Clarksdale Municipal School District business manager Kamilah Woods-Parris appealed a three-day suspension without pay for insubordination and not fulfilling her duties in a timely manner in January and it remains to be seen if the suspension will stand.
A four-hour grievance hearing was held in front of the CMSD board during a special called meeting Monday night. The board took a recess after hearing testimony from both Woods-Parris and Superintendent Dr. Earl Joe Nelson. No decision was made.
Woods-Paris holds degrees business administration and accountancy. She makes $93,000 a year, was the CMSD assistant business manager from 2009 to 2010, and has been the business manager since 2010.
Former superintendent Dennis Dupree hired Woods-Parris. Nelson took over the position in July 2019. Woods-Parris said she was never reprimanded or disciplined under either superintendent until Nelson suspended her.
Nelson testified the Mississippi Department of Education needed information from each district in the state to provide Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds to address the impact of COVID.
According to the State Audit Department, CMSD was allocated $2,829,287 in ESSER funds and the money, and how it is being spent, has been aggressively scrutinized by the state.
The MDE needed the information by the close of business Jan. 25, but Nelson said CMSD did not meet the deadline because Woods-Parris did not provide the information in a timely manner.
Woods-Parris said she did not provide the information on time because Nelson came to her at the last minute.
Dr. Shanta Rhodes, assistant superintendent and director of federal programs, emailed Woods-Parris on Jan. 14 asking for information.
Nelson said the information Rhodes needed was for the report.
The email did not specifically mention the report for MDE. Woods-Parris said she was unaware MDE needed the information until Jan. 25.
“Down to the last day, before it was submitted that afternoon, I emailed the business manager that morning and asked that we make sure that we get this taken care of before the end of the day because our deadline to MDE was at the end of the day,” Nelson said.
Nelson sent the email at 11:51 a.m. Jan. 25 and went to Woods’ office to discuss the issue with her.
“She indicated to me that she was working on payroll,” Nelson said. “Either she had to get payroll done today or answer my questions today and I needed them both done.”
Woods-Parris disagreed with Nelson’s account of things.
Transcripts of conversations between Woods-Parris and Nelson that Woods-Parris recorded were presented to the board. The conversations showed Woods-Parris never specifically said she would not answer the questions. They also show Nelson never told Woods-Parris she did not have to answer those questions.
Woods-Parris said she had an open door policy for everyone and Rhodes’ office was next to her’s. Nelson said there have been communication issues in the office to the point where email was the only effective way Rhodes could talk to Woods-Parris.
“We asked her to get something done in a time sensitive manner with ESSER federal programs and we did not get that done based on the time frame MDE gave us,” Nelson said.
Nelson said there were 60 questions to be answered. Rhodes had to answer 56 of them and Woods-Parris had to answer the other four.
Nelson said, even when he approached Woods-Parris on Jan. 25, she should have been able to answer those four questions in 15 minutes.
After completing payroll, Woods-Parris answered the questions. She testified it took her about two-and-a-half hours and finished at around 6:30 p.m. Jan. 26.
After everything was sent to MDE, Nelson said he took steps to make sure CMSD was not penalized for being late.
Woods-Parris explained the urgency of completing payroll.
Woods-Parris said the payroll had to be in everyone’s bank account by Friday, Jan. 29.
Responding to a question from board member Dr. Bishop Zedric Clayton, it was stated no other employees were disciplined for the events that transpired.
Board attorney Carlos Palmer represented Nelson and attorney Willie Griffin represented Woods-Parris.
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