Colbert County School Board Hijinks

From a reader:

Ms. Gale Satchel called all 12 month employees to the Central Office on July 28, 2017 at 7:30 a.m. for a meeting to place blame, not to accept responsibility for her actions.  It would seem her little red wagon is loaded with problems!  The situation is as follows:

The week of July 4th was given to all 12 month employees as free vacation time.  Monday, July 3rd was declared a state holiday by Governor Ivey and Tuesday the 4th was a federal holiday.  However, the 5th, 6th and 7th were not recognized holidays but actual contract days for these employees.  The 7th was Friday and these employees have Fridays off during the summer due to working FOUR 10 hour days.

Upon being called out for giving 12 month employees time off without board approval by someone on Shoalanda Blogspot, Ms. Gale, has decided to ask the 12 month employees to give back 16 hours of the gift she gave them.  Why 16?  Why not 20?  If Ms. Gale knew her job or the law she would know that asking 12 month employees to “come up with” 16 hours to turn in to her is classified as FRAUD and she could then turn around and terminate them for lying about the time worked.  If employees use Sick Leave it is considered Sick Leave fraud and is also punishable by termination.  Personal Time should not be used because the 12 month employees didn’t request to be off.  It would also be against the contracts and those who are salary employees.

While explaining this situation, Ms. Gale had a photo on the screen in front of 12 month employees to show them who is to blame for this problem.  The photo was of Ed Bowman.  Mr. Bowman has no actual ties to the school system, he is just a tax payer, like me, who wants Ms. Gale to do her job as she is supposed to.  It seems Ms. Gale is having issues doing her job due to not being qualified for the job of Superintendent.  There are requirements in place for the job and she does NOT meet them.  It is a shame the local judge that signed off on her to run didn’t do a background check to see if the requirements were met.  It is also very suspicious that former Superintendent Anthony Olivis signed off saying she had the qualifications.  One would wonder why people would perjure themselves to get her on the ballot.  

Ms. Gale is flying high on the Colbert County taxpayers’ hard earned money and flying is being used literally!  In May, Ms. Gale went on a field trip to Washington DC with 5th grade students from across the county at tax payer expense and when something more fun and exciting started happening at home she jumped on a plane in Virginia to get back for the photo ops at a ballgame and concert!  How much did that ticket cost the taxpayers!  I bet the rental on the luxury car was cheaper than that last minute plane ticket!  I also hear that Ms. Gale wants a covered carport at the Central Office so she doesn’t get wet going in her office on rainy days!  I guess it’s beneath her to open an umbrella!  She needs to get over herself and come back down to earth with the rest of the taxpayers in Colbert County!

She and the board are out of control and need the same scare tactics they are using on teachers to be used on them.  They seem VERY proud of antagonizing and frightening teachers and even brag about it in public.  Again, some people need to remember the Golden Rule!  

I hope and pray that the state will eventually see what is going on in Colbert County and take over her position and put someone in it that is actually qualified and not just a narcissist with too much power! 

 *****

We published the above guest editorial completely unedited. We would love for some knowledgeable reader to address the qualification issue. This is important now and in future elections. We are not familiar with much that is happening in the Colbert system, but we can say we've received many fewer complaints about Ms. Satchell than we did about her predecessor.