Following their regular Tuesday meeting, the Greenville Public School District Board of Trustees elected once more not to take action concerning 14 of its bus drivers’ participation in a strike on April 26 and 27.
A reduction in work hours, days and in some instances, pay, are some of the reasons bus drivers said they abstained from showing up for work on those days.
After hearing bus drivers’ grievances during its regular meeting last month, the board first voted to overturn the decision to reduce the upcoming academic year’s work days by five.
During a special meeting on May 6, however, board attorney Dorian Turner informed the board that the bus drivers’ participation in the strike was unlawful, adding, “The board should consider undoing the restoration of those five days agreed upon and put it back on the agenda for reconsideration.”
Turner referred to MS Code 37-9-75, which regards district superintendents, principals, teachers and other employees in general as it pertains to strikes.
MS Code 37-9-75 states, in part, “In the event of a strike against the public school, the local school governing board shall continue school operations as long as practicable in order to ascertain which teachers are on strike, and certify the names of such teachers to the Attorney General. Any member of a local school governing board or public school administrator who violates this subsection shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction shall be fined not less than $100 nor more than $250 for each day such violation continues.”
“At the last meeting, the board requested a timeline and justification of the names (of bus drivers) that were on the list just to ensure that all of those names needed to be on the list, and if anybody else’s name needs to be added to the list so that we could get further clarification on getting this information in to the state auditor’s office,” board president Jan Vaughn said.
Superintendent Dr. Debra Dace submitted a timeline to board members or in essence, a timeline of her personal account of what transpired.
In addition, she submitted a timeline from Carlos Thompson, GPSD’s transportation director.
Trustee Antoinette Williams informed fellow board members that while she initially asked for the timeline, she subsequently asked that because the matter pertained to personnel and potential legalities, it be discussed in executive session.
After speaking with Turner, Dace determined that certain aspects of the matter could be discussed in open session and others, in executive session.
“I also have the list of drivers who were absent on April 26 and April 27 per the transportation office,” Dace said.
Trustee Antoinette Williams moved that the board take no action at that time, followed by a second from trustee Oliver Johnson. The motion passed unanimously.
“We are still working to resolve the issue,” Vaughn said. “We are waiting for additional information from the superintendent to review at the upcoming board meeting so that an effective decision can be made.”
