Harold C. Ford
“here we go again.” – Joyce Ellis McNeil after being removed as president of the Flint Board of Education, Aug. 17
The tumultuous nature of the Flint Board of Education (FBOE) was abruptly thrown out of their positions at a panel’s 3.5-hour meeting on August 17, when president Joyce Ellis McNeil and treasurer Laura McIntyre were abruptly thrown out of their positions. Fully shown again. .
Here’s who voted to fire both McNeil and McIntyre. Carol McIntosh, Vice President. Chris Del Morrone, Assistant Secretary/Treasurer. Allen Gilbert, Trustee. Daniel Green, Trustee.
Linda Boose joined Ellis-McNeal and MacIntyre in opposing motions to remove both.
A motion to remove Ellis-McNeal was created by Gilbert. A motion to remove McIntyre was made by McIntosh. McIntosh and Green each filed motions for secondment.
FBOE School Board member Laura McIntyre. (Photo source: New York Post | Article published March 24, 2022)
Green was at his first meeting in five months. During the discussion, Greene told Ellis McNeill that she (Ellis McNeil) was “intellectually, morally and ethically ineligible for the position of chairman of the board.” “I’m not the only one who thinks so,” she said.
“We are just acting in an unprofessional manner,” Ellis-McNeal replied. She characterized both expulsions as “retaliation.”
Mackintosh was promoted to president following the dismissal of Ellis McNeil. The presidential gavel was soon passed from Ellis MacNeil to Mackintosh, who presided over the brief remainder of the meeting.
Del Morone was chosen to fill the vice-presidential post that had been vacated by McIntosh’s elevation to the presidency, with votes from Gilbert, Green, McIntosh, Del Morone, and Booth.
Green received votes from Gilbert, McIntosh, Del Morrone and Green to replace McIntyre as treasurer.
“I’ll be back,” McNeil said in response to the sudden change in FBOE’s management. In the past 21 months since December 2020, the gavel of Flint’s board chairmanship has passed from McIntosh to Green, to Ellis McNeill, and to McIntosh his four times.
Ellis-McNeal and MacIntyre’s difficult tenure
Ellis-McNeal had been elevated to the top FBOE position when Green was ousted following Green’s alleged assault on MacIntyre in March. Ellis-McNeal’s perceived clumsy leadership style – frequently requiring redirection by other members of the board attending public meetings and central administrative staff. – featured a rambling soliloquy that seemed lost. Under Ellis-McNeal, FBOE meetings regularly lasted from he three hours to he five hours or more.
[Readers, listeners, viewers can witness for themselves the parliamentary untidiness of FBOE meetings for the past five months by watching videos of those meetings made available on YouTube. Print accounts have also been provided in recent print issues and online posts of East Village Magazine (EVM).]
Mr. McIntyre’s 20-month tenure on the Flint Commission saw several conflicts with management and other members of the elected leadership team.
- FBOE veterans Vera Perry and Diana Wright, who collectively served on the board for more than 24 years, abruptly resigned from FBOE on September 7, 2021. Wright had repeatedly been rejected in his attempts to obtain the CS Mott Foundation’s proposal to rebuild or renovate all of Flint’s school buildings on the committee’s agenda. The most vocal and jarring objection came from McIntyre. In a statement to EVMs, Perry only said that her service was “obsolete.” Both Wright and Perry had a very public altercation during her first six months after McIntyre joined the panel. In one heated exchange, Perry threw the nickname “Heifer” in McIntyre’s direction.
Perry, Wright, Ellis McNeil, Steward, Dompre, Greene, and McIntosh are all African-American women. It may help explain why veiled and explicit accusations of racism are increasingly being launched in McIntyre’s direction by members of the public and other members of the board. not.
“four votes”
“As you can see, you got four votes,” Ellis-McNeal concluded in response to an apparent new majority block of four votes on a seven-man panel. Relative newcomers Del Morrone and Gilbert joined Green and McIntosh, the oldest board members, to remove Ellis McNeill and McIntyre from their positions and pass other measures.
Mr. Green was returning to the first meeting after being absent for five months after being sacked as president for a confrontation with Mr. McIntyre. The success of his PPO request by McIntyre was thought to be the reason for Green’s absence.
Speaking after the Aug. 17 meeting, Green said: EVMs Herman Marable, 67th A district court judge sent a memo to Ellis McNeal explaining that it was not his intention to bar Greene from public service. did. Early in the meeting, Green referred to “documents the president has tried to hide from us.”
McIntosh reappeared at the FBOE meeting in July after months of voluntary hiatus. So I’m not coming to the meeting!”
In a further sign of strength, a new four-vote majority, by a further four-to-three vote, approved payment for Green’s legal costs resulting from the March assault. The board voted to pay McIntyre’s fee at a previous meeting.
The emerging four-vote bloc actually coalesced during a meeting on Aug. 17 in a heated and protracted debate over whether to pay district attorney Charis Lee a fee immediately.
“I could have already taken this to court.”
After the Flint District’s long relationship with Williams Law Firm ended in dissonance in the fall of 2021, Chalice Lee’s promising new relationship with the law firm has also intensified. Lee had been nominated to the board by Ellis McNeil. But Ellis-McNeal had led a months-long effort to block Lee from paying her for her firm’s legal services for failing to follow due process.
McIntyre joined Ellis McNeill and vehemently opposed paying Lee.
- Ellis-McNeal: “We were advised not to pay until[the school district’s auditing firm]contacted us. did not do it [to] Let her (Lee)… Invoices, and invoices, and invoices without documents. … I kept getting overcharged bills of $7,000, $8,000, $9,000. …I requested that the attorney meet with me and the Superintendent. ”
- McIntyre: “This issue is very sloppy and unprofessional. … This vendor (Lee) has refused to follow the procedure. I voted to pay the first bill that was paid.At this point there are a lot of other things that are very problematic …procedures need to be followed.”
Mackintosh, Gilbert, Greene, and Del Morrone insisted on prompt payment for Lee’s services.
- McIntosh: “This is sabotage… if this board votes to pay her (Lee), the external auditor will invalidate this board. . . . there is her (Lee) bill, That’s not excessive. … This is slander (see comments on Lee by Ellis-McNeal and MacIntyre). …”
- Gilbert: “Before I came here, the previous board approved this attorney (Lee) as a board attorney. If so, we are to blame. …I don’t think this attorney has been treated fairly.”
“I think she has the right to come before us and defend her. ‘I think that’s fine,'” Del Morrone said in support. “It’s better to deal with it in-house than in the courts.”
In a rare unanimous vote, the board voted 7 to 0 to bring Lee forward. Lee vehemently defended her work in her school district.
“I decided not to do politics,” Lee said. “I really appreciate you withholding money from me, especially when you know I’m not overcharging this school district. I’m undercharging you.” And I have tried to only charge what I can prove…everything I have claimed, I have worked for.”
“I live in this community,” said an enthusiastic Lee. “I have no intention of stealing from you. … The allegations are appalling because I do not play these games. I am asking you to work with me and discuss these allegations with me, because the allegations may not be true.”
Ms Lee said her company has not received compensation for district work since February. “I could have already taken this to court,” she said. , you are not cooperating with me as counsel for the Board.”
“I have no interest in meeting you (McNeil) and the superintendent,” Lee said.
The discussion lasted 79 minutes and was so furious that the security officer assigned to the FBOE meeting re-emerged from the hallway and took a seat near the board members.
McIntyre accused the other FBOE members of being a “grandstanding (and) performance circus.” Green accused Ellis McNeill of “lying like you do about everything else.”
Ultimately, Booth joined the Flint Board’s new four-voting block (McIntosh, Greene, Gilbert, and Del Morrone) and voted to pay Lee for the services rendered. They then quickly dismissed McNeil and McIntyre from the board.
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The remaining 2022 Flint School Board meetings are scheduled for September 14th and 21st. October 12th and 19th. November 9th and 16th. December 14th and 21st. You can watch remotely or in person. The meeting will be held at his ALA Building, 1602 S. Averill Ave., Flint, MI 48503. For more information, visit your school district’s website. (www.flintschools.org)
EVMs Education Beat reporter Harold Ford can be reached at hcford1185@gmail.com.
