Operating private business differs from governing a public entity

Sumter School District's Board of Trustees must utilize good judgment and clear thinking in the reconstruction and reorganization processes they will be undertaking.

Sumter School District and its Board of Trustees must be cognizant of the fact that owning and operating a private business is significantly different from governing and operating a public entity.

(1) The Finance and Facilities Committees meet during hours which satisfy and are conducive to the desires of the business leaders on these committees without any consideration of the work hour schedules of the community members who are interested in attending these meetings but are unable to do so because of the meeting times.

(2) Sumter School District's Finance and Facilities Committees have in the past been unresponsive to requests from the community to change meeting times to become more conducive to community participation.

(3) Sumter School District's mindless, runaway spending practices over the past decade have surprisingly been recommended by and were under the advisement and scrutiny of the district's Finance Committee, which by the way, was comprised of at least four prominent business persons from the private sector of the City of Sumter and Sumter County.

(4) Sumter School District's Finance and Facilities Committee members immediately adjourn after coming out of their Executive Sessions. This adjournment is without any disclosure to the public of any decisions or in-decisions which occurred in the Executive Sessions.

(5) The secretive nature of, and deafening silence of the Sumter School District's Finance and Facilities Committees, enhance and strengthen their lack of accountability and transparency.

(6) Sumter School District's Finance Committee negates the fact that it is a public entity. It instead functions as a private business, owned by proprietors who have unlimited resources.

(7) Half of the Sumter School District's Finance Committee members/business leaders had never visited or toured the R.E. Davis Elementary School's facility while it underwent a host of renovations done in preparation for the Sumter School District's School Closure and School Consolidation Plans.

(8) The aforementioned Finance Committee members/business leaders approved for the spending of hundreds of thousands of the Sumter School District's funds without being cognizant of the "2018 State of South Carolina's Building Codes for Construction and Renovations at Schools."

(9) The Sumter Business Leaders on the Sumter School Board's Finance Committee, up until the past school year, have had unbridled and unchecked authority and influence on decision-making of the Sumter School District Finance Committee. Their influence in financial matters resulted in free-wheeling, uncontrolled and unwise spending practices.

The Family Unit, Inc., recommends that the Sumter School District's Board of Trustees, elected by the voters of Sumter County, must be the only individuals with voting power on each and every committee.

Furthermore, we recommend that each elected board member choose one (1) community member who resides in his or her region of Sumter County to serve in an advisory capacity on each and every subsidiary committee that the Board of Trustee forms. This position would come with advisory authority and would be without voting powers.

Voters of Sumter County, South Carolina want Change in our school system. Their votes have spoken clearly, loudly and undeniably.

BRENDA C. WILLIAMS, MD

The Family Unit Inc.

Sumter