position that parents are not important. Just throw them a bread crumb and consider them fed. 

Teresa Holmes holds the record for the most-mentioned school board member in the Report. Her name appears 92 times.

R2 Response to I.G. Report

I shall begin reading the State Inspector General's Report on Richland 2 tomorrow.

However, this evening I did read Richland 2's response to the Report.

That response of the District is the biggest pile of horse manure in the USA. It's typical double-speak, deflection and diminishing tof he huge problems in Richland 2, from the Administration's leader right through the majority of the board. You know whom I mean: Holmes, McKie, Manning and Caution-Parker.

Good riddance to McKie, Manning and Caution-Parker. The District will be so much better off if Holmes joins them in their exit. They didn't quite make it out the door before the Report was released.

Those who have been following the incredible decline in reputation of Richland 2 over the past four years know exactly who is responsible for it. The Core Four, the cabal of Holmes, McKie, Manning and Caution-Parker, ruled with a lock on decisions.

If I had offered them the winning numbers for a $1.3 Billion Lottery, those four would have voted against accepting them. 

Inspector General report released

The S.C. Inspector General has released his report, according to The P:ost and Courier. Read the newspaper article here:

https://www.postandcourier.com/columbia/news/state-inspector-finds-board-dysfunction-undermining-columbia-area-school-district/article_30315bf2-5bb5-11ed-9c88-877dae5e94cb.html

Just read the article. So much wrong in it. Now to find the Report itself and see whether the Report is as described in the newspaper article.

More comments to follow.

[Edited 11/4/2022] Here is the full report on the Inspector General's website:

https://oig.sc.gov/sites/oig/files/Documents/Reports/2022/Inspector_General's_Investigation_of_Richland_School_District_Two.pdf

James Manning likes to deflect

Don't miss today'a article in The State newspaper about James Manning's attack on Lashonda McFadden over a $425 hotel upgrade and pet fee in September. 

What is the real purpose behind Manning's public attack? Is he trying to support Holmes in her re-election bid?

I believe McFadden's Atlanta conference was in early September. The District received reimbursement on October 19.

It is preposterous to think that a trustee traveling on school business must beg for advance permission to upgrade her room. The upgrade is a personal expense, and that is to be reimbursed to the District. The District got its money.

Manning is pretending to be Mr. Important, rather than just letting the District handle the collection of the money. Hasn't he got anything better to do with his time?

He sent me a long email about this matter. He never should have gone into all the detail that he did. 

I posted the following comment to The State's article:

"What in the world is OUTGOING board member and chair James Manning's crusade against Lashonda McFadden all about? NO pre-approval is needed for upgrades. The District got its money on October 19 for McFadden's Atlanta trip early in September. His complaint is merely deflection. If Manning wants to get all hot and bothered, he should go after Teresa Holmes for the $3,000 that she over-spent on travel & training in School Year 2021-2022. Holmes' car rental receipt from April has been requested (FOIA) from Richland 2. If she rented the car for ferrying other board members around in San Diego, you'd think she would have told them about it at the time. Holmes spent $807.30 on car rental and parking, so she wouldn't have to take a shuttle to the hotel that was 4.0 miles from the airport."

Manning's blustering is a deflection from the fact that Teresa Holmes owes about $3,000 to the District for exceeding her travel and training allowance in 2021-2022.