AdvancED claims Pickens County School Board was micro-managing our school district. However, it is important to read the first line of the SC state laws on education: SECTION 59-19-10. School districts shall be under management of boards of trustees. Each school district shall be under the management and control of the board of trustees provided for in this article, subject to the supervision and orders of the county board of education.
The superintendent runs the school district day-to-day but he is not elected. So it stands to reason that his power should be limited by the elected board.
Neal Collins and Gary Clary who are elected official are now trying to micro-manage the school board. They introduced a bill in the legislature to add a 7th seat to our school board and they will select that new member because they “fear” loss of accreditation. Is that the only reason? I think not.
Rahm Emanuel said, “Never let a crisis go to waste.” I think Collins and Clary are creating a so called crisis, and coming up with their solution to “fix” it. Collins and Clary and the Concerned Citizens of Pickens County didn’t get the votes they wanted out of the school board when the board resisted a tax increase. This group’s philosophy is tax and spend.
Only nine tie votes out of about 700 have been cast by the board, and most of those issues were settled in a compromise. This is NOT dysfunctional, despite what Mr. Collins claims. What Collins and his followers really want is to “fix” all the upcoming votes so the “progressives” will get their way.
Maybe Collins, Clary and CCPC’s actions of fear mongering and micro-managing should be investigated by AdvancED.
Easley didn’t get their second middle school. And they’re still mad. This seventh seat would most likely be added in Easley. This would give the progressives a 4 to 3 majority. They’ll get that second middle school. That will cost $25 million and another $700,000 a year to run yet another school.
Johnnelle Raines
Pickens