Appearance of wrongdoing surrounds school system
Perhaps there’s nothing wrong and everything is completely on the level when it comes to school board chairman David Sneed and the central office job he has applied for.
As Director of Schools Jerry Hale put it, “This is America. If jobs are open anyone can apply.”
However, this situation is hardly so cut and dry. And it doesn’t require the services of a detective to figure out something smells fishy at the central office.
For starters, there is already the underlying current that has been flowing since former school board chairman Roy Pierce was given a lofty central office position a couple years back. That move caused a number of school system employees to call the Standard and clamor for a story. But once is hardly a trend and it could be argued that Pierce is competent and completely qualified to hold his position as director of human resources.
The appearance of impropriety begins to surface when a 34-year employee, Phillip Stout, is dismissed from his job because the central office is undergoing some reorganization. His position has been redefined so as not to require a college degree and – surprise – the unemployed chairman of the school board has emerged as one of two candidates.
Why there are only two candidates stirs other questions because the position was not advertised. Only school principals were informed of the opening and told to tell their employees. The position then remained posted for all of three days – barely long enough to type up a r?sum?.
To add more fuel to the fire, Sneed had the luxury of hand picking his successor on the school board. Since no one had stepped forward to oppose the incumbents in the August election, Sneed withdrew his name at the last minute and his replacement, John Turner, submitted his qualifying papers on the day of the deadline.
Of course all of this may be nothing more than a string of unfortunate coincidences. Maybe everyone is operating under the best of intentions. But even school board vice chairman Larry Judkins admitted, while defending the central office and Sneed, “I realize how it looks.”
It doesn’t look good and Standard reporters certainly aren’t the only ones to notice. Several school teachers have expressed their concerns about a central office that appears to have the school board in its front pocket. With one full-time job already awarded to Pierce, and another appearing well on the way to Sneed, it’s growing difficult to dispute those claims.
There might in fact be nothing wrong with this picture. But no amount of adjusting your dial is going to make the appearance of impropriety disappear.