School board to eye policies; Skyping on the list
By Phyllis Moore
Published in News on August 9, 2015 1:50 AM
Several school board policies up for a vote Monday night were pulled from the agenda and will be sent back to the committee for further discussion -- including a policy crafted to address board members using Skype or FaceTime when missing meetings.
Board member Arnold Flowers made the request to pull out Policy 2322, "Electronic/Telephonic Participation at Board Meetings," prompted by chronic absenteeism of District 2 representative, Dr. Dwight Cannon, since taking a pastorate and setting up another residence in New Jersey more than 18 months ago.
His attendance at regular monthly meetings has been more consistent, while for called meetings and special sessions he has come to rely on Skyping, or FaceTime, raising questions about his ability to serve effectively in the elected role. He has maintained the situation was created by a lack of advance notification about meetings.
In May, the board's policy committee was tasked with developing a policy to address the issue.
The crafted policy was introduced for a first reading at the July meeting and was slated to be voted on at the August meeting.
The two-page policy spelled out several guidelines for electronic/telephonic participation in board meetings, prefaced by board members being "strongly encouraged to attend" meetings to fulfill the duties of their office. Proxy voting is not allowed.
The policy says that the chairman must be notified no less than 48 hours before the scheduled meeting that a member is unable to attend and requires an electronic substitute and the minutes must also reflect the specific nature of the emergency dictating the absence.
Further, it stipulates that electronic participation shall not exceed two meetings per calendar year or 25 percent of the meetings. In recent months, Cannon's attendance had hovered at around 59 percent.
Flowers kicked off the policy discussion at Monday's meeting, asking for the Skype policy to be pulled out. Before any discussion ensued, others made similar requests.
Cannon asked that Policy 2121, Board Member Conflict of Interest, also be pulled.
"Is that the only one?" board member Pat Burden asked.
"I have a whole list but I'm trying to be nice because it's kind of petty," Cannon said, explaining that the handful of policies he would cite involved minor changes.
Board member Jennifer Strickland likewise had questions about two policies, dealing with curriculum development and employee political activities.
Allison Pridgen, executive director for administrative services, explained that many of the policies that come before the board are dictated by general statues recommended by the State Board of Education.
Cannon suggested that "if it doesn't change the spirit of it," he did not see why the board could not opt to have its own version of a policy.
Board Chairman Chris West asked whether the list of policies should be sent back to the policy committee for further consideration.
"The volume of them, as many of them as there are, I think we might be more professional if we just sent them back," Flowers said.
Mrs. Pridgen requested that she be sent information and suggestions for revisions so that she could expedite the process by the next meeting.
Flowers and Cannon agreed that would be helpful.
Flowers said Wednesday he had been prepared to discuss the Skype policy further, until questions were raised about other policies and decided to let them all be dealt with by the policy committee
"I'm sure it will be pulled out again," he said.
Flowers has his own reasons for opposing electronic attendance, he said.
"I'm hearing-impaired," he said. "Any time we're Skyping I haven't heard half of what was said.
"It's just my personal feeling. I have tried to work with it."
He said when he pulled the policy out, he was prepared to make a motion to do away with the option.
He also admittedly has an issue with taking responsibilities seriously, he said.
"When somebody has a job somewhere else, that interferes with your school job," he said. "When I was elected I looked at it as I was given a job and I had a responsibility to do that job, too. Why couldn't somebody be here and be at our meeting and be Skyped to their other job? You get elected, you've got a responsibility.
"This is not about D.B. Cannon. D.B. Cannon has brought the issue forward."
There may be extenuating circumstances that preclude attendance at every meeting, Flowers said, but continued absences present a problem.
"We can't verify who's in the room with (Cannon) where he's at. I mean, I trust D.B. If he says nobody's in the room, I believe him," he said. "It's really not about him and his attendance. It is what it is. If he's good with the way he does things, that's him.
"But the issue with the Skyping, it interferes with our meeting too much. So why don't we just say we don't want to do that?"
The issue of clear communication goes beyond others on the board.
During a special called meeting July 10, the minutes reflected such when board comments were recorded -- "Dr. Cannon's comments could not be understood due to audio interference." There have also occasions when feedback was a problem or the connection was lost.
The proposed policy addresses that.
"A board member who attends a meeting through electronic communication shall be considered present only if the member can hear everything said at the meeting and all those attending the meeting can hear everything said by the remotely located member," it reads. "If the board chairman determines either condition is not occurring, he/she may terminate the board member's attendance through electronic/telephonic communications with notification to the remotely located member as to the reasoning for the decision."
The policy, as well as others removed from the recent agenda, will be discussed at the next scheduled policy committee meeting. Members of that committee include Cannon, Mrs. Strickland and Rick Pridgen.