Chair admits he did not attend June meeting to force cancellation
By Heather Michon
Correspondent
Fork Union representative Danny Reed resigned his seat on the Fluvanna County School Board on Friday morning (July 18) to take a teaching position with Fluvanna County Public Schools.
The resignation came near the start of a special session of the board, which assembled primarily to approve Reed’s employment contract.
Under Virginia law, School Board members cannot work for the school district.
Controversy
Before resigning, Reed said he was “embarrassed” by how the situation had “snowballed” from a personal matter to a source of public rumor and speculation over the previous six weeks.
Instead of the confidentiality granted to other job candidates, Reed said his situation had turned into “political games, a mockery of this school board, and a very unnecessary distraction.”
Without naming them directly, Reed seemed to blame fellow board member James Kelley (Palmyra) and others in the community for politicizing his potential departure.
Chair Andrew Pullen (Columbia) amplified these claims in a video statement released on Facebook after the meeting.
In this video, Pullen said Reed had approached him about applying for a job with the district sometime before the scheduled June 11 meeting.
Shortly before the meeting, Pullen said “suddenly we find out that this information’s been leaked” and that “all the Democratic kingmakers in Fluvanna were working all their avenues to try to find a candidate.”
No show
The June meeting never happened because they did not have enough members present to form a quorum.
“We’re approaching the June meeting where we know this political circus is getting ready to happen,” said Pullen, “so I didn’t attend the June meeting for that reason, because if there’s no quorum, there’s no business. And when there’s no business, they couldn’t make a spectacle out of Danny.”
“If you’re angry with me for doing that,” he added, “I don’t care.”
No public comments
Pullen was equally unapologetic about removing a public comments section from the agenda, which is within his authority as chair. “We don’t remove public comment for every meeting, we removed it from this one so that we can get done with the business we had to get done,” he said.
Prior to the meeting, Kelley shared an excerpt from an email from Pullen regarding the cancellation of public comments. “I am not going to play into you and your obnoxious group of supporters who continue to use the school board for their own political theater and make a mockery of our school board,” it read.
When one audience member said something loud enough to be heard during an open section of the meeting, Pullen told her to “shut up” or he would call the sheriff’s office and have her removed.
A difficult summer
In comments at the close of the meeting, Kelley said the summer had been “a difficult one” for the board.
He said had received a number of calls from citizens about the rumors before the June meeting. “I was disappointed to hear things from my community before I hear them from my boardroom.”
The failure to hold or reschedule the June meeting had only served to draw the issue out by over a month. “I feel for all those involved, because no one deserves scrutiny for that long. No one deserves scrutiny related to their employment. It’s problematic. To be honest, things could have been dispatched within June or July, but they just weren’t, ” he said.
Kelley said that Pullen had “denied two seated board members the request to have legal counsel present today, despite us having genuine interest in legal guidance as a board. And further, I believe that I was asked by this board and board members to do things that are ethically and morally wrong, and at best, legally ambiguous.”
“I look forward to moving past this dark period,” he concluded.
Replacement process
Reed, who has a long career in social media marketing, will be teaching in the Career and Technical Education (CTE) department at Fluvanna County High School.
Before adjourning, board members approved a schedule for selecting a replacement who will fill the seat until the end of this year.
Applicants need to submit a letter of interest of no more than 300 words and with at least 25 signatures from Fork Union residents, and a notarized letter from the Board of Elections. This package needs to be hand-delivered to clerk Brandi Critzer at the school administration building at 14455 James Madison Highway no later than 4 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 1.
The remaining board members will hold closed meeting interviews at 9 a.m. on Aug. 11, followed by a 7 p.m. hearing during the regular monthly meeting on Aug.13. The new member will be announced at a special meeting on Aug. 20 at 6:30 p.m.
A special election for a permanent replacement will be held in November.
