March 20, 2014 Board Meeting

As always, these are my opinions only and not the opinions of the Pendleton County School Board or any other individual board members.

 

Martha Gosney addressed the board during the audience comments regarding the possible outsourcing of janitorial services.  Ms. Gosney spoke very eloquently in opposition to this effort.  I would be reluctant to ever outsource most jobs in our district.

 

During the board member comments, I responded to our board attorney’s concern about my board oversight role from last month’s meeting.  The following is what I read:

 

“I would like to say how delighted I am that we are going to be addressing the topic of a board member code of ethics tonight.  If we adopt something similar to the state recommended code of conduct, it is unfortunate that this code does not apply to every employee in the district.  I realize that as an elected official, I speak for one fifth of this county, and I am held to a higher standard than those who are not elected.  For the record, I would like to say to any employee who tries to tell me that I shouldn’t question the decisions made by our district leadership that they do not understand the role of a board member. To suggest that I owe them an apology for doing this is shocking.  I was elected by my constituents to do this, and my duty is to them.”

I was pleased that we had our first reading for two new policies – Legal Status of the Board (Student Representative) and Code of Ethical Conduct for Local School Board Members. 

An issue of concern at this meeting was the continued approval of Denise Keene, CPA for our outside annual audit of our district finances.  It is best practice to change auditors every 3 years.  Denise Keene has been our auditor for eleven years which included some “turbulent” financial periods in our district.  In no way am I questioning her proficiency.  I just think it is better to have another fresh set of eyes looking at our books.  In fact, State Auditor Adam Edelen suggested changing audit firms every few years in the same article I mentioned in my last blog from February 20th.  I was the only board member that had this view.  Her services were renewed for another year by a vote of 4-1.

February 20, 2014 Board Meeting

As always, these are my opinions only and not the opinions of the Pendleton County School Board or any other individual board members.

 

The Chairman of the Board was not present.  The Board Vice-Chairman was conducting the meeting.  I had an issue with one item (Orders of the Treasurer) on the consent agenda and attempted to move it to the action agenda.  I will assume he did not understand what I was requesting since this was not honored during the meeting.  This may be a combination of his lack of understanding of the request and my lack of clear communication.  The bottom line is I ended up voting against the entire consent agenda because these items are always voted as a block unless an individual item is moved to the action agenda.

 

My issue with the Orders of the Treasurer was a lease payment to a Ford dealership in Lexington, KY.  When I looked at the dealership’s website, I noticed that the Director of Sales was our Superintendent’s brother.  I asked my fellow board members if this was a conflict of interest.  While I don’t deny that our district received the government rate for this lease, there are other Ford dealerships we could have used that are geographically closer than Lexington.  My question was met with a comment from our board attorney that said I owed our Superintendent an apology for raising this concern.  While I don’t normally discount the advice of O’Hara, Ruberg, Taylor, Sloan, and Sergent Law Offices, on this particular matter I could not disagree more with our board attorney, Don Ruberg.  Financial decisions are the responsibility of all elected board members.  In Amanda Van Benschoten’s recent article in the Kentucky Enquirer (March 24, 2014) on Board Oversight, State Auditor Adam Edelen commented that “when you have a high degree of oversight from our elected officials backed up by a high level of engagement by the general public, it really does create an environment where the potential for abuse is significantly diminished.”  While this particular contract was not illegal, I questioned its appropriateness.  I decided to stay focused on the issue and withhold my response to counsel until next month’s meeting.

 

February 10, 2014 Special Meeting

As always, these are my opinions only and not the opinions of the Pendleton County School Board or any other individual board members.

 

Due to the excessive number of days that Pendleton County Schools have lost during this school year due to inclement weather, our board met to alter the school calendar.  I absolutely was not in favor of using the Memorial Day holiday as a make-up day.  I think it is important to honor our fallen heroes on that day.  Our board voted to take March 31, April 1, and April 2 from spring break week as make-up days.  I voted in favor of this motion, and it passed 3-2.  I did not want to take all of spring break because some families have made plans for that week.  I mentioned in the meeting that those families who have made travel plans during spring break should be encouraged to apply for an educational enhancement (if appropriate) to get possible credit for days missed.