Our View: A matter of opinion

The Jessieville School Board's decision to accept the resignation of Superintendent Andy Curry in the wake of a DWI arrest in Texas was a positive step forward not only for the district, but for its most important constituents -- the children.

That's not to say all of the district's problems are behind it, or that all of the questions surrounding Curry's separation package have been answered.

Garland County Prosecuting Attorney Steve Oliver told the newspaper Tuesday that he intends to ask for an Arkansas attorney general's opinion on the propriety of including a 2014 Chevrolet Silverado LT as part of Curry's separation package.

In addition to the Silverado, Curry's severance package pays him approximately $150,000 and gives him the three-year-old laptop computer he used at the school.

Our position is clear -- public property should not have been included in his compensation package.

Arkansas Code 6-21-110 states, in part, that "it is hereby declared against public policy and prohibited for any public educational entity to give, donate, or transfer without adequate market value consideration any public property to administrators, board members, or employees of the public education entity, or immediate family members of any of these individuals."

It also states that "public educational entities are prohibited from giving public property having a value of over $100 to leaving or retiring board members, administrators, employees, or members of their immediate family."

There's also Article 14, Section 2 of the state Constitution, which states that "No money or property belonging to the public school fund, or to this state, for the benefit of schools or universities, shall ever be used for any other than the respective purposes to which it belongs."

We'll see what the attorney general has to say on the matter. If it ultimately passes his scrutiny, then we would call upon our elected officials to change state law to close the loophole that allowed it. Public property should be used to benefit the children of the school district, not bartered away to avoid a messy legal separation.

On the heels of Oliver's statement, former school Superintendent George Foshee issued a statement on Tuesday seeking to clear the air about his tenure at Jessieville.

In May, long before the alleged drunk driving incident, the school board released a statement in support of Curry, and announced its intent to investigate possible past transgressions by the previous administration.

A letter from the Legislative Joint Auditing Committee to the district in 2011 communicated that the district expended $123,099 for bus repairs by, and parts from, a business owned by an employee without obtaining a board resolution or Arkansas Department of Education approval as required.

The letter also stated that examination of 46 of the district's expenditure transactions revealed a lack of documented administrative approval for payment in 13 instances. The letter said similar findings were reported in the previous three audits.

Foshee said Tuesday that both the prosecutor and the Garland County Sheriff's Department determined there was no impropriety nor was there any intentional violation of any law or regulation, and that the Jessieville School Board simply failed to pass a board resolution as required by Arkansas law.

As we said at the outset, not all of the district's problems are behind it. We will be closely watching to see what results the district receives from any further investigation into the findings of a 2010 audit by the Arkansas Division of Legislative Audit, including Foshee's actions -- and those of the school board.

We all have a vested interest in seeing these matters resolved and the district move forward. The ultimate concern should not be the administrators or the school board, but the children of the district.

Isn't it about time their academic feats and extracurricular accomplishments were the major news, and not the transgressions of their two past superintendents?

Editorial on 08/27/2014

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