So, I sent this advisory article to ALL the school board and Supt. Fisher prior to their meeting and requested the advisory article to be put into the board meeting minutes.
At the Feb 27, 2017 meeting the school board discussed this Policy 2310 at great length, but were careful not to mention my message or the Institute of Government advisory article. Other things were fishy and strange about this discussion. Nobody mentioned anything about a legal opinion from the CCS Board’s lawyer, although the board had authorized over $18,000 for legal assistance in revising board policies. Since I attend just about every school board meeting I can often pick up on what the board says and especially what they do not say in their board meetings about “touchy” subjects.
And apparently school board members Jo Boggs, Bully Glover, Roger Harris and others do not like to be called bare faced liars by citizens, especially a Baptist Church Deacon who truthfully call them just that to their faces. In one particular case Jo Boggs and Bully Glover were called that after the Baptist Church Deacon’s grandchild was denied school bus service down his road even though the schools had sent buses down his road for over thirty years. Jo Boggs told the Deacon that it was illegal for CCS to send a school bus down his road.
Jo Boggs also has a history of trying to squelch citizen’s complaints while she was a County Commissioner. When citizens were against the County giving the Old Courthouse to the Destination Cleveland County group and citizens were coming to the commissioner’s meeting to speak their mind, Jo Boggs literally called out the dogs on them. A Sheriff’s Department K-9 vehicle was placed in front of the County Office Building with the clear message to citizens that Jo Boggs didn’t want to hear any complaints. I was an eye witness to that so I know for a fact what happened. So do many others.
Now, the school board is essentially trying to do the same thing with this policy that is basically a gag order on citizens. But there is much more.
Today, March 8, 2017, I decided to check out the minutes from the Feb 27,2017 school board meeting. Supt. Fisher is the Board Secretary and the person in charge of the minutes. The minutes on the board review of Policy 2310 only says “Board members discussed some of the wording in Policy 2310, and Policy Subcommittee members agreed to clarify statements in the policy before it is brought back for second reading.”
I immediately sent an email message to the school board that said:
“All, I see from your draft minutes of the Feb 27, 2017 meeting that the information I provided as noted below was not included in those minutes. Also, what was provided in the draft minutes does not adequately describe the board’s discussion of Policy 2310 at he meeting. Perhaps the two go together.
Nonetheless, I would suggest that the final version of CCS Policy 2310 not deviate from Court Decisions that provide case law for such actions. I would further suggest taking this Policy to your well paid attorneys for their advice prior to approving Policy 2310.
Regards,
Robert A. Williams”
Then, I decided to look up the original school board policy 2310 to see just what had changed. I was in for a surprise. The original, and still active, Policy 2310 is for “Grant Funding” and is one paragraph long. Not a peep about Public Participation at Board Meetings. A search of the CCS Policies indicated not a word about Public Participation at Board Meetings.
