Questioning the school board committee assignments

It's no accident that Wake County school board member Kevin Hill is only on one board committee.

As noted in today's article, school board chairman Ron Margiotta said he only had Hill on the human resources committee because of his lack of cooperation with the new board majority.

Margiotta said he obtained copies of e-mails Hill had sent to members of the public trying to "stir up the pot" against the majority.

"Kevin Hill has been the most critical of what we're trying to do," Margiotta said in the article. "The committees can be adjusted once I feel Kevin Hill is willing to be more cooperative."

Hill said placing him and Anne McLaurin on only a few committees contradicted the notion that the majority wants to work with the minority. Combined, Hill and McLaurin are on three committees. They're not chairs or vice chairs.

All four new board members are on between three and five committees. All are committee chairs with Debra Goldman and John Tedesco chairing two apiece.

But Tedesco pointed to how they can work with members of the minority, particularly Keith Sutton and Carolyn Morrison. Combined, Sutton and Morrison chair one committee and are vice chairs on four committees. (I'm not including the so-called legislative committee as an actual committee.)

Margiotta says he honored most of the committee requests that board members had made.

In McLaurin's case, she said she had asked to stay on the policy and student achievement committees. She's still on policy but is now on the facilities committee.

"I guess the board will do whatever it wants to do," McLaurin said. "I'll serve wherever I am on."

Click here for the new committee list. Click here for the list that had been developed by Hill before Margiotta was elected chairman.

Hill would have had the other eight board members each serve on two standing committees. All the committees would have had four members.

Margiotta's new committees have three members. Hill said he's concerned that having fewer members will cut down on the diversity of thoughts on the committees.

All board members can attend any commitee meetings. But only the committee members can vote in those meetings.

Hill would have kept Margiotta as chair of the policy committee.

Margiotta said he had been asked before to lead the policy committee because the old board considered it to be a "meaningless committee."

During Margiotta's tenure on policy, he was charged largely with conducting the review of board policies that had been called for in the curriculum management audit. The committee also dealt with policy revisions required by changes in state and federal laws.

The policy committee is far more high profile now that it will deal with the proposed changes to the student assignment policy. Goldman will chair that important committee.