Residents sound off at MCSD meeting

MARLBORO COUNTY — The Marlboro County School District held a specially called meeting Monday night that was once again laden with emotion.

Beginning the meeting with public comments, school board members heard from residents who voiced a range of concerns from the district’s ongoing superintendent search to its perceived lack of public input in decision making.

“I’m here not because I necessarily want to be, but because I should be, and because of some concerns that have been brought to my attention,” said one lifetime resident of the county and former teacher in the district. He added, “What is at the heart of why I am here is simply that there is a lack of public input, and I don’t mean that you don’t have your public hearings, you do, you are required to do that, but there is no evidence of outreach. That was the one thing at least that [we were told] because of the troublesome situation we were facing there would be a proactive approach to bring the public into the situation.”

Another district resident shared with the board her frustrations over the process the district is following to select a new superintendent.

“I’m standing here, and I am just going to cut to the chase, the list you have to chose from [for] the superintendent there has been no search. I have been on that website. There has been no search for a superintendent… I am calling you board members to stand up and to man up. They came here with the façade they were going to just do finance. Well, the active superintendent has been doing a great job at finance—people have lost their jobs, and it makes no sense. Federally funded money that was already allocated—what you going to do—take that and put it into your general fund? Then when we need a program from the federal government again, we are not going to get it because we turned money away,” said the concerned resident, continuing, “Then you have people, salaries who have been allocated out already, didn’t even have the decency to let them finish out the term because you wanted to get your greedy, grabbing hands on that money. This is ridiculous and you want somebody to think that you care about this county… this is still our schools, this is still our tax dollars. You may have a right to say something about money, but you don’t have the right to come in here and tell us who we are going to pick.”

Sticking to district protocol, board members respectfully listened to the feedback but made no comment regarding any of the matters mentioned.