Bring back open meetings

The Richland 2 School Board could meet in open sessions. All it would have to do is arrange seating at a decent interval.

Pretty simple, eh? And seat the trustees at six-foot intervals at the front of the room. That would eliminate side-conversations that distract them from paying attention to business.

Email the trustees now. Their email addresses are here.

And ask them to rescind the suspension of Policy BEDH - Public Participation at Meetings. Your voice is important and needs to be heard.

Public Participation at school board meetings is not just sending them an email.

Public Speaking at Board Meetings? Forget it.

At last night's (May 12, 2020) Regular Meeting of the school board, Board Chair James Manning remarked that traditionally the Richland 2 Board has provided two public speaking times at its meetings. He followed that up by saying that not every school board allows the public to speak at meetings.

Who was that comedienne who always said, "Isn't that nice?" Lily Tomlin?

I was waiting for him to say that the public ought be darned thankful that the board lets them speak.

Lindsay Agostini was the only trustee to speak up on behalf of the public and to place value on what the public has to say.

He also said that the public can send email to the board and administration of the district, as if he equates that to standing up in front of the board and saying what's on your mind for three minutes.

Former Board Chair Craig Plank was good about saying at the beginning of Public Participation segments that the board would not respond that night to comments made by the public but that a member of the staff would get in touch with the speaker.

It was nice to hear. It was nice of him to say that. It didn't happen, but it was nice to hear.

In February 2018 I addressed the Board and requested a survey of teachers, staff, parents and community members on the topic of arming teachers. That meeting was two weeks after the shootings at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

Did anyone contact me? No, not until I followed up with Craig. The the superintendent called me to tell me there was not going to be any survey.

Of course, I wondered when the board had considered my request and made a decision. It hadn't. The superintendent decided.

Then I requested the District to apply for a grant from the NRA School Shield Safety Program. The money is given with no strings attached, to be used to analyze safety at schools and improve it. Again, no response until I followed up with Craig. Then the superintendent called to say the district would not apply for such a grant. The Board never considered it or decided. The superintendent said No. Richland 2 seeks grants all the time. Why not ask for $10,-15,-20,000 and see what happens? If it had been from the Brady bunch or MOMs Demand Action, they would have run toward the money. But from the NRA? Are you kidding? Take money from the NRA?

But now no member of the public will be able to speak up at board meetings to ask questions. You won't be able to ask when Amelia McKie is going to pay her $51,750 judgment owed to the S.C. Ethics Commission. You won't be able to ask when Amelia McKie and Teresa Holmes will finally take the oath of office and begin legitimate members of the school board. And you won't be able to submit suggestions to the District for items to be included on the agendas for meetings.

What you CAN do is call your favorite board member and try to persuade him or her to make a motion to add an item on the agenda. But board members are already having problems getting items on the agenda. It is the Board Chair and superintendent who set the agenda.

You know those bobbleheads on car dashboards - the ones that move when the car hits a pothole or bounces over railroad tracks? That's our board, except Lindsay Agostini and Monica Elkins-Johnson.

But they don't get any support from the other five board members, when it comes to using common sense. So they could make a motion for some really good idea and, if The Squad didn't like it, you can bank on four trustees voting No.

Too harsh? Just watch the May 12, 2020 board meeting. You may need to pull the timer back to 0:00 for the start of the meeting. To view the part where you lose, move the timer to 19:11.

The public lost on May 12, 2020.

This afternoon I watched the first 28 minutes of yesterday's (May 12, 2020) Regular Board Meeting.

If you want to see how a meeting should not be conducted, watch it. Take notes. Try to follow what was going on.

The result of the suspension of Board Policy BEDH is that you, the public, the voter, the taxpayer, have lost your privilege to speak at Board meetings and to suggest agenda items to the Board.

Mrs. Agostini solutions and suggestions for allowing the public to continue to participate. She argued for a deadline to the suspension. Her suggestions were ignored by the other six board members.

Mckie interrupted and spoke without being recognized by the Chair. McKie said the suspension was temporary. IT IS NOT.

Elkins-Johnson first said she wanted it only through the summer. Then Manning confused her and she apparently gave up on what she wanted.

Manning said that this board does not intend to squash public participation. YET THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT THEY DID.

Manning said the public can send emails to the board and administration. That is not "participating."

If you hurry, you can still read and print Policy BEDH on the District's website. I urge you to do so.

Last night's discussion did not include mention of the future of Policy BEDH. Will it remain on the website but just be marked "Suspended indefinitely, 5/12/2020"? Or will it be removed?

It should not be removed. The policy was suspended, not rescinded. Policy BEDH is still a Board Policy. Let's see what happens.

If it vanishes but you want a copy, request it by sending an email to the District. If you don't get it, email me at gusphilpott@gmail.com

The public should demand restoration of Policy BEDH. Now.

I could write a book about what was wrong with the way the Board handled last night's discussion and decision. Instead, go to the District's video-recording of the meeting and watch it from 19:11 on the timer. It's a three-ring circus. It's a disaster.

If you have a really sharp eye, you'll spot that the screenshot of the website meeting announcement is in error. It reads "Public session begins at 5 p.m." The public session actually began at 4:30 p.m. After an executive session, the Public session was scheduled to re-convene at 5 p.m.

Lastly, the pecking order of images on the Zoom/Livestream presentation of the board meetings should not put the superintendent's screen at the top left. That position ought to be reserved for the Board Chair, who conducts the meeting. Then the other board member's screens should be shown, and the superintendent's screen should be at the bottom right.

Passive-Aggressive Behavior at board meeting

I missed the first part of this afternoon's board meeting, because I drove a neighbor to the ER at the V.A. Hospital.

By the time I could join the Zoom meeting, it was about 5:35PM and the agenda item about suspending Board Policy BEDH - Public Participation at Meetings was underway. There was a motion pending to approve the suspension, and Trustee Lindsay Agostini was making a secondary motion to put a time-limit on the suspension.

Her motion needed a second, but Trustee-Elect (and Board Vice-Chair) Holmes was recognized and stated that the state-of-emergency was over. Finally, the Chair, James Manning, interrupted her and said he was waiting for a second to Agostini's secondary motion.

Manning should have cut Holmes off immediately with a Point-of-Order, but he didn't. He let her say what she wanted to say.

Then he asked again for a second to Agostini's motion. A second to her motion would have opened up discussion on her secondary motion.

What response did Manning get to his request for a second?

The Board Vice-Chair (Trustee-elect Holmes) ,who had spoken out of order, said nothing.
The Board Secretary, Caution-Parker, said nothing.
James Shadd said nothing.
Monica Elkins-Johnson said nothing.
Trustee-elect McKie said nothing.
Even the Board Chair (James Manning), who could have seconded the motion, said nothing.

So the secondary motion died for lack of a second.

This is one worthless board. The secondary motion should have received a second, so that it could be discussed. And this is not the first time that Mrs. Agostini has made a motion and failed to hear a second.

Later on, McKie was vociferous in her ongoing praise for the superintendent. You'd think she worked for him. She can talk and talk and say nothing. She has been on the board for 5½ years and even served a year as Board Chair, and still she won't support another board member with a simple "Second".

Certain of the board members (McKie, Holmes, Caution-Parker, Shadd) are blind followers of any that the S.C. School Boards Assn. suggests. The suspension of BEDH was recommended by the SCSBA. As elected school board members in this district, they are responsible to this district, not to the SCSBA.

Then the primary motion - to suspend BEDH indefinitely - was voted on. The vote was 6-1.

Such an agenda item, with its resulting vote, is TOTALLY against the best interests of the school district. Now you, the public, cannot speak at board meetings. You cannot suggest items for the board to consider. Just sit there, keep your mouths shut, pay your taxes and be good little boys and girls.

That is what your school board told you tonight.

What can you do about it? Contact the board members. Tell them you do NOT approve. Demand that they vote again and, next time, rescind their decision to suspend the Public Participation at Meetings decision.

T.A. at Windsor Elementary arrested

You have to read all the way to the last paragraph in this story to find out that Windsor Elementary is a Richland 2 school. https://www.thestate.com/news/local/crime/article242654606.html

A 35-year-old teaching assistant, Anna Valeria Howard, was arrested on May 8 and accused of giving a prescription pill to a six-year-old student.

The story indicates that courthouse closures resulted in delays in the arrest, "... as well as Howard’s willingness to cooperate with the investigation."  I wonder whether the reporter meant "unwillingness".

The story doesn't report the outcome of her arrest. Was she just cited for "unlawful neglect of a child" or was she jailed? If so, how much was the bond? Is she still in jail?

Windsor Elementary is located at 9800 Dunbarton Drive (29223). For those who don't know, that's on the west side of Sesquicentennial State Park, between the Park and Two Notch Road.

The story in The State includes "However, the 6-year-old later tested positive for amphetamines, and investigators discovered Howard had an amphetamine prescription." It doesn't report how much "later" nor whether the amphetamine in the child's blood was the same as Howard's prescription.

Can we expect this case, in the hands of a good lawyer, to implode?

R2 Board attempts to pull a fast one

Minutes before the time to amend the agenda for the May 12, 2020 Regular Meeting of the Board, the District published a revised agenda, adding an item that is very important to the public.

The Board will be asked to suspend Board Policy BEDH - Public Participation at Meetings. Previously, the Board suspended Policy BEDH temporarily. Now it wants to suspend it. Period.

The District's email to media announcing this agenda change was sent out at 3:56PM. The deadline was 4:30PM. An agenda cannot be changed within 24 hours of the meeting, and tomorrow's meeting starts at 4:30PM.

The District attempts to put the responsibility for the proposed suspension on the S.C. School Boards Assn. (SCSBA)  It needs to have the guts to accept the responsibility and make decisions on its own. It is swallowing too much of the Kool-Aid from the SCSBA. That association does not put the public first. It is an association of school boards, and it proposes what is best for them, not for us.

To know what Richland 2 wants to do away with, go to the District's website - www.richland2.org

Click on EXPLORE (top right)
Click on School Board
Click on BOARD POLICIES
On the left sidebar, click on B - SCHOOL BOARD GOVERNANCE & OPERATIONS
Scroll down and click on Policy BEDH

What does BEDH cover?

It leads off with "The public is invited to attend board meetings..." Wrong. State law says board meetings are open to the public. There is no "invitation" involved. It is your lawful right to attend all meetings of the board. You have the right to know what's going on. They must meet and act in public, not in secret.

Paragraph 2 dictates what you can say and how you say it. It does not say that you cannot complain about how or what the board is doing.

Policy BEDH says the public can request an item to be on the agenda. Maybe suspending this Policy is their way of not responding to my request that the Board adopt a policy requiring all board members to use the District's email service.  Such a new policy would require two board members (Holmes and Elkins-Johnson) to stop using personal email accounts for board business. When they do, it is hard to FOIA their emails. Think Hillary Clinton and her private server.

This Policy also covers members of the public who want to speak at board meetings. They want to do away with this!

The board already tries to censure speakers who have "personal complaints" about anyone connected with the school system.

My complaints about the two illegitimate members on the board (McKie and Holmes) or the (illegitimate) board member (McKie) who owes $51,750 to the S.C. Ethics Commission are not "personal" complaints. Every voter in the District and every Richland 2 employee and five board members should be outraged by those issues.

I'm not the only one complaining about those issues, but I am the only one who hasn't given up. For a while I thought the S.C. Attorney General would arrange for McKie and Holmes to appear before the S.C. Supreme Court to answer why they have not taken the oath of office legally yet. After all, they were elected on November 6, 2018. They became eligible to take the oath of office legally on December 4, 2018 and have not done so.

Call your board members immediately and tell them to vote NO on this item on the May 12 agenda. If you are reading this after May 12 and if they approved it, call them and ask them to vote again and rescind the suspension of Policy BEDH.

R2 Agenda for 5/12/2020 Grade? F

The District has failed once again to meet state law in announcing a meeting of the school board.

The agenda for the May 12th Regular Meeting does not indicate the location for the meeting.

A page of the website preceding the Agenda lists "Zoom" and no further explanation.

When (If) you visit the District's homepage for more information, you learn that the meeting is not on Zoom. You must view the meeting at www.richland2.org/livestream

How many people will go to Zoom and then start scratching their heads? And miss the meeting.

One of the trustees asked at a recent meeting for the agenda to show the correct meeting location. Well???

The pertinent section of the S.C. Code of Laws is

"SECTION 30-4-80. Notice of meetings of public bodies.

(A) All public bodies, except as provided in subsections (B) and (C) of this section, must give written public notice of their regular meetings at the beginning of each calendar year. The notice must include the dates, times, and places of such meetings. An agenda for regularly scheduled or special meetings must be posted on a bulletin board in a publicly accessible place at the office or meeting place of the public body and on a public website maintained by the body, if any, at least twenty-four hours prior to such meetings. All public bodies must post on such bulletin board or website, if any, public notice for any called, special, or rescheduled meetings. Such notice must include the agenda, date, time, and place [emphasis added] of the meeting, ..."