Letter: School district ignores public

The Beaufort County Board of Education has shown us again that the public does not matter. They continue to support and defend a superintendent who has plead guilty to two counts of state ethics violations, and they refuse to do anything to censure or dismiss him.

Only two members of our current board, David Striebinger and JoAnn Orischak, refused to go along with the others in evaluating the superintendent as “proficient.” I applaud their efforts to stand up and try to do the right thing, even though they are continually shot down by the other board members.

In the recent election, the public sent a very clear message to the board in refusing to support its two tax referendums. Voters said they were unhappy with the board and the leadership of our school district. Yet they did not hear the message, or elected to ignore it as they feel they know more than the public who elected them to office. At the very least, a reprimand should have been issued by the board to the superintendent in regards to his actions.

Hopefully, the election of new members to the board will bring common sense and a willingness to hear what the public has to say about the leadership of our schools.

I doubt the public will be heard until the next school board election in 2018 when the majority on the board can be representatives who are opposed to the current leadership and who are willing to hear from the public.

This story was originally published November 23, 2016 at 9:22 AM with the headline "Letter: School district ignores public."