Alderman Aubry Brent Jr. said it’s time to forcibly remove trustee Deborah Crook if she attempts to take a seat at the next school board meeting.
“I make the motion...if Mrs. Crook goes up to that table, she should be escorted away from that table (by a police officer),” Brent said, during Monday’s Board of Mayor and Aldermen meeting.
Brent said he has grown tired of the “disrespect” shown to the city council by the Yazoo City Municipal School District board.
“We cannot let people disrespect the Board of Mayor and Aldermen, especially those subordinate entities,” Brent said.
Brent said Crook should vacate her seat for Vanessa Crowder, who the city council appointed last month.
In the midst of litigation, Crook has remained in her seat. But Crowder has also began to attend school board meetings.
“If Crook wants to fight her removal, that is her right,” Brent said. “But she must do it on her own and not as a member of the board. Crowder should be able to go on at the next board meeting with all her rights and privileges.”
Alderman Dr. Jack Varner said he would like to take some steps first.
“I would like for the (city board) attorney to immediately write (Crook) a letter, stating the law and the feelings of this board,” Varner said. “Ask her not to appear. If she does appear, we will have to forcible remove her.”
Mayor Diane Delaware said she is simply “baffled” over the entire situation.
“Crowder is a member of the school board,” Delaware said. “The school board has no authority to tell her she cannot come to a meeting. Where did all this come from? They need to bond her, and she needs to do her work.”
Delaware reminded the city council that they appoint school trustees, not the other way around.
“We appoint school board members,” she said. “Do the job we have appointed you to do. We didn’t appoint the school board to do our work for us. The school board has come to the belief that they appoint school board members. It’s baffling to me that we have appointed people who don’t know their jobs.”
Delaware said a similar situation came about when trustee Dave Collins replaced former trustee Truvander Kennedy.
“The school board doesn’t know its role,” she said. “A school board that begins to interfere with the role of the Board of Mayor and Aldermen...something should be questioned, especially when you begin to look at the performance of the Yazoo City Municipal Schools. The very idea that the school board has time...”
Delaware said she also doesn’t understand why the district continues to push forward with its superintendent search in the middle of this issue.
“Have you not been listening to me,” Brent asked. “It’s all about the elephant in the room..it’s the interim superintendent.”
Brent said trustees Crook, John Wallace and Willye N. Thomas want Lovette to be the district’s next superintendent.
“They want to put that woman in as the new superintendent,” Brent said. “Don’t obstruct what we are trying to do to make sure what you want happens.”
Brent also addressed a recent Letter to the Editor that ran in The Yazoo Herald. The letter was submitted by Theodis Freeman, criticizing the city council’s relationship with the school board. Brent questioned whether Freeman actually wrote the letter.
“I know who really wrote that letter,” Brent said. “I want the person who wrote it to know that I know who wrote it. Theo didn’t write that letter. He couldn’t get past the first sentence.”
Brent’s motion to remove Crook died for a lack of a second.
