Chairman Larry McNeil appealed to Marlboro County Council, Bennettsville City Council, and all interested community parties to meet with the board of education to work together for the county.
“I don’t think any one group can do what we feel needs to be done,” he said. “It is an opportunity for us to come together as a group and do what is best for our community.”
A motion for the board to approve what McNeil asked for and allow Interim Superintendent Donald Andrews to organize the meeting.
Vice-Chairman Michael Coachman amended the motion to include the Eastside Preservation Alumni Association in the roundtable discussion and plan.
In other business, Board members Jackie Branch and Reginald Gaymon, Board Secretary Katherine Manville, and Coachman voted to lift the ban and allow Dr. Rippin McLeod to attend board of education meetings. Board members Danny Driggers, Rev. James Smith, and David Flowers abstained from voting because they felt the Board should not have been involved but a decision reversed by Andrews.
Coachman said he voted because it should have been a board decision to ban someone from the property.
“If the board did not do it and it was done, we just wanted to clear our name and make sure that we do the right thing,” Coachman said. The vote stemmed from public comments made by Margaret Littles, who spoke on behalf of McLeod, to find out why he was still banned from attending meetings.
McNeil had asked her to meet with Andrews about it.
After public comments, Branch did not think it was fair that McLeod is judged based on some comments made in public session.
He made a motion to lift the ban.
Coachman said McLeod was no threat to anybody.
“This was not a board action. I don’t know who put the ban on him.”
McNeil said it was a decision by the administration and it was why he asked Littles to meet with Andrews.
“This was not a board of education action. it never came before the board.”
Other business
In other business, board members:
— approved two certified hires.
— approved four certified resignations.
— approved instructing Interim Superintendent Donald Andrews to reimburse the person involved in grievance #1 with what is owed to them.
— approved the second reading of revisions to the district’s Procurement Administrative Rule DJ-R.
— approved first reading of a Policy GCC to include bereavement leave and personal/emergency/legal leave. The policy has been updated to provide each employee with three working days for bereavement leave per year. These days will not be deducted from an employee’s accumulated sick/personal leave. In the event of multiple deaths, the superintendent may grant additional days.
— approved a $2,500 donation from Domtar and a $2,000 donation from the Marlboro County Coordinating Council for the Marlboro County School District Cares Tree.
— learned the district had expended, as of Nov. 30, $10,581,036.67 of a $38,560,818 budget, or 28 percent of the budget. The Dec. 6 meeting for the Marlboro County Board of Education can be found on the district’s Facebook page.