Adair walks out of Youngstown school board meeting tonight amid disputes

YOUNGSTOWN

Discussions of the district bullying policy and creationism in the curriculum were sidelined at Tuesday’s city school board meeting by a claim of publicity-seeking and one member storming out.

Toward the end of the three-hour meeting, board member Jackie Adair gathered her things and walked out, contending that other board members were trying to silence her.

During the reports portion of the meeting, Adair, who leads the board’s policy committee, contended that district employees weren’t following policy set by the school board. She referred to the bullying policy and referenced an incident that reportedly occurred at East High School.

Board President Brenda Kimble interrupted, saying that board reports are supposed to address matters upon which the board is working. If Adair wants to talk about a particular incident, Kimble said, she needs to make a motion to amend the agenda accordingly.

When board member Dario Hunter asked where that rule is found in Robert’s Rules of Order, the meeting procedures most public meetings follow, Kimble said it was board policy, not Robert’s Rules.

Hunter asked what policy.

“I’ll let you know,” Kimble said.

Adair said she’s the only board member who makes reports and she’s always told she can’t or that the matter about which she wants to talk should be dealt with in the board’s monthly work sessions.

Hunter then asked Adair if the board approved any curriculum during her term in office that includes “intelligent design.”

She said it hadn’t.

Last week, the Daily Beast and the Jerusalem Post ran articles about a video in the district’s biology curriculum that espouses creationism.

The district’s executive director of teaching and learning told The Vindicator the district doesn’t teach creationism, but the video is included as a resource to teach students how to help determine the reliability of information.

At the beginning of the meeting, Hunter had tried to have a resolution added to the agenda to place a moratorium on “all instruction in intelligent design.”

That motion failed. Hunter and Corrine Sanderson voted in favor; Kimble, her son Ronald Shadd, Michael Murphy and Jerome Williams opposed. Adair hadn’t arrived at the meeting at the time of that vote.

Read more about the meeting in Wednesday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.