Gwinnett School Board Update: Legislation In Process, Objecting To “Public Scolding”
I posted last week about a bi-partisan bill dropped by the Gwinnett House Delegation that could cut the pay of members of the Gwinnett County Board of Education when they fire a Superintendent before his/her contract ends.
Bill author Rep. Dewey McClain spoke to the Gwinnett Daily Post:
“To make a long story short, we had one superintendent at (a buyout of) $580,000 and another superintendent at $750,000,” McClain told the Daily Post after the text of the bill was posted online on Friday. “That is $1.3 million that the citizens of Gwinnett are paying two individuals not to work.
“We don’t have any say so in what they do. They’re independent. The only thing we do have a say over is their pay. This was more so in line to say, ‘If we’re gonna lose money, if we’ve got to pay more money, then you’re gonna have to lose money.’”
Another item in McLain’s legislation overrides Board of Education policy prohibiting Board members from speaking publicly.
57 The Gwinnett County Board of Education and the Gwinnett County Public Schools shall
58 not infringe upon right of individual board members to communicate with constituents, the
59 general public, or members of the media…
This policy has been, how to say it, selectively enforced over the years. However, it exploded into the public eye when Board Chair Adrienne Simmons confronted new Board member Steve Gasper for speaking to the media:
While it’s important to the cohesiveness of the Board and the overall functioning of GCSP not to have constant squabbling amongst Board members, each Board member is an Elected Official, accountable to their constituents. Thus, each Board member has the right, and indeed the duty to address the public. Calling out Gasper while saying nothing about other Board members who routinely make public statements via social media is bad form, IMHO.
Previous Posts On GCPS:
