I-SS Vehicles Driven Home

There have been several comments on this blog about I-SS employees being allowed to drive school vehicles back and forth to their homes. I recently requested and received a list of I-SS employees who have been provided vehicles as outlined in the school policy code 7612 Employer Provided Vehicles. The list also included vehicles that were not assigned to a particular individual.

The I-SS vehicle policy reads as follows.

The Iredell-Statesville Board of Education will provide transportation for employees in the normal performance of their duties as determined by the Superintendent or designee. Such transportation shall be provided by assigning vehicles on a permanent or daily basis.

The permanent assignment of vehicles will be limited to those persons whose normal duties as determined by the Superintendent, or his designee, to require the use of a vehicle at other than the normal business hours of the central office or required frequently for emergency situations. The permanent assignment of vehicles requires the employee to commute in the vehicle for valid business reasons. This policy prohibits personal use other than commuting except De Minimis Nontaxable Personal Use as defined by the IRS.

The vehicle list I received included 133 school maintained vehicles. Of those 133 vehicles, 102 are assigned to specific school employees. The list also indicates if an employee is allowed to drive his/her assigned car home. Of the 102 I-SS employees who are assigned a school vehicle, 87 of them are allowed to drive their assigned vehicle home. Of course this means that the school is not only providing a car to be driven home but is also paying for the gas and the maintenance of these cars. As has been pointed out in one of the comments to an earlier post on this blog, a number of these individuals do not live in Iredell County.

I understand that a certain number of school employees will need access to a school vehicle at odd hours of the day. For example, a maintenance employee may have to go to a school building after hours if there is a plumbing or heating/AC problem. But, will that require 35 different maintenance employees? That is the number of maintenance employees allowed to drive school vehicles home. And, how many Drivers ED instructors have to come back to school to give emergency driving lessons to students? There are 15 Drivers ED instructors who are allowed to drive school vehicles home.

I don’t have any information on the number of miles driven by I-SS employees as they go back and forth between school and home each day. But, if most of the 87 employees allowed to do so actually use the vehicles this way each day, that will add up to a lot of miles each year. And it is not just the miles to drive home and back. Is I-SS using these 133 vehicles wisely and is anyone actually accounting for the use of each of these vehicles?

I-SS Vehicle List:

Click on an image to enlarge it.

Nepotism, Yes or No?

Recently, Former Governor Easley, his wife, Former NC State University Chancellor James Oblingner, and others have been criticized in regard to evidence showing that then Governor Easley and Former Chancellor Oblingner arranged for the creation of a new position at NC State and saw to it that Mrs. Easley was hired for that position. Once word of the collaboration was made public, Mrs. Easley was fired and Chancellor Oblingner resigned.

We have our own version of 'Easleygate' right here in Iredell County. Perhaps we should call it ‘Holligate.’ I am referring to the actions of Dr. Holliday, I-SS Superintendent, and the School Board. With the Board’s cooperation, not only has Dr. Holliday arranged for I-SS to hire his wife, he has recently promoted her to a Central Office Administrative position as K-5 Instructional Facilitator Coordinator. I have questioned this in the past and I question it again. Is this not a violation of the I-SS nepotism policy, which states the following?

In making recommendations for the selection of personnel, the superintendent will give every consideration to conditions which could result in the employment of two members of an immediate family where one member would occupy a position which has influence over the other's employment, promotion, salary or other related management and personnel considerations. No administrative or supervisory personnel will directly supervise a member of his or her immediate family.

In Dr. Holliday’s contract, under Duties, it states that he is the chief executive officer of the Board and is responsible for all student affairs, instructional and curriculum affairs, employment affairs, fiscal affairs, and business affairs. To me, and others, this means that Dr, Holliday has direct supervision over all I-SS employees including his wife. I have also stated that Mrs. Holliday did not meet the qualifications for this administrative position since the job description for the position states that a Master’s Degree is required and Mrs. Holliday does not have a Master’s Degree.

The members of the School Board do not agree with me and even had the local school attorney, Mr. William McMillan ‘investigate’ the matter. In his report to the board, Mr. McMillan stated that Dr. Holliday does not supervise his wife since there are at least two administrative links between him and his wife. Mr. McMillan went on to say that while Mrs. Holliday’s job description does state a preference for a Master’s Degree, it is not listed as an essential prerequisite for the position. You can read Mr. McMillan’s entire statement at the web link below.

Attorney McMillian's Memorandum

At the last Board meeting Dr. Holliday stated that he has directed all Central Office staff to forward any requests from me, for public information, to Mr. Neal Ramee, I-SS attorney in Raleigh. That certainly sounds like direct supervision of all Central Office staff to me. And remember, Mrs. Holliday is now part of that Central Office Staff. Also, several months ago, Dale Ellis, I-SS Assistant Superintendent, sent me a copy of Mrs. Holliday’s job description and that job description clearly states that a Master’s Degree from a regionally accredited institution of higher education is required. It says nothing about being preferred. Again, the Board and Dr. Holliday continue to ignore I-SS policy.