School Board Not Silent On Bill That Could Silence Them
Water Valley School Board member Lamar Burgess taped his mouth shut at Monday night’s school board meeting to protest a House Bill that would restrict contact between school board members and state legislators.
School Board Not Silent On Bill That Could Silence Them
By David Howell
Editor
WATER VALLEY – As a lengthy Water Valley school board meeting wound down Monday night, multiple trustees voiced disgust with several pending house bills, including HB 49, which could restrict school board members and superintendents from contacting legislators at any time about legislation or policy.
HB 49 was introduced by Rep. John Moore, R-Brandon, and proposes a $10,000 fine for board members violating the policy if the legislation becomes law. HB 49 also restricts educators from contacting legislators during the school day, even if the teacher is on a personal phone during a break.
“Basically what they are trying to say is they don’t want to hear from the people that are in the trenches,” trustee Pierce Epes explained at the meeting. “It kind of irks me a little bit, that they don’t want to hear from the people that it actually affects and the people in the community that are concerned with education,” Epes continued. “You would think they want to hear from the school board members on how (policy) affects the schools. I guess they really have gotten to the point where they do what they want to do in Jackson and they don’t want any input from the people it affects.”
Epes also noted several other bills authored by Moore negatively affects funding for local school districts. Epes also speculated the measures could stem from the close vote last November on Initiative 42, the citizens’ initiative to fully fund the Mississippi Adequate Education Program.
“This may be a little retribution,” Epes said.
“If these are the people who want to run the schools, I think they should be run home,” Trustee Lamar Burgess said, before taping his mouth shut in his final statement in the meeting to protest the attempt by some state lawmakers to silence school board members across the state.
Trustee Taylor Trusty noted the vast majority of the education-related bills introduced during the session are negative, but noted “there are a few exceptions.” One positive pending bill cited by Trusty was legislation requiring state test results to be available 21 days after testing.
As with other general bills introduced in the 2016 Legislative Session, HB 49 must make it out of committee on or before February 23 or it will die.
In his report that followed discussion on the pending legislation, Superintendent Dr. Michael McInnis said the school’s leadership team is not considering moving the sixth grade students from Davidson Elementary School to Water Valley High School. McInnis explained his team continues to assess best practices for the coming year, but moving the sixth grade has been deemed not viable.
“We looked at it logistically, it is not practical to move the sixth grade to the junior high school, so I will put that rumor to rest,” McInnis added.
Also in his report, McInnis told trustees that the high school’s new archery team has earned enough points in their first competition to qualify for the 2016 AIM North State Qualifier.
McInnis reported the baseball and softball season gets underway Saturday with jamborees. He also said the annual first pitch banquet for the baseball team is scheduled February 22 at the First Baptist Church. The guest speaker for the banquet will be Delta State University baseball coach Mike Kinnison.
In closing, McInnis said 21 HOSA (Health Occupation Students of American) high school students participated in the district competitions, competing against 500 other students. Eight of the 21 students placed in the tournament, McInnis said.
