In a pathetic display of thinly-veiled spite, at the behest of Gregg Meyers, Toya Hampton-Green dragged the CCSD School Board's rules into the public forum of its open meeting Monday night. [See Board's Behavior Discussed in Tuesday's P&C.] You know, just in case anybody [not to be named] needs reminders.
Evidently, Board member Elizabeth Kandrac has become the elephant in the room--she who cannot be named--but who every last bootlicker for Superintendent Nancy McGinley is determined to silence, one way or another. It's the let's-try-to-embarrass-her-in-the-open-meeting ploy. What Meyers et al do not comprehend is that a seasoned middle-school teacher has endured tougher battles than these dilettantes can throw at her.
Let's look at the lead on Courrege's article: "Some Charleston County School Board members have been breaking the board's rules by giving orders to school staff, being disrespectful to employees and visiting schools unannounced." Serious stuff, right? But where are the specifics? Let's hear names, dates, and places instead of innuendos.
What is ripe, though, is that Meyers asked McGinley "to evaluate the board's behavior." Who's the employee here? The Board is made up of elected officials; the superintendent serves at their pleasure, not the opposite.
Then we learn that--holy cow!--Board members actually visited schools without giving the Superintendent advance notice! It's a rule, is it? Let's ask ourselves, what real purpose does it serve?
Meanwhile, the public is probably surprised to find that its elected representatives don't have the same rights as any resident of the county when it comes to visiting a school!
The message from Meyers, Green, and McGinley to their favorite Board member: Don't ask too many questions. Don't visit schools to see what we are doing. Don't interfere with the good thing we've got going here. Don't rock the boat. And, for pete's sake, when the Superintendent speaks, smile and just say, "Yes, m'am. You are so right."
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
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9 comments:
I doubt if Green or Meyers have any understanding of the proper relationship between a publicly elected board of trustees and the administrator a public board hires to carry out its public work. Even if the county school board chairman and vice-chairman are presumed to be experienced attorneys, they continue to show themselves as second rate lawyers and third rate politicians. This is a clumsy attempt at intimidation and retaliation, plain and simple. You can bet this plan was hatched in close quarters with McGinley, Green and Meyers prior to this meeting. There was nothing spontaneous about it.
McGinley has no legal authority or mandate "to evaluate the board's behavior". That is the sole responsibility of the county school board itself. Since they seem to be angling to get rid of a critic, they should know only the governor has the authority to remove an elected official, and then only for specific cause related to a crime or violation of election laws. As for any lesser offense, only the sitting members of a given board can rebuke another sitting member. Perhaps Green and Meyers are not as familiar with Roberts Rules of Order as they would like us to believe.
By any stretch of creative interpretation, McGinley isn't even remotely in this legal picture. Only the school board by a majority vote has the power to admonish a member, unless of course Green and Meyers have no stomach for owning up to a fight they started by taunting and insulting the minority at every turn. Never mind that minority has a mandate from the people to represent all of Charleston County just like Green says she was.
Then again, Green and Meyers may be setting McGinley up for a nasty fall. It seems they almost want McGinley to get her Irish up for a street fight. McGinley may try to do to Kandrac what she's known to have done to others, but Kandrac isn't new to this game.
In the bigger picture McGinley is hardly qualified to assess anyone's civility considering her history of rude and course behavior which she has often directed toward subordinates and parents. She's a common street fighter herself who knows how to goad others into a fight without appearing to have provoked it, like this one. All the while she pretends to be the offended party.
What a crock! Meyers and Green are equally full of it. They serve each other well and serve least or not at all the people and public schools of Charleston County. I'd like to know, between McGinley, Green and Meyers, whose boots shine more. Then tell me which one of the three spends most of any given day with their nose where the sun doesn't shine.
I want to know when Ms. Green last visited a District 20 school. She gets goose bumps watching teachers teach? Where is this?
No one could be more disingenuous. Ms. Green is totally unconcerned with what goes on in a regular CCSD school, so long as her own children aren't involved. As for following CCSB policies and rules, she doesn't seem to mind not using them if she chooses. This became an issue only when she and the superintendent decided certain CCSB policies could be used to retaliate against certain critics, including other school board members. Let us remind the county school board chairman, an attorney no less, that it is against CCSD policies to conduct closed door meetings to the extent she's doing it. Hey, it's against state law to do what Ms. Green has been doing. As an attorney she should know that. So when is it appropriate to prevent an elected school board member from doing what any citizen by law is allowed to do? Everyone, even school board members, have to check in with a school's front office whenever they visit a public school. Parents do it all the time. So what's Ms. Green's problem?
Word is she illegally attended a CCSD admin meeting this week....Babbie, did you write her a pass for that?
To anonymous 7:47 PM....who attended what CCSD administrative meeting? Just curious. I'm not clear on your references. Isn't CCSD supposed to publish a calendar for all administrative meetings relating to policy and governance? I believe state law is very clear that all CCSB meetings are required to be published in advance and are open to the public although the public may not always have a chance to speak. Even closed door meetings, yes even diciplinary hearings, must begin and end with their doors open. Tell me this is wrong and then do us a favor by citing the legal code which says CCSB members do not have to post their meetings or schedule them to prevent public oversight.
When the light comes on the roaches will scatter.
Word was it was the countywide principals meeting not a board meeting......
As a constituent and taxpayer, I want the board members we elected to represent us at any meeting they deem necessary. I certainly have no patience for anyone telling them otherwise. Checks and balances. It's called democracy.
Babbie, have you heard the OCR is in town interviewing board members this week regarding the school closings and whether they were based on race or not.
I wonder what lies they're telling. I know I don't trust anything Ms. Toya Green has to say...she may be green, but...
How outrageous can this superintendent get? It appears we haven't seen her limits yet. I fail to see just how "disruptive" it really is for a county board member to sit in on an administrative meeting involving more than 100 county employees. Come on, get real! This is just another calculated attempt to smear another person on the Super's enemies list. The flurry of e-mail messages from the suckups are part of the paper trail McGinley uses. They are just valentines from the faithful. No principal worth their salt could possibly be intimidated by the mere presence of a school board member. If anything, a reasonable principal should be pleased that an elected official involved in shaping public education policies would want to sit through one of these mass meetings right along with them and in the same trenches.
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