What is the role of a school board member?
That question took center stage during Coahoma Community College’s meeting Monday morning when board member Dr. Mary Frances Dear-Moton and school president Dr. Valmadge Towner expressed disagreements on proper protocol.
Dear-Moton, who was appointed to the board in August, began the conversation by attempting to clarify her statement at the October meeting when she asked what chief of staff Dr. Jerone Shaw’s job was.
“Hopefully, he didn’t take it that I was trying to really make him feel bad or something,” Dear-Moton said. “My whole thing is that I am a board member and I have asked a lot of questions. I felt since I’m a board member I should know.”
Dear-Moton said she has seen Towner’s vision for CCC and many individuals have credited Shaw contributing to the success.
Shaw acknowledged Dear-Moton’s statement and she went on to clarify her reason for the question.
“The first board meeting on the phone virtual, I was told that I could not make contact as a board member to staff,” Dear-Moton said. “We can’t talk to staff.”
As a new board member, Dear-Moton said she was just trying to get some information.
“My heart is here at Coahoma Community College,” Dear-Moton said.
She acknowledged making the statement, “What do you all have to hide?”
“I do want to know what’s going on. I do want to know why I can’t talk to the staff here at Coahoma Community College as a board member.”
Dear-Moton said she wants CCC employees to know, as a board member, she would speak out for them. As a staff member under the administration of past presidents, Dear-Moton said she was mistreated.
Towner disagreed with Dear-Moton’s account of things and attempted to explain protocol.
“As board members, I work at your will and pleasure,” Towner said. “I don’t say that to patronize you. I didn’t make myself president. You made me president by voting, so I appreciate that.”
Towner said staff has been told the protocol to follow to communicate.
“I did not tell you, you could not talk with staff,” Towner said.
Towner said his office called him after Dear-Moton’s first board meeting and he learned she wanted to speak with one of the dean on a call regarding a presentation. He said staff members know to keep him informed.
“I do say to my team that they are to speak with me and not to go and handle administrative issues with individual board members,” Towner said.
Towner said, going back to when he worked for CCC and was a board member that was always the protocol. He told the board to let him know if he did anything wrong and wanted the protocol changed.
Dear-Moton said the matter she wanted to speak to the dean about was not related to the college. She said asked for the staff member’s phone number because she lost her phone contacts. That is when she said Towner told her she could not talk to staff members.
Had it been a matter regarding the school, Dear-Moton said she would have discussed it with Towner himself.
“This is an attack,” Towner said. “I’ve never had this kind of conversation in my life with an administrator or board member.”
Going back to the October meeting, Towner said Dear-Moton could have asked him Shaw’s position. Towner said, after speaking with Shaw, he felt Dear-Moton attacked him.
“He was here,” Dear-Moton said. “That’s why I was trying to clear it up.”
Two board members got into the conversation.
“All of us know people here,” said board president the Rev. Dennis Hawkins. “Anything that we need to know, college stuff, we could always have access to the President.”
Board member Cindy Mitchell felt it was just a misunderstanding.
“It sounds to me like there was a little bit of a miscommunication or misunderstanding or both between Dr. Moton and your office,” Mitchell said.
Mitchell said all board members know members of the community and receive phone calls. She said there is a protocol for a chain of command and board members have to be careful with their conversations. She acknowledged it was hard for a new board member to come on without training.
“I think it would be helpful for us to have a new board member training every now and then,” Mitchell said.
Dear-Moton apologized if Towner took her statements as an attack.
