Sherlock Anyone?

It’s been a very disturbing week. I don’t like much of what’s going on. I’m not even sure if the last meeting we had was legal. We entered executive session for the discipline of a public employee. No it wasn’t me! I know amazing, but true. That’s as much as I want to say about that right now. I can’t get censured two years in a row you know. But as usual I will give you an idea of how things work here in the good ole Cuyahoga Falls City School District.

First of all, I am tired of breaking the law. That’s right the board has been doing it for quite some time. You see, I finally heard back from Marc Danns office. Only to have some things verified that I already knew. When entering an executive session, you must state the specific purpose for which you are entering. In our case it’s “Personnel”. Our district has commonly listed every item available, from employment, appointment, promotion, demotion, discipline, etc... I have asked numerous times to stop this practice. But of course it has fallen on deaf ears. We need to state that we are going for “promotion of a public employee” or “compensation of a public employee”.

So at Tuesdays’ special meeting, I insisted we correct the agenda to state the actual purpose. You would have thought I asked them to jump in a Lake. No undertones intended. And imagine everyone’s surprise when the noob supported my stance on the issue. He’s fresh out of new board member training and obviously paid attention! OK I have to say this; I never thought I’d see the day when I’d like the guy who gave me in-school suspension. In case you are unaware, the noob board member was also my high school principal. (PS, they lie about that “pal” thing).

After spending $75.00 in attorney fees it was decided that I would be ignored for the time being and the agenda was approved listing all items. I asked that record reflect my request was ignored. You see, this was the proper place to correct the agenda. But our board president has let her newfound powers go to her head. So they proceeded with moving to enter executive session and then amended the motion to read “employment, discipline, and appointment of personnel”. Hmmm. We’ll see.

Now for the disturbing part that happened in executive session that I will talk about. Our board president asked that the board agree to present a letter to particular administrators. And then the strangest thing happened. When I asked to see the document, I was told no. Ummm, no? Surely I heard wrong because no one in their right mind would actually expect four other people to agree to an unseen document. Now it got really weird because two people were willing to go with the unseen document. Me and the noob said no way.

Long story short, despite my disagreeing with it, it was presented to the particular administrators, as a board document from the board president. I had to write a statement of dissent just to be able to detach my name from it. No vote. Oh except the vote in executive session whether to go public or do it privately. It was a 3-0 vote. Noob wasn’t going to vote in executive session. He knows better. That’s as far as dare go on that for now. You know, censure and all has me paranoid. I’m sure you’ll be getting details soon from the reliable Falls News Press.

We exited executive session and I asked that the record reflect that the board did not discuss “employment and appointment”. I was half appeased. They argued that appointment was discussed. I still disagree. We adjourned shortly after 9PM. I’m stunned that this was railroaded in with out a vote. I’m not even sure it’s allowed.