In wake of allegations against Frank Myers, MCSD board considers policy changes

The Muscogee County School Board is scheduled to vote next week on revising a policy and creating a new one in the wake of last month’s allegations of sexual harassment and bullying against District 8 representative Frank Myers.

Maggie Reese, who was the Greater Columbus Chamber of Commerce community development and growth director before becoming director of buzz at Yalla Public Relations in January, announced July 19 on her Facebook page that she is “actively pursuing time on the next school board meeting agenda to discuss this face to face with Frank. Ultimately, I believe he should step down from his seat early and allow the empty seat to be a reflection of the zero tolerance for sexual harassment and bullying in the Muscogee County School District.”

The sexual harassment and bullying accusations come from what Myers posted about Reese after she had defended chamber executive Amy Bryan in a Facebook post. Bryan lost in the July 24 runoff election against retired U.S. Army Col. John House for the vacant citywide seat on Columbus Council.

Myers took from Reese’s Facebook page a photo of her in a bikini. He cropped the photo to show only her backside and posted it with a comment that says, “You need to lose 30.” He apologized the next day on Facebook as well as in a phone interview with the Ledger-Enquirer but said he won’t resign.

Since then, a petition calling for the board to censure Myers and for him to resign has attracted more than 3,370 signatures at Change.org. Board secretary Karen Jones has confirmed that Reese is on the public agenda to speak to the board during its Aug. 20 meeting.

Asked what part of the board’s code she thinks Myers violated, Reese cited, “Take no private action that will compromise the board or school system administration.”

The code, however, doesn’t specifically address internet behavior. So during Monday’s work session, the board’s first gathering since the Myers/Reese controversy erupted, board Chairwoman Kia Chambers, the nine-member board’s lone countywide representative, said she asked District 5 representative and policy committee member Laurie McRae to propose appropriate additions. They are:

▪ Communicate with the public in a respectful, professional manner whether it be in person, by electronic means or by social media.

▪ When making posts or comments on social media sites, consider carefully how such communication would reflect on the individual making the post, the Board, and the District as a whole and refrain from language that may violate a provision of the Code of Ethics.

Chambers also said the school district’s internet acceptable use policy for employees doesn’t apply to board members because they aren’t employees. So she asked board attorney Greg Ellington of the law firm Hall Booth Smith to submit a proposal, which says in part:

▪ Board members communicating by electronic means with the public shall communicate in a respectful, professional manner. Members of the Board will conform to the same standards of judgment, propriety, and ethics when communicating by social media.

Ellington emphasized that, because each board member is elected by county voters, the board can’t remove a board member. As outlined in the board’s policy, at least two-thirds of the board (six of the nine members) must support a motion to conduct a sanction hearing, and the accused board member must be notified at least 30 days in advance of the hearing, which may include witnesses.

At least two-thirds of the board must vote yes in order for a sanction to be assessed and to “determine an appropriate sanction,” the policy says, but the types of sanctions aren’t specified. Sanctions can include a fine or reprimand, Ellington said. In a 2013 case in Cherokee County, the sanctioned board member was fined half of her $7,200 salary after she filed a complaint with the school district’s accreditation agency.

The sanctioned board member then has 30 days to appeal the decision to the Georgia Board of Education.

But the Muscogee board doesn’t have a mechanism to immediately censure a fellow member. In a 2017 case in Savannah, the Chatham County Board of Education’s eight other members signed a letter rebuking their fellow representative for Facebook post undermining the superintendent’s authority.

Ellington explained that the Chatham board is empowered to bypass the sanction hearing process because of legislation requested by its local delegation and passed by the Georgia General Assembly. Such a censure requires a unanimous vote from the board members, other than the accused, he added.

That prompted District 7 representative Cathy Williams to declare, “The current mechanism that allows for the enforcement of the code of ethics is very laborious and lengthy. Our code of ethics should be held to a standard that allows for swifter action.” So she called for the board to include that item in its annual list of requests for the local delegation.

If a majority of the board approves the proposals during the Aug. 20 meeting, the policy changes can’t be enacted until waiting at least 30 days to allow for further public comment. Then the board can consider them for final action during the Sept. 17 meeting.

The Myers/Reese controversy never was mentioned during Monday’s work session, but it was clear what motivated the proposed policy changes. Myers was at the board table, and Reese was in the audience, but neither publicly spoke during the board’s discussion.

Reese, however, told the Ledger-Enquirer in a text message, “I’m encouraged action is being taken to ensure there is accountability to prevent situations like mine from happening in the future and I look forward to addressing the board next week with my additional concerns.”

Asked to specify those additional concerns, Reese said, “I’d rather wait until the board meeting to address them with the representatives then.”

Also in a text message to the Ledger-Enquirer, Myers said, “I intend to vote for the policy because I believe that people who are genuinely negatively affected by the type of behavior described in the policy deserve to be protected.”

Myers has been the board’s most outspoken critic of Superintendent David Lewis and his administration. He failed to win a second four-year term when former board chairman Philip Schley beat him with 65 percent of the vote in the May 24 election. Schley will replace Myers on Jan. 1.

This story was originally published August 13, 2018 at 8:37 PM.