The Spotsy Wire continues to dig into the FOIA scandal involving School Board Chair Dawn Shelley and Rich Lieberman.   We created another video to better explain the back story that we have uncovered in the last 24 hours.  This video is long because we want to ensure our readers fully understand the details on what is occurring behind the scenes in the school division.  

There is a school board policy, BG-R, that governs the interaction between the school board and administration.   This is directly relevant to the Shelley/Lieberman FOIA scandal.  The BG-R policy is a way of controlling board members in the minority.  It restricts what school board members can do.  Shelley, Grampp, and Braswell voted in favor of the BG-R policy despite repeatedly violating the policy.   Below is the timeline of events in our video.

0:00 – At the 2/25/2019 school board meeting, Baron Braswell talks about the BG-R policy governing interaction between the school administration and school board.

1:57 – On Mr. Lieberman’s 9/15 Facebook video, Lieberman divulges email exchanges between him and Ms. Phelps that occurred in February 2021.

2:23 – At the 2/25/2019 school board meeting, Braswell and Phelps discuss the process when a constituent contacts a school board member pertaining to the BG-R policy.

4:39 – At the 2/25/2019 school board meeting, Braswell discusses what happens when individuals send emails to the entire school board with the BG-R policy.  Take note of this statement – “when we allow ourselves to get too deep in the weeds, we have to recuse ourselves from the action”

6:01 – On Mr. Lieberman’s 9/15 Facebook video, Lieberman reads the email he sent to all school board members.  Per BG-R policy, the email must be addressed by the chair (Shelley) and sent to the superintendent.  Lieberman makes a hypocritical statement when he says, “we feel violated that you need to know word for word”.   This is hypocritical when Lieberman advocates transparency.

8:50 – On Mr. Lieberman’s 9/15 Facebook video, Lieberman confirms Phelps followed the BG-R policy.   Remember, BG-R policy requires school board members to refrain from involvement on matters that are addressed by the superintendent.

9:45 – On Mr. Lieberman’s 9/15 Facebook video, Lieberman confirms that he and Braswell talked extensively.  Braswell violated the BG-R policy by having extensive interaction with Mr. Lieberman.

10:00 – At the 2/25/2019 school board meeting, Grampp confirms the validity of the BG-R policy pertaining to school board member and superintendent interaction.  We suspect Lieberman would disagree. 

11:58 –At the 2/25/2019 school board meeting, Shelley confirms the validity of the BG-R policy pertaining to school board member and superintendent interaction.  We suspect Lieberman would disagree.  Shelley states “I am not the middleman……as school board members, we do not deal with day-to-day operations of school division”.  Yet with the FOIA scandal, Shelley violates the BG-R policy by getting involved in the day-to-day operations of the FOIA process.

14:30 – On Mr. Lieberman’s 9/15 Facebook video, Lieberman clearly does not understand the BG-R policy.   When an email is sent to the entire board, the chairperson (Shelley) should have forwarded onto the superintendent.

15:15 – On Mr. Lieberman’s 9/15 Facebook video, Lieberman confirms that the superintendent and Braswell purposely excluded Phelps from involvement on the matter.   Braswell is extensively involved at this point which is another violation of BG-R policy.

15:43 – At the 2/25/2019 school board meeting, Braswell states “we can’t present a perceived form of undue influence………if an employee believes that we unduly influenced a matter they were involved then there would be retribution against this board” 

18:53 – At the 2/25/2019 school board meeting, Twigg is against the limitations imposed on the school board by the BG-R policy.

20:29 – At the 3/11/2019 school board meeting, Braswell is adamant that administration staff handle administrative items.   

22:51 – Motion on floor to approve the BG-R Policy.  VOTE 5-2 in favor of BG-R Policy.   Shelley, Grampp, Braswell vote in favor of this policy that they routinely violate.