Individuals have expressed concerns to the Millard County Chronicle Progress that Millard School District Board of Education Member Gordon Rawlinson has not attended school-district events.
Rawlinson has attended 95 percent of monthly board meetings held since he took office, he and District Superintendent David Styler said. That means Rawlinson has traveled from Las Vegas, Nev., where he works, to attend them, Rawlinson said.
Rawlinson said he is in Las Vegas “all week, sometimes.”
“It just depends on the work week,” he said. “But yeah, I am working there.”
Rawlinson always comes home on weekends, he said.
Millard School District Board of Education Vice President Jeffery Schena concurred with Rawlinson on the weekend, saying also that “(Rawlinson) basically works out of state during the week.”
People have complained about Rawlinson’s lack of attendance at events to Schena. He told them to talk with Rawlinson themselves, Schena said.
“I don’t know what events they want me to go to; I go to what I need to,” Rawlinson said. “I didn’t go to events before … I’m just a regular person from Millard County; you don’t go to every event.”
But folks have said that since Rawlinson is a board member, he should attend school district functions.
Schena said that “(Rawlinson) comes home for every meeting,” and Styler said that Rawlinson has conclusively missed just one of 20 meetings held since Rawlinson took office in Jan. 2017. Rawlinson said it was in the first “two or three months” of his taking office, though it was in June.
“The reality,” Styler said, “is he has not missed very many meetings.”
Rawlinson said he has eight grandchildren attending schools in the district. He also said that he owns three residencies in the district and has been a tax-paying resident of the county for 35 years, seemingly to argue that he deserves to be a school board member. The Chronicle Progress verified that he owns the house at the Oak City address he listed in his declaration of candidacy with the Millard County clerk.
“I think am about as much as citizen of Millard County as you can get,” Rawlinson said, adding that his wife lives in the district.
“It’s not like I separated and left my household,” Rawlinson said.
Rawlinson felt “a little guilty” last year, when he lived further than Las Vegas from his school district, in Hawaii, for nearly a year due to work, he said.
“But I just got voted in and didn’t want to get out just after I was voted in,” Rawlinson said. “It’s, like, a four-year commitment. It’s not like you can change it like you change your underwear.”
Rawlinson also traveled to every board meeting during that time, a cost to him of $1,000 towards each of the monthly meetings, he added.
Each board member receives $3,000 per year for holding their seat, along with $60 for additional meetings that are less than four hours and $90 for meetings that go beyond that span of time. Board members can also get additional compensation if they are on committees, according to board policy 1060, which passed in Aug. 2016.
Schena said he talked with Rawlinson about the issue after individuals approached Schena with their concerns.
“I have had a lot of people express concern to me about it,” Schena said. “I told (Rawlinson), ‘it’s hard on the community when you are not here.’”
Rawlinson also said that other board members should be questioned about respective beyond-board statuses. That included remarks that another board member, David Lund, should be questioned on his out-of-district travel for work.
The Chronicle Progress contacted Lund.
“I go out of the country a couple of times per year and out of the state oh, probably once or twice per month,” Lund said.
The trips a couple of times per year last “five to seven days” on each occasion, and the trips that are once or twice a month are “usually just a couple of days,” Lund said.
Written by Rhett Wilkinson, staff reporter