Board reflects on McMahan loss, passes items

Out of sight, but definitely not out of mind.

That was the response of two Houston County Board of Education members Tuesday to the empty chair that is normally occupied by board member Dave McMahan. McMahan resigned at the end of last month.

“I’ve only been told ‘personal reasons’,” said Beth McLaughlin, director of community and school relations. Tuesday was the first day the group had met minus McMahan.

“Dave grew up here in our schools here in Houston County,” said board member Jim Maddox. “He taught. He was an administrator. He spent over 90 percent of his life involved in our school system.

“This was realized by our county and by our citizens when a couple of years ago he ran for office the first time and in a three-way race took 53 percent of the votes. That’s called a landslide in politics. I don’t know if anybody on our board, the first time they ran, could have gotten over 50 percent of the votes.”

He continued: “Having Dave on our board was like having a history buff.”

Several times an issue would come up and luckily Dave would provide some background information and some perspective.”

Maddox went on to say he felt teachers, principals and public schools would ultimately be the biggest losers without McMahan there. He also said had he known about the resignation, he might have made a different decision in regard to running for reelection.

“At the urging of several people, I struggle with changing my mind,” he added. “But I just feel like after making the decision, it just wouldn’t be right to go back.”

Maddox also went on to compare McMahan to a player-coach, the kind of person who is “tough,” “fair” and “always has the best interest of the team in mind.”

“Any time he and I would discuss something, he would always say: ‘How is this going to affect our teachers.’ I’m going to miss that. I promise you over the next months I’m going to hear Dave saying that every time there’s a decision to be made.

“I miss Dave. I thank him for his service and his friendship and his common sense.”

Board Member Fred Wilson echoed that. He passed on that he had known McMahan since arriving via the military in 1983. He said the two had worked close together.

“He was truly, truly a Houston County educator in every sense of the word,” Wilson said. “He had a heart. He cared about our county, north, south, east and west.”

That aside, the board passed all of the items on its agenda – more than a dozen in all. A handful of those were revisions to policies including that for criminal background checks – five-year rotations – and a drug-free workplace (adding stronger language for the most part). Several were in regard to job descriptions – redefining and/or adding a position.

A resolution was also passed in regard to obtaining a “class size waiver.” Maddox said he didn’t expect the county to take advantage of it, but that the board wanted it in place in case it did.

And the board approved a farm lease agreement for about 20 acres designated as the Veterans Middle School site. The cost of the agreement is $300. The crop to be farmed on the land is cotton. Per the BOE agenda: “This will help maintain the property and keep HCBOE from having to maintain it for the time period of the lease or its renewal.”

One final note, Superintendent Robin Hines shared with the board that a financial audit of the school system had come back “free of issues.”

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