School board chairman: Why I support Superintendent Moss

There are a number of people who will read this who know me and accept what I say and others who I may convert to understanding my point of view.

There are obviously others who will not accept my position or rationale and that is understandable also.

I think many who know me have faith in my honesty and willingness to address difficult or controversial subjects with transparency and integrity.

I am a realist. I fully understand how recent actions by Superintendent Jeff Moss don't "pass the smell test" as some have put it, or simply look bad, as others have said to me.

My comments here are mine and mine alone; they do not represent the view of the Board of Education as a whole. In fact, some on the board would disagree with me completely.

I have three points that I have made consistently to the media and others who have contacted me.

First, it is our responsibility to hire the best people available to carry out the mission of the school district and the goals of the board.

Second, the caution about nepotism is that you assure that the head of the organization is separated by at least one layer from evaluating any relative or close friend.

Third, I have a completely different set of experiences with our superintendent than just about anyone else, including other board members; this is a simple fact of our positions as board chair and superintendent.

The Beaufort County School District, as well as other districts, public entities and private entities, all have examples of well-worded nepotism regulations and also examples of relatives and close friends of the organization head working within the organization. They assure that the regulation or policy provides for separation.

I have submitted to the newspaper copies of polices/regulations from other districts where Dr. Moss has worked to show that he merely made edits to the Beaufort County regulations that had them conform to others where he had worked.

During the last two-plus years I have worked closely with Dr. Moss. He is the 11th superintendent that I have worked under or with in my 40-plus years in education. His actions have been open and transparent; he has shared more with the board and the public than any other superintendent in my knowledge.

He has been responsive to all the board's requests, usually providing more than one solution to a problem. He helped resolve the Bluffton crowding issue, opened the district to a comprehensive school choice program, worked cooperatively with charter schools and developed a budget and relationship with our County Council that had a no-tax-increase proposal approved 11-0.

In the near future, I hope that the state will release from embargo the academic results from 2014-15 that will show consistent across-the-board improvement in our most significant areas of measurement.

He has, without hesitation, identified poor teachers and administrators and taken appropriate action to dismiss or reassign them to lesser positions.

Only time will tell if my unqualified support is warranted; I have no concern that it will be. I only invite each of you to judge performance and results and not pre-conceived ideas.

People repeatedly have told me that, to many, "perception is reality." I understand this and fully accept the view that many have of recent actions and decisions.

I have a different set of experiences that lead me to a different conclusion.

I hope as I accept the view of others, they will accept my viewpoint as well, even though we may disagree.

Bill Evans of Beaufort represents District 2 on the Beaufort County Board of Education and chairs the board.

This story was originally published September 19, 2015 at 9:59 PM with the headline "School board chairman: Why I support Superintendent Moss."