U.S. National Debt

Are Richland 2 students learning anything at all about the U.S. National Debt?

Are they learning anything at all about personal finances, budgeting, borrowing money, avoiding payday loan scams, high interest rates on credit card debt? Saving money? Investing money?

Are they falling for the vote-buying pitch of the Democrats for the government to forgive or pay off student loans? Your student loan is your debt, not mine. I am not going to pay off your debt!

Watch this PragerU video.

Critical Election June 25

On June 25, 2019 the Richland 2 School Board will elect its officers for the next school year. This election occurs annually, and it was placed on the Agenda for the June 25, 2019 School Board meeting.

The three officers to be elected are Board Chair, Board Vice Chair and Board Secretary.

Should the "high school club" atmosphere of the current "majority" be allowed to continue?

The impact of last year's election has been felt through this school year. Last June Amelia McKie was elected by the board to serve as Board Chair from July 1, 2018 to June 30, 2019. That choice has resulted in long, disorganized school board meetings; dissension among board members; constant calls for compliance with State law; resignation by the Board Secretary (officer); failure to sanction a board member who violated Board Policy by launching a personal and false claim of harassment against a community member with the Richland County Sheriff's Department.

It is the Board Chair and the Superintendent who set the agendas for future meetings. Dissenting board members find it very difficult to get unpopular issues on the agenda for a meeting.

Did the board bother to conduct any due diligence before electing McKie?

If it had, it should have uncovered that she had failed to file required annual Statement of Economic Interests Reports with the South Carolina Ethics Commission for 2015, 2016 and 2017. Those were violations of Board Policy and a violation of State law. A search of the Public Index of the Richland County Fifth Judicial Circuit would have revealed personal information that should have been taken into consideration.

Will McKie seek a second term as Board Chair? She owes $51,750 in fines and penalties to the South Carolina Ethics Commission (as of 6/11/2019). The Ethics Commission should be turning that debt over to the S.C. Department of Revenue for collection.

If she does seek re-election as Chair, what significance with the board give to her current debt to the South Carolina Ethics Commission, on which no meaningful payments have been made?

The board tried to adopt a new Board Policy earlier this year that might have caught up McKie. That proposed policy would have given the board authority to remove an officer; not remove the person from the board, but remove that person as an officer. The vote was 3-4 (including Nay votes of McKie and Holmes). Without those two votes (and there is good reason to omit both votes), the result would have been 3-2 - a Passing vote!

The board could, but won't, remove her from the board. S.C. Code of Laws §59-19-60 reads,

"School district trustees shall be subject to removal from office for cause by the county boards of education, upon notice and after being given an opportunity to be heard by the county board of education. Any such order of removal shall state the grounds thereof, the manner of notice and the hearing accorded the trustee, and any such trustee shall have the right to appeal to the court of common pleas, as provided in Section 59-19-560. Vacancies occurring in the membership of any board of trustees for any cause shall be filled for the unexpired term by the county board of education in the same manner as provided for full-term appointments.

There is no "county board of education" for Richland County. Richland 2 is that board of education. Richland 2 School Board Policy is that a vacant trustee position will be filled by special election conducted by the the Richland County Council. There have been two vacant positions since November 6, 2018.

What "cause" could the board use? How about failure to file required annual forms with the State Ethics Commission? Former Gov. Nikki Haley removed a Richland County Councilman for failure to pay S.C. income taxes for three years. Mrs. Haley referred to that as an act of moral turpitude.

When the school board gets ready to elect its officers for the coming year, it must select three with impeccable integrity, character, honesty, ethics, principles and responsibility.

As it happens, there are three on the board with those qualities who will be eligible for election as an officer for 2019-2020. And it's not the majority that McKie refers to so often as supportive of the superintendent.

Review: June 2018 Board Officer Election

At the last School Board meeting of the 2018-2019 School Year, the Board held an election for Board officers. That election was on June 26, 2018, and it was for the term beginning July 1, 2018 and ending on June 30, 2019.

The Officers are Board Chair, Board Vice Chair and Board Secretary.

If you care to view that election, go to Richland 2's website,
click on EXPLORE; then
click on School Board; then
click on BOARD MEETINGS; then
click on PAST BOARD MEETING HIGHLIGHTS ARCHIVES; then
click on 2017-2018 School Board Meeting Highlights; then
scroll down to June 26, 2018 and
click on Click here to watch the entire meeting.
Fast-forward (drag) to 58:55 on the timer.

Supt. Davis chaired the nominations and the voting.

For Chair, McKie was nominated by Caution-Parker.
By a hand vote of 5-2 (Nay/Abstain by Agostini and Elkins-Johnson), McKie was elected to the office of Chair.

For Vice Chair, Elkins-Johnson was nominated by Manning.
For Vice Chair, Shadd was nominated by Caution-Parker.
By a paper vote of 4-3, Elkins-Johnson was elected to the office of Vice Chair.

For Secretary, Agostini was nominated by Elkins-Johnson.
For Secretary, Shadd was nominated by McKie.
By a paper vote of 5-2, Agostini was elected to the office of Secretary. *

* Mrs. Agostini resigned from the office of Board Secretary on April 26, 2019, after she refused to sign documents associated with a $26,000,000 Bond Notes sale. Mrs. Agostini would not affix her name to the Certificate of Incumbency (which stated Amelia McKie is the Board Chair and that her term of office as Chair is July 1, 2018 to June 30, 2019), and she would not sign the Signature and No Litigation Certification (also related to McKie's position).

On April 30, 2019 the Board elected James Shadd as successor Board Secretary for the remainder of the term to June 30, 2019.

Mrs. Agostini continues to serve as School Board Trustee. Her term of office is 2016-2020.

Texting & side conversations during meetings

School Board meetings are public meetings by public bodies.

Anything said at a public meeting by an official should be audible throughout the room.

There is a Board Policy about texting and emailing during meetings. The policy is, Don't. Do. It.

Who will remind board members to put down their phones?

Should the School Board have a parliamentarian or a sergeant-at-arms? Someone to remind them to speak into the microphone and pull the microphone close to them, instead of sitting back 18-24 inches from it or turning away from it while speaking?

Last night's praise for giving good microphone goes to Teresa Holmes and Baron Davis. Thank you.

The booby prizes go to Amelia McKie, Cheryl Caution-Parker and James Shadd. Assuming that what you have to say is important, then say it loudly enough that all can hear you. Please!

Richland Library - irresponsible decision

Richland Library patrons are receiving an email that announces the end to fines.

This is a terrible decision and is going to bite them hard on the bottom line.

OK, so now, when I check out a book, I don't have to return it. I'll just keep it as long as I want. How nice that the Library will remind me that my book is due. I'll just tell them I haven't finished it yet.

And this sentence in the Library's email? "If you lose or damage an item, we’ll simply add a replacement fee to your account so that we can replace the item."

How will it know whether I have lost or damaged it? At what point will they add a replacement fee? The books now have no due dates!!!

I just checked out Operation Lost Trust, by John Crangle. It was published in 2016, and my copy (autographed) looks brand-new and never opened. It's the story of corruption in S.C. government. Only 600 pages?

What does it sell for? $25.00? $50.00? It's not listed on Amazon.com. Author Crangle was quoted in the media as saying that wholesale price was less than $25.00; thus, legislators wouldn't have to report his gift on their Ethics Commission filings.

Why should I ever return this book? (If you know me (or even if you don't), I will read it, and I shall return it.)

When I lived in Santa Fe, New Mexico, its library had a similar policy. Teachers would check out 50-100 books for use in classrooms, and the books were never returned.

You can forget reserving a popular, newly-released book. The first person will check it out and never return it. Then the Library will buy another copy. And another. And another.

Tutoring Policy

The School Board once again nitpicked its way through Policy revisions last night. But they, for a change, did it pretty quickly by voting en masse to approve a large number of the proposed revisions - without showing them to the public.

One target of discussion was Board Policy GCRD - Tutoring for Pay.

I swear, you'd think that Richland 2 is in competition with the Federal Government, when it comes to writing policies. Read Policy GCRD and the proposed revisions here.

What is Richland 2 worried about?

That a teacher might tutor a student on school property. OMG. It's taxpayer-supported property. Can't have that!!! Then the District would have to let private tutoring services onto school property. Well, okay; why not? Just charge a small fee for the use of two chairs and a table for an hour. Let's say, $1.00. Charge the teacher, too.

A staff comment was made that allowing paid tutoring by a teacher on school property would be a violation of State Ethics policy. Well, I'll bet there is a legal way around that.

The prohibition should be on undisclosed tutoring-for-pay. The solution? Just disclose it. The worry seemed to be that a teacher would be tutoring "for personal gain".

How many teachers tutor just for the big bucks they earn after working all day? Half a dozen? Two? One? None?

What about the "personal gain" of the student?

Note the policy reads that "This practice must be limited to children students other than those for whom the teacher is currently exercising teaching, administrative or supervisory responsibility."

That's a pretty dumb restriction. Who would have the best knowledge of that student and his/her needs? The classroom teacher! I don't think any teacher is going to short a kid in the classroom just to drum up a few bucks after school.

Who will best understand the learning style or obstacles to learning of the student in need of tutoring? The classroom teacher, of course!

Maybe, instead of wasting time on re-writing so many policies, somebody ought to just take a big pair of scissors and cut up most of the policies.

12 Years of Perfect Attendance

The best part of last night's school board meeting was the recognition of 12 years of perfect attendance by Chasity Thomas, 2019 graduate of Ridge View High School.

Can you imagine the commitment it takes to attend every single day of school? That was 2,160 days over the 12 years.

Chasity's certificate of perfect attendance was accepted for her by her younger brother, Chase.

Congratulations!!!