Fairman above the law?
ICYM the December 9, 2024, York County School Division Board Meeting, here are the lowlights: Lynda Fairman showed up, only to act like a spoiled child, whine about the simplest of requirements, obstruct business with pedantic antics and repeatedly try to crown herself queen of I’mBetterThanYouistan.
Lynda Fairman seems to consider herself superior to all her fellow board members and is refusing to follow the established process which all board members and YCSD staff use to comply with policy KBA in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.
In June, four board members complied with a FOIA request via the established procedure. Only Fairman refused to follow the policy and instead privately checked her device and handed over communications which she deemed to meet the parameters of the FOIA request. Her half-hearted compliance was only after she demanded to get the name of the person submitting the FOIA request and to see the request itself, at that point she searched her device according to her own standards. Please keep in mind that this is her work phone, paid for by our taxes!
Fairman spoke in defense of the way she handled the request by stating a belief that elected officials had a different standard which allowed them to self-police and self-report. Her desperate need for ego validation as an “elected official” could be smelled as far away as Richmond.
Dr. Shandor challenged Fairman to show where it was written that elected officials could self-police their devices in a FOIA request. Fairman didn’t know where it was written and said she would have to look it up. Don’t hold your breath for that info.
Dr. Shandor said elected officials applying the rule as they see fit goes away from the spirit of FOIA. He, diplomatically, called her efforts to codify the well-established FOIA process “ridiculous.”
Mr. Shafer said “It’s basically rules for thee and not for me. I think we should all abide by it. If you don’t have anything to hide, what does it matter. If you don’t comply, essentially, you’re saying ‘there could be something wrong here. I’m not gonna be transparent.’ He also thought Fairman should be held accountable and given consequences to the fullest extent of policy.
Shandor and Shafer’s were the sharpest elbows thrown. As Fairman wasted the public’s time engaging in petty obstructionism, Pajevic and Goodwin either placated or danced around her stubbornness.
In the end, the board voted to stand by the current policy and hoped Fairman would comply. They couldn’t even muster a symbolic slap on the wrist.
Fairman’s pettiness continued into the next item of unfinished business, the Board Norms and Protocols. You remember this one, it’s the document that she refused to sign. Why? Because she’s an elected official “…governed by our oath to the Virginia and US Constitution and Virginia law” not YCSD policy. It takes an awful lot of mental gymnastics to image you are above law and order, while hiding behind law and order. Plus, I don’t see a whole lot of governance going on.
Just in case you forgot Fairman and her cronies’ roots in the religious-right, they finished out the night voicing their concerns about protecting students, staff and employees from discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation with a simple text change to Policy A: Foundations and Basic Commitments. Even the most basic commitment to decency is hard for this bunch.
The bottom line is this: Fairman is a haughty saboteur of good governance at YCSD. She has not faithfully represented the voters who placed her there. She’s either a narcissistic political climber, biding her time until a chance at greater office comes along or a pawn, parroting SBMA talking points and Christian Nationalist rhetoric. Or, God help us, both.
When they go low, we go local
Look, I know we are all shell-shocked from this past national election and the next four years won’t be a picnic, but now is the time for local action. We need to maintain resistance. We must continue to dissent. Sometimes, public pressure is the best leverage we have. Tell a friend about what’s happening to our school division. If you live in District 5, email us to sign the recall petition. Write a letter to the editor. Share how you feel through Let's Talk! - Ask YCSD: https://ycsd.link/AskSchoolBoard. If you can, contribute to a political party or organization that will aid the next candidates for school board. York County has a political action committee specifically built to support better YCSD candidates in the next election cycle - York County United. Contribute at https://yorkcountyunited.com/ if you can. Remember, it isn’t the flood that cracks the mighty boulder but the slow, steady drip. Yep, I just called myself a drip and I’ll wear it proudly.