Rodd

THOMASVILLE — The appointments of the Thomasville City school board chairman and vice chairman were meet with questions on Tuesday afternoon. 

Chairman Chris Rodd — who was re-appointed to the post — called for a motion for the two leadership positions. 

Board member David Cone motioned to appoint Rodd and Kejar Butler as vice chairman. The motion was seconded by Todd Bennett and approved by a 4-2 vote.

Following a closed session motion, the appointment procedure was questioned by attendees outside of the board meeting room. 

Lucinda Brown said the appointment did not follow Robert’s Rules of Order, as the appointment was done in a single motion. 

“The election is illegal,” she said. 

Michael Bryant, another attendee, agreed about the procedure and said the board should go back and vote. 

When the board convened from closed doors, board member Dr. Mary Williams-Scruggs made a motion to rescind the appointments. Butler seconded. 

The motion to rescind was denied in a majority vote. 

Rodd addressed the validity of the appointments. 

“No one made me (as chairman) aware during the meeting that we may have failed to precisely follow Robert’s Rules of Order,” Rodd told the Times-Enterprise Tuesday. “The motion that was presented on the floor needed to be acted upon and there was no discussion or opposition as to the procedural incorrectness.

“As always, we will investigate the matter and should it be determined that the vote was invalid in anyway, then we will take corrective action.” 

Other action taken at meeting: 

•approval of December financial report

•appointment of Georgia School Boards Association delegate assembly representative and alternate representative 

•re-appointment of Dr. Rhoda Gouin as 504 coordinator 

•reappointment of Bill Settle as Title IX coordinator 

•approval of participation in REACH program 

•approval of student discipline recommendation following closed session 

•approval of personnel recommendation following closed session 

Reporter Jordan Barela can be reached at (229) 226-2400, ext. 1826.