One woman, said to be attending her very first East Tallahatchie School District Board of Trustees meeting last Thursday night, called the Feb. 13 experience “the most embarrassing thing I’ve ever seen.”
Passions ran high during the board’s regularly scheduled February session in the wake of a controversial special called meeting of the board last month.
At that Jan. 24 gathering, attended by three board members — Education District 6 trustee and board vice president Lincoln “Buddy” Smith, ED 8 trustee Raymond Radcliff and ED 10 trustee Donna Jo Taylor — a special election was held for officers and the three voted to not renew the contract of District Superintendent Dr. Darron Edwards, set to expire June 30.
Problem is, Edwards, two other members of the board — ED 7 trustee Tameka McIntyre and ED 9 trustee and board president Darrell Neal — and several sources which they cited last week, indicated that one required element was missing from a public notice of the special meeting, making that meeting “illegal” and effectively rendering null and void all actions taken therein.
The notice, a letter-sized paper flyer taped to an exterior door at the school district’s central office, included the place, date and time of the Jan. 24 meeting but did not cite the subject matter to be discussed, as required by state law and local school board policy.
Edwards, who during last week’s meeting had six-sheet paper packets of four board policies — "Special Meetings," "Method of Election of Board Officers," "Duties of Board President" and "Executive Sessions" — distributed to the crowd of about 30 and also showed slides of those policies on a large screen in the boardroom, said it is clear that “several policies” were violated during this process.
“There’s nothing wrong with you having a special called board meeting, but there is something wrong, and it’s not OK, when you don’t go by the policy,” he noted.
The missing subject matter was a recurring theme.
“The school board, you have to be transparent,” Edwards said. “If you don’t post what the subject matter of your meeting is, if you don’t post what you’re meeting about, you’re not being transparent and it looks like you have a hidden agenda, and it looks like you’re having a private meeting and you don’t want the public to know what you’re meeting about. ... Nowhere in the notice did it state a subject matter. Clearly, that meeting was a violation.”
Radcliff, who said he was responsible for having the flyer drawn up, added that he did not intentionally omit the subject matter from the special meeting notice, adding, “It was just an oversight.”
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Neal, who said he learned of the special meeting through a “picture text” sent to his cellphone from Smith at 12:45 p.m. Jan. 24, called the method of notification “so disrespectful and a slap in the face.”
He noted that ever since he has been board president, whenever a meeting date has to be changed for any reason, he notifies all of the members with a phone call.
In early remarks at last week’s meeting, Neal indicated that paperwork has been filed with the Mississippi Ethics Commission complaining of irregularities surrounding the Jan. 24 meeting.
Neal also said he called the Mississippi School Boards Association (MSBA), as well as ETSD board attorney Jim Keith, for guidance with the situation.
Radcliff also referred to Keith, a Ridgeland attorney, on numerous occasions, saying that Keith had told him “to carry on” and that the Jan. 24 meeting “was a legal meeting until either a court or the State Department of Education tell me otherwise.”
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A repeated point of contention last week surrounded the Feb. 13 agenda.
Neal pointed out that without an approved agenda, there could be no board meeting to transact district business.
Neal had to ask twice before getting a motion to approve the agenda. McIntyre provided that.
After the first request for a motion, Radcliff interjected, “I make a motion we amend the agenda to election of board officers. That’s a priority. It was supposed to have been done the first meeting of January.”
“You had a chance to have an election [on Jan. 24], but the problem is that whole meeting was illegal,” Neal replied. “And at this point, I can’t fix it, you can’t fix it, the state of Mississippi has to fix it.”
Board policy does stipulate that officers are to be elected annually at the first meeting each year, but that did not occur on Jan. 9.
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Radcliff has suggested that Neal failed to call for the election of officers on the specified date because it had become known that Radcliff, Smith and Taylor would vote to shake up board leadership.
They indicated as much when at their Jan. 24 special meeting, Radcliff was elected president, Smith vice president and Taylor secretary.
Radcliff also has speculated that election of officers was delayed because it had become clear that, when given an opportunity, the threesome would vote against renewal of Edwards’ contract, which would automatically renew for one year at the end of January in the absence of board action to the contrary. Edwards is in the second year of a two-year contract paying him a base salary of $121,000 annually.
Neal last week told Radcliff that he had planned to call a special meeting for election of officers before the end of January.
“I told you we had all of January. All of January wasn’t over with,” Neal noted. “We had another week. You jumped the gun. You and somebody jumped the gun.”
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There were several pointed exchanges, including one while Edwards was telling about a recent conversation with the executive director of the MSBA.
"There's a governing body called the Mississippi School Boards Association. They're responsible for providing training for all school boards in the state of Mississippi," Edwards said. "Here's what I would like to briefly just read with you. We have an executive director who's over the Mississippi School Boards Association."
"I'm going to stop you right there," Radcliff interrupted.
"No, no, sir, you're not going to interrupt me," Edwards replied, turning to Radcliff.
"Jim Keith just told me to speak up, and I'm speaking up," Radcliff said in an elevated voice. "Your discussion is improper. It's not on the agenda."
"OK, that's fine. That's fine," Edwards said, before also raising his voice in an effort to be heard over Radcliff.
"On Monday, Feb. 3," Edwards continued, and then paused and said to Radcliff, "We don't even have an agenda approved, so we can't have a meeting yet noway. Nice try. Remember who you're dealing with."
Addressing the crowd, Neal said, "Now, do y'all see what we've got to deal with? You see? I'm glad you've seen it firsthand. It's not this hard, it's not this hard when we're making decisions for children that we have to put up with this kind of stuff."
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After repeated requests and still no one offering a second to McIntyre’s motion to approve the Feb. 13 agenda, Neal voiced frustration.
"I apologize. I'm a part of this board, and I am really embarrassed," Neal said to onlookers. "I told the attorney this is the way I was going to fix it: come in here and lay the policy out. And we've got bills and stuff that need to be paid also. ... So, if we can't get a [second to the motion], we'd might as well go home. I'm not going to sit here and pacify Mr. Radcliff because he wants to go in a different direction."
Later, Edwards read a litany of items on the agenda that he said would go unaddressed if business was not conducted, calling some of them "very time-sensitive."
“You’re stating tonight, ‘I’m not going to approve the bills to be paid in the East Tallahatchie School District and I’m not going to do what’s best for children,’” Edwards said. “Look, here’s what I say: If you have a problem with it, leave. OK, I’m just being honest with you.”
At about 7:18 p.m., some 48 minutes into the board meeting, Smith finally relented, offering the second for approval of the agenda, which passed 3-2, with Radcliff and Taylor opposing.
“If y’all want to get up and leave, you can go now,” Neal told them. “I’ve got three board members. We can have business.”
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Contacted Monday via text about the school board situation, attorney Keith said he could not comment on any specific advice he has given to the school board.
He did say, “Any time a board is divided, it makes governance difficult. When there is division on the board, the MDE [Mississippi Department of Education] is the entity that should be asked to come in and observe board actions.”
He closed, “Hopefully the board will be able to come together and focus on moving the district forward. While disagreement is not necessarily bad, we need to ensure that all decision-making is for the best interest of the students.”
IN THE PHOTO: East Tallahatchie School District Superintendent Dr. Darron Edwards (right) speaks into the ear of ETSD board president Darrell Neal while school board member Raymond Radcliff checks his phone during a Feb. 13 meeting of the ETSD Board of Trustees. (Photo by Clay McFerrin)
Editor's note: This article has been edited and expanded from the version which appeared in the Feb. 20, 2020, print edition of The Sun-Sentinel.
