Did Sandra Smith Jones violate her ethics pledge
By Brian Kirwin | Friday, September 9th, 2011 | PoliticsWhile reading the website of the Virginia Beach School Board, I noticed a document called “Code of Ethics” for School Board members. And it’s signed by Sandra Smith Jones, the member who took a job in Saudi Arabia but won’t resign her School Board seat.
It states, “While serving as a member of the Virginia Beach School Board, I will accept the responsibility to improve education, and I will:”
It lists 20 things the Board member will do. Check out number 11.
“11. I will make an effort to attend all Board meetings.”
Now, when a member is working in Saudi Arabia and only in the United States every 3 or 4 months, how does that member make an effort to attend meetings that are scheduled ever other week?
Will Sandra Smith Jones fly halfway to America and claim she got stuck in air traffic?
Will she stand at the dock by passing board trying to hitch a ride?
How, please tell me how, how is she going to keep her ethical pledge to “make an effort to attend all meetings”?
She also promised Number 12.
“12. Come to Board meetings informed concerning the issues under consideration.”
Well, isn’t it implicit in that pledge to actually come to Board meetings? It doesn’t say, “When you decide to come back to the country ever so often, brush up on the agenda.”
She signed the ethics pledge. To me, it looks like she’s violating it.
That is, unless the School Board receives a report during every meeting she misses about how she made “an effort to attend.”
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The right wants to jeer him. The left wants to censor him. Moderates usually want both. Brian Kirwin is a political consultant and public relations strategist in Virginia Beach with a lightning-rod flair. Brian also serves on the VB Arts & Humanities Commission and frequently appears on Hampton Roads theatrical stages, if only to prove that all actors aren’t liberals. Kirwin’s columns stir up debate and hit the political scene with no punches pulled.
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13 Responses to "Did Sandra Smith Jones violate her ethics pledge"
No she didn’t… This is general to enforce plus if you watch the meetings, you’ll note that some of the others who attend would be guilty. It seems some of them do not “Come to Board meetings informed concerning the issues under consideration.” LOL
While I agree she should have resigned, she appears to have outsmarted the rest of the board’s desire to appoint “special folks” to the board. Given that she has held onto her seat, I think she might have done a good deed.
She had not done a “good deed”. She has left Kempsville with inadequate representation.
Maybe she has “Skype” on her laptop and the board can amend the rules to allow her a “virtual” presence at the board meetings. A future School Board meeting scenario: “Oh no, Sandra just got dropped on Skype, but we have a quorum present, so let’s vote to try the home schooling experiment with all students in the Kempsville district to see how much money we can save. A show of hands… all that say aye?… The ‘ayes’ are unanimous with the quorum present, motion carried.”
@JZ: No. Sorry to inform you but I’ve checked with myself and in my opionion, she did a good deed… LOL
You are welcome to your own view…
Tim,
State law limits an elected official’s ability to Skype, and it isn’t going to apply in Sandra’s case.
William,
I’ve seen the story why. My problem with labeling it a “good deed” is that it assumes a bigger evil (holding the seat in Saudi Arabia) is better than a smaller evil (a Seery appointment).
This issue is far more complicated. Whether or not she should resign is one issue, another issue is the dysfunction of the SB in appointing members and other decisions that affect the public schools. After all, why do they need sound-proofing in the administration offices? It returns us to a time before elected school boards where a school board appointment was the reward for loyalty and friendship.
And yes, I agree with Bill, she outsmarted them…and good for her….and brought this issue into public discussion….because too many decisions are being made behind “closed doors.”
I think I find myself in agreement with Henry on this issue.
Iva,
You broke this up into two issues (possibly with some merit for doing so) but where do you stand on the issue of whether or not she should resign?
IMHO, if it were me, I’d resign gracefully. Then run again, if I so desired, when I returned.
Maybe the issue could be resolved if the SB was more open when appointing people to the SB. But when, in private conversations, the SB Chair says that he will in no way appoint a teacher, I have to wonder what other folks are disqualified. If moving the school system into the 21st Century is the goal, we can’t afford or chance exclusiveness.
There is a broader issue in Virginia that is germane to this situation, elected versus appointed school boards. We have a mix of both in Virginia, thanks to the General Assembly in a rare exception to the Dillon Rule giving local jurisdictions the option of choosing one or the other. As I have posted here before, the GA authorized elected school boards many years ago because of complaints that were remarkably similar to those being made today about the Virginia Beach SB: decisions made in secret, cronyism, funding decisions that are not in the best interests of the teachers and students, etc. Elected school boards, whose members would run as non-partisan candidates without the nomination of a political party, was supposed to fix all that. There have been numerous academic studies since then, most notably one by Randolph Macon College here in Virginia, that have found that there is little or no difference in the spending per student or the academic achievement in school districts with elected school boards compared with those with appointed school boards.
It seems to me that this entire controversy would have never occurred if the Virginia Beach SB members were appointed. Then the City Council would have been able to remove Ms. Smith-Jones when they knew that she would not be residing full time in Kempsville, regardless of her legal residency. And they would have appointed her replacement as a matter of routine council business without all the political drama and gamesmanship that is going on right now between the SB and Ms. Smith-Jones.
Iva,
She tried to resign gracefully before some seemed to convince her to do otherwise. They convinced her to pick the fight that she is not going to around for.
Can my kids skype into school??? No! By the way she refused to sign the ethics pledge! A copy of the pledge sans Ms. Jones signature can be viewed on Hamptonroads(dot)com
She didn’t try to resign gracefully, she decided that she didn’t trust the other school board members to appoint someone in her place until an election was held. If she can’t do her job that shouldn’t be her call. Politics, politics.
I think Dottie is being dotty in her idea that Smith-Jones play a role not in the job description of School Board member. Silly stuff.
http://hamptonroads.com/2011/09/va-beach-board-member-likely-can-keep-seat
If she were white, they wouldn’t have allowed this ridiculous fiasco to happen. Get rid of her!!!
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