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Teacher Advisory Cabinet member says Dr. Crenshaw, School District architects of “Voluntary Submission Form” web posted June 9, 2009 JOHNSTON – A voluntary submission form given to all Edgefield County School District teachers to forego half of their local supplement pay, or $1,250, touted as a teacher initiative has now been called into question by a member of the Teacher Advisory Cabinet. “It was presented to the Teacher Advisor Committee by Dr. Crenshaw. She even said it was illegal for them (the district) to do it that’s why she was bringing it to us. It was not our idea,” a Teacher Advisory Cabinet member stated. The source, who has agreed to go pubic with their identity in the coming days and will be called “DT” throughout this report, said that the teacher's cabinet was called to an “urgent meeting” on May 4 where Edgefield County School Superintendent Dr. Mary Crenshaw, Human Resources Director Shawn Clinkscales, and Chief Financial Officer Teresa A. Clark called the meeting of the teacher cabinet together in order to get the initiative started. According to DT, Dr. Crenshaw and District staff had all the figures readily available and presented the plan to the teacher’s cabinet on a “whiteboard” presentation. “The first question after that was presented was would the administrators do the same thing.” According to the account of the urgent meeting, Dr. Crenshaw stated that if the teachers would agree to the plan, “she felt sure the administration would do the same thing”. At this time the forms do not indicate any administrative staff signing on to the plan. “But we were led to believe that, yes, the administrators would probably do the same thing if the teachers did it,” DT said. “They (Dr. Crenshaw and District staff) wanted to present it to the School Board that Thursday night.” The copy of the Submission Form obtained by EdgefieldDaily.com stated it was to be returned to a School Advisory Representative by 10 am May 7. “I don’t think we even voted on it,” DT stated. The next morning, May 5, envelopes containing the submission forms with each teacher’s name were at the schools ready for distribution. On May 6, Attorney W. Allen Nickles sent a letter to Dr. Crenshaw contesting the validity of the forms stating that the forms, “will be perceived as intimidating and that teachers will ‘voluntarily’ relinquish pay in fear of retaliation,” the letter read in part. “As you are aware, there are statutes that prohibit school districts from reducing local supplements to teachers.” Mr. Nickles asked that Dr. Crenshaw or the school district’s attorney respond to his concerns. Dr. Crenshaw nor School District Attorney Greg Anderson responded. Instead the response came from Charles J. Boykin of Boykin & Davis LLC. In Boykin’s response he asserts that the form was a directive of the “Teacher Advisory Cabinet” and was therefore voluntary and exclusive of the School District. According to DT, that is not true. “Dr. Crenshaw was the one that presented us with this thing.” If the meeting and submission forms were instituted and distributed by the school district as stated, it would place Dr. Crenshaw and the School District in a precarious legal position. DT stated that retribution against teachers who take a stand against the district office was real and those who did so were summarily “marked” and that the practice extends far beyond just the current administration. Edgefield County School District Attorney Greg Anderson was not available for comment but the information that was to be contained in this report was provided. A message left for School Board member Chris Hoffmann for comment was not returned at press time. EdgefieldDaily.com will have more on this explosive story and the interview in upcoming reports this week. Related Superintendent sought legal advice from outside firm: state investigation on grants confirmed Reduction in pay forms distributed to teachers may have been illegal Citizens group seeks investigation of School Superintendent © Copyright 2009
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