Friday, November 26, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

SCHOOL BOARD: Barber says she's being singled out

Board's only black member often is only no vote on policy issues

Shirley Barber

First an education advocacy group criticized Clark County School Board member Shirley Barber for not attending posted school board meetings just days before her re-election.

Then a television reporter scrutinized her travel expenses.

Those two incidents occurring so close together have Barber questioning whether she's being submarined by other trustees or even Clark County School District Superintendent Carlos Garcia.

"I am being singled out and I feel strongly about that," said Barber, the board's only black member who often is the lone no vote on policy issues. "I really believe that some people, either board members or representatives of the superintendent, are putting this out there. Otherwise it wouldn't be an issue."

Garcia dismissed Barber's accusations as "absurd," saying his charge is to work with all board members. School Board President Susan Brager-Wellman said she would like to see proof, if any exists, of Barber's claim.

"I think it's an extremely unfortunate situation," Brager-Wellman said. "But we're public officials. We get criticized. You have to move past it."

The war of words leading up to Barber's conclusion that she's purposely being undermined began Oct. 28, when Mary Jo Parise-Malloy of Nevadans for Quality Education took Barber to task for missing meetings and leaving early.

The criticism has some basis: A review of board member attendance during the first 10 months of this year shows that Barber has missed more meetings than any other board member. She's not attended eight of 37 board meetings. The review did not count the number of times board members left before adjournment.

"Our intention was to bring it forward and have her change her behavior," Parise-Malloy said. "We brought up an issue we had a concern with."

Parise-Malloy said Barber's supposition that her group was being used as a tool by Garcia or other board members is untrue. She was also taken aback by Barber's reaction to the criticism. After Parise-Malloy spoke on Oct. 28, Barber left the board room to speak with her privately. The hallway encounter turned into a heated exchange, with Barber getting close to Parise-Malloy while making her point.

"You touch me again, I'll file charges against you," Parise-Malloy told Barber at the meeting.

Barber said she doesn't believe it was coincidence that Parise-Malloy spoke out just days before the Nov. 2 election, in which Barber handily won a third-term.

Barber said she always tries to attend the board's regular business meetings on the second and fourth Thursdays of each month. She attributed some of her absences to having to care for her daughter, who suffered a major illness earlier this year.

Other absences were from meetings on policy governance topics, the management philosophy now used by board members, she said. Barber is not a proponent of policy governance.

"We have too many meetings," Barber said. "And they last for five or six hours. That's entirely too long. Sometimes I think we're just having meetings to have meetings."

Parise-Malloy said elected officials have a responsibility to represent their communities at meetings, no matter how long they last.

School Board member Sheila Moulton, who is the only board member with perfect attendance so far this year, said it's her obligation to voters that keeps her rearranging her personal life to accommodate her board role.

"This is my highest priority, right after my family," Moulton said.

Barber's ire over the attendance issue had barely cooled when KVBC-TV, Channel 3 reporter Kendall Tenney ran a story on her travel expenses earlier this month. The story focused on Barber's three-night stay at the Suncoast while participating in the national conference of the Council for Great City Schools. Each night cost $99.

When asked why she chose to spend money on hotel rooms for a Las Vegas conference, Barber, 69, said she does not drive at night and the conference schedule included day and evening events.

The story prompted Barber to make a statement at the Nov. 18 board meeting in which she asked: "Why just me?"

That's also when she raised the possibility that either Garcia or one of the other board members was working against her.

"They're trying to make me look bad, but my record speaks for itself," said Barber, who said she's involved in numerous community activities. "That's why I'm so bothered."

Garcia said that he and his staff have nothing to do with the activities of the board office, which takes care of board travel and expenses. Barber said she is seeking legal counsel and plans to take her complaints to the state attorney general's office.

Brager-Wellman was so exasperated with Barber's last round of multiple accusations that she walked out of the last few minutes of the Nov. 18 meeting. To the best of her knowledge, Brager-Wellman said, no one is attacking Barber.

"If Mrs. Barber has any factual evidence, I will hand-carry it to the attorney general myself," Brager-Wellman said. "Because that shouldn't happen to any board member. But so far, it appears to me to be accusation, not fact."