Most “townies”, as Miss Betty Cake would call them, really have no need to follow Fairfield County Schools. While there are some real low points in the city of Columbia as far as schools go, there’s also a lot of positivity. The new superintendent for Richland One is a well-respected and promising hope for the schools and the community. This almost overshadows the fact that our governor has consistently drained school budgets year after year (for the record, South Carolina has unprecedented astronomical security spending which I guess means your dumb kids will be safer? than smart kids in New York State?). Nonetheless, in the spirit of positivity, there are a lot of great people working at the city schools. People step out of line from time to time, the local news reports it, and then they resign, it’s how it should be.
And then there’s Fairfield.
Wow. Fairfield recently obtained a new superintendent, they snatched her up on what looks like her way out of Mobile, Alabama. She was the center of controversy with the Mobile County Schools, the Mobile school board made it publicly known that she wouldn’t be advancing with that district, and that’s when she sought employment in Fairfield (isn’t that just perfect that they got Alabama’s rejects?).
Although there have been internal conflicts since Ingram took office, the parents didn’t really become involved until the CRT scandal erupted. Basically, with more than half the school year over, Dr. Ingram decided that she wanted a standardized test to count for a huge chunk of the students’ final grades. This is not legal, and really bad for the kids who had not been preparing for that test. The parents attempted to speak at board meetings and Dr. Ingram refused to listen. The parents staged protests and, still, the policy was not changed. As evidenced in this article, the parents had many concerns about staff, testing, and structure, the CRT was just the last straw. Finally, their only legal recourse was through the judicial system. They easily won their case and the judge made a point of noting how dumb the actions of the school board and Dr. Ingram were.
So, after this court case the school board meetings will be televised. Like the way dashboard cameras catch cops beating up people.
There has been one board member who has been outspokenly critical of the corruption in Fairfield. Annie McDaniel recently publicly criticized the board for creating a $1.3 contingency fund, which is essentially a savings fund. In South Carolina, these things are frowned upon and, to my knowledge, there is actually legislation that requires state agencies to balance their budgets. Obviously a savings fund is not a balanced budged. “‘I’m not even sure (a contingency fund) is legal in the state of South Carolina,’ McDaniel said.”
McDaniel also asked some questions about an apparent attempt to cover up an inappropriate relationship between a board member and a former employee. “The meeting was adjourned abruptly, leaving several items on the agenda not discussed.”
This is what happened to that board member. Judging from the article, it looks like she was essentially framed because she was outspokenly critical at meetings. The school board asked to send her on a business trip and then all of the other members who were going to take the trip backed out at the last minute, leaving McDaniel to take the trip alone. When she got back they called misuse of funds and tried to discredit her. It looks as if there is actual misuse of funds, but it’s not from McDaniel. Two other board members are under “scrutiny”, and the thing that really blows my mind is that Dr. Ingram has the nerve to suggest that she is focused on the students. What a crook! I wasn’t aware that inappropriate use of tax dollars and hiring people as personal favors were “side issues”. In more news from delusion-land, Dr. Ingram tells parents that the school district has been “turned around” in seven months and the 25 issues that the state had cited were no longer problems. Wow!
Perhaps one of the more comical elements of the conflict, at least those that are being covered by the press, involves the “Dear Christians” letter. This is really a plea towards the community and, hey, why not, God, for some help in getting rid of these horrible administrators. Not surprisingly, Ingram doesn’t have much of a sense of humor about this and is actively trying to seek out and prosecute the author.
What we have here is a person who really responds poorly to criticism driving an already destitute school district into the ground. This woman is just a nutcase, she doesn’t belong in the school district, but maybe she should check if the KGB is hiring. She claims to be guided by spirituality, though! You know, I’m not even religious and I’m completely disgusted when people who treat other people like this try to act like they’ve got Jesus behind them.
The stereotype in these situations is that, because it’s a predominately black school district, parents simply aren’t involved in their children’s education. That is not the case, there has been a lot of opposition and community work to fix this district. The Herald has published letters to the editor. That letter in particular alleges that there is no democracy in the schools, and that teachers are fleeing the district. This is statistically accurate as, for those teachers that were not bullied out of the district, many are unable to work under the constant threats of losing their jobs. And the majority of these staff issues rose to prominence under Ingram’s leadership, she is just unbelievably bad at her job. Here’s another letter. This one alleges that teachers have been intimidated and threatened with retaliation. Although it’s speculative, there seem to be enough of these allegations to imply that it has some truth to it. And one more. I fully believe that the district leadership has acted inappropriately and, possibly, illegally. And these citizens have been profoundly let down by the media. While the Herald’s angle is certainly not for the corruption in the district, there have been countless inappropriate incidents that have not been covered. And in terms of media located more in-town, there’s been little to nothing. To me this looks like a huge scandal, and what is worse is that it’s really ruining life chances for the kids caught in the crossfire.
