The Board of Education elected Shannon Davis as the vice chair at the Aug. 7 work session.
Former Vice Chair David Hensley was not present after being stripped of his vice chair position and censored on July 19.
In other meeting matters, board attorney Richard Schwartz led a discussion on retaining legal services for social media class action lawsuits. It is a multidistrict lawsuit agreement against various social media providers. The claim is that the algorithms create addictive behaviors.
According to the agreement, the providers include Meta, ByteDance, Snap, Google, and other defendants.
The social media retainer agreement is available here.
The agreement is with Baird Mandalas Brockstedt & Federico, LLC, Ward Black Law and Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP.
Chair Robert Levy asked if the complaint needed to be verified or sworn by the board.
Schwartz answered that the complaint does not need to be verified or sworn and that the legal team signs the complaint.
“The cost is minimum,” Schwartz said about his fee reflecting limited interaction with the social media legal team.
The Aug. 14 meeting’s consent agenda includes the social media agreement, licensing for Google G Suite for Education, a revised calendar for Southern Middle School, the Federal Programs Consolidated Application, and the contract for gym modernizations and renovations at Cameron, Highfalls and Westmoore Elementary schools to H.M. Kern Corporation for $2,616,000.
Levy said the new chair of the construction committee is Stacy Caldwell because of her real estate background, and he will also be on the committee.
Caldwell replaces Hensley.
The construction committee meets on Aug. 22.
“Hopefully, we will build a new high school,” Levy said.
The board met in a closed session for confidential student matters.
To watch the meeting’s video on all topics discussed, please click here.
~Written by Sandhills Sentinel journalist Stephanie M. Sellers; BS Mass Communications and Journalism, MFA Creative Writing.
