School board, can you hear the taxpayers now?

VICKSBURG, Miss. (VDN) — Just give it up, school board, you’ve lost the trust and support of the community.

It doesn’t matter what else you do now; everything will be seen through the eyes of you spending taxpayer dollars for a conference in Hawaii. Only Board Member Patterson voted against the trip, and it has earned her a distinction as the only board member who seems to be in touch with the community. Even former board members Sally Bullard and Jan Daigre spoke to the current board, urging them to pay closer attention.

Meanwhile, the Vicksburg Daily News receives endless Emails and messages telling us teachers are having to ask parents for necessities like cleaning supplies, paper towels, and toilet paper. Shame on you, school board.

There are some good men on the board. But the men have either gone along with some bad decisions or slept through them. Either way, it’s time to let it go. Resign, step down, quit, move, or whatever you need to do to get off the board. Based on Patterson voting against the Hawaii trip, along with Bullard and Daigre speaking up, it appears that we need more good women on the board.

School board, you’ve earned it

The rumblings started with changes at RCEC. You did a poor job of communicating the goals of those changes, and some beloved people who were fixtures at that school were unceremoniously dumped. Even if there are good reasons, it was handled poorly, and it’s a bad look. Soon thereafter, we found out you were spending taxpayer money on a conference in Hawaii. Not a good look. Then we saw Shad White’s office had passed through and found some rather ugly irregularities with how you’re managing the taxpayers’ money. That is also not a good look. Then we saw you hold a special meeting because you were about 4 million short on funds. It doesn’t need to be said, but that is a really bad look.

Then, this most recent meeting, where the public is crying out to be heard, and you walk them out of the meeting – another bad look. You’re hiding behind rules you and the state created so you do not have to listen to the public in those meetings. You and the state created those outrageous rules. You can just as easily change them so the public feels heard.

To recap, bad look, bad look, bad look, really bad look, and another bad look.

School board, it’s over. You’ve lost the support of the community. Resign, quit, hold a special election. You’re not coming back from this. Can you hear the taxpayers now?

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The Vicksburg Daily News is committed to telling the whole story regardless of who is involved or who they know. Sometimes that makes people angry, especially those who feel they are above the news.

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