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No Youngstown school board policy limiting members’ comments
By Denise Dick
YOUNGSTOWN
Contrary to what the city school board president told a fellow member, there is no specific city school board policy that limits what board members can discuss during regular meetings.
A disagreement erupted at Tuesday’s regular meeting when Jackie Adair, a school board member, delivered a report from the board’s policy committee which she leads.
Adair’s report came during the board committee reports section of the meeting.
Brenda Kimble, school board president, chided Adair when Adair started to talk about an incident that she considered a violation of the district’s anti-bullying policy. Kimble said committee reports are supposed to address policies that are under board review.
She also said that if Adair wanted to talk about a particular incident she would need to move to amend the agenda and the board would have to vote to approve that change.
A review of board policies found no such prohibition.
“She continually comes up with her own rationale for why I can’t say what I want to say,” Adair said. “There’s no policy. Name the policy.”
Kimble didn’t return calls to The Vindicator.
“It is not policy and it’s not in ‘Robert’s Rules,”’ Adair said. “The policy says we follow parliamentary procedure in the latest version of ‘Robert’s Rules.’”
Robert’s Rules of Order is the template used by most public entities for meeting procedures.
Adair stormed out of Tuesday’s meeting after the discussion about whether or not she could say what she wanted to say.
Former board member Lock P. Beachum Sr., who served for 16 years, agreed with Adair.
“Any board member can bring up any issue,” he said. “You can’t make it personal.”
The other board members though, can decide not to talk about what one member broaches, Beachum said.
“If the board doesn’t want to discuss an issue, they can vote to table it,” he said.
Kimble and another board member meet before each board meeting with the superintendent for what they call agenda review. The other board member rotates among board members.
That’s when board members request items be added to the meeting agenda, Adair said.
“When I’ve been in agenda review, we’ve discussed the items I want to put on the agenda and then they don’t appear on the agenda,” she said.
Adair referred to a previous meeting where she wanted a staff member to present information at the board meeting. Kimble told her that needed to be handled at a board work session, Adair said.
“When the work session agenda came out, her name wasn’t on it again,” she said.
Other members don’t have the same problems, Adair said.