EDITORIAL - Lawrence County Independent Schools must do a better job of communication. One of the many reasons why parents put their child in LCIS, is with the hope that the school board would do a better job of communicating with them.
The poor communication of former North Lawrence Community School board during the consolidation of the school district since 2020, has led to mistrust.
Sadly, LCIS has also failed in this simplest art of communicating to the public.
As in all cases of investigations of allegations of impropriety of staff, not a lot of information can be given to the public. Especially, until the investigation is complete, and actions taken by the governing boards.
However, the simplest bit of information would have prevented the mistrust, in the latest debacle of the LCIS board.
Lawyers are good at writing the one or two sentences that would have said " It has come to our attention that there have been allegations of financial mismanagement or improper employee conduct and we are looking into these matters at this time."
The biggest debacle came when students at the school were given the information in the classroom, and the taxpaying public was not even notified of any actions taken by the board or administration.
Concerning is the attorney for LCIS stating that LCIS is not required by law to divulge to the public that the board has placed any staff member of LCIS has been placed on admirative leave.
All of the public schools within Lawrence County have at least informed the public of administrative leaves, or actions voted on or taken by the board in regard to personnel matters.
LCIS is in its infancy, and this is not a very good start in how to gain trust with the public. The meeting times of this matter was not convenient for the taxpayer public and prevented many from attending the meeting. This does not help build trust within the public.
Now, is the time to move forward and do a better job, it is what is expected from the taxpayers and community expectations.
Please do a better job.
Editorial
Bill Raines editor Lawrence County Zephyr