JOHNNIE LEASHORE: TWO QUARTS LOW
12-19-07
In the matter of electing more members to the Selma City School Board, IF INTELLECTUAL HONESTY WERE OIL, LEASHORE WOULD BE ABOUT 2 QUARTS LOW. Leashore is the main reason the Selma City School Board has only 8 members on it. He and Mayor Perkins are the primary reasons the Board has been unable to elect a Superintendent.
SUPPORTERS OF LEASHORE AND PERKINS: Don't forget how the School Board came to have only 8 members. For many years, the School Board and City operated under a court ordered Consent Decree which required 6 black and 5 white members and 6 white and 5 black members the next year. In May of this year, while the Consent Decree was still in effect, 2 vacancies occurred on the School Board - one had been filled by a white and one by a black. Under the Consent Decree, the Council would have had to appoint one white and one black to the School Board.
As its custom had been, the City Council's Administrative Committee interviewed candidates for the vacancies. Eight or nine Selma residents were interviewed; however, only one of those was white. She is the Comptroller for a large Selma Company and would have made an excellent School Board Member to replace the white, Dr. David Hodo, who had resigned because he did not live in the city. Unfortunately, for her, she was white.
Enters now Johnnie Leashore, who it appears is not only a damned hypocrite, but a racist as well. At the Council meeting where the Council was to elect 2 members to the Board, LEASHORE made the motion and led the charge NOT to elect ANY members to the School Board as long as the Consent Decree was in force. THAT IS WHY THE SELMA CITY SCHOOL BOARD HAS ONLY 8 MEMBERS ON IT TODAY! In the meantime, while the Consent Decree was still in effect, another white member resigned. Primarily because of Leashore's opposition, the Council has not interviewed anyone for that position. THAT IS WHY THERE ARE NOW 3 VACANCIES ON THE BOARD.
For nearly 3 months, the Council did nothing to fill the 3 vacancies on the Board. Finally, the Court removed the Consent Decree. Once that was done, LEASHORE AND PERKINS WERE GUNG-HO TO ELECT more members to the School Board. Leashore went all over town screaming that the Law required an 11 member School Board and the Law required the City Council to elect 3 more members to make it an 11 member School Board. OF COURSE THE LAW REQUIRES THAT JUST AS THE SAME LAW REQUIRED IT WHEN LEASHORE WAS AGAINST ELECTING MEMBERS TO THE BOARD FOR 3 MONTHS WHEN THE CONSENT DECREE WAS STILL IN EFFECT. WHAT A HYPOCRITE!
Leashore's OPPOSITION to electing School Board Members last June, together with Perkins' interference, has precipitated the Board's action in failing to elect a Superintendent. 4 candidates were interviewed and scored. We are told that Don Jefferson scored lowest on ALL of the Board Member's Evaluations. As it turns out, Jefferson is the puppet that Perkins and Leashore want installed as Superintendent.
Perkins' part in this was to call School Board Members and ask them to vote for Jefferson, even though Jefferson had the lowest scores on the interviews! Once the board deadlocked, Leashore began to scream about the Law and what it required the City Council to do immediately. This is the same Law Leashore neglected to mention for 3 months last summer when he did not want to elect members to the School Board.
Who are the Mayor's 4 puppets on the School Board who have caused this deadlock over the Superintendent? (1) Coley Chestnut, who is married to the Mayor's first cousin, Tonya S. Chestnut. Though he is Rev. Chestnut, apparently all of his income does not come from a church because the City of Selma administers a $40,000 a year grant which Coley receives to run some social program in the city. Each month, the City of Selma is writing him a check for over $3,000. Is it any wonder, he does what Perkins wants?
(2) John Williams, the director of the local Community Action Agency. Williams' administrative abilities are so poor that the CAA recently lost a Head Start grant because of "Questionable expenditures of Federal Funds" as well as numerous violations of Head Start regulations. REMEMBER who received the $1,000 which TrustBuild received from the National League of Cities for its second place award. Who did TrustBuild give the $1,000 to? Williams and the Community Action Agency.
(3) Kirit Chapatwala. We are unsure of why he has taken leave of his senses, other than he runs the Sickle Cell Program and receives some city funding and is trying to get the City to let him use the Good Sam for the Sickle Cell Program. For that, he has temporarily sold his soul to Perkins. See if he gets his free space at the Good Sam when the Superintendent crisis is settled!
(4) Debra Howard is a long time Perkins devotee and completely controlled by him.
Thus, Chestnut, Williams, Chapatwala, and Howard are all voting, NOT FOR THE CHILDREN, but for their own pocketbooks and self-interest.
As for Leashore, considering his intellectual dishonesty, we suggest he go to the nearest service station and get a couple of quarts. However, we hope he will not drive over 100 miles per hour on city streets to get there and that he will have his driver's license with him this time!
