Wednesday, September 26, 2007

School Board doesn't follow its own policies

It seems the Board doesn't like to follow its own policies, like 1260 Conflicts of Interest. It reads as follows;

It is the policy of the Edmonds School District that no member of the Board, or any spouse or dependent relative of such member, shall receive or accept any compensation or reward for services rendered to the District OR have any pecuniary [financial] interest in any contract to which the District is a party except to the limited extent authorized by law. For the purposes of this policy, such pecuniary interest shall not be deemed to exist by reason of a contract between the District and the employer of a Board member if: (a) the compensation of the Board member from such employer consists entirely of fixed wages or salary; (b) such employment relationship is disclosed and is recorded in the minutes of a Board meeting prior to the formation of the contract with the employer; and (c) the contract is approved by a vote of the membership for the Board sufficient for the purpose without counting the vote of the Board member employed by the contracting party.

Gary Noble's spouse, Kay Noble is a teacher at Lynnwood High School and therefore receives and accepts compensation for services rendered to the District.

The Board would be well-advised to spend more time reading their own policies and less time violating them.

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nepotism and the like have been rampant in Edmonds for all of memorable history. Look at the relations between a certain warehouse employee and ESC. Or by a custodial supervisor put in the position of supervising their spouse.

Anonymous said...

Are these folks lost? Why do we have to keep pointing out these codes and policies for them? Gary, my guess is that you would steal quarter from your mom. There will be no empathy out of this corner. Enjoy your walk on the "High Road". Sad that you and the district continue to stink up the joint. How can we help you all in raising the bar?

Anonymous said...

Looks like the Board would fail both the reading and math sections of the WASL. They can neither read their own policies or determine which is greater: 3.3 million or 5.8 million.

Anonymous said...

There is a school board meeting tomorrow night, September 25th.

Anonymous said...

It appears that this policy only applies to employment with outside companies doing business with the district. Since it specifically applies to board members, if it applied to ESD employment, then board members, who also receive compensation from the district, would be in violation. Spouse employment is common across the state, and state law specifically addresses this - if a spouse is employed prior to the board member being elected, there is no conflict of interest, except the board member cannot vote on the spouses's contract.

ESD15.org said...

What is common practice and what is defined by Board policy may be entirely different. The policy is very clear and was adopted for a reason. Thank you for your reply, Kay.

Anonymous said...

Re: nepotism - it begs to answer the question of how MM's new assistant attained that position; how BH's specialist attained that position. They have connections?

Anonymous said...

In any other organization, conflicts of interest as a result of one family member being subordinate to another; one invidual is transferred to an unrelated department. But where can Kay go? Gary has influence over the ENTIRE District.

Anonymous said...

To Sept 25 at 8:41 a.m.

It would be helpful to all of us if you provided the basis for your argument. Did you receive a legal opinion that can be shared with the blog? Or is this your interpretation?

Anonymous said...

If you were to check with HR, you would know that school board members are NOT employees.

So Kay's circular logic is based on incorrect knowledge.

Anonymous said...

Kay's career is undermining her husband's ambition.

Anonymous said...

So, those raises that just happened... that was Gary giving his wife's boss a raise? I wonder what Kay is getting away with at work.

Anonymous said...

Gary also voted for his wife's raise when he approved the EEA agreement.

Anonymous said...

Gary also voted for his wife's raise when he approved the EEA agreement.

Anonymous said...

The B&O posting(#07-2166) for Administrative specialist closes Oct. 12th. However I would like to know who the armed guard acting person is upstairs? She is wonderful at peeking over and around her cubicle to see who is in the area. "Don't you talk about my Marla around here".