McFarland: I have ALL rights and authority

Monroe City School Board President Rodney McFarland on Tuesday denied another board member's request to review the contracts and budget of the Educational Planning Group.

On Tuesday morning, Vickie Dayton, District 1, asked via email that the board discuss and possibly ratify contracts for the independent court monitor, the medical magnet expert and the curriculum expert at the next meeting. She also asked that the board be allowed to discuss and approve budgets for all three positions.

McFarland replied at 10:10 a.m.: "Thank you for your request, but your request is denied. Those items will NOT be on this agenda."

Minutes later, Dayton responded: "Please reconsider.  I need a reason why you are denying my request.  It is an appropriate request."

Jennifer Haneline, District 2, wrote, "Why is this denied? Legally and ethically no one has the authority to deny appropriate agenda requests." All emails provided to The News-Star did not have timestamps because of the way email service providers annotate replies.

"To answer you, Mrs. Haneline, I have ALL rights and authority," McFarland responded at 10:59 a.m.

Read:EDITORIAL: Monroe City School Board verges on malfeasance

The president, according to board policy that sets officers' roles, shall "preside at special meetings and call special meetings when required, sign minutes and official documents requiring the president's signature and perform other duties as determined by law or board policy." The duties of the secretary/treasurer, a role the superintendent fills, are more detailed.

The MCSB policy for creating the agenda states: "The Monroe City School Board president shall direct the superintendent to prepare, or cause to be prepared, an agenda for all regular and special school board meetings. Items of business may be suggested by School Board members, by administrative staff, employees, school patrons or lay citizens of the school district for inclusion on the agenda.  The agenda shall not be changed less than twenty-four (24) hours, exclusive of Saturdays, Sundays, and legal holidays, prior to the scheduled time of the meeting."

A request to speak on the agenda by any person or group other than a school board members must be filed in writing with the superintendent no later than five days before the next scheduled meeting.

Requirements to appear before the board are:

1. Only items that must be handled by the board, not the administration or other personnel, will go on the agenda.
2. The board president and superintendent will examine each request "to be certain that such requests have not violated the professional rights of any employee and will not affect any employee in a deleterious manner."
3. Concerns should go through the appropriate committee before being presented to the board. The committee will refer the matter to the whole board as necessary.

In January, Bill Willson, Haneline and Dayton were joined by previous board President Clarence Sharp and Carrick Inabnett, vice president of economic development for CenturyLink, to discuss current leadership and recent board actions, which were described as dictatorial, exclusionary and hostile. Among other issues, Willson said he, Haneline and Dayton have not been able to get items placed on the agenda, which is determined by McFarland.

On Tuesday, Dayton said she requested the items be added to the agenda so the contracts and budgets could be discussed publicly.

"I am concerned that the way that the contracts were negotiated could be a possible violation of the open meetings law," she said. "At the very least, it was not done in a transparent process. I am also concerned that the board has been denied an opportunity to publicly discuss the contracts and publicly vote."

Dayton said she has requested budgets for each of the contractors from the board attorney, the board, the superintendent and the U.S. Department of Justice but has not received the budgets or response to date, other than when Superintendent Brent Vidrine told her he didn't have the separate budgets. Last week, she said, she contacted board attorney Doug Lawrence, who said he'd look into the matter.

"In March, we received a one-sheet budget that included just the independent court monitor and the medical magnet specialist," Dayton said. "Department of Justice stated that all three functions should be separate and that each one should have their own budget. How can we address and evaluate the financial impact if we do not know what each specialist projects as the cost of their function?

"The consent decree has provisions to allow the board to question the budgets if the board feels that the projected cost are out of line. However, we have been denied that opportunity too."

McFarland said he replied in an email to Dayton's request for a reason he denied her request that the board would go into executive session and he was clear that the issues, because they pertain to the consent decree, would be discussed then.

"They understood exactly what I was talking about," he said.

The email, time stamped 10:47 a.m., read, (sic) "We are going executive session."

Read: Consultants cost Monroe schools $80K to date

Why review the contracts and budgets?

The Educational Planning Group billed the Monroe City School System more than $80,000 from Dec. 17 to the end of March, including $19,000 for the period from Dec. 17 to Jan. 7, when the EPG was not employed by the district

EPG was hired by MCSB to oversee elements of the consent decree approved by U.S. District Judge Robbie James in December. On Dec. 15, the majority of the Monroe City School Board voted to hire EPG for positions required by the consent decree. On Dec. 17, McFarland said because of contention over the vote, board members would have the opportunity to submit other candidates and revote at the Jan. 7 meeting. On Jan. 7, the majority of the board again voted to hire EPG.

A budget for EPG plans for only two consultants. The one-page document that EPG submitted as an overall budget lists Nycole Campbell-Lewis as the independent court monitor and Ritha Bookert as the medical magnet expert. Hazel Henderson also has been hired as a curriculum expert, a position that is not included in the budget.

Read:Analysis: Third consultant not part of consent decree budget

Additionally, according to two bills filed with the school district, each consultant is charging $125 an hour, which is $30 to $62 more per hour than budgeted.

A breakdown of the budget is as follows:

• Total cost: $300,000 to $350,000 for the duration of the contract
• Estimate hours: 150-200 per month
• Travel: $15,000
• Rental/meals: $15,000
• Printing and postage: $5,000
• Equipment: $1,500

After subtracting the estimates for travel, meals, printing, postage and equipment, $313,500 is left until September 2017. The budget is for Dec. 11, 2015, to September 2017.

The 21- to 22-month range of the contract would leave approximately $12,547.62 to $14,250 available each month for billable employee hours, regardless of the number of employees. The estimated 150-200 hours billed per month would allow a rate of $62.74 to $95 per hour.

For the $125 per hour being billed to fall within the budget, EPG could bill only 100 hours per month on a 21-month contract or 114 hours a month on a 22 month contract.

See the contracts online:

• Nycole Campbell-Lewis, independent court monitor
• Ritha Bookert, medical magnet expert
• Hazel Henderson, curriculum expert

Follow Bonnie Bolden on Twitter @Bonnie_Bolden_ and on Facebook at http://on.fb.me/1RtsEEP.