Dear Editor:

What is our school board up to? Is it a cover-up to corruption? I heard on Friday, Aug. 20 that the school board was going to remove Mrs. Kim Bagwell as interim superintendent. After talking to several teachers, I was told the rumors were true. I couldn’t believe it and neither could they. On Sunday, Aug. 22, I called trustee Alan McEntire. We talked 30-45 minutes and he has yet to tell me of any factual reasons for getting rid of Mrs. Bagwell. His only reply was that Mrs. Bagwell was not educated enough to be the pilot of this plane. Pressed, he responded again that she was not qualified to be pilot over this big of a budget.

Asked about the money now showing up, he replied that there had been no money found anywhere, that it was designated to be used at a later date. He went on to say Mrs. Bagwell had gone crazy spending this money hiring 15 retired teachers on the TERI plan. I’ve been told that principals wanted to hire these teachers. Bottom line is the taxpayers got the better of the deal — teachers with 25-30 years experience for the pay of a teacher with only five years experience.

Mr. McEntire then told me he and Ron Garner were 100 percent against hiring any retirees.

I asked Mr. McEntire if his reasons for removing Mrs. Bagwell would be brought up at the Aug. 23 meeting. He said they will probably never be made public.

There was a large crowd at the Aug. 23 meeting to support Mrs. Bagwell. After the meeting opened, the weirdest thing happened — Mr. McEntire, the trustee who campaigned that he would never do any business behind closed doors, made the motion to go into executive session.

After almost four hours behind closed doors, trustees reconvened and voted to remove Mrs. Bagwell as interim superintendent and replace her with a retired superintendent.

I thought they were against hiring retirees.

They adjourned without giving any reasons for their action. This was Bill James’ agenda getting pushed, in my opinion, although they did not get everything they hoped for: Page McCraw as interim and getting rid of Carlotta Reddish. We’ll be watching to see what this “new” board comes up with next.

Al Morris Gaffney, S.C.