Pastor calls Frank Myers’ tactics to unseat incumbents ‘mafia-style’

While he addressed the Muscogee County School Board during Monday night’s meeting, the Rev. Ralph Huling didn’t repeat his allegation that Frank Myers is trying to “get rid of the superintendent,” but the president of the Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance accused the District 8 representative of micromanaging the administration, trying to “stack the board” and using “mafia-style” tactics to unseat incumbents.

With approximately 40 IMA members or their supporters attending the packed boardroom en masse in predominantly black clothes, Huling declared, “We just want to let you know that we have our eyes on this board, we’re here to support the superintendent, and some things that have been done in the past no longer are acceptable.”

Board members Pat Hugley Green of District 1, Athavia “A.J.” Senior of District 3 and Shannon Smallman of District 7 joined most of the crowd in a standing ovation for Huling as he left microphone.

Myers thanked Huling for “bringing this big crowd, because that’s what we need: We need attention on this board. … You and I want the same things.”

Amid laughter in the room, Huling hollered from his seat, “We just have different ways of going about it.”

Myers replied, “We all want good strong public schools that produce good strong citizens.”

Huling, the pastor of St. James Missionary Baptist Church in Columbus and New Hope Baptist Church in Lumpkin, didn’t refer to Myers by name in his comments to the board, but Myers acknowledged, “I know who you’re talking about. I guess I’m the 800-pound gorilla in the room.”

Myers, an attorney and political consultant, then mentioned several board members he helped elect since he’s been “trying to help fix this education system for 14 years,” including Green and Naomi Buckner of District 4. “If that’s stacking the deck, then I’m stacking the deck.”

Senior interjected that Myers also helped her get elected.

“Four years ago, he was looking for candidates that he could control, candidates who would do what he wanted to do, so that he can tell this board and control it in a hostile takeover and run it,” Senior said. “… Four years ago, when I took this seat in January and raised my hand and voted a certain way, he became a hostile enemy. I was attacked. I was bullied by him. I was threatened by Mr. Myers.”

After the applause quieted, Senior added, “We don’t need a board member to come in and try to tell the superintendent what to do with our students in our schools.”

Superintendent David Lewis, whom the board hired in July 2013 from Polk County, Fla., where he was an assistant superintendent, said, “I’ll be the first to tell you we’re not where we want to be, but we’re not where we used to be. … The principals, the teachers, the paraprofessionals and all the staff are working daily on behalf of our students, are working tirelessly every day to make those improvements.”

After another round of applause, Lewis added, “And with the help of the entire community, … it does take all of us working against some of the obstacles that we are dealing with on a daily basis.”

Before chairman Rob Varner turned the board’s attention to the action agenda, Green “set the record straight.” She said other individuals and groups helped her get elected besides Myers. “They got my message out to the voters, not to have any strings attached to me,” she said, “but for me to do what’s right.”

Among the votes Monday night, the board:

▪  Unanimously approved expanding the Achieve3000 reading and writing program at its lowest-performing schools. In October, MCSD implemented at 13 schools the Web-based system that delivers differentiated instruction in nonfiction reading and writing. MCSD will spend $630,000 over three years for the program in those schools. The addition of 24 more MCSD schools will cost the district an extra $940,000 over three years.

The 13 MCSD schools that implemented Achieve3000 in 2015-16 were: Carver High School, Baker and Eddy middle schools and Davis, Dawson, Downtown, Forrest Road, Fox, Georgetown, Lonnie Jackson, Martin Luther King Jr., Rigdon Road and South Columbus elementary schools.

The 24 schools that will implement Achieve3000 this year are: Allen, Blanchard, Brewer, Dimon, Dorothy Height, Gentian, Hannan, Johnson, Key, Midland, North Columbus, Reese Road, River Road, St. Marys Road, Waddell, Wesley Heights and Wynnton elementary schools and Arnold, East Columbus, Fort, Midland, Richards, Rothschild and Veterans Memorial middle schools.

▪  Unanimously approved the superintendent’s recommendation to promote Kendrick assistant principal LaTonya Hamilton to principal of St. Marys Road Elementary School. She replaces Felicia Johnson, who retired in June.

▪  Voted 6-3, with Myers, Buckner and John Thomas of District 2 opposed, to renew contracts with three companies who provide outsourced custodial services. The total cost of contracting with SSC Services of Knoxville, Tenn., Beck Facility Services of Newnan, Ga., and Diversified Maintenance (previously called Right Way Service) of Tampa, Fla., is the same price as last fiscal year, not to exceed $1,838,245, according to the administration’s agenda item. Based on complaints about the cleanliness of the schools, the district will implement a pilot program with SSC to send its custodians who had been working at Carver High School to three elementary schools, Dimon, Forrest Road and Rigdon Road. The custodians employed by MCSD at those elementary schools would work instead at Carver.

This story was originally published July 18, 2016 at 9:14 PM with the headline "Pastor calls Frank Myers’ tactics to unseat incumbents ‘mafia-style’."