On Tuesday, Aug. 15, Richmond County Board of Education Board Members Venus Cain, Jimmy Atkins and Wayne Frazier filled the room with tension after discussing the role of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).
During the regular session, Kim Fletcher-Bowden presented on new endeavors in the EEOC and highlighted how the organization is responsible for enforcing federal laws that make it illegal to discriminate against a job applicant or an employee because of the person’s race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability or genetic information.
Fletcher-Bowden said the EEOC applies to all work situations, including: hiring, firing, promotions, harassment, training, wages and benefits.
“The Richmond County School System employs more than 4,000 individuals and is the third largest employer in the region,” she said.
Fletcher-Bowden also said, thanks to Dr. Cecil Clark’s work as the chief human resources officer, the hiring demographics for the school system supports the kind of diversity seen in the community.
Aiming to increase the involvement of minority businesses, Fletcher-Bowden then moved on to discuss how the board, county staff and state legislators worked together to modify the Richmond County Board of Education Charter in order to raise the formal bid threshold from $7,500 to purchases in excess of $50,000.
Formal bids are now no longer required for purchases in this range, which has the potential to benefit many small businesses looking to conduct contracts, deals and other kinds of partnerships with the county. Instead, such purchases will now have to follow the Procurement Manual Quotes.
“This will be beneficial to small businesses in a lot of ways … because they will not have to submit a formal bid or participate in the E-Verify, or the sex offender requirements, and also there’s also not a strict advertising requirement for quotes,” said Fletcher-Bowden. “So the process can be handled a lot more quickly, whereas with formal bids there’s some lag time.”
Board member Dr. Waynze Frazier then commented that he hoped such endeavors would create more opportunities for minority business.
“I asked for the [EEOC and charter modifications] to be placed on today’s agenda … because there was major gaps between the contractors that get the contracts and make money economically from the system,” said Frazier. “The children that’s in the system don’t look like the people who make the money off the system.”
Frazier continued by explaining that not everyone understood the direct effects these racial inequalities had on students’ education within the county.
“To close that gap, I think we have to do better with these children and their parents by allowing them to participate in the economic side of things,” he said. “I do understand that it’s hard to find certified people, but I think we can do a better job of reaching out to the minority community and put some incentives in place.”
Calling Frazier’s comments “bold,” fellow board member Jimmy Atkins jumped into the conversation by saying, to his and Superintendent Bradshaw’s knowledge, a minority business was never turned away or denied by the Richmond County School System.
As Venus Cain began to add her comment, Frazier proceeded to say something incomprehensible about Atkins.
“Excuse me Mr. Frazier! Why did you just say?! Why don’t you say that loud enough so everyone in the room can hear it?!” said Atkins in response to Frazier’s comment.
Frazier responded by refusing to repeat his quip because of ladies present in the room, however, he would gladly meet Atkins outside to settle the disagreement.
“We tried two months ago to almost raise the bid to $100,000, just for this reason, so that minorities could have an opportunity to get some of the business,” said Cain. “Now, you can lead somebody to the water, but you can’t make them drink if they don’t want to … my point is we tried to fix this 100% so that everyone would have an opportunity, and we were blocked every which way possible to stop it from opening it up, and now we want to come back and say we’re not giving everyone an opportunity, when that’s what we tried to do. At this point in the game, I’m highly insulted cause I’m not stupid, and at this point of the game I’m going home because I’ve had enough.”
Cain then proceeded to abruptly exit the board room while muttering quiet expletives.
Following her departure, the session then discussed modifying the board member norms, also known as expectations, where Board of Education President Charlie Walker Jr. reminded his peers of the oath they each took to act appropriately when representing the school system. Walker said actions would be taken in private to remind members of consequences when norms are not respected.
“The first item [on the board norms] under communication in general says to be ‘open-minded, respectful and professional at all times,’” said Walker. “Keep in mind that these are all things we agreed to.”
Member Helen Minchew chimed in with Walker by pointing out her disappointment in her colleagues’ behaviors towards each other.
“I just wanted to point out that it’s also what we say about each other in public when we go to community events to represent the school system,” she said. “We just need to be more conscious of also downgrading the school system … be mindful of how you speak of other board members and how you speak of the school district.”
Public participant Monique Braswell, who pleaded with the board to hold parents more accountable for student misbehavior, said she was also appalled to see the outburst in the public meeting.
“At the end of the day, we’re watching y’all, and what we don’t need to see, is what I saw tonight,” she said. “Take it to the back. This should not happen.”
In an over-the-phone interview following the session’s conclusion, Cain said she was tired of Frazier making racist comments and blaming the school system.
“I’m sick of everything that comes out of Wayne Frazier’s mouth,” she said. “We tried to make it more open for minorities, and he voted against it. Our president and vice-president has allowed him to make racist comments and call Jimmy out, and constantly telling him to take it outside. That was totally wrong … we will never heal as long as we have people like him sitting there making racial comments for s*** he voted against.”
According to Cain, the board norms had to be put in place due to Frazier’s “foolishness out there in the community,” and that Walker and Vice-President Shawnda Griffin need to stand up and bring order back to the board by putting Frazier back in check.
“He didn’t start doing it until Marion Barnes left,” she said. “Everything he has done has been racially motivated, and we have done nothing to stop him … I and the other board members should not be subjected to his racial shenanigans.”
