Turmoil at Lee-Scott Academy comes into sharper focus

Earlier this month an Examiner article which shed light on problematic developments at Lee-Scott Academy set off a firestorm of passionate concern and went on to be viewed nearly 5,000 times by community stakeholders. This, despite the "there's nothing to see here" narrative being pushed by willfully ignorant LSA administration shills desperate to quash the tsunami of discontent boiling over among the founding families who created this once hallowed institution only to have it stolen from them by an unscrupulous cabal of embedded bureaucratic grifters. Now that the cat is out of the proverbial bag, a serendipitous moment of clarity is at hand for the beleaguered families crushed under the gravity of LSA's wayward orbit who must ponder the age old question "What next?".

It is worth noting that the unilateral action by the LSA board to remove parental voting rights in 2012 has unleashed a Pandora's box of both legal quandaries and policy issues at the formerly esteemed school. This should come as no surprise as parental voting rights have played a critical role in the governance of LSA since its founding. In plain English, if it ain't broke don't fix it.

Prior to the 1981 merger between Lee County Educational Foundation and East Alabama Educational Foundation which formed LSA, both legacy predecessors had memberships consisting of parents with specific voting rights which were reinforced in the Merger Agreement that formalized the newly created school. Case in point, the parents of both institutions approved the 1981 merger by a formal vote and the resulting governing documents expressly stated that parents would be members of the organization with clearly unambiguous voting rights. Furthermore, any future amendments to the governing documents required both proper notice and approval of the members. As such, parental voting rights could not have been legitimately removed unless (1) parents received proper notice of an amendment to remove such rights, and (2) parents voted to approve such changes.

Without proper notice or a vote of the parents, the LSA Board improperly attempted to

remove the membership through a majority vote by the board solely by itself in 2012. Attempting to deflect any culpability in their unlawful and void actions, the LSA Board continues to defiantly insist that the 2012 amendment was good and proper without providing any legitimate justification for their questionable conduct. Methinks the lady doth protest too much.

Taking into full account the tragic series of events that have transpired since 2012 as the LSA board has paved the road to hell with their supposedly good intentions, there can be no other sane conclusion than that for the sake of rebuilding unity between the community of families and the administration that has failed to fulfill their duties to them it is high past time to restore voting rights to parents. This would be a return to lawful operation by a rogue board that would ensure that good policy is the baseline upon which the school is guided so that it can once again be a standard bearer of excellence in private Christian education for the deserving families of Lee County. Only through the keen oversight of the parents who give LSA its mandate to exist can a path forward be forged in keeping with the founding principles that brought this once great educational institution into being.