Somerset conflicts; Stinger discussed

Ashley Hunter, ECB Publishing, Inc.

The March meeting for the Jefferson County School Board began on Monday, March 12, with the usual invocation, pledge to the flag and citizen participation.
The first to speak was a member of the Sneed Family who had donated land for the old Howard Academy to be built. The speaker requested that the board make no decision about how to proceed with the use of the land until the family had been given a chance to prepare and present their own proposal on how they would like to see the land be used.
Board member and Chairman Sandra Saunders confirmed that no plans have been concreted or set in stone, and encouraged the family to meet with Superintendent Marianne Arbulu, or herself, to discuss their plans.
Next, a representative from Gideons International came forward to request that Gideons be allowed the opportunity to set up a table at the baccalaureate for Jefferson Somerset students and pass out free Bibles to graduating seniors and school staff, as they had been allowed to do this in the past and had great success with student interest.
Chairmen Saunders directed Gideons to speak directly with Jefferson Somerset to obtain that permission, as the board no longer had jurisdiction over that matter. The board did, however, thank them for their willingness to spread the gospel.
After the conclusion of citizen comments, Board member Shirley Washington voiced displeasure over a recent “Stinger” that had ran within the Monticello News which had scolded the board for their lack of participation at school events.
“Sometimes the community believes the Monticello News more than the Bible,” said Washington. “Because of this Stinger, the community thinks that the board does not agree with the programs and the activities held at the school.”
According to Washington, the board had not been given an invite to the particular event that the Stinger discussed, and did not know about the event until it had already passed. After which, they had confronted the principal about not being invited to participate, but had received what the board felt was a half-hearted apology, which they had yet to accept. Principal Oliver had wrote a letter to the board and had presented it to them at a previous meeting, but had refused to read it aloud, even at the school board’s insistence. The letter has remained on the school board table for two months, with the board refusing to open or accept it until it is read to them.
“It will remain there, because if he was serious about his apology, when he was here he could have
stood there and apologized for this board not receiving an invitation. You can tell when someone is real about their apology,” said Washington.
Returning to the matter of the Stinger, Washington believed the person to be naive in order to believe that the board did nothing in the school.
“This board works very diligently with Somerset school. Whatever activity they call on us to volunteer [for], we have been out there volunteering. We do it, and for someone to be so naive as to put that Stringer in the paper to say what this board does not do, and criticize [us] the way they did, it was quite disturbing,” said Washington, adding that those who truly know the board and it's members will know how they act and volunteer their time. “When you hear people in the community talking about this board and what we are not doing, you will be able to set the record straight, regardless of whatever you read in the Monticello News.”
Saunders agreed, saying that whoever had submitted the Stinger does not realize how much the board still does with the school, and even went so far as to call the submitter a coward. “I wish they would tell me, instead of being a coward with their hands behind their backs when they say what they have to say, because I could give them an answer quicker than a hurry,” said Saunders in conclusion of the topic.
Next up, the school board allowed a parent who had been late to the meeting to share her concern regarding the suspension of her child after he had been arrested, adding that she believed that the treatment of her son was unfair.
There was not much the board could do to aid the parent, due to their inability to become involved in Jefferson Somerset politics. However, the board was adamant about assisting the parent in getting the proper material and assistance for her child.
“I want to assure parents that this board cares about children. We might not have the authority we used to have, but we do know people who can look into those situations,” said Saunders.
The board offered to assist her in putting together a request for her son's education plan and all the document related to his suspension (as she had received none).
The board approved the minutes of their meeting in February before moving on to glance over information-only items that had been placed on the agenda for Jefferson Somerset. The items, which were the 2017-2018 Parent Handbook and the school's financial statement, could not be handled by the board, and this brought frustration to the board members, as no Somerset representative was present to address the items.
“Somerset needs to be here when Somerset has items on the agenda,” said Saunders. Which Washington agreed that the information was 'useless' unless there was someone to explain it.
“If Somerset is not here, it does nobody any good,” said Saunders. “I think they need to be told that they need to be here without a question.”
Superintendent Arbulu advised that the board could extend an invite to Somerset, but they had no jurisdiction to make someone from the Somerset board present themselves.
Board member Washington, who had been reviewing the 2017-2018 Handbook expressed her dislike of the handbook, as outside of it being late, she felt it was incomplete with bad information and safety procedures and she called the handbook an 'insult' to the board.
“They think that we don't we have common sense enough, or aren't intelligent enough to read what they have on here,” said Washington. “The whole thing is just nonsense. They threw something together not thinking we were gonna read it.”
Arbulu agreed that it wasn't a good handbook, but argued that it might have been the best that Somerset could produce, at which point Board member Bill Brumfield added that Somerset's best was 'not good enough', if that was the case.
Another item involving Somerset was a letter from the Transportation Department of the Florida Department of Education (DOE), which monitors and reviews school district's transportation.
The letter discussed the condition of the buses and informed the district that maintenance needed to be done.
While the board did not disagree with the evaluation, they did not appreciate having this expected of them when transportation was under Jefferson Somerset's jurisdiction. School District Attorney George Reeves suggested that the board needed to correct the DOE so they would know who to address in the future, as well as to contact Jefferson Somerset and request the school proceed with a plan to address and correct the issues presented by the DOE.
The board then approved check reports for a trip the school board and superintendent had taken, as well as the Small School District Council Association participation fees.
They also looked at their policy regarding the use of the old Jefferson High School auditorium for local events and groups. The policy document was outdated, listed buildings no longer of use, and the district had not been uniform in their required rental cost. Some events had been required to pay full price, while others were given half price, and one event had been given use of the auditorium for no charge, of which the board was not aware of the latter.
The board was a bit divided on how the item should be handled, though no school board member wanted to eliminate any group from using the facility.
The topic was one they needed to examine a bit closer, and they agreed to return to it on their next meeting in April.
Moving on, the board finalized a lease agreement with the Jefferson VFW in relation to a building the VFW are going to be leasing from the district before voting to cease funding a contract regarding electronic equipment for buses, as the school district no longer handles transportation needs for the students in the county.
As a final matter before closing their meeting, the board discussed hiring a front desk attendant for the school district office, as the staff within the building have other responsibilities and attending the front desk and greeting guests would draw them away from those responsibilities, but school board members had received complaints about there not being anyone at the front desk to direct them upon visiting the office.
The next School Board meeting will be held on Monday, April 9 at 6 p.m.