District Email Address for Holmes & Elkins. Same tune, second verse.

Several months ago I wrote about the importance for the Richland 2 School District to set up District email addresses for Monica Elkins and Teresa Holmes.

First of all, why should there be any hesitation or reluctance by the District to do so? As soon as an elected person becomes a legal board member, that should be right at the top of the list after he or she takes the oath of office.

It should be a District Policy. A Board Policy. 

OK, so that explains why Holmes doesn't have one and uses a personal Gmail address. But that isn't the reason that Holmes doesn't have a District email address (@richland2.org) for Holmes. 

All school business should be conducted on the District's email server, so that there is a permanent and accessible record forever by the District.

One of these days Holmes and Elkins won't be board members. When that day comes, how will the District be able to meet the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act? On the day they leave office, they could close their Gmail accounts and wipe out all official business email communications.

What would keep Holmes or Elkins from making an incomplete search of their email records when responding to a FOIA request?

What would keep them from deleting an incoming or outgoing message that they'd prefer did not exist?

Or let's say that a member of the public or a government agency or a business submits a FOIA request.

What control does Richland 2 have over the Gmail accounts of Holmes and Elkins? NONE.

This is basic Public Body 101. 

Holmes and Elkins should not be able to say, "But I like my Gmail address. I don't want a richland2.org email address." Well, it doesn't matter. The District should set it up for them and tell them that they WILL use it for all official email correspondence. 

What reason or excuse does the District have for not following this common-sense requirement?

Voting Absentee?

Will you be voting by Absentee Ballot in the November 3, 2020 General Election?

Have you requested your Absentee Ballot Application yet? Do you know that you can submit an online request for the application?

Go to www.scvotes.org  Click on "Get My Absentee Application".   Follow the instructions. 

The Richland County Elections Commission will mail the application to you. Once you receive it, follow the instructions on it, and then mail it back to the RC Elections Commission.

The next step is to wait a few days, and then you can check online to learn if your application was delivered to the Commission.

Go to www.scvotes.com  This time, click on "Check Your Absentee Ballot".

Just above the Submit button, check the box for the Statewide General Election, and then click Submit.

The entries at the bottom will inform you of the status of your Request, your Application and your Ballot.

Once you receive and mark your Ballot, you'll be able to mail it back or take it to an Absentee/Satellite Location at North Springs Park Community Center - 1320 Clemson Road, Columbia, SC 29229 - October 7, 2020 - November 2, 2020 (8:30 am - 5:00 pm). If there is a line, you don't have to wait in line to turn in your Absentee Ballot.

Caution-Parker insults parents of special-needs students

What's the panic? What's the "emergency"? What pandemic?

From DHEC and The State newspaper on September 11, 2020, less than 27 cases in Richland 2 schools. It could be as few as 7, because "Schools with fewer than five cases do not report a specific number." These numbers are only for students and staff reporting to schools.

"In Richland 2, Spring Valley High School reported at least one case each among students and faculty. Windsor Elementary also reported less than five cases among faculty, and L.B. Nelson Elementary has fewer than five cases among its students... 

Catawba Trail Elementary and Muller Road Middle both previously reported fewer than five faculty members each coming down with the disease. Richland Northeast High School also has fewer than 5 student cases."

If you watched last week's (9/8/2020) school board meeting, you know that parents want their kids in school, especially the students with special needs. Watch the two segments of public comments on YouTube for the September 8th meeting. Hear the reasonable pleas of the parents. 

The first segment of Public Participation begins at 11:22 on the timer.

The second segment of Public Participation begins at 2:06:00 on the timer.

Parents of students with special needs were insulted by Trustee Caution-Parker, when she launched a two-minute tirade criticizing the many parents who submitted public comments and defending Dr. Davis. 

Caution-Parker said (at 2:24:54), "I would just like to say to the parents that made the comments, that it sounds like, this is my opinion, that this has been a coordinated effort by some of you to bring all this at one time to our board and our superintendent. I would encourage you, I would urge you, I beg you, pick up the phone, call the superintendent and talk to him one-on-one without listening to anybody else out there, saying this thing that or their opinion.  Get the facts. Get all of the facts. And please understand we have to look at Richland 2 as an entire community, not certain sections. And just like you've made your point this evening about face-to-face learning, believe me when I tell you we have just as many and more parents on the other side that like just the way we are handling it. And what we have to do is look at the district as a whole and that, I believe with all my heart and soul, is what Dr. Davis and his team are doing. Please, when we get these nasty emails, where you up and comment like 'you die' and all this, that's a bunch of crud. That's a bunch of crud. Nobody is going to pay attention to that. You need to talk to directly to Dr. Davis and get the facts."

Caution-Parker misses the whole point of School Board responsibility. The reason that parents are coming to the board with their comments is because they know that the Board is supposed to direct the superintendent. 

Has anyone ever been at a board meeting and heard the superintendent say that he got 275 phone calls and emails last week from parents complaining about e-learning and that they want their children back in school? In 2½ years I've never heard him give that type of report.

Caution-Parker is totally wrong that the board is to look only at the big picture. In the special education world there is FAPE - Free and Appropriate Public Education. Parents of special-ed students know about it. Special Ed advocates know about it. Special Ed teachers know about it. Richland 2 does not have a choice about FAPE. Richland 2 must provide it.

Kudos to the 24 parents who submitted comments to be read to the Board last Tuesday!

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.