Dear Cody:

On Monday night, Cherokee County School Board members had on their agenda to fire Kim Bagwell, interim superintendent who had been on the job since March and with a year-long contract, and hire another interim superintendent. What organization relieves an interim with another interim and at what cost to the district?

Two new board members were sworn in to their positions one week ago along with two board members returning for their third terms, and calls were made to Ms. Bagwell soon afterwards asking for her resignation. Should these two new members not waited for Ms. Bagwell to bring them up to date on the activities of the board for the past several months? They are not interested in what she has found involving the past administration. They had to be given information involving issues discussed by the board in closed sessions which they had no privilege to until they were board members. One of the returning board members has already been warned by the State Ethics Commission re: statements made before the election.

How can you sit on a board for eight years (two terms) and not know that money was being squandered away, contracts for equipment were given with only one bid to board in-laws, and $500,000 was paid for a large meeting room at the high school with large TVs and technical equipment for what reason, booster club? If you are guilty, you always divert attention to another person or another issue? Is this being done now?

The sexual harassment that several teachers reported to past district administration were ignored and categorized as “he says vs. she says.” When teachers are caught engaging in sexual acts with other teachers in a school, are you supposed to say “hold that pose for a picture?” I cannot imagine that teachers were not calling their board members with reports of these activities, but were they listened to or just referred to administration where loss of jobs were threatened to some. The conducts of coaches while supervising students on school-sponsored trips were overlooked by past administration and past and present board members.

Ms. Bagwell has been receptive to all employees in the district and privilege to information that has led to many discoveries of deception and corruption that has been the rule for years and years. She has made decisions these past five months with the past board’s full support to rectify many of these issues.

The question now is — If she is allowed to continue in her role, who is afraid that she will uncover their involvement in the deception and corruption? Present and past board members need to look hard at their, “I didn’t know this issue was going on.” We need to demand an audit of district finances. What person would want to take the job of Cherokee County superintendent without an audit? There are still many, many personnel and financial issues unresolved and the present board members are only interested in firing the one person who is honest and continues to work for the teachers and students.

Ellen Duncan

Gaffney, S.C.