Teacher: Board Member Kelly Marlow's Actions Crossed The Line

EDITOR'S NOTE: the full complaints can be viewed in the attached .PDFs

Cherokee County School Board member Kelly Marlow is swinging back against allegations made in three separate complaints against her.

Marlow faces three complaints, two of which are from Cherokee County School District teachers (see attached .PDFs). 

Marlow is accused of violating School Board Ethics policies that require board members to honor the chain of command when reporting issues or problems and not intruding on day-to-day district operations.

Marlow said the allegations stem from administration that has an agenda to "minimize my role and avoid my inquiries as evidenced by the Superintendent's public refusal to answer my direct question about the audit during the May 16th working session."

"This type of insubordinate behavior of this Superintendent has been condoned and therefore mimicked by those below," she added. 

Marlow during the work session asked Superintendent Dr. Frank Petruzielo about the fiscal year 2011-12 audit, to which Petruzielo and staff provided a memo in response to the school board member's questions. 

She also said the allegations relate to a "few citizens in this community who refuse to accept that I was duly elected by the taxpaying voters to represent the people."

"They refuse to let go of old wounds and move on to celebrate our success as well as to work together on fixing real issues," she added. 

One teacher states an encounter with her at a Towne Lake restaurant amounted to Marlow "crossing the line."

The teacher, Jennifer Hall, said she attended a gathering of Cherokee County Republican Party members at Tuscany Italian Restaurant in Towne Lake where citizens discussed education in the county and ways to solve some of the problems it faces.

Republican Party Chair Rick Davies asked the crowd at the education summit to agree upon the fact that everyone in attendance was there as citizens and Marlow was not attending the meeting in her official capacity as a school board member.

He noted he asked everyone to agree upon that due to the board's policies in place that prohibit members from directly contacting teachers.

Hall said Marlow used the time to attack her for writing a letter to the editor in the Cherokee Tribune that was critical of Marlow's conduct at a school board meeting. 

Hall said Marlow questioned her letter throughout the meeting and, when Hall spoke to the crowd as to why she went into the profession, said Marlow muttered "Do we have to listen to this crap?"

"This remark was loud enough to be heard by several people at the table, who visibly reacted to her statement," she wrote in her complaint. 

Davies said he did not hear the remark, and will go back over his recording to see if it was said. 

Hall said she decided to come forward because she felt Marlow's "actions and words showed that she might decide to threaten my position as a teacher."

She also said that as an elected official, Marlow should be able to handle the criticism that's part of the job. Hall said she felt Marlow's actions crossed the line as a board member, and thought for several days about making a formal complaint before moving ahead with the decision. 

"I realized that her actions always represent the school board, even if she says they don't," she said. "I felt that for my own protection and for the district's, I needed to notify the district of what happened."

Marlow said she only mentioned Hall's letter to the editor once, and said she never muttered those words Hall alleges. 

She noted she mentioned the letter as merely responding to Hall's claims she wasn't contributing to the divide between "teachers and reformers." 

"Ms. Hall has demonstrated a pattern of being disingenuous and divisive, speaking out at school board meetings and now filing false and misleading complaints," she said, adding she never discussed teacher salaries, employment or how they should teach at the GOP meeting.

Another teacher claims Marlow, in a phone conversation, accused him of not allowing Cherokee Charter Academy special needs students to participate in Cherokee County Special Olympics events. The teacher said Marlow never referred to herself as a school board member, but that of a charter academy "volunteer."

Marlow's children attend Cherokee Charter Academy. The teacher said he received a text to call Marlow to discuss the issue, which ended with him denying Marlow's allegations that the school district denies charter school special needs students to participate in Cherokee County Special Olympics events. 

Another complaint made against Marlow came from a Cherokee Charter Academy parent. The parent claims Marlow accused her husband, a coach with Cherokee Youth Basketball Association, of cheating and behaving "inappropriately" at basketball games. The behavior, the parent says, led to technical fouls being placed against Marlow.

Don't miss any news from Woodstock-Towne Lake Patch! Subscribe to our newsletter by clicking here. Also, like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter!