Rubberstamp School Board

When I was on the school board, in particular the school board of 2010 and 2012, there was two sided debate on the issues. When the district administration brought a plan to the board, it was examined, critiqued, often modified and improved, and sometimes an alternative plan was put forward. Votes were often 6 to 0, but sometimes 5 to 1 or 4 to 2. Once in a while I would get a complaint saying, why can’t you just all agree and just get along? I would reply, sure we can do that. We can pass a policy that says everyone must agree with the superintendent or the chairman, or better yet, me. That will end any disagreement, all the votes will be 6 to 0 and all will be “happy”. We’d laugh and usually they’d get my point. Sad to say, I think we’ve got a board that has ended disagreement by all just going along with the district administration and the board leadership.

Each meeting the administration will present plans to the school board from things like the annual calendar, to pay raises, to more borrowing, to facilities upgrades. With most proposals, there is a recommendation from the administration to approve their proposal. The board then listens to a presentation, asks questions, there is debate and then a board vote.

The new board recently concluded its second year. I combed through their meeting minutes and reviewed all their votes and how each trustee voted (leaving out procedural votes like going into executive session, approving minutes or to adjourn a meeting). During the past two years there were 156 action item votes. Only one item was voted down over the two years. Only seven items did someone vote “No”. Most all the votes were either 6 to 0 or 5 to 0 (someone absent or abstains). The board went as many as 10 meetings in a row without a dissenting vote on anything.

This is a rubber stamp school board. I also examined the voting records of each board member the past two years. Former superintendent Betty Bagley and chairman Brian Swords voted with the administration recommendation or the board majority 100% of the time. Betty Garrison, a former school district administrator, voted with the administration recommendation 99% of the time. Shannon Haskett, the Pickens trustee was also 99%. Those four trustees are rubber stamps for the district administration, and might as well just call it in.

Phil Bowers voted with the majority/ administration 97% of the time. The “maverick” on the board was Henry Wilson who was 94%. In contrast, my last two years I voted with the administration/ majority 63% of the time.

There are many problems that occur when the board falls into rubberstamp mode. For example, the taxpayers wisely do not hand the public checkbook to the superintendent. That would get awfully expensive because he is unelected and unaccountable to the public. Instead, taxpayers give the checkbook to the school board which is directly elected and accountable to the public. The board’s job is to listen to administration proposals and separate the wants from the needs, the priorities are wise and make sure total spending growth is reasonable.

This checks and balances system breaks down, and things get very expensive when the school board just rubberstamps the spending plans the administration drops on the board room table.

The 2016 CMP budget was $24.8 million. The school board, in a 6 to 0 vote, just approved the 2020 CMP budget for $47.2 million. That is, spending has risen an average of about 23% a year. I would have never voted for such liberal spending, and now you can see why I only voted with the majority 63% of the time. To fund their spending spree, they have doubled annual borrowing from $3.25 million to $6.5 million. That’s on top of the nearly $270 million in outstanding building debt we’ll be paying off until 2032. All this borrowing generates more interest and bond issuerance fees, that don’t pay for one textbook or pencil.

Two, they are swiping $1.7 million from the general fund account to fund the shortfall in the CMP budget. By the way, the general fund account is used to fund education expenses from teacher salaries to classroom supplies.

Under the state law the school board is given review and judicial authority over all district administration decisions. If an employee thinks they’ve been wronged by the district office or a parent treated unfairly by a school, they can file a grievance to the board. When presenting such a grievance to the board, the administration recommends the board not hear the complaint and accept the administration’s decision on the matter. The board then can vote not to hear the grievance, thereby affirming the administration’s decision, or vote to hear it and render a final decision, sometimes reversing the administration’s decision.

This board has abrogated this responsibility, and has yet to vote to hear a grievance case. Employees and parents are learning no matter what the district office’s decisions are final, there is no longer recourse to the board, and the employee or parent just has to accept the district office’s decision, fair or not. Quite sad.

Closing the AR Lewis and Holly Springs added students to Pickens Elementary. That school’s car pick-up line was already a nightmare and it is worse with cars going down Monroe Street, stacking up on Highway 178 — sometimes 10 cars deep. Dangerous, and the city police have warned about this for years.

A $500,000 car loop redesign was slated for Pickens Elementary. Looking at the 5-year CMP plan I received just before I was defeated in 2016, the fix was scheduled for the summer of 2018. However, after I left the board, they voted 6 to 0 to push the fix back to 2022.

By the way, they pushed the project back to 2022 and replaced it with projects to tear down an abandoned building (old Skelton Center) and spend $350,000 on restrooms and a press box at Gettys Middle.

If you look at the most recent 5-year CMP just approved, again 6 to 0, the $500,000 Pickens Elementary car loop redesign is nowhere to be found, pushed out to forever I guess. Yet the $1.5 million apiece car loop redesigns at Forest Acres and West End remain on the list. It is all about Easley these days, and the entire board is drinking that Kool-Aid too. For instance, the Pickens trustee, Shannon Haskett, voted for the 2022 delay and then removing the Pickens car loop from the list all together.

When the votes are 6 to 0 behind the administration, no one even dares to question the obvious. Group think takes over. Only 45% of the students in the school district read at grade level and yet only 2% are left back each year. Thus, according to their own statistics a good 40% are not reading at their grade level, but are promoted to the next grade level. Also if 45% are reading at grade level, how do they graduate 85% of students? Are they just pushing many through the system?