Special Call Meeting started at 1:48 p.m. The Board is only allowed to discuss the topics that was posted for the Special Call Meeting. The topics for discussion was Budget, Personnel, N.I.C Conference and School Inspection..
Dot Ennis was not present for this Special Call Meeting. Dot was out on Board business inspecting a new school.
BUDGET:
Double click on Draft for Larger Version…
The draft copy that I have posted is what Executive Director, Cynthia Johnson, presented to the Board. Mrs. Johnson also brought to the table the complete detail budget report. Yeah… a big ole nice stack of pages which breaks out the who, what, when, where, why and how all this money is being allocated for. Waylon wanted to know why he did not get a copy of the detailed report. Mrs. Johnson responded that she did not print it out since the budget was just in a draft status. Leisa McElreath then proceeds to pull out of her set of the detailed budget and Waylon Garrett looked at Lesia and asked her where did you get that copy and Lesia stated that she printed it out… Waylon stated WHAT!!!! Come to find out Leisa had Mrs. Johnson to e-mail her a copy that way she and SHE ALONE could go over it before the meeting…. Waylon was some kind of upset. Waylon asked Teresa and Shelly if they had gotten a copy and both of them said no and it really did not matter since it was just a draft….. I’m sorry but ‘m calling BULL SHIT on that!!!! They were just covering Leisa’s back!!!!!
Let me tell you a true story. Three years ago Mrs. Barbara Reed was the Executive Director and she was working on finalizing the Board budget. I remember Mrs. Reed submitting to the Board a one page draft for the Board to review. Lesia McElreath who was just a Board member threw a fit and stated that she would not approve any budget without receiving a copy of the full detailed reports. As a matter of fact, the deadline was so close that Mrs. Reed, Executive Director, and Mr. David Derrick, School Coordinator, had to hand deliver the detailed reports. Mrs. Reed went to the Coast and delivered Dot Ennis and Chuck Kelly, while Mr. Derrick went to Tupelo for Shelly and Oxford for Leisa to hand deliver this report. But when Mr. Derrick got to the address that Leisa had on file with the Board office, there was nothing but a wooded lot. Mr. Derrick called Leisa to ask her what she wanted him to do with the budget report. Her reply to Mr. Derrick was that she was heading out of town and he could leave it at the police station.
I’m sure that most of you will have no trouble understanding this budget request. But most of us are not aware that the Board Budget is a SPECIAL FUNDED BUDGET…. This means that the Board is given a lump sum and it is up to the Board to decide how the money is spent… Yup, this means that they can shift money around. So when the Board office stated last year that they had no monies for computers or computer updates THEY LIED….. I also want to point out that the Board Agency is currently budgeted for 12 employees and if you will notice that there is a request for 2 additional employees for the physical year 2016….. Do you think that will help get the work out any quicker…..THINK NOT!!!!!
PERSONNEL:
Well let me tell you what’s going on with the employees that work for the Board. The Board Employees 5 inspectors and 7 office personnel.. This includes your Executive Director, School Coordinator, School Clerk, Receipt Clerk, Licensing Clerk, Account/Purchasing Clerk, and a Reciprocity/General Information Clerk. With this amount of staff can you believe that Cynthia Johnson is asking for 2 additional staff…. WHAT WILL THEY DO???????
Well, now here is the rest of the story. Within the last 90 days or so the Board has lost 5 of the 12 employees…. YES, 5!!! Three of the Inspectors have retired, Deanie Allen, Sara Kale and Eva Ray…. Nedia Leflore our Licensing Clerk quit and Susan Butler our Receipt Clerk has also retired. I have personally spoken with three of the five and they all told me the same thing. Since Cynthia Johnson become the Executive Director, working for the Board of Cosmetology “has become a nightmare”, “is pure hell”, “is something I can live without”………
NIC CONFERENCE:
Here we go again…. NIC is having a conference August 24 & 25, 2014 in Charleston, South Carolina. Executive Director Cynthia Johnson informed the Board about this conference and asked them if they wanted to renew the Board’s membership to NIC and was anyone going to be attending. Waylon jumped on this and made a motion to just allow Leisa McElreath to attend since she is on the Board of Directors for NIC and serves as the NIC Secretary/Treasurer. This way it would not cost the Board Agency any travel or lodging expenses for her to attend. Shelly seconded the motion… Motion passed.
My concerns is that it has been my understanding that the membership was for each board member not for just the agency???? I will be asking about this in the upcoming meeting. There has also been a lot of controversy over Leisa McElreath serving on the Board of NIC as NIC Secretary/Treasurer. As a matter of fact, I think there was a complaint filed with “PEER” which was forwarded to “Ethics” addressing this matter. My understanding was that since the state of Mississippi was not using the NIC testing there was no real conflict. However, when the Board finally announces whether we will be keeping Person Vue or if we will have a new testing company, we better hope they don’t use an NIC exam cause wouldn’t that then be considered a conflict???……. Is everyone starting to put the pieces of this puzzle together???? Mississippi stopped using the NIC testing and went to using Pearson Vue…. NIC wants to get testing back in Mississippi…. Leisa McElreath is elected to the Board of Directors for NIC as Secretary/Treasurer ….. So we will just have to wait and see what this puzzle will look like when it is finished….
SCHOOL INSPECTION:
School inspection was for Infinity Career College formerly know as J & J School of Hair Design. Its a Baber school in Gulfport that is wanting to add a Cosmetology Program. This school inspection was done by Dot Ennis who was not present for the meeting so the Board tabled the discussion until it’s next meeting.
5 Comment(s)
What a ridiculous, unethical mess…..I will continue to write the Peer Review Committee,Tate Reeves and Phil Bryant until someone pays attention. Hopefully, some of this can be addressed at some point…..
I agree with this blog post COMETELY! And Mrs. ANN SIMMONS… keep up the good work! SOME ONE HAS TO SEE WHAT IS GOIN ON HERE!
Here is my problem….Why is it right for the State Board to withhold from us who our testing company is going to be whether it be Pearson or somebody else. We need to start preparing our current students to take a new exam if there is going to be a new exam instead of leaving us out to dry. This only goes to show how certain Board members only care about themselves and not our industry. If they cared about our industry they would realize that without schools, they would not even have board seat to sit on and pretend to be high and mighty. They have made our industry an embarrassment for the State of MS. I have several friends who are salon owners and they are currently looking at what they need to do get their Barber license and Barber Salon license so they can be done with the Cosmetology Board all together. Talk about hurting their precious budget, they need to realize how bad it will hurt if enough cosmo change to barber just to not have to deal with the headaches that you get when it comes to the Cosmo Board. I really hope the Governor gets his ear full about the 3 amigos and the executive director who have single handedly ruined our Industry.
If it will do any good all of us need to write to the Peer Review Committee and see if that will help anything. Leisa McElreath is kind of like owning a beauty school and being a board member. Pearon Vue is doing a good job and this needs to be changed again because?????????????????????????
NEED TO SEND ALL OF USE THE PEER REVIEW COMMITTEE E-MAIL ADDRESS SO WE CAN START DOING THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You are so right Karen… But let’s wait too see what happens with our state testing… If what I think ends up happening I will post all the contact information for complaints to be filed with the Ethics Commission and the Peer Committee…..