More unexplained school politics

Public explanations for why public officials, paid with and entrusted to spend public money, do so many things with so little public accountability don’t seem to be a high priority in Phenix City.

Especially when it comes to public education.

By all accounts, Phenix City Schools Superintendent Randy Wilkes has done an exemplary job, as attested by compelling evidence both statistical and anecdotal. That’s to his (and, of course, to the PC faculty and administrators’) credit. Yet after almost two years Wilkes has occupied the school system’s top office, the curious and secretive process by which the school board — some of it, anyway — chose to hire him has still not been explained.

Nor has the bizarre and sudden departure of his predecessor, Larry DiChiara. Two years after being named Alabama Superintendent of the Year, DiChiara was placed on administrative leave by unanimous vote in a called meeting. The school system ultimately spent $587,412 to buy out the last four-plus years on DiChiara’s contract, and another $30,000-plus on legal fees. No explanation was offered then, and the terms of the settlement ostensibly prohibit any explanation of it now. So much for $600,000 in public money spent paying a public employee not to work.

The pattern apparently continued Tuesday when the Phenix City Council, with Mayor Eddie Lowe casting the tie-breaking votes, decided not to reappoint the Phenix City Board of Education’s president, Brad Baker, and its vice president, Kelvin Redd.

Why? Nothing to do, apparently, with the performance or character of either man. Lowe, who before becoming mayor served 12 years on the school board, said he “wanted to give other people a chance to serve.” Council member Jim Cannon offered a similar observation, that “I just think we need a new change on the board.”

There is, as staff writer Mark Rice’s Wednesday report made clear, rampant speculation in Phenix City about the reasons and motives for this move, as might be expected.

That’s the whole problem when public actions are made without public disclosure: It creates a vacuum that speculation and suspicion and skepticism invariably rush to fill. There might have been good reasons for all these decisions, but why should people be expected to believe that if they’re never told what those reasons were?

Phenix City optometrist Griff Gordy, who chairs the Friends of Phenix City Schools $1.1 million capital campaign, got to heart of the issue: “As citizens of this community we deserve to know why these decisions are made. Where is the accountability?”

One possible answer to that question comes readily to mind, though it’s hardly a new one.

Phenix City’s school board is chosen by and serves at the pleasure — some might at times like this be tempted to say the whim — of the Phenix City Council.

“Accountability,” almost by definition, involves being answerable directly to the people. An appointed board that answers to an elected city government doesn’t come close.

This story was originally published April 6, 2016 at 3:47 PM with the headline "More unexplained school politics."