The string of firings, resignations, and early retirements at Jordan-Elbridge has caused residents to demand more information from the school board – right down to the minutes.
During the public comments section of the J-E school board’s Dec. 22 meeting, Tory Bush, a senior at J-E, asked the board why meeting minutes hadn’t been posted to the school’s website.
“It is my understanding of the law that the minutes must be posted within two weeks,” Bush said
“We’re publicly approving them tonight and they should be posted after the meeting,” said school board president Mary Alley.
“You haven’t posted any minutes since the fifth of November – where are all those minutes?” Bush said.
Alley said the minutes were available in the district office and the board would get to posting them online.
Erin Bush, Tory’s mother, requested that the board announce its reasons for making corrections to meeting minutes.
“I think that if you’re going to withhold them in order to make corrections, there should be documentation provided as to what exactly is corrected, she said. “Just for transparency reasons.”
Alley said one of the changes provided the board’s accurate reasons for going into executive session.
The board decided to look into recording its meetings, with either video or audio equipment.
“We’re keeping minutes but the minutes are very broad-based and a lot of times we’ve been asked to go back and quote very specific detail of those meetings,” board member Connie Drake said. “And I think that personally, if people knew that they were going to be video taped and audio taped that maybe they might handle themselves in a more professional demeanor when they’re addressing people who are volunteers.”
At the start of the meeting, Dana Anthonson, of Jordan, joked about the Dec. 14 Florida school board shooting, where a gunman opened fire on school board members before taking his own life. No board members were injured in that incident.
“I was going to come down here and spray paint a big red V on the wall like the guy on the news, but I didn’t think other people would appreciate my humor,” Anthonson said.
Alley stopped him right there.
“That’s not even funny,” she said. “That’s offensive. Mr. Anthonson, you can yield the floor if those kinds of comments continue.”
Alley said threats have been made against school board members – in public session and in anonymous comments on Syracuse.com. She recommended the board look into bringing in security for future meetings.
Students request having Dominick hand out diplomas
Three seniors at J-E – Tory Bush, Kathryn Alonso-Bergevin and Brandon Vaughn – recently met with Interim Superintendent Larry Zacher. They expressed an interest in having Marilyn Dominick – who retired as J-E Superintendent in November – hand out diplomas at graduation instead of the district’s future superintendent.
“My first response was ‘no,’ and why? Because she’s not the superintendent,” Zacher told the Observer. “But then I said to myself, if this is really a student graduation, the students should be involved in planning it.”
Zacher said he wanted to make sure the request was coming down from the majority of the senior class.
“Three people aren’t going to dictate something for 118,” he said. “But if that’s what they want, we put together a student committee, we develop how this graduation ceremony is going to go, and let’s play it out.”
