Savannah Reams: Greene Publishing, Inc.
On Tuesday, Jan. 29, the Madison County School Board came together for a workshop in order to discuss Superintendent Dr. Karen Pickles' recommendations for position cuts in order to strengthen the district's fund balance. Before the workshop began, citizens were welcomed to express their concerns.
Leading public comment was Madison County local, Darryl Cherry, who responded to comments Chairman Carol Gibson made about an employee the night before at the Monday, Jan. 28, regularly scheduled school board meeting. “I cannot believe you would ridicule and attempt to intimidate any employee of this district for publicly expressing their opinion to this board,” began Cherry. “Could your attempt to intimidate be because those comments exposed what little thought this board has given to resolving the budget deficit? … Why would you not welcome and consider the input of the personnel that truly love and serve the students of this county? When you singled out an employee and characterized their comments as a disrespectful performance, you exemplified exactly what's wrong with the majority of this board. Your ridicule showed that you took these comments personally rather than hearing the message that was being presented. If you remove bus monitors, you'll lose weighted funding. If you remove the listed support positions, student services will be negatively impacted.”
Cherry continued, “Ma’am you're not in this position to serve yourself or your friends. You're there to serve the students of this district and the citizens of Madison County … Apparently, you have not earned the respect of the employee you ridiculed.”
Citizens are allotted three minutes to make their statement. After Cherry's time ran out, he continued to speak and Chairman Gibson asked him to leave the podium. Cherry ignored her request, and Gibson threatened his removal from the premises.
Once Cherry left the podium, district employee Jennifer Fulmer addressed the board, with concerns regarding the possible elimination of the Supervisor of Transportation position which is currently held by Ivan Johnson. “He is the heart of transportation,” stated Fulmer. “He pumps the blood through the rest of us, as the body. Without the heart pumping, the body dies.”
Following Fulmer, George Williams approached the podium, questioning whether or not there was data to indicate where students were going when they withdrew from school. (The recent FTE Third Calculation indicated a deficit of over one million dollars in funding due to lower enrollment.) “Why isn't there some kind of tracking mechanism that when people withdraw from school, we know where they're going?”
To read the full article, pick up a copy of the Feb. 1, 2019, Madison Enterprise-Recorder!