Bets anyone? 3/28/23 Board Meeting - 5 hours?

Look at the agenda for the 3/28/2023 board meeting. Note that a second Executive Session already has one item in it.

I predict that the 3/28/2023 meeting will be at least five hours. The board will convene at 5:30PM, go into executive session, and then re-convene in open session at 6:30PM.

I estimate that the agenda will require the board to stay awake until 10:30PM, plus the drive home. Prove me wrong.

Not only the board will have to stay awake. The numerous staff members who are required to show up for "face time" will have to struggle to look interested. I don't know why the Chair and the Superintendent don't eliminate attendance for most of the staff. If they have an active role in the meeting, they need to be there. Or they could be available by phone for the ten minutes they are needed.

Do those staffers get overtime or compensatory time?

If they don't have a role during the meeting, then somebody could clue them in for that small portion of the meeting that pertains to their function, and they could watch that on the Livestream recording.

And then there are the deputies from the Sheriff's Department who are hired to be there, and ALL the security staff who are paid to be there. How much is that (waste) costing the District?

Any ordinary business would have all that security there only if needed. But, since Richland 2 is a school district with a huge budget and piggy bank, all that unnecessary security is there because it's your money being spent, not the money of a District employee.

$1,000,000 CrisisAlert System

At the last school board meeting I told the board that I'd prefer they spend $1,000,000 on a Crisis Prevention Program than on a Crisis Alert Program. 

At the time I did not know what they had up their sleeves.

The cat is out of the bag now. With the publication of the agenda for the March 28th board meeting, Item 9.1 is a Safety/Security Update: Centigix Crisis Alert Badges and the attachment.

You can review the pitch that the board will receive at  https://go.boarddocs.com/sc/rsd2/Board.nsf/files/CQ7L2Y548283/$file/Centegix_Board_March.pdf

This is Unfinished Business - No Action Requested. I haven't paid as close attention to agendas this year as before, and I don't remember a previous board discussion about this program.

Look at this Program and form your own opinion. 

Did you know? Board Retreat tonight (3/23/23)

A board retreat was scheduled for today at 4:00PM. And I just found the announcement on a Special-Called Board Meeting, when I viewed the Agenda page for board meetings.

That Special-Called Meeting was to be held at 3:00PM, with the only topic of Superintendent Search.

Neither meeting was live-streamed.

Part of the 4:00PM Retreat was a presentation of "The Role of the Board". Be sure to look at the attachment, which can be found at Item 3.2 of the agenda. The presentation is well-organized.

Examine the attachment here: https://go.boarddocs.com/sc/rsd2/Board.nsf/files/CQ6S3M6CDC0E/$file/The%20Role%20of%20School%20Board%20Members_Richland%202.pdf

I hope all board members were present, awake and alert. Attorney Ashley Story of White & Story, LLC was primed to present solid information to the board. Her presentation and discussion could have been "the" single topic for a full workshop.

Yet there were eight other items on the agenda under New Business - No Action Requested. Did they get to all of them? How long were they there?

I wonder why the decision was made not to live-stream that retreat. The public certainly would have been interested in Attorney Story's presentation!

Safety and I.G. Committees, March 21

I wanted to attend both meetings held on Tuesday. The Safety Committee met at 6:00PM, and the I.G. Report Committee met at 6:00PM.

I started out at the I.G. Report Committee. I was the only visitor. In addition to the three board members (Washington, Porter, Trapp) two staffers were there. 

I was immediately unimpressed with how the meeting started, so I left and went to the Safety Committee. 

Two board members (Nash, Scott) were present; McFadden was absent. Two parents had been chosen to be on the Committee, and the Teacher of the Year was there. A young woman (student?) was seated with the Committee.

I lasted 20 minutes there. 

Apparently, I define and understand "Safety" differently than the Committee.

Perhaps something productive happened after I left. I hope so.

Board Meets on Parliamentary Procedure

On Tuesday, March 21, at 4:45PM the Richland Two school board met in a public session devoted to parliamentary procedure. The invited speaker/trainer/consultant was Attorney Helen McFadden.

Attorney McFadden is a noted expert on Robert's Rules of Order. Her clients have included the Richland Two board itself (that's where I first met her; she noticed I had a copy of Robert's Rules of Order with me). She has been a parliamentarian for several public bodies, including Beaufort (S.C.) County Council (at $250/hour in 2021), the Democratic National Committee, the State legislature, and other organizations.

For an hour she led a discussion on Motions and secondary motions. I was the only visitor at yesterday's meeting. It was an official meeting of the school board, because a quorum was present.

Was that sole topic worth the cost of hiring her for that meeting?

Have the Board members taken the available online trainings on Robert's Rules of Order? Have they attended workshops at SCSBA conferences, the attendance for which costs Richland Two more than a pretty penny? Is the District getting its money's worth for those expenses?

The public should be seeing a steady increase in professionalism and organization at board meetings, starting with control over the agenda and significant steps to curtail the length of board meetings.

There are one chief (Board Chair) and six Indians. This board is acting like there are one chief and five Indians who want to be Chief. The Board is not an after-school club. It should be considered a serious business organization. It is! It's a Billion Dollar business with a $300 Million budget.

It should be a leader in efficiency and professionalism. It should understand its role.

Most of this board have only had to balance their family checkbooks. It is imperative that they learn to function as executives and leaders, not as managers or employees. Will they?

If the Indians don't like the way things are being run, on June 27, 2023 they can elect a new Chief.

Where is the Sense of Urgency?

I admit I would be a terrible committee person.

If the school building were on fire, I would not be concerned with what color the firetruck was painted or whether its paint was dry.

I'd want water on the fire and rescuers in the building.

That sense of urgency is not present with the Richland Two Safety Committee.

Why so easy on the new board?

Yesterday I received a telephone call from a community member who asked why I was being so "easy" on the new board. That person reminded me (correctly) that I had been hard on the old board.

Indeed, I had. And they deserved it.

And the caller was right that I've cut the new board some slack. Why is that? It's not because they are doing better than the old board. I explained that the reason is that I'm tired.

More than once I've thought to myself, "OK, the honeymoon is over." It's time to call it like it is.

This last election was proof that you don't need to be qualified to be a school board members. What you need is more votes than the others. 

How long will it take them to learn to function as a board? Board meetings should not be longer than 90 minutes. That's how long they were five years ago. 

If they wonder (and I doubt they do) why the public is not showing up at meetings, all they have to do is look at the clock.