Patriot Day 2020

 Never forget ... 9-11-01.

The students in Richland 2 schools hadn't even been born yet. Others alive today weren't old enough to understand what really happened that day.

When you see the U.S. Flag today, lowered for Patriot Day, pause in your travels and think about what this Flag and the U.S.A. mean to you.

The U.S.A. has enemies today, and not all are foreign enemies. We must protect ourselves against ALL enemies, foreign and domestic.

Today there are domestic enemies. They are in Portland, Seattle, Minneapolis, Kenosha, Chicago, Atlanta. Some were even here in Columbia. And some still are.

I heard this years ago - "The price of freedom is eternal vigilance." A wise Irish judge and politician said it. John Philpot Curran (1750-1817).

Be vigilant.

District Ombudsman - just a high-paid traffic cop?

Yesterday I emailed the Richland 2 School District Ombudsman about a copyright issue and possible ethics violation. Today I received a polite reply, re-directing me to the Senior Chief Communications Officer.

Several months ago the Ombudsman presented a report to the School Board. She read her presentation to them and then was unable to answer specific questions asked of her. The superintendent should have known exactly what she was going to say, and I don't have any doubt that she was told exactly what to say. "Just read the slides to them."

She's a nice person. After her presentation, I decided then that she is little more than a "traffic cop" on the District's payroll. I was surprised to learn yesterday that she is a 30-year employee of Richland 2. Her introduction as Ombudsman was posted on the District's website under date 8/9/2019. The lead paragraph reads, "Richland School District Two announced that Kelli Johnson is the district’s new ombudsman. The ombudsman is a newly created position and serves as an objective or neutral party who seeks to facilitate the resolution of concerns as quickly and efficiently as possible."

The first definition of ombudsman found on Google reads, "an official appointed to investigate individuals' complaints against maladministration, especially that of public authorities." That was not how she described her job.

In business (and a school district is Big Business) an ombudsman has some independence and some muscle. She reports directly to the superintendent. When she explained her position to the Board that evening, I felt she had neither independence or muscle. 

Her response to me about the Clint Pulver video validates my suspicion. She should have made the investigation about the possible illegal use of the Clint Pulver video. That was her job, not shuttling me off to Mrs. Roof.

Are you familiar with the popular saying in legal circles that a lawyer never asks a question in court to which he doesn't already know the answer?

I already know the answer as to whether the District had permission to use the Clint Pulver video.

The Voice slams Shadd's friend, Leevy Johnson

Be sure to buy a copy of the September 10th Voice of Blythewood & Fairfield County. A front-page article slams Chris Leevy Johnson for his use of what that paper calls a "perjorative". Leevy Johnson had referred to Trustee Lindsay Agostini as a "KAREN" for her vote against the nomination of James Shadd as Board Chair and against approving the superintendent's evaluation.

Leevy Johnson's message was posted in a Facebook message to James Shadd shortly after Shadd was elected as Board Chair of Richland 2 on June 30. When I say "shortly", it was only minutes after the election. The Facebook posting indicated that Leevy Johnson  was "with" Shadd.

What time did he join Shadd that afternoon?

On this blog I wrote about it and referred to Leevy Johnson's use of KAREN as a racial slur. 

Imagine the uproar if anyone called Leevy Johnson a "racial slur". 

Why did Mrs. Agostini vote against Mr.Shadd? It had something to do with Shadd's owing almost $50,000 to the State of South Carolina for unpaid income taxes for several years.

Pick up your copy of The Voice at numerous locations in the area. The paper has some great stories and ads. Contact the paper about having it delivered to your home by mail. 

9/8/20 Board Meeting - Absolutely Pitiful

A prominent attorney in Columbia suggested to me earlier in the year that I ought to run for the School Board. He told me I'd have a good platform for talking about what's wrong and he added, "But you don't want to win."

The Executive Session ran over about 15 minutes. After the regular meeting got underway, Board Chair Shadd called on trustee-elect Amelia for the Inspirational Moment. First she launched into a long, long, recital of every employment position in the school district and finally thanked them. Then she indicated for a video to start, without preamble, and the first slide was INSPRIATIONAL [sic] MOMENT.  Who reviewed that slide and missed the typo?

Then a long video played, at the end of which was www.clintpulver.com  McKie made no introduction of who Clint Pulver was. Pulver is a professional speaker, and his video is most likely copyrighted.

Board meetings are totally out of control. Chair Shadd makes no attempt to control McKie. The Inspiration Moment should be a "moment", often thought of as about 90 seconds. 

Twenty-four comments were received from the public. Mrs. Roof read the first 12 (although it seemed like more) to the board. Many (most) had to do with the feelings of parents that special ed children and the younger children are being short-changed by being forced into the computer model of learning. Parents feel the District should not use Richland County COVID-19 numbers, which are now influenced by the irresponsible students at USC, whose infections are boosting COVID numbers for the County.

Then the board voted to accept Caution-Parker's "volunteering" to attend a December meeting of the South Carolina School Boards Assn. (SCSBA). That was clearly a backroom deal, because Chair Shadd said that he "understood" that Caution-Parker had volunteered. From a public meeting standpoint, he should have opened the item on the agenda and waited for one of Caution-Parker's buddies on the Squad to nominate her to represent the District at that SCSBA meeting.

But the kicker tonight was the H.R. discussion on new hires. After the staff report, the superintendent took a deep breath and soared into space about his 100 Premier Men of Color program, throwing accountability out the window because it's "his" program, not a Board assignment that would be part of his evaluation.

Mrs. Agostini asked if his program would be successful, if the District hired 100 men of color but lost 150 men of color. The superintendent (often referring to himself in the third person as "the superintendent") took a second deep breath and rambled on. Apparently, that program will be "successful" if just one student has a teacher who looks like him.

Board Chair Shadd should learn how to run a meeting. Perhaps he ought to have a private conversation with "the superintendent" and tell him just to answer questions and not deliver a thesis. And also not to butt in without being recognized by the Chair. But Shadd won't do that. It might hurt someone's feelings.

Somebody should have called "Point of Order" on the superintendent and on McKie. I got fed up at 6;30PM and abandoned the rest of the meeting.

I'm so glad that I thought long and hard about running for the Board and made the smart decision (for me) not to run. The minority is powerless and might as well not even show up for meetings.

"Gun" seen in virtual class

 A Colorado school district went nuts last week, when it suspended a 12-year-old student who inadvertently allowed a toy gun to be seen by the camera of his home computer during a virtual class.

A different news article said the boy was seated on a sofa and moved the "gun" from one side to his other side. The teacher thought it was a toy.

Could that happen here?

The boy, a student at Grand Mountain School in Widefield School District 3, Colorado Springs, Colorado, was attending a virtual art class. The teacher reported it to her principal, who sicced a deputy of the El Paso County Sheriff's Department on the boy at his home without notifying the parents.

See the school's CYA statement in the news article. It's one of those carefully- and thoughtfully-worded statements prepared by a school district's lawyer to try to shield a school from a lawsuit.

Most readers today won't remember the days when boys drove their pick-up trucks to school with the rifles slung on brackets in the back window. Or the days when there was a after-school rifle club.

Now a school is like an airport. One doesn't even dare to say the word "gun".

What is Richland 2's policy in a situation like this? 

Is the School District set up to intrude into a private home? If it's obviously a toy gun, should anything be said? Suppose Mom or Dad walks into the room and stops to observe the son's school work. If s/he is "packing", will the teacher call the police and report a gun in the classroom?

Is Richland 2 School District full of teachers and other staff who are anti-gun?

On February 28, 2018, two weeks after the shooting in Parkland, Florida, I asked the school board to consider surveying teachers, staff, parents, and community members on the issue of arming teachers. The superintendent made the decision for the board by informing me there would be no survey.  I wondered who put him in charge of the Board.

The whole mess in Colorado Springs could have been handled by a simple phone call from the teacher to one of the parents. But today's teachers are afraid to demonstrate such independence and individual thinking. They fear Administration. And that's why there is a huge bureaucracy, such as in District 2 here, that sucks up millions of dollars that could otherwise go into instructional services.

What is the Authority of the Board Chair?

The Richland 2 School Board is supposed to have seven members, who are called Trustees. They are elected for four-year terms, which are staggered. Four were elected in November 2018. Three will be elected in November 2020.

At the last meeting of the School Year, which ends June 30th, the Board elects its Officers for the following school year. They serve from July 1 to June 30.

Board Policy BBAA - Board Member Authority and Responsibilities clearly specifies what individual members of the Board can and cannot do. The Board Chair is a member of the Board, and his authority is limited by Policy BBAA.

Paragraph 2 of BBAA begins with, "Board members acting as individuals have no authority over personnel or school affairs except when such authority is specifically delegated to a member by the board. Such authority will be given to an individual board member, including the chair, by a majority of the board."

Recently an issue came up with a letter that was sent by Board member James Shadd in his position as Board Chair. The point made at a board meeting was that the board had never authorized him to send such a letter. He could have sent it as an individual without mentioning Richland 2, but it was apparently sent on behalf of the District. 

The Board Chair is one of seven. 

Now we all know that, if Shadd wants the Board's permission to do something, he has plenty of followers on the board who will approve. But he should have asked. Votes on anything he wants will be 6-1 or 5-2. In a rare circumstance where he might have to recuse himself, the vote will still be 5-1 or 4-2. 

That's the Board that voters and taxpayers have to live with until the tide changes in Richland 2.

District Violated Board Policy on Nov. 13, 2018

The Richland 2 School District violated its own Policy BBB, when it swore in Amelia McKie and Teresa Holmes on November 13, 2018. Therefore, there is one more reason that McKie and Holmes are not legitimate members of the Board.

Heretofore, I have asserted that McKie and Holmes are not legitimate members of the board because they violated S.C. Code of Laws Section 8-13-1110(A) by taking the oath of office and commencing their responsibilities before they filed their Statements of Economic Interests with the S.C. Ethics Commission. That assertion of that violation is still true.

Now comes the second point by which they are illegitimate members of the Board.

The second paragraph of Board Policy BBB reads, in part, "The term of office of every elected trustee of the school district must commence one week following the certification of his/her election." [emphasis added]

McKie and Holmes were sworn in on November 13, 2018 (less than one week following certification of their election), and their notarized oaths of office are dated November 13, 2018.

The 2018 election of school board members was November 6, 2018.

The election was certified by the Richland County Elections Commission on November 9, 2018.

This means that the term of office for McKie and Holmes began on November 16, 2018, not on November 13. They should not have been seated at the November 13th Board Meeting, and their votes on any matters should be removed from the record. 

McKie and Holmes never took the oath of office at the beginning of their term of office. If the practice of Richland 2 is to administer the oath at the beginning of the term of office, why did it administer it three days early? McKie and Holmes should not have been seated at the November 13th board meeting.

They didn't even become eligible to take the oath of office until December 4, 2018, when each filed her Statement of Economic Interests with the Ethics Commission. December 4th is the earliest date they could have legally taken the oath of office. The only date they took the oath was November 13, 2018.

In addition to violating State law, they violated District Policy. The District may claim that the oath can be administered before the term of office begins, as far as the Board Policy goes. Had McKie and Holmes filed their SEIs, then the only problem would be that they were seated before the Board Policy allowed. BUT they had not filed their SEIs, and they were not eligible to take the oath under State law.

McKie and Holmes have been eligible to take the oath of office since December 4, 2018; yet they have not. They have been allowed to attend confidential Executive Sessions and to vote on student and District matters. They have been paid. They have probably been reimbursed for expenses. Who pays for their membership in the South Carolina School Boards Association?

McKie, while not yet a legitimate member of the board, serves as a Director of the SCSBA. The SCSBA is aware of the challenge to her position on the Richland 2 School Board; yet it allows her to serve.