Montgomery Co. School Board Members Argue Over Unexpected Vote

“You’re a poor excuse for a chairman. You’re carrying the water for someone else.”

School board member Mary Briers had some scathing words for board president Eleanor Dawkins at Tuesday’s special called board meeting.

This, after Dawkins and Beverly Ross voted against purchasing land near the BrewBaker school complex. Some board members say the purchase is necessary in order to alleviate traffic congestion.

“If there needed to be, whether it was an ambulance or fire, it would be very difficult to get to part of that campus,” says Melissa Snowden.

Four votes are needed for any proposal to pass. But only three board members voted for the purchase. Heather Sellers and Durden Dean were not present.

“We’ve gone into executive session several times negotiating the amount for the property,” Snowden explains. “There has never been anybody vocally concerned about why we’re doing it.”

Board members Robert Porterfield and Mary Briers tell us they too were stunned by the vote. But Beverly Ross says she voted no because she says the school system can’t afford the finished project, which she says will be about 1.3 million dollars.

“Each report that we get back from the finance director, we have very little money, very little,” Briers says. “So if you have money to do this, you have money to do something someplace else because this has never been mentioned to us before.”

But some parents say another way on and off the property is needed.

“It’s rough in the morning time,” says Cheryl Johnson. “It’s rough in the evening time. There are so many cars, so many parents and it really get frustrating.”

Mary Briers, who blasted Dawkins at the meeting says she stands by her comments and told us by phone that she believes Eleanor Dawkins is poor leadership for the board.

Alabama News Network did reach out to Board President Eleanor Dawkins to ask why she voted against the land purchase but she says she doesn’t want to talk about it.