144 petitioners never got that Town Hall Meeting they respectfully asked of SAA's Administration and School Board back in early April. But on Wednesday, Spencerville Church invited its members to nominate delegates to the 2021 SAA Constituency Meeting to be held on June 15, 2021. If you are a member of Spencerville Church, check your email or contact the church office if you did not receive it.
Don't be misled, this is no Town Hall Meeting for the entire school community. You must first be a Spencerville Church member, be nominated by fellow members, and then pass an additional level of vetting and selection by the Church Board operating on an undeclared standard of designation. Will anyone with a bold and courageous voice be let through this process? Past Constituency Meetings have been fairly dull affairs with interesting information flashed on the screen faster than one can absorb it (repeated requests by constituents for informational handouts have been refused), but no real probing questions asked. Will this year be the same? We suspect that Conference and SAA Administration and the secret school board are praying for a repeat of that.
Pastor Stuart wrote that "It is the responsibility of the Spencerville Seventh-day Adventist Church to form a representative group of Spencerville Church members in good standing to serve as delegates at the SAA constituency meeting per SAA bylaws and the Columbia Union Education Code. On behalf of the Spencerville Church Board, I am inviting Spencerville Church members to nominate individuals to serve as delegates for this meeting. Using the green button below, please enter the names of three individuals you would like to serve as delegates at the Spencerville Adventist Academy constituency meeting on June 15. Out of the collective of all these names, the church board will form a delegation. Our board will present that delegation list to the Spencerville Church for a first and second reading."
Despite its imperfections, this important event should be a call to every Spencerville Church member, and particularly those of the 144 petitioners (and the hundreds more they represent), to nominate smart persons of courage and tenacity who will ask the crucial questions that need to be asked about SAA, and insist on clear and substantive answers - not the corporate game of dodgeball that we have grown accustomed to from SAA's Admin and Board. That's the first hurdle. The second hurdle will be what type of "delegation the church board will form" from those names. People who are closely aligned or allied with SAA's Admin and Board who will dutifully remain silent, or ask useless or carefully scripted questions? Or will the church board honor the actual nominations of church members, even if that includes persons who have in the past asked hard or inconvenient questions, or asked for accountability?
This is a very important test of representative democracy and constituent oversight for the Spencerville Church. Does SAA truly belong only to the one last administrator currently presiding at the school*? Or only the Board Chairperson? Or only the SAA Board's secret Executive Committee? Or only to the distant Chesapeake Conference Department of Education? Or only to the Spencerville Church Pastor and Church Board? Or does it actually belong to the constituent members of Spencerville Church?
We urge all members of the Spencerville Church to take their nomination rights seriously at this crucial crossroads in the history of SAA to nominate strong and courageous delegates to advocate for democratic enfranchisement, transparency, and accountability for the important issues the school faces. Lillian Hepburn-Richmond could suggest several names of persons who would make excellent delegates, but that would probably be the kiss of death.
We will continue to report on and cover important developments leading up to the Constituency Meetings, including a list of questions for SAA leadership to address at the meeting. Until then, spread the word and exercise your vote Spencerville Church!
Make sure to subscribe to this Blog (see bottom of homepage) to receive emails of each new post. We welcome your news, information, and reports which you may send to us using the "Contact" form, also near the bottom of our homepage.
- Lillian Hepburn-Richmond (a cohort of concerned parents)
*See our previous post "SAA Administration Operating at 1/3 Capacity"