The Marion County School Board had two people address them over concerns at the regularly scheduled meeting Monday night.
Elaine Newsome, a concerned parent, addressed the board about the start of school. She has a second grade student at East Marion Elementary.
“I am before you on behalf of concerned parents, students, teachers, staff and the community concerning the safety.” she said.
Newsome said that returning to the classroom at this time would jeopardize the health and safety of all involved. She said she has seen the guidelines that have been presented, but there were too many questions at this time to allow schools to reopen. Some of the issues she had were class size, social distancing, cafeteria and riding the school bus.
Newsome also wanted to know how the food will be delivered to the students.
“I need to know when I drop my kid off that my child is safe and being taken care of,” she said.
Newsome questioned how ventilation in the classroom will be. She read some messages she said came from teachers saying the schools were not safe.
Board member Larry Jenkins asked Day to respond to Newsome. Day said there are dividers in the classroom to separate the students.
“We are ready to open Monday with the deep clean and dividers already in the classrooms,” Day said.
“You confident we are ready?” Jenkins asked Day.
Day said everything that needs to be in the classrooms, in the hallways, entrances and all the hand sanitizers will be ready on Monday. Day said there will be additional training for the teachers, bus drivers and staff on Friday.
Delores Porter addressed the board with some other concerns.
“I graduated from East Marion in 1974. The same bleachers are still there, the same track I ran on is still there. I see no improvements in our schools, maybe a few,” Porter said.
Porter said there was a lot of cash in the school system. She did not understand why the students were being “pawned” to fundraise money for the schools. She questioned about teachers’ incentives when the teachers are being paid to do a job. She also wanted to know if the incentives were being spread fairly.
“You have kids coming at churches and everywhere else to raffle $5 tickets to support the school system. That is ridiculous. Even at churches, where is the money going?” Porter said.
Porters inquired why there are fundraisers for masks and supplies when we are supposed to be about education.
“If you are going to keep East and West Marion, then we need new schools. Time is moving. Our kids need better,” she said.
Porter said there are not enough black teachers to teach the students about black culture. She said she wanted to how the school board could do more to hire more black teachers.
“Who knows more about our culture than we do? I do not see you hiring more black teachers, mostly white. Our schools are mostly dominant black,” she said.
Porter said she visited the school campuses at 11 p.m. and found no security at any of the facilities. She said anyone could go to the schools and do whatever during the night, creating danger for the students, teachers and staff.
Jenkins responded to Porter’s concerns. He told her the school system has improved and is now a B district. Discussion has been held about the infrastructures, and the board is concerned about the improvements.
Jenkins said fundraising is a critical item. The State Auditor’s office no longer allows for certain items to be paid through the school system.
Board President Richard Culliver told her that her concerns have been taken seriously and some of her concerns have already been addressed. He said he would take everything she said into consideration.
“We understand. We do take it seriously,” Culliver said.
