Let’s all thank the mom who scolded school board members on their ‘horrible’ behavior

A mom stood up at the Beaufort County school board meeting Tuesday night and took her mark for final public comment before adjournment.

It was nearing 10 p.m.

The sometimes hostile meeting had just hit its 3  1/2-hour mark, and few people were left in the audience.

She approached the board, gave them a small wave and said, “Hi,” almost shyly.

“I’m not a political person,” she began.

Then, in a calm, firm but exhausted voice, she gave our children — the ones you and I elected to this school board — an epic lecture on their poor behavior.

“This board meeting is horrible,” she said. “You guys argue amongst yourselves in public. You disagree. You cut people off. You don’t let people speak ...

“There’s no way you can expect us to trust you with our children. Y’all don’t even get along with each other.

“This is horrible. ... You guys either need to get along, somebody needs to step down or ... y’all need to do something, because this is not cute at all. And I wasn’t going to say anything because you’re adults. Y’all know this ain’t cute, but obviously you don’t because you keep doing it.

“Every meeting you argue about nothing. If y’all don’t want to be here, don’t be here. Don’t be rude to people. Don’t say things that aren’t nice. Stop cutting him off,” she gestured toward board member Joseph Dunkle. “That’s not nice. I don’t know why he won’t tell you that. Stop doing that. That’s a grown man.

“Y’all need to figure out what your problem is and get over it.”

First, we all owe this woman a round of applause. While the rest of us were contemplating bedtime, she stayed awake and confronted an issue that has plagued this board since it refused to deal squarely with Superintendent Jeff Moss’ ethics violations in 2015.

Second, I’m about to save the board some “figuring out” time.

Here is your problem, Patricia Felton-Montgomery, Earl Campbell, Geri Kinton, Joseph Dunkle, JoAnn Orischak, Bill Payne, Christina Gwozdz, Evva Anderson, David Striebinger, Mary Cordray and Cynthia Gordon-Smalls, even though you’re new, it’s important you hear this now:

You are fighting for the wrong reason.

It is that simple.

Public meetings should be lively, impassioned and, yes, sometimes loud and contentious.

Each one of you represents a district. Each one you is a stand-in for thousands of children and taxpayers. Each one of you is a stand-in for one-eleventh of this county’s neighborhoods.

You represent the values of those who elected you. You are there to advocate for the particular needs of your district, for the parents who can’t make it to the meetings, for the students who are overlooked, for the students who are underchallenged.

Orischak’s district differs from Dunkle’s differs from Payne’s differs from Cordray’s differs from ... you get the picture.

Hilton Head Island does not have the same needs as Beaufort. St. Helena Island does not have the same needs as Bluffton.

And that is the point.

This, of course runs counter to the chairwoman’s very misguided philosophy on the board’s purpose, which she expressed Tuesday night.

“When we serve up here, we’re serving as a whole board, not as individual district representatives,” Felton-Montgomery said.

That is literally the opposite of how representative government works. And, by the way, you just described the job held by the board’s employee, the superintendent.

His job is to work on behalf of the whole.

This board needs to stop confusing a need for cooperation with a need for unity.

In fact, they need to stop seeking unity altogether.

It is plainly ironic that the Moss majority’s apparent desire for the entire board to have one voice, one opinion and one way of seeing matters — that is, to see things their way — is the very thing that has caused the pettiness, the anger, the childishness, the distrust and the resentment in the first place.

To the majority, this is on you:

Stop trying to wrestle dissenting opinions into submission.

Stop labeling or seeing the dissenters as troublemakers.

Stop treating dissenting opinion like an inconvenience or a toxic spill that requires containment.

Stop the eye rolls, the muttering, the attempts to put the dissenters on mute.

Stop taking dissenters’ points of view so personally.

Stop responding to their questions like they are declarations of war.

They are not your adversaries. They are your counterpoint.

To all of you:

Your job is not to agree with each other at every turn. It is to examine the issues. It is to consider the best way.

It is to hear and to respect each other’s voices.

It is to operate with integrity and in full view of the public’s eye.

It is to hold the superintendent and the school district accountable.

And it is to vote in a way that adequately represents those who trusted you with this job.

In other words, it’s time to stop fighting the democratic process.

And to start fighting for your constituents.

This story was originally published April 6, 2017 at 7:29 PM with the headline "Let’s all thank the mom who scolded school board members on their ‘horrible’ behavior."