The following is Kim Higgins’ speech during the Public Input session of the Yancey County School Board meeting November 13, 2023
According to Parliamentary Procedure, an agenda is a list of meeting activities in the order in which they are to be taken up, it begins with a call to order and ends with adjournment. It includes a list of business items to be acted upon. According to YCS Policy #2330 The Chairperson, and the superintendent will prepare a proposed agenda for each board meeting. Policy #2335 states that the superintendent shall provide the following items four days prior to a regular or special board meeting;
The proposed agenda
Minutes from the previous meeting that have not been approved
And any supporting information needed for issues proposed for consideration that would assist board members decisions
My question is this: Why at last month’s board meeting was Chairman Fortner allowed to pull multiple pieces of paper from beneath his meeting files to address his “Why” to persons in attendance at the October meeting? His personal statement was not on the agenda made available prior to the meeting.
Policy #2340 states that the chairperson is authorized to entertain and rule questions concerning parliamentary procedure. This means chairman Fortner is to maintain parliamentary procedure if the agenda is not followed.
Parliamentary procedures were violated because the chairman of this board over reached his authority and power once again. In your remarks of why, you addressed teachers and especially Sunday school teachers in your life. Did you tell those teachers you had to join the Mitchell County Gideon Camp because there was no longer a Gideon Camp in Yancey? Yet my 80 year old parents recently received an award from the still active Yancey County Gideon Camp, for their 40 plus years of service since the camp was chartered in 1980.
My “Why” is to make people aware of what is really going on in the trenches of our schools. Teachers have sustained unfair bias and unfair working conditions at the hand of this board. The culture of this board has been one of deception, greed, bullying and violations of ethics and overreaching power in the name of service to Yancey County Schools. For years, I watched the system of checks and balances create a culture of success, trust and respect that has now been depleted with teachers that are scared.
The teachers of Yancey County are being punished if they ask questions about the deployment of curriculum and the funding for programs.
To the new administrators, be strong. This board and superintendent like to take the power away from you. Good, honest and decent people like yourselves have had decisions and administrative control removed from them. Administrative control should remain in your office.
With my past experience, I was never once called into any office to discuss my transfer or the situation that led to that decision. Not once was I asked in conversation to explain my actions.
The greatest advocates our students have beyond that of their parents is their teachers and administrators.
It is time that control was placed back where it belongs.
