Questions of an employee’s absences from work came up during the Carroll County School Board meeting Thursday night in the J. Z. George High School Band Hall.
School board member Donnie Wiltshire made a motion that board members should be able to see an employee’s time sheet when requested, which raised questions from many board members.
“We discussed this at our last meeting,” Wiltshire said, adding that he’d brought the matter up to Superintendent Billy Ferguson, but he didn’t think anything had been done about it.
“No we didn’t,” Board member Laura Davis said. “You said you were going to bring more information to the board about the matter.”
“We get told about this same employee who keeps missing days, but we keep hiring her back,” Wiltshire said.
“But, is this in the scope of the school board realm?” Board member Daniel Vest asked. Wiltshire said the employee has missed too many days and as a board, they don’t know how many days has been missed.
“But, correct me if I’m wrong,” Vest said. “But, we’re only a school board when we’re in session. When we’re out of session, we have no authority.”
Board attorney Lori Bell said if the board allowed the motion, it would give individual members prior knowledge. If that person was brought before the board, then the school board member would have to recuse themselves and couldn’t vote. That person not being able to vote could be the deciding factor in the matter because they can give the knowledge to the board, making the decision a biased one.
“Let’s say there’s an issue before y’all and Billy Joe wants to fire someone,” Bell said. “If you let someone go pull a person’s records, it’s getting involved into personnel matters and a person is informed before it’s presented to the board, it puts the board in a position before they even vote.”
“They’ll have prior knowledge,” Vest said.
“Right,” Bell added.
“Well, I called about it and they said it was up to the school board,” Wiltshire said.
Board member Stella Washington Bell said if it passed, a board member could go to a school and check an employee’s time sheet on a personal vendetta.
“We won’t need a reason then,” Washington Bell said. “Now, if we as a board have a question, then we can go down as a whole and check a person’s time sheet.”
“Or the board could designate someone to go,” Bell added.
“But, we would also take away from Mr. Ferguson’s duties, which we just gave back to him a few months ago,” Washington Bell said.
“I feel like, if there is a problem, then it needs to follow the chain of command,” Board member Laura Davis said. “If there’s a problem with someone in food service, then I need to tell Mr. Ferguson first. We can’t just go off a rumor, we don’t have the right.”
“Once you have knowledge of it, what can you do?” Vest said.
“Bring it back here,” Washington Bell and Davis said.
“Well, I guess nothing,” Wiltshire said. “I guess it’s just knowledge.”
“What do you advise?” Vest asked Bell.
Bell told the board she wouldn’t advise to the motion. “I just think there would be problems that lie in opening that up,” she said.
“Well, I guess I’ll just withdraw that motion then,” Wiltshire said.
“If you have knowledge, then you should tell us about it,” Vest said.
