Complaint re AR KI-R - Second Request

Today I have sent a follow-up to my March 8th complaint about the improper administration of Administraive Rule KI-R.

Chair Holmes and members of the board,

I have not received any acknowledgement or response from Ms. McKie or anyone else to my complaint sent to her 2½ months ago. This complaint is not part of my grievance. Do you have a record of action taken on my complaint by Ms. McKie after she received it? What did she do with it?

My March 8, 2022 complaint was filed about an Administrative Rule of Richland 2 that is being improperly administered. I request again that my complaint be addressed, that I have the opportunity to speak to the complaint, and that the appropriate authority in the District take action, without further delay, to correct the erroneous administration of AR KI-R.

AR KI-R reads, in part, (authorized personnel) "... may issue a verbal or written "no trespass" notice for the school facility..." 

"Facility" is singular. AR KI-R authorizes a "no trespass" notice for a single facility, not for "ALL [sic] properties, facilities, campuses and buildings", which is the wording in the No Trespass Notice issued to me on January 26, 2022.

Please acknowledge that you, the trustees and the Administrators of Richland School District Two understand that "facility" is singular and cause the District to issue a correctly-worded No Trespass Notice (Letter) to me.

Sincerely,

Gus Philpott

Sumter middle school - site of assault and disruption of school

Read this from an article in The State newspaper about two women who attacked students in a middle school in Sumter.

"If convicted on the assault charge, each woman faces a maximum sentence of a year in prison, while a conviction on the misdemeanor disturbing schools charge is punishable by a maximum of 90 days in jail and a $1,000 fine, according to South Carolina law." Read more at: https://www.thestate.com/news/local/crime/article261598142.html#storylink=cpy

So, thinking back to January 25, if the Richland 2 superintendent did, as reported, charge at Gary Ginn and had to be restrained by Richland 2 security officers and board members, and if Pamela Davis did disrupt schools by shouting at me in the boardroom and cussing out a 14-year-old student, weren't they subject to these same charges and penalties?

How did the sheriff's department and solicitor's office make their decisions so quickly, less than 24 hours later, that no crimes had been committed? 

RCSD had my written statement, but they never talked to me. The 14-year-old student says RCSD never talked to him. Did RCSD ever interview Gary Ginn? If they didn't talk to the victims, to whom did they talk?

Who on Board violated Policy and Law?

The following email has been sent to Teresa Holmes, with copies to other board members and the superintendent. 

Good afternoon, Chair Holmes,

I am writing to file a complaint against the board member(s), including yourself, who (1) disclosed matters from the April 28, 2022 executive session at the Special-Called Board Meeting to the Richland County Sheriff's Department (RCSD) and to local media; (2)  recorded portions of the executive session; and (3) provided recordings to the RCSD.

Recording was in direct violation of Board Policy BEC which reads, in part: "Under the state's open meeting laws, board members and other persons attending the executive session are duty bound not to disclose matters discussed in the session. Board members or any other persons attending will not use tape recorders or any other means of sonic or video reproduction to record executive sessions."

Such recording was also in direct violation of South Carolina Code of Laws SECTION 30-4-90(c).

SECTION 30-4-90. Minutes of meetings of public bodies.
(c) All or any part of a meeting of a public body may be recorded by any person in attendance by means of a tape recorder or any other means of sonic or video reproduction, except when a meeting is closed pursuant to Section 30-4-70 of this chapter, provided that in so recording there is no active interference with the conduct of the meeting. Provided, further, that the public body is not required to furnish recording facilities or equipment.

I request that the board hear and discuss my complaint in open session for the purpose of full disclosure to the public.

Please address my complaint under Board Policy KE and provide me with updates during the progress of consideration of this complaint.

The public will take note that Board Policy KE was revised (watered down) on March 22, 2022 to eliminate the requirement that the board must consider complaints not satisfactorily resolved by the superintendent.

Trustee McFadden Apologized

Trustee Lashonda McFadden held a press conference at R2i2 yesterday to publicly apologize for her participation in the incident at the special-called board meeting on April 28.

This was honorable conduct by her and should be accepted in the spirit in which it was given.

Teresa Holmes did not attend yesterday's meeting of the Committee of the Whole.

Why Kali Fontanilla stopped teaching

Watch this hard-hitting video from PragerU. This former teacher (Salinas, Calif.) hits the nail squarely on its head.

Kali Fontanilla, founder of Exodus Institute, knows what she is talking about. Check out her home-school program.

Spread this video far and wide. Use the "Email this" button at the bottom of this article to forward to your friends, colleagues, neighbors.

And read this 2021 Epoch Times article about Kali.

Roll Call required at board meeting

More than once in the past 2-3 years I have urged the school board to call the roll at board meetings. Why is this important?

It is essential for a public body to be certain who was present and who was not. The main reason is to confirm that a quorum was present. For the Richland 2 School Board, that's five members to be present. And it should be five legitimate members.

Immediately after calling the meeting to order, the chair should direct the Secretary to call the roll by name. If a member is attending by telephone, that should be so stated. Then announce whether a quorum is present. If a quorum is present, then the chair can proceed with the business on the agenda.

For some unknown reason, the board entertains a motion to leave executive session aftet they have returned to the main meeting room. South Carolina law allows the executive session to decide to return to public session.

SECTION 30-4-70. Meetings which may be closed; procedure; circumvention of chapter; disruption of meeting; executive sessions of General Assembly.

(b) ... No action may be taken in executive session except to (a) adjourn or (b) return to public session." 

Once the board returns to public session, the correct motion would be to re-convene (after the executive session). Richland 2 school board never does that. 

What they currently do is vote to leave executive session. They never vote to re-convene.

When the board does re-convene, roll call should be taken again.

Why should they do that? Simple. To comply with State law. When they had the consultant come in for two Executive Coaching and Parliamentary Procedures training, that should have been explained to the board. It wasn't.

SECTION 30-4-90. Minutes of meetings of public bodies.

(a) All public bodies shall keep written minutes of all of their public meetings. Such minutes shall include but need not be limited to:

(1) The date, time and place of the meeting.

(2) The members of the public body recorded as either present or absent.

The Minutes do state who was present and who was not; HOWEVER, the members were never recorded as present or absent during the meeting. The recording secretary (not the Secretary) notes who was there. Because there was no roll call, no "record" was made at the time who was present.

Thus, at every meeting the board approves Minutes that are incorrect.

If a member departs before the end of the meeting, the chair should immediately announce who left and at what (correct) time. If that member was attending by phone, it's even more important. The member on the phone should state that s/he is leaving, so that the chair can announce the departure and time. That departure could affect whether the meeting can legally continue.

"Special" Committee meeting 5/16/2022, 5:30PM, R2i2

The following email has been sent to Richland 2 school board.

Please discuss tomorrow what "Special" means for the 5/16/22 Committee of the Whole meeting. On the District's website, the meeting is announced as "SPECIAL COMMITTEE MEETING OF THE WHOLE ON SAFETY AND SECURITY".

Please create a space on the Richland 2 website where meeting content and remarks will be posted quickly after meetings, so that parents, community members, business owners, employees, teachers, students, and staff will be aware of what you are doing.

Please also describe to the public how the Committee is separate from the board.

Please livestream the Committee meetings.

Please explain to the public how your Committee is organized, who is in charge of it, and how you will include the public in the future, since Public Participation is not on your agenda.

If Minutes are kept, please ensure they are more expansive than Board Minutes are.

For your committee work, please describe how it will work with the BeSMART initiative and local organizations, such as Building Better Communities (BBC), that are attempting to reduce gun violence. You don't really have to re-invent the wheel.

Email the board and tell them what you want. Use this string to email add board members:

teresaholmes@richland2.org, ameliamckie@richland2.org, cherylcautionparker@richland2.org, jamesmanning@richland2.org, lashondamcfadden@richland2.org, lindsayagostini@richland2.org, puttingstudentsfirst2012@gmail.com,