It took 12 months and numerous tries, but the Scotland County Board of Education finally managed to select a vice chair.
On Monday during its annual re-organizational meeting, the board voted 4-3 to keep Rick Singletary as its chairman, then voted the very same way to insert Carolyn Banks as the board’s vice chair.
Congratulations to both.
But there is a caveat here: The board was one member short on Monday, as Wayne Cromartie was absent.
While Singletary probably would have been reinstated as board chairman regardless, there is a question as to whether Banks would have been elected vice chair had the full board been there.
After all, in December 2018 and for a few meetings in early 2019, the school board deadlocked 4-4 on several votes to elect a vice chair. Those votes were between Herman Tyson and Raymond Hyatt. Since neither side would acquiesce, the board decided to leave the position open.
It also put each of the eight board members that missing a meeting could result in a vote being put on the agenda. Up until Monday, when the decision was already on the agenda, nobody missed a meeting.
But Monday’s vote of 4-3 for both Singletary over Darrel “BJ” Gibson and Banks over Summer Woodside shows there remains a chasm on the board that continues to create challenges.
The difference between 2019 and 2020 will be simple: an election — first with the March 2020 primary, then the November general election — looms, which will allow voters the opportunity to shake up a board that obviously has had a history of not being able to make simple decisions and includes members who have their own personal agendas.
We urge voters to pay close attention to both those who file for the school board primary in March, which is currently taking place and runs through Dec. 20, as well as the decisions and comments which will be made over the next couple of months during school board meetings.
If school board members were on notice this year not to miss a meeting, then those school board members whose seat will be up for election in 2020 — Singletary, Banks, Dr. Jeff Byrd and Cromartie — should now be on notice to think, say and do what is best for all of Scotland County. Especially its students.
The voters will let them know in March and November whether they were successful or not.
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QUOTE OF THE DAY
“A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus, but a molder of consensus.” (Martin Luther King Jr.)