The school board’s transparency was a divisive issue at the May 8 meeting, with trustee Yvette Cassidy opposing the majority regarding the level of openness adopted by the governing body in the face of public interest.
The board discussed how transparent they had been about budget discussions, and most trustees felt the board had been open for consultation from schools and parents about the budget. Cassidy didn’t agree.
“I think it’s safe to say we didn’t go to any of the schools or parents to say we’re having a public meeting,” she said. She added that she would like to see the same amount of effort put into engaging parents and students as there is in engaging administrators.
Trustee Staci Gerlitz said she always tells parents to check the website for information, and that the board has been transparent.
Assistant superintendent Peter Neale talked about “consultation fatigue,” where constant consultations can start to hurt, not help, and oftentimes the consultations aren’t well-attended and the board doesn’t receive a balanced number of voices.
There were two discussions that took place in camera at Thursday’s meeting: one was related to the superintendent search, and the other was titled “communication and key messages.” Cassidy opposed the latter being in camera, saying that there was no reason for it to be. However, the item remained in camera.
“A board that states it transpires to be open and transparent all the time to go in camera to discuss communications doesn’t make sense to me,” Cassidy said via email. “I also don’t see how going in camera to discuss communications is in the public interest, either.”
The board briefly discussed the spring budget. Across the division, almost 6 full time equivalent (FTE) staff positions will be cut, though the student to teacher ratio will improve from 16 students to one teacher to 16 students to four teachers.
The board had to vote on whether to accept the budget in which Cassidy voted against, saying that she wanted to think of ways to avoid cutting teachers.
“We’re not flat broke yet, maybe we can postpone this and come up with some more ideas,” she said. “Are you willing to sacrifice these teachers right now? I’m not.”
Trustee Karen Holloway argued that passing the budget now wouldn’t alter the numbers, and if the board came up with ideas to save staff, then they can be implemented after the budget is passed. Trustee Cheri Neitz and vice-chair Dave Goodwin argued that it wasn’t fair to teachers to postpone the budget.
“This isn’t pretty; we knew it wasn’t going to be,” Holloway said. “We have maintained things at a level that our declining enrollment can’t really support the last few years.”
The motion to accept the budget was passed with Cassidy opposed.