Editor, The Commercial:
Your recent editorial concerning the Pine Bluff School Board does not pass the “smell test.” All of your comments are not “fact based.” The only fact that is true is regarding the board not discussing the termination of Superintendent Jerry Payne in public. The facts are as follows: 1. Arkansas Code 6-13-619 (a)(1) states, The Board of Directors shall hold regular monthly meeting during the school term and shall meet on call of the president or secretary or any three (3) members of the board of directors or when petitioned to do so by a petition in writing signed by fifty (50) electors in the school district.
You asked the question: Does it matter if the number seeking the forum is 25, 50, or 500? The law states that you must have 50 electors of the district to call a meeting and the forty seven (47) submitted was insufficient; therefore Board Secretary Freddie Johnson was correct in making a motion to send the petition back to Attorney Gene McKissic (who votes in Dollarway School District). I think you owe Ms. Johnson an apology; she was only following the law or would you rather she accepted the 47 signatures and violate the law?
Spencer Robinson informed the board that neither he nor his firm would be representing the district in the future because the board took actions without the best interest of the district or patrons in mind. If part of the reasoning is because no illegal forum was called, Mr. Robinson and his firm should have been fired, not allowed to quit. In summation, I fully support all the constitutional rights guaranteed citizens as long as it is lawful, and you should too.
Jack Foster
Pine Bluff