Beaufort County school board misfires on mediator
There is no doubt our current untrusted and dysfunctional Beaufort County Board of Education needs help.
The school board is made up of elected officials chosen by their constituents to supervise Superintendent Jeff Moss and ensure that taxpayer funds are effectively managed. These officials have good intentions, but unfortunately some lack experience serving on supervisory boards and this inexperience resulted in a vote to hire an unqualified consultant at the wrong time.
They voted to hire an independent outside facilitator who has experience as a school board superintendent, an educator and as an adviser to other school boards. Unfortunately, the results of past advisory efforts were not provided and, most importantly, this facilitator has never been elected to serve on a school board. He has never faced an election, supervised a superintendent, or responded to constituents.
Will this facilitator have a bias for the superintendent? Given his experience, one must assume so.
A board majority with more experience in upper-level management would have hired a facilitator with successful experience as an elected school board member of a very diverse, high-growth school system.
The other issue is timing. Board member David Striebinger is absolutely correct that something has to change. Real change will only occur after the November elections and new, more experienced board members are elected. Then and only then would it be a good idea to have a qualified facilitator hired to help a new board chart a course to restore trust and effectively and efficiently manage the superintendent and our tax dollars.
Richard Geier
Beaufort
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This story was originally published January 22, 2018 at 2:47 PM with the headline "Beaufort County school board misfires on mediator."