No confidence vote cast against FSCC president

Tatro

When the Fort Scott Community College Board of Trustees began their special meeting Tuesday, they were handed a letter proclaiming a vote of no confidence in FSCC President Clayton Tatro. The letter was from members of the Fort Scott College Association of Professional Employees (FSCAPE).

"It was a majority vote on Monday and we turned in a letter to the trustees with details of the vote to pass a vote of no confidence in President Tatro," Elie Riachi, president of the bargaining unit for the professional employees said Thursday.

He said about 76 percent of the faculty voted. Of those, 85 to 86 percent were in favor of issuing a letter of a vote of no confidence, he said.

Those who voted were employees who fall into the bargaining unit, which are mainly instructors and a few counselors, according to Riachi.

"We didn't include the staff because they are not part of the unit," Riachi said. "We wanted to look at the numbers in terms of a well-defined group. There was talk of including staff, but we didn't know who we could include or not include."

Staff members include secretaries, receptionists, directors, deans, assistant deans, and coordinators.

"We only took the votes of people who are in our unit," Riachi said. "Very few of them are faculty, but they do belong to the unit, they are under contract, meaning anything we negotiate, they would get the same deal."

Officially, and based on the list provided to FSCAPE for negotiation purposes, there are 43 individuals who could vote on the no confidence issue, Riachi said.

Riachi said there was no meeting held for the purpose of voting, but unit members were allowed to cast their vote between 1 and 4 p.m. Monday.

"We just opened the polls and took votes that way," Riachi said.

He said the vote means unit members have no confidence in the college leadership.

"We do not believe there is a professional environment," he said. "The details of the letter I would leave up to the board of trustees to reveal the whole letter in its entirety to the public. I leave that up to the board of trustees whether they want to disclose it or not, but yes, we did issue a vote of no confidence in President Tatro."

Riachi also said FSCAPE members will attend Monday's regular FSCC Board of Trustees meeting, which begins at 5:30 p.m. in the Heritage Room of the Dick Hedges Administration Building on the FSCC campus.

Trustee Mark McCoy confirmed that the board did receive the letter upon entering Tuesday night's meeting.

"I'm very concerned about how the college is moving forward," McCoy said. "I think the college board of trustees needs to take that very seriously and take it into consideration and to move forward. I'm not sure what action to take as of today, but I think that should play into the future of the college and we go forward."

Trustees met for nearly two hours in an executive session Tuesday to discuss non-elected personnel. No action was taken following that meeting.

McCoy would not confirm or comment on any rumors that have circulated since Tuesday's meeting.

Multiple phone calls to Tatro on Thursday and Friday for his comments were not returned.