School nepotism debacle left unresolved

The Beaufort County Board of Education’s response a year later to its nepotism debacle is too little too late.

Superintendent Jeff Moss changed a staff ethics rule without board oversight last year, enabling his wife to be hired to a newly created, $90,000 job in the central office.

Thanks to two citizens — not the school board — the state Ethics Commission investigated. It reprimanded and fined Moss for two ethics violations. It agreed not to pursue a third allegation — the one about him changing the ethics rule — but stated that in no way meant it condoned his action.

Even then, the school board did nothing. No firing. No reprimand. It’s main reaction came in new ways to stifle public input and work in secret. Now it limps along with no public credibility as it seeks voter approval of a 1 percent sales tax over the next 10 years.

The superintendent’s wife resigned the new job only a few days into it. The former board chairman resigned. And the school board approved this month a new policy manual that includes a statement on nepotism.

It almost gets us back to where we were before Moss needlessly started this problem.

It says: “No member of the Superintendent’s immediate family shall be eligible for employment within or as a contractor to the BCSD in any capacity, unless approved by the school board.”

That wiggle room at the end was added at the last minute. That was a mistake. What this board needed to do more than anything is to drive home a point. It needed let all employees and all job applicants, today and tomorrow, know that nepotism is costly, is unfair, is detrimental to the school district and will not be considered or tolerated.

Board chair Mary Cordray is to be commended for pushing the straightforward policy. Her suggestion did not include the wiggle room. And it is light years ahead of policy positions the board talked about earlier this year.

But what good will the policy do if the superintendent can write his or her own policies, as Moss did? What was done to stop that absurdity?

Here’s where we started, before Moss started tinkering with policy that regulated his own behavior:

“The board will not accept a recommendation for the appointment of a family member of the Superintendent for a position in the District Office, as a principal or assistant principal, or for any other position directly supervised or evaluated by the Superintendent.”

That seems clear. None of this should have happened.

And here’s where we are today:

“No member of the Superintendent’s immediate family shall be eligible for employment within or as a contractor to the BCSD in any capacity, unless approved by the school board.”

That, too, seems clear.

By both the old policy and the new policy, the superintendent did something that he should not have done. But there were no sanctions on Moss by the school board. If the board truly believes the policy it just passed, it cannot possibly believe in Moss’s decision-making. That part of this debacle has not been resolved.

This story was originally published September 18, 2016 at 1:57 PM with the headline "School nepotism debacle left unresolved."