School Board Meets May 23rd
We're going
to tell ya big, long winded, story. You will have to dig thru
the poor diction and pee poor spelling. In the end, what we're
leaving you with is, based on what we picked up at a couple
meetings, School Superintendent Joe Paxton either fibbed
(cover up) to the world or is incompetent.
Get your cup of coffee, tell the kids to go play in traffic, this is going to take a while.
Get your cup of coffee, tell the kids to go play in traffic, this is going to take a while.
Any time
school board members talk about public business or decide
anything related to school business, either must be done
during a public meeting. There are three kinds of public
meetings: regular, special, and emergency. Based on W Va Open
Meetings Law, all those meetings require an agenda to be
posted ahead of time. An agenda is mandated to provide the
public with what will go on during the meeting. The law
requires them to be specific on any vote coming our way.
Regular meetings require agendas to be posted three business days ahead of the planned meeting. Special meetings require that same three day period. Emergency meetings can be held right after the agenda is posted on the meeting house door.
During the Larry Gillipse administration, things were so atrocious, the W Va Ethics Commission issued a formal opinion on Clayberry that included: if you have a website, agendas must be posted there in addition to the meeting house door. The thang about an ethics opinion is, if you follow their advice, the agency has an absolute defense if they get sued.
We never wanted to be an attorney. For the Ace Cub Reporter, he always aspired to be something honorable like a used car salesman. But, things as they are, we think we've captured what the law says.
On Thursday May 19th, without proper posting, the County School Board convened a special meeting at high noon. During that gathering they discussed items to be voted on four days later during a regular meeting. We think they met secretly to get things worked out without the pesky public present. To cover the sensitive stuff like doing away with contract bus drivers. That translates to: jobs.
We published what we found out about that special meeting on the clayberry.org web portal. Based on the calls we received and discussions on the street, the Bd and Joe Paxton caught double H for such transgressions.
Doubling down, under the recommendations of the Super and OK'd by the Sch Bd Chair (Dave Mullins), they did it again on May 23rd at 4pm. For that meeting we got word something was going to happen ahead of time. We called the Pentagon and asked Paxton's secretary Mary Holcomb about the rumor. Ms Holcomb who knows everything going on in the system told us: if there is a meeting, I know nothing about it.
Not giving up, Joe Paxton got on the horn and told us: Yes there is a 6pm regular meeting that day, May 23rd, and and and there is special meeting, a public meeting, where the new budget would be discussed beginning at 4pm. And then he added: this meeting was advertised in that wittle newspaper over in Lewisburg, the Freeze Press. We didn't even know that paper was still in business but found a copy of last week's edition, May 19th. We did not see a school system legal classified there.
With the whole idea being to keep the public out of the loop, see what Paxton was saying?
W Va Bd of Ed rules require notice be given the public but buried in the back of some out of county newspaper and done so in 2 point type. Paxton was willing to comply with that law but not Open Meetings Law.
We don't think that was incompetence. We think that lack of notice was intentional. The idea was, for the Board to handle the sticky items before hand and away from the public.
Regular meetings require agendas to be posted three business days ahead of the planned meeting. Special meetings require that same three day period. Emergency meetings can be held right after the agenda is posted on the meeting house door.
During the Larry Gillipse administration, things were so atrocious, the W Va Ethics Commission issued a formal opinion on Clayberry that included: if you have a website, agendas must be posted there in addition to the meeting house door. The thang about an ethics opinion is, if you follow their advice, the agency has an absolute defense if they get sued.
We never wanted to be an attorney. For the Ace Cub Reporter, he always aspired to be something honorable like a used car salesman. But, things as they are, we think we've captured what the law says.
On Thursday May 19th, without proper posting, the County School Board convened a special meeting at high noon. During that gathering they discussed items to be voted on four days later during a regular meeting. We think they met secretly to get things worked out without the pesky public present. To cover the sensitive stuff like doing away with contract bus drivers. That translates to: jobs.
We published what we found out about that special meeting on the clayberry.org web portal. Based on the calls we received and discussions on the street, the Bd and Joe Paxton caught double H for such transgressions.
Doubling down, under the recommendations of the Super and OK'd by the Sch Bd Chair (Dave Mullins), they did it again on May 23rd at 4pm. For that meeting we got word something was going to happen ahead of time. We called the Pentagon and asked Paxton's secretary Mary Holcomb about the rumor. Ms Holcomb who knows everything going on in the system told us: if there is a meeting, I know nothing about it.
Not giving up, Joe Paxton got on the horn and told us: Yes there is a 6pm regular meeting that day, May 23rd, and and and there is special meeting, a public meeting, where the new budget would be discussed beginning at 4pm. And then he added: this meeting was advertised in that wittle newspaper over in Lewisburg, the Freeze Press. We didn't even know that paper was still in business but found a copy of last week's edition, May 19th. We did not see a school system legal classified there.
With the whole idea being to keep the public out of the loop, see what Paxton was saying?
W Va Bd of Ed rules require notice be given the public but buried in the back of some out of county newspaper and done so in 2 point type. Paxton was willing to comply with that law but not Open Meetings Law.
We don't think that was incompetence. We think that lack of notice was intentional. The idea was, for the Board to handle the sticky items before hand and away from the public.
Joe Paxton (L), Dave Mullins (R)
After that second special meeting, and this one properly posted, the regular meeting of the Bd was held beginning at 6pm.
Before the meat of this article, a couple tidbits...
Long time school cook Dorothy Childers is retiring. Her strong cooking skills like the hot rolls, will be missed by all. Fortunately, Ms Childers will return on a part time basis as a substitute cook next year.
Secondly, ... just something we noticed.
Item 19 was to hire a summertime cook for the "ASP" Clay Middle School program in June. Instead of a quick Aye vote. There was a pause. Boardster Dave Pierson hesitated during the call for a motion. He kind of looked up at the ceiling, a sort of smile came across his face for a couple seconds. Someone volunteered, everything will be approved ahead of time {this year}. We don't know what that means but something was amiss last Summer. That motion was finally made and approved.
Catch you breath readers, get a second cup of coffee, here comes the grand slam part of our coverage.
With a quorum present and several parents and other taxpayers in the peanut gallery, Dave Mullins called the session into order
Item 17 was tossing out the contract bus drivers, to get rid of em. As the meeting was opening, Super Joe Paxton told the Board, item 17 would not be voted on and instead, the Board should strike that item. Paxton told the group, he had just learned that contract drivers can be reimbursed from State funds. That amounted to, the head of the 20+ million dollar school system didn't know that important detail. Since the contract runs have been paid for with state funds for many many years, we can't believe Paxton when he told the world, he didn't know.
During the lead up to the Excess Levy vote, it was Paxton that threatened parents with doing away with those critical contract runs among many other items. He said in print and by word, without the Levy, parents would be responsible to get their kids out of the narrow mud hollows at 6am each morning.
There's another thought. Many local parents are so drug laden and lazy, their kids would NOT make it to school. The dead beats would NOT make the effort to get their kids out the door for school. If they are not in school , there goes education, good food, and social development. Then there's the families that do not have a working vehicle.
Also, we have many narrow roads, mud covered and nearly impassable that full size buses, ain't no way they can make it.
Back to the meeting....
All of em nodded in agreement on item 17 but not before contract bus driver Carloyn Rogers (in attendance) blurted out something along the lines of: You put us thru Hell all weekend! Incompetence?! I've known that for years!!
There are several items swirling around for discussion. Paxton finally told the truth about contract bus runs. Truth is, the State coffers cover 95% of the cost and have for decades. Telling the truth is tough on Paxton. We think Paxton had his thingy in the wringer and was working to get away with the least amount of public damage.
Like. We think someone called the Gold Dome in Charleston and discovered about the 95% reimbursement. We also think that person (s) told Paxton what they knew. In an attempt to save his arss in public, he made up the part about just finding out that day.
We believe that because the Pentagon keeps a CPA book keeper on staff . That person would have spoke the truth if asked. All the times Paxton told the world that bus runs had to go if the Levy failed, he was fibbing.
Dave Pierson is pretty good at checking financials. He's the one that often brings up conflicts when something is amiss. Pierson spoke up on the 23rd and said he didn't know about the reimbursements for drivers.
How could that be? Well.... Those 95% reimbursements are NOT listed on monthly financial sheets. Instead, an invoice is given the State at the end of each fiscal year and check, many checks, come later and are listed as a separate payback named "transportation costs", not a line item.
Get it? Clayberry schools send out a bill in June of each year for something around $100,000 and months later, up to a year later actually, there comes a nice fat check. The $ comes in without much fanfare and unnoticed by most.
But there's another angle. One that fits the Paxton persona more accurately.
The State Suits have been billed for bus runs for decades. The State owes us for the last two years right now. No matter what happens with current driver contracts, that's a couple hundred thousand dollars coming to the Clayberry school system. If there are no contract drivers, those still in the works funds are coming and could be used for anything at the discretion of the Superintendent.
No we're not saying Joe Paxton would steal the $$$. We are saying, with the loss of the Excess Levy, that $200,000+ could be moved around for pet projects, Paxton pet projects.
So, all of a sudden, there's been a miracle on Gump Street. All of a sudden, 1000's of dollars are and have been covering contract driver pay checks for years and all that under the nose of the School Board and the Superintendent. PooF! It's a miracle readers.
So, is Superintendent Joe Paxton incompetent or has he just got caught covering up something he has known since he took the top job at the Pentagon?
There are people that will believe him about not knowing about the reimbursements. They may still think Paxton is the best thing since canned soup. The rest of us know better.
Oh, when they tell us, they lose $ with the school food program, that's BS. But, that will come out at another time.
From Will Durant: Never put a man in the wrong. He will hold it against you forever.
aw