Letter: School board still has much to learn

What have we learned in the past three months?

The actions of Beaufort County Superintendent Jeff Moss and the subsequent cover-up by the school board have resulted in a serious breach of public trust.

One can lie by omission and still get high marks on one's evaluation.

The superintendent ignored the board's directive to review all administrative jobs.

The board claims that they have clearly communicated their feelings and dissatisfaction with the way this scandal unfolded, yet virtually all discussion on this issue has been behind closed doors.

Meager gains in the graduation rate (less than 0.4 percentage points) are considered a huge achievement, while student-teacher ratios have increased dramatically.

The board is about to endorse a sales tax increase to raise nearly half a billion dollars while refusing to account for dollars spent on administrative overhead.

Those of us who dare to speak at board meetings or write letters to the editor are considered "loony."

The former board chairman concedes that a dark cloud still hangs over the district.

The most visible accomplishment has been the installation of a huge timer to keep taxpayers from talking too long.

What has the board learned? Deny that the public trust issue is real, continue to have substantive discussions behind closed doors and hope the public outrage will die down.

It is obvious what Beaufort County citizens need to do -- replace most of the current board members at the ballot box and vote against any sales tax proposal.

Richard Bisi

Hilton Head Island

This story was originally published December 17, 2015 at 10:30 PM with the headline "Letter: School board still has much to learn."