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With comment limits set, Youngstown BOE meeting ends earlier
YOUNGSTOWN
Tuesday’s regular Youngstown Board of Education meeting was a short one hour, in comparison with Monday’s three-hour special meeting dedicated to limiting future meetings.
Krish Mohip, chief executive officer of the district, earlier Tuesday had approved that recommendation from the “advisory school board” to limit members’ debate. Mohip leads the district with state-appointed academic distress commission oversight. The school board’s role is relegated to advisory on all matters except for tax issues.
“I support any measure that will simplify, streamline and make the advisory board meetings more efficient,” he said.
The meeting, however, was not without debate.
Board member Jackie Adair noticed board comments were listed on the agenda as restricted to five minutes per board member and asked for the entire item to be stricken from the agenda.
“When did this happen and why?” she asked.
Mike Murphy, board vice president, said five minutes was more than enough for comments.
Adair and Dario Hunter voted not to approve the agenda.
Adair also expressed discontent about the timeliness of receiving meeting minutes. The board received meeting minutes from Jan. 24 and March 21 Monday night.
“That’s just not good for me,” Adair said.
She suggested hiring a court reporter to speed up the process. Treasurer Sherry Tyson types them now.
“The meeting minutes you receive are 95 percent word-for-word of the meetings,” Tyson said. “I’m the only person typing them now, and because I have no time in the day to do them, I do them from home late at night and early in the morning.”
Adair said she was unaware Tyson was acting alone in preparing the minutes.
“Because you never liked the way they were done before, the person who used to type them is no longer available,” Tyson explained. “I’m doing the best I can.”
Adair and Hunter abstained from the vote to approve the meeting minutes.
Toward the end of the meeting, Murphy and Brenda Kimble, board president, expressed concern for the lack of district updates.
“I’ve had parents come to me with concerns about programs being taken out of our school buildings,” Kimble said. “Parents need to know what’s happening in this district. If we don’t have students, we don’t have a district. A lot of people feel like they are being kept in the dark, and I feel like that as well.”
Upon taking office last summer, Mohip tried to meet with the school board during that panel’s regular sessions to update the public on progress and plans for the district, its students and academics. The efforts of some members to control those sessions, however, prompted Mohip to instead convene his monthly public updates separately.