‘Get her foot off my neck’: Beaufort County school board discusses member’s comments
After a Beaufort County school board member asked two weeks ago that the chairwoman “take her foot off my neck and let me breathe and serve my community,” two other colleagues wanted the board to talk about what they considered disrespectful behavior.
Board secretary William Smith said this week that he’d been frustrated and felt backed into a corner when, at an Aug. 4 meeting, chairwoman Christina Gwozdz ruled him out of order when he was asking questions about the school calendar.
So during a board workshop Aug. 15, Smith addressed fellow board members and the community. “For colleagues that say that they’re embarrassed,” Smith said, “I apologize for you that you feel embarrassed. ...
“To the community, I will say that I apologize that you may have felt that what I say might have embarrassed the board. That’s how I felt in that moment, and it has not kind of changed.”
The board took no action on “board member conduct,” which was on the agenda because board vice chairwoman Cathy Robine and member Earl Campbell requested it.
The board had previously reprimanded one of its members. In 2016, the school board sent JoAnn Orischak a letter asking her to “cease and desist” alleged policy violations.
In Smith’s case, Campbell said constituents had called him to complain about board members acting like “little kids.”
Robine agreed. “I received much outrage from the community about the way we’ve been running our meetings and not being respectful of each other,” she said. “We’re only responsible for our individual behavior, but when our colleagues digress and go beyond the boundaries of respect, it reflects on all of us.”
Smith’s relationship with some of his colleagues has been strained for more than a year. In June 2019, the board learned of four employee complaints made against Smith and retained legal counsel for the matter. Smith has not been publicly reprimanded for those complaints, and in February, the board agreed that Smith was the only member who could discuss details of the complaints. He has previously declined to comment on them.
“I don’t believe I’ve been able to serve my community under certain things that have been going on on this board,” Smith said.
What did Smith say?
Smith’s Aug. 4 comment came after Gwozdz ruled him out of order for continuing to question district staff on how non-academic employees would be paid from Aug. 24-28, when district teachers have optional paid workdays for professional development and student assessments.
District human resources director Alice Walton clarified that non-academic staff use a different calendar, which was already posted to the district website, and would work regularly that week.
Smith continued to ask how those employees would be compensated when Gwozdz interrupted him.
“Mr. Smith, we are trying to vote on the motion that is on the table, the academic calendar,” Gwozdz said. “Could you please explain what this has to do with the academic calendar?”
Smith said that he had concerns about how non-academic staff would be compensated for days that were not on their calendar, and that hearing an answer would influence his vote on the academic calendar.
Walton clarified that non-academic staff would be paid for days they worked that were not part of their contract.
Smith was asking how those staff would be compensated when Gwozdz ruled him out of order, cutting him off and calling for a vote on the academic calendar approval as he continued to speak.
“I wish the chair would just take her foot off my neck and let me breathe and serve my community,” Smith said as the vote was taken.
“You have made these personal attacks throughout this meeting, and you are bullying me, and I am just trying to direct you —” Gwozdz said.
“No, you are out of order, and I am sick of you being out of order and talking to me any kind of way during the board meeting,” Smith said. He was then muted, according to the meeting video, though it’s unclear who muted him.
David Striebinger cut in to ask that the board take a five-minute break after the vote so people could “calm down a little bit,” which it did after voting 9-1 to approve the revised academic calendar. Smith was the lone “no” vote, with Tricia Fidrych absent from the meeting.
Gwozdz said Friday that she thought Smith’s comment was “over the top.”
“My job as the chair of the board of education is to preside over the meetings and have us follow parliamentary procedure,” she said. “I had repeatedly told him, and I have at many other meetings, to stay on topic, that’s not germane to the motion on the table.”
Smith said Wednesday that he felt the comment had “built up over a long time,” and that he didn’t think it was “appropriate” for the board to address it at Saturday’s work session.
“Something had to be expressed,” he said. “You can only back someone into the corner for so long, and that was even making the comment it wasn’t easy. The comment was not to hurt anyone or to be detrimental to anyone else.”
Smith also declined to say whether his comment was a direct reference to the May killing of George Floyd, who died as Minneapolis City Police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for eight minutes, prompting protests across the country and reigniting the Black Lives Matter movement.
Smith said that the kneeling-on-the-neck phrase is not new, and pointed to its use in the Book of Joshua (chapter 10, verse 24) and by Sarah Moore Grimké during the women’s suffrage movement.
“At that point in time, it was something that needed to be said, and that was my feelings all in one,” Smith said. “I’m expressive, and I express myself a little different than some other people, but that’s where I was at that moment.”
What was Saturday’s discussion?
Fidrych, Robine, Campbell and Richard Geier all said Saturday that they heard complaints from constituents about board conduct after the Aug. 4 meeting.
Fidrych said she was “in absolute disbelief” at Smith’s comment when rewatching the meeting.
“There was a point in our meeting that was over the top,” she said. “I replayed it several times because I was in absolute disbelief at some of the comments, one comment in particular.”
“There is obvious tension between the chair and the secretary, and I do believe that a conversation between the two would be wise to just air some of this, to try to come to an understanding of what’s transpired,” she said.
Gwozdz said Friday that she has reached out to Smith to schedule a conversation, but has not heard back from him.
On Saturday, Orischak said she thought tension had been building between Gwozdz and Smith at agenda-setting meetings, where Gwozdz, Smith and Robine set the schedules and topics for board meetings, and since Gwozdz notified the board of employee grievances against Smith in June 2019.
“There is some degree of blocking him at every turn, I’ve seen it. Mr. Smith didn’t use any profanities,” Orischak said. “He didn’t threaten anyone’s safety or wellbeing. And yes, there are tensions between other board members, and maybe we handle those differently.”
Smith said Tuesday “there’s been multiple things since I came on this board that have led up to this situation.” He declined to elaborate.
Gwozdz said Friday that she disagreed with Orischak’s sentiment that Smith was being blocked.
“I think everyone’s conduct is important, and I think we needed that discussion publicly,” she said. “As elected officials, I think our conduct matters, and we need to be good examples to the students and community we serve.”