By Antonio D. French
Filed Friday, July 20, 2007 at 1:09 AM
Members of the Special Advisory Board of St. Louis Public Schools were vocal in their disagreement Thursday evening over a move to make the governor's appointee to the Board both chief executive officer of the district and president of the board. Labels: Schools
Board member Richard Gaines said he thought it was improper for the person charged with implementing board policies to also lead the board which assesses those implementations.
He said he has requested the State Attorney General's office to give its opinion about what the law says CEO Rick Sullivan's role on the Board is. He asked the other members to table any decision until after that opinion was delivered Friday morning. But board member Melanie Adams refused to table her motion and by a 2-1 vote, the Board changed its bi-laws to make Sullivan its presiding member.
In a second 2-1 vote, the Board approved Adams' motion to make herself Vice-President and Gaines Secretary/Treasurer, which he declined.
UPDATE: Click here to watch the 30-minute version of this video.
UPDATE 2: Post-Dispatch reporter Steve Giegerich often gets his facts mixed up. So as a continuing public service, PubDef will correct his errors in covering future Board meetings before he damages the image of the Special Administrative Board and its members as bad as he did the elected board and some of its members.
In his story today about last night's meeting, Giegerich writes:
"[Richard Gaines] then proposed to dilute [Rick] Sullivan's power by stripping away the CEO title and electing him the president of the board. The motion was defeated 2-1, with board member Melanie Adams siding with Sullivan."
That is not true at all. Gaines made no motion to take any power away from Sullivan, nor did he even propose such a motion.
What Gaines did suggest, but still never made a motion on, was to delay electing officers until after the Attorney General has offered his opinion about what the law says. No motion made by Richard Gaines last night was voted down.
Giegerich's editors should watch the above video from yesterday's meeting and print a retraction in Saturday's edition.
Secondly, Giegerich also missed the point when he writes:
"Specifically, Gaines was upset that Sullivan, along with Superintendent Diana Bourisaw, had authorized the layoffs of 34 district employees last month."
No, what Gaines was upset about, and Rick Sullivan all but apologized for last night (see this video), was that the decision to fire those employees was never brought to and approved by the Special Administrative Board, as is required by law.
Sullivan told Gaines and Melanie Adams at last night's meeting to review his decision "as if it had not already been done," suggesting lawyers have informed him the firings were done improperly and will still have to be approved by the board at a future date.
UPDATE 3: On July 25, 2007, the Post-Dispatch ran the following correction:
"A report in Friday's Metro section on the St. Louis Public Schools Special Administrative Board incorrectly reflected actions by board member Richard Gaines. Gaines asked the board to consult with the attorney general to define the responsibilities of Chief Executive Officer Richard Sullivan. Board member Melanie Adams then made a motion for the panel to elect a board president."
22 Comments:
I somewhat agree with Mr. Gaines' point of view. Nevertheless, in spite of the vote, it is exceedingly refreshing to observe a meeting being conducted in a civil manner on an intellectual plain by members who from all appearances have the interests of the students at heart.
7/20/2007 1:47 AM
A lot of us were critical of the takeover. So often, I would refer to the Blunt-Slay takeover, not mentioning the fact that the president of the board of aldermen had one of the three appointments.
I guess there was not much need to mention that----looks like the BLUNT-slay takeover board. kj
7/20/2007 1:47 AM
Members of the Special Advisory Board of St. Louis Public Schools were vocal in their disagreement Thursday evening over a move to make the governor's appointee to the Board both chief executive officer of the district and president of the board.
Shouldn't it be "A member. . ."? There are only three members and two of the members agreed with the move to give Sullivan the extra duties.
By making it a plural, it gives the opposition to the move more backing than it actually has.
7/20/2007 8:53 AM
Antonio - do you contact the P-D when you find these errors? It seems they need a gadfly poking at them.
7/20/2007 9:07 AM
Anony #3, the board as a whole had a "disagreement", that is, a lack of consensus, which all three members were vocal about.
7/20/2007 9:12 AM
Antonio-
As always, thanks for completing the picture. Not sure where fault or blame for this dispute lies, (if anywhere), but it sure is nice to get the entire story, not just (what I consider to be) lazy and sloppy reporting.
7/20/2007 10:28 AM
Giegerich's inability to report facts is actually quite appalling. Several times have I called the Post to speak to the ombudsman ("we don't have one"), left messages for Giegerich's editor (no calls returned), etc.
Giegerich wrote a book. Read through the amazon comments on the book at http://tinyurl.com/37au7y and discover that he apparently applied the same keen reporting skills in that book as he does in reporting on the SLPS.
7/20/2007 11:03 AM
Look for demolition of SLPS buildings with McBride and Son replacements.
7/20/2007 11:03 AM
Melanie Adams is truly showing herself as Archibald’s and Slay’s puppet on this board. He actions to make Sullivan the CZAR of the board shows that she lacks understanding of power and any responsibility to make positive change in the district.
That’s exactly what Slay wants.
If Adams understood power she would have known that being one of 3 votes gives her the ability lead the decision making process. Making Sullivan the CEO of the district and the person that sets the agenda for meetings lets him be totally unaccountable to the other 2 members of the board.
Then Adams nominates herself VP and Richard Gaines as Secretary/Treasurer… WTF!
For those that don’t know what officers do her is a quick rundown.
President – Sets decision making agenda and makes sure decisions are implemented
Treasurer – Manages finance (signs the checks)
Secretary – Makes sure events of the decision making process are record
Vice president – NOTHING… unless the president can’t perform their duties
Gaines should have snapped up that Treasurer spot… at least Sullivan would have to get the ok from someone else to spend the funds.
7/20/2007 11:08 AM
I believe the Post Dispatch reporter's inaccccurate reporting of the board meeting was intentional to sensationalize the meeting to cause controversy and sell newspapers or either he is just incompetent!
7/20/2007 11:33 AM
This video inspires me to quote Alexander Hamilton again:
"A share in the sovereignty of the State which is exercised by the citizens at large in voting at the elections, is one of the most important rights of the subject, and in a republic ought to stand foremost in the estimation of the law. ... Let me caution against precedents which may in their consequences render our title to this great privilege precarious...
Nothing is more common, than for a free people in times of heat and violence to gratify momentary passions by letting into the government principles and precedents which afterwards prove fatal to themselves. Of this kind is the doctrine of disfranchisement, disqualification, and punishments by acts of the legislature. The dangerous consequences of this power are manifest.
If the legislature can disfranchise any number of citizens at pleasure, by general descriptions, it may soon confine all the voters to a small number of partisans, and establish an aristocracy or oligarchy. If it may banish at discretion all those whom particular circumstances render obnoxious, without hearing or trial, no man can be safe, nor know when he may be the innocent victim of a prevailing faction.
The name of liberty applied to such a government would be a mockery of common sense. . . . The people are sure to be losers in the event, whenever they suffer a departure from the rules of general and equal justice, or from the true principles of universal liberty."
7/20/2007 12:37 PM
Thank you Antonio for saying you are correcting facts. You are right the Post is often wrong and sometimes reports a story that did not take place.
Good for you!
7/20/2007 2:07 PM
The slant of Mr. Giegerich's reporting on the SLPS has always fit perfectly with the Post's editorials.
A warning sign to those concerned about biased reporting.
A real newspaper keeps the newsroom separate from the editorial desk.
7/20/2007 3:48 PM
Very first comment, were you there, or just referring to the video? I've observed the same civil conduct by caring public servants at the elected board meetings when I go there in person and don't just rely on what the media chooses to portray. Even this last one, where there was pretty strong disagreement, was civil.
7/20/2007 9:36 PM
I call what Mayor Slay and his corhorts have done to SLPS nothing less than tyranny.
Under the administration of former SLPS Superintendant Cleveland Hammonds, SLPS was only 2 points away from full accreditation. Mayor Slay did not have a good thing to say about Mr. Hammonds. As he told the story, Mr. Hammonds was not doing his job. So Mayor Slay helped to put in a slate of board members (Darnetta Clinksdale, Vince Schoemel, Ron Jackson and Robert Archibald) who effectively trashed the district and took us down 20 something points of accreditation all the while handing out no bid contracts like they were candy.
Peter Downs, Donna Jones, William Purdy and other newly elected SLPS board members inherited a district that been raped and pillaged. They came in with the desire and intention of trying to right the wrongs that were done to the district.
Mayor Slay went to DESE after he, Darnetta Clinksdale and company had caused the district to lose all those points of accreditation and orchestrated a state takeover. He and those who have cooperated with him are now disinfranchising the voters who cast their votes for the present SLPS elected board. I call that tyranny.
I believe that the plan is to discourage parents (particularly Black ones) so much that they move to the county leaving more areas of the city open for whatever plan the Mayor and developers (like Rick Sullivan) have. I don't believe that all the things that have been done are coincidental. I believe they are by design. I also believe that "all that it takes for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing".
A Former SLPS Graduate
7/20/2007 10:17 PM
Well said!
7/21/2007 11:09 AM
"Well said!"
Thank you.
7/21/2007 4:09 PM
Obviously, these 'people' have no idea what the term 'czar' indicates to some groups. Anyone who had relatives escape from Russian and from the czar--knows this was not a warm, fuzzy Disney moment. The Czars were cruel dictators who starved their own people for additional riches. They sent stormtroopers riding horses through people's homes while bayonnetting babies. To continually use the term 'czar' as some sort of indicator of respect--is as offensive as the 'N' word.
After all that said--I agree--Slay is a CZAR in the worst, vilest sense of the word. Keep in mind--the czars taught Hitler a few tricks.
Jos N. White
7/22/2007 5:06 PM
Sullivan is disrerespectful. Czar is perfect for him.
7/22/2007 8:59 PM
Mr. White, we all know exactly what "czar" implied, and it was used knowing that.
7/22/2007 9:33 PM
I don't know if czar is as disrespectful as the n word, but in any case I think it applies here.
7/23/2007 6:35 PM
Melanie Adams is well known for being a tool - when she wasn't using her Metropolis board presidency to further her own ambitions, she was sucking up to the PTB at Advance St. Louis.
7/23/2007 9:12 PM
Post a Comment
<< Home