An Embarrassing Opening of 6/23 Board Meeting

Be sure to watch the opening of what may be the most important board meeting of the current school year. This Special-Called Board Meeting is the one where the board will likely vote on which of the three Finalists will get the offer of the superintendent's position.

Six trustees were present; Niki Porter was not. No roll call was taken. There was no explanation given for her absence. 

You'll notice right away that Angela Nash is seriously distracted by whatever is going on with her purse on the floor.

After the standard motion to adopt the agenda, Chair Agostini asked for a motion to go into executive session.

It was the Secretary's place to make the motion, but she was still distracted. Vice Chair Scott looked at Nash but didn't say anything to her. And what happened? 

Nothing. Nothing is what happened! Silence for ten seconds!

And Chair Agostini waited. And waited. Finally Trustee McFadden made the motion to go into executive session.

That was flat embarrassing. Kudos to Chair Agostini for waiting it out.

How long will they be in executive session?

How exciting? Seven remote viewers!

Seven remote viewers were all ready for the Richland 2 school board to start its meeting on time at 7:00PM.

I was thinking today about the order of interviews. I guess there is no reason that the Board could not have announced the order of candidate interviews, but perhaps they had one.

If you were one of three finalists for the position, would you want to be first? second? last?

In the world of sales, a strong salesman would want to make his sales presentation last. He'd want to be closest to the decision time. If he made a real zinger of a presentation and had a strong product or service, he might just get the nod; i.e., the Yes. 

I always wanted to be last. But the risk is that the deck could be stacked, and a decision might get made before I got my time at bat.

I recall a time when I was first. I was in Denver and a regional stock brokerage firm advertised for a person who would train their stockbrokers to sell life insurance. The ad was in the newspaper on Sunday and looked legit. I called at 8:30AM on Monday and arranged a 1:00PM appointment with the VP.

I arrived at 12:45PM and he hadn't returned yet from lunch. When he did, he greeted me and motioned for me to follow him into his office. As he went through the doorway, he held his hand out and asked for my resume.

"I didn't bring one," I said.

He asked why not, and I told him that I didn't know if I wanted the job, adding, "In five minutes I'll know if I want the job and you'll know if you want to see a resume." Pretty bold, eh?

An hour and 45 minutes later, he looked at his watch and asked me to bring him a resume. 

I wrote him a five-page proposal on why he should hire me. I had all the information I needed to sell him on my being everything he was looking for.

I called him a few days later and learned that he liked what I had given him, so I asked him for the job. He told me he had promised his boss in Kansas City to interview for two weeks. I suggested he give me the job; that would solve both our needs. And then tell his boss in two weeks that he had found the perfect hire. He wouldn't do it.

Two months later I found out that his company had not approved hiring anyone and had not funded the position. They were just testing the waters to find out what was available.

Two years later I wrote to him and thanked him for not hiring me. I was sincere. I meant it. I had finally broken free of being an insurance salesman! That was 1987. Free at last!!!

Third Finalist Interview - tonight

The Richland 2 school board will conduct the third and last Finalist interview tonight in a special-called board meeting scheduled to start at 7:00PM.

Last night's meeting was another three-hour meeting.

Each board member should now know whether s/he prefers Finalist #1 or Finalist #2. If tonight's meeting is three hours in length, then at 10:00PM and after the meeting ends, each board member can begin to decide between Finalist #3 and their choice of #1 or #2.

At 1:00PM tomorrow (June 23) the board will "debrief", whatever that is supposed to mean. It's the wrong word, because the board will receive the input of the several stakeholders' groups that met with the finalists this week. Will the board members read or hear anything to change their minds?

The agenda for tomorrow's special-called meeting has already been published on the District's website.

Item 4 (in Public Session) is "Voting on Executive Session Items", and Item 4.1 is "Personnel Matter: Selection of New Superintendent". 

Board Members will be voting in public for the next superintendent. 

You've read their bios; right? Whom do you pick?

FOIA Violation repeated tonight

The same FOIA violation that occurred last night occurred at tonight's Special Called Board Meeting.

Trustee Nash moved that the Board go into Executive Session for the purpose of "an interview of a superintendent search finalist."

That's a good Motion, but it didn't agree with the written purpose that was stated in the Agenda for tonight's meeting, which was "Item 3.2 Personnel Matter Related to Superintendent Candidates".

The same problem will occur tomorrow night, when the board meets to interview the third finalist. The agenda for the June 22, 2023 Special Called Board Meeting has already been published, and it contains the same Item 3.2. And it's too late to amend the Agenda, because it has to be published 24 hours before the start of the meeting.

The Board now faces a dilemma. If a Board member makes a motion that follows the wording in the agenda, a FOIA violation will occur because the agenda wording is wrong. It's not specific, and it's not what the Board will be doing.

If a Board trustee makes a motion that is more correctly worded (and is different from the agenda), a violation occurs.

Doesn't the Board want to comply with South Carolina FOIA law? It's really not that hard.

Board to select Supt. on June 23

The Richland 2 school board is scheduled to select its new superintendent in a Special-Called Board Meeting on Friday, June 23. The meeting starts at 1:00PM in the boardroom at R2i2. The announcement of the Meeting on the District's website reads, "Special Called Board Meeting: Board Debriefs and Makes Decision Re: Superintendent Selection"

The board will, no doubt, quickly go into executive session, where they will discuss the three finalists.

Executive Session rules are that the board cannot make decisions in private, and it cannot even come to a consensus or agreement who will get the offer.

Watch the agenda for June 23, which must be published by 1:00PM on Thursday. It should show the board returning to Open Session and the next item should be the selection of the superintendent by vote in public session and a motion to offer the position to the person selected.

Is that how they will do it? Will the terms of the offer be disclosed? Will they disclose the selected finalist's name and the terms of the offer?

If they make the selection in private (in the Executive Session), should I have S.C. Attorney General Alan Wilson on speed-dial?

Trustee Monica Scott has been in charge of the Superintendent Search Committee. Let's see what happens on Friday. 

Special-Called Board Meeting - June 20, 2023 - FOIA Violation

The announcement on the Livestream page says the board meeting is supposed to start at 7:00PM. Okay, so where is the meeting?

The meeting was called to order at 7:02PM. After the approval of the agenda, Trustee Nash made a motion for the board to go into Executive Session for the purpose of "an interview with a superintendent search finalist."

BINGO! FOIA Violation

The Agenda reads at Item 3.2, "Personnel Matter related to Superintendent Candidates."

Yesterday I contacted the District and expressed my opinion that Item 3.2, as presented on the Agenda, was too general. State law requires the Purpose of an Executive Session to be specific enough for the public to know what will be discussed.

Interviewing a candidate is not a "Personnel Matter related to Superintendent Candidates." The wording used by Mrs. Nash was changed from the agenda description to something closer to what will actually happen. 

However, the agenda did not get changed. There was time to change it. The agenda had to be published by 7:00PM yesterday. So the Public, believing the published agenda, had every right to expect that to be the purpose of the Executive Session. 

Will the I.G. or the Attorney General find a problem? 

At what time did tonight's meeting actually start? Did the trustees gather for dinner? At what time did they gather? 5:30PM?

If so, THAT is when the Special-Called Board Meeting began. It began as soon as four trustees (under State law) gathered, even though the Board's "quorum" (for matters like firing a superintendent) reads five trustees to be present.

It's already too late to correct the agenda for tomorrow night's Special-Called Board Meeting. 

Will the District correct it before Thursday's Special-Called Board Meeting?

3 Special-Called Board Meetings? Yes or No?

Is the school board holding meetings on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday?

Richland 2 homepage: "Finalist Interviews for Superintendent", June 20, 21, 22

Livestream.com/Richland2: "Special-Called Board Meeting", June 20, 21, 22

The official place for announcements of board meetings is on the District's website.

If it is not announced on the webpage, will only up-to-three board members attend each night, avoiding a quorum?

Are these interview sessions open to the public?

[Edited. Agendas have now been published for the June 20, 21, and 22 Special-Called Board Meetings, and the District's website will be updated for those dates. And, finalist interviews will be conducted in Executive Session.]