The Bulloch County Board of Education devoted the middle of its Thursday regular meeting to procedural changes, statements and recriminations related to a previous meeting where supporters of Principal Evelyn Gamble-Hilton objected to her being reassigned to be an assistant principal at another school.

Chairman Mike Sparks asserted legal and expert support for stating that Superintendent Charles Wilson's transfer of Gamble Hilton from Langston-Chapel Middle School, where she is principal, to an assistant principal job at Southeast Bulloch High School is not a demotion. District 4 board member Steve Hein blamed "identity politics" for the reaction expressed at the April 26 meeting. 

He also made two motions, which passed, but not unanimously, for the members always to surrender their cellphones and similar electronic devices while the board is in session and to no longer accept members' votes or comments by phone at future meetings. District 1 member Cheri Wagner objected to a remark that District 8 member Maurice Hill made to her at that earlier meeting, a remark that Hein said the board’s human resource staff and legal counsel had called sexist. This last item will be reported in a separate story.

Chair’s statement

Board Chair Mike Sparks commended Vice Chair Heather Mims for presiding at the April 26 meeting while he was out of town on business. Then he said he would make a statement because of “a lot of misinformation … circulating in the community.”

“This statement, Al, is not my personal opinion,” Sparks said. “It’s not my feelings, but it’s a statement of what the law says, and I just want to make sure that everybody understands what we’re talking about here. The first thing, a school superintendent has the authority to transfer personnel, staff, to any position deemed necessary, and that does not require a board vote.”

The Statesboro Herald has consistently reported that the decision to transfer Gamble Hilton was an administrative one by Superintendent Charles Wilson. But in an April 25 email he told board members he was doing this “unless the board desire(d) to be involved” in the decision the next night, as also previously reported.

At the April 26 meeting, the two African-American board members, Hill and District 5’s Glennera Martin, made and seconded a motion to intervene in the decision. But the other members acted to table it, on a 5-2 vote that split along racial lines. Martin, recovering from a fall, was not present at that meeting but participated by phone.

 ‘Non-tenured’

Sparks’ calling the reporter by name related to his second point, after the newspaper in two previous headlines and one story referred to the move of Gamble-Hilton as a demotion.

“Secondly, there’s been a lot of misinformation about the terminology ‘demotion,’ and I want to clarify that to y’all,” Sparks said. “I’ve checked with our legal counsel, I’ve checked with the Georgia School Boards Association, I’ve even checked with a personal friend of mine who’s a school law attorney, and they all agreed on every aspect of what a demotion means.

“Now, a demotion only relates to tenured positions, and school principals are not tenured,” he continued. “They are non-tenured administrators. So ‘demotion’ really has no meaning. But in order for a demotion to occur – and this is federal and state court interpretation, is that ‘demotion’ has been defined as a loss of position, prestige and pay,” Sparks said, pronouncing the word “and” with emphasis.

“All three of those have to work in concert. If one of those three components has not been met, it is not considered at demotion,” Sparks said. “So if you transfer somebody at the same salary, that’s not considered a demotion,” he said.    

“Like I said, this is not my personal opinions and feeling, it’s the law,” he concluded. “I’m the messenger, and as Forrest Gump would say, ‘That’s all I’m going to say about that.’”

As previously reported, Gamble-Hilton’s salary as an assistant principal will be the same for 2018-19 as it would have been as principal, $107,984, according to school system officials. This will make her the highest-paid assistant principal in the Bulloch County Schools.

A little later in the meeting, Hill said he appreciated Sparks’ clarifying the definition of a demotion but thinks the real question is equal treatment.

“We do live in a society now that doesn’t always do what’s just or right but I think the question is that some way in the last years the board has maybe taken a precedent that they don’t do for one what they do for all,” Hill said.

As of Friday, Gamble-Hilton’s attorney, Francys Johnson, still called the reassignment a demotion and said that a legal challenge is coming.

Calls for civility

During Thursday night’s meeting, nobody spoke during the public participation time. Two weeks earlier, after a press conference outside publicized by the Bulloch County Branch of the NAACP, supporters of Gamble-Hilton packed the boardroom during what had been slated as mainly a work session on other issues.

After representatives were given an opportunity to speak, some in the protest group had continued to make remarks while board members were talking. At that earlier meeting calls of “Fire him!” were also heard at times, reflecting the local NAACP’s call, first issued a year ago, that the board replace Wilson as superintendent.

Thursday, Wagner said she was addressing a call for civility to board members as well as “you out there as clergy, educators, as leaders in the community.”

“We cannot preach respect, tolerance and working together and then proceed to do the very opposite as a meeting unfolds,” Wagner said, as part of her remarks. “We cannot say we support something or vote in favor of something and then turn  around and not support it or say one thing to one group and have a completely different stance to a second group.”

Hein said the previous meeting left him with “a sense of disappointment and sadness.” The board changed the format to allow public comment during a work session in response to a request by an outside organization “with what on the surface was an appeal to come together and do what is right for the Statesboro community, Bulloch County and most importantly, the children,” he said.

“So yes, disappointed,” Hein said. “It was not a call of ‘come together for the good of the community,’ but rather a platform to deliver ultimatums that included the demand for the firing of the superintendent.”

“Why sad?” he continued. “Here’s something we all know but must agree upon: You can’t have a civil society without first being civil to one another. When one group insists that they have the moral high ground at the expense of all others, civility is lost. This is very dangerous stuff we’re talking about. It’s what we’re seeing across the country and in our state, and now it’s at our doorstep. Simply said, it’s identity politics.”

Hein also said the board has been holding the superintendent, administrators, teachers and students accountable but that the members were not holding themselves accountable to one another. His two motions were an effort to move in that direction, he said.

Phoneless board

District 3 member Dr. Stuart Tedders seconded Hein’s first motion, that board members will place their cellphones, i-Pads and similar devices in a container at the beginning of each meeting but will then be able to check them for messages between open and closed session. In the event of an emergency, family members could call an assigned number, Hein said.

Mims expressed reservations, noting that she has five children including teenage drivers and wants to be reachable at all times. So did Sparks, who operates a retreat center, but he said he would support the motion. Hill, who owns and operates a funeral home, said he has to be on call for his business. He was holding a smartphone when Hein spoke.

With a second from Wagner, Hein amended the motion so that each device will be marked to identify its owner and the staff member will bring the device to the board member if there are calls. The motion passed 7-1, with Hill opposed. Members then placed their devices in a large envelope.

Sparks seconded Hein’s other motion, that when board members are unable to attend a meeting, they will no longer be allowed to phone in votes or comments. But they will be “encouraged to passively participate by watching the open portion of the meeting via online streaming,” Hein said.

Martin noted that past member Dr. LeVon Wilson participated in several meetings by a phone connection during his last year on the board.

“How did we let it happen then and now all of sudden it’s a problem?” Martin asked.

Sparks said the board did not have a regular policy then.

Hein said his motion was “to make it a policy.” It passed 6-2, with Hill and Martin opposed.

Herald reporter Al Hackle may be reached at (912) 489-9458.