By Jim Sabataso
RUTLAND HERALD
Throughout the past year, school board meetings across the country have become battlegrounds of pandemic-related anxieties and political division.
Vermont has not been immune to the phenomenon.
Across the state, school boards have had to contend with divisive issues, like the fear of critical race theory being taught in schools, opposition to diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, and pushback on mask mandates.
Meetings have devolved into contentious public forums where community members air their grievances, often distracting from the regular school board business of school governance, as well as other pressing issues, including COVID-19 mitigation, a workforce crisis and aging facilities.
Sometimes those conflicts occur internally, with board members becoming fixated on single issues or pushing political agendas.
In Rutland City, the Board of School Commissioners has become mired in dysfunction and personal conflict following the board’s decision to retire the high school’s “Raider” name and arrowhead logo last year.
Tensions boiled over at the board’s December meeting when a procedural discussion related to the mascot devolved into chaos, with commissioners shouting at each other and arguing with members of the public.
The meeting ultimately ended prematurely when commissioners abstained from approving the agenda, which included a COVID recovery update, approval of the Stafford Technical Center budget, a presentation of the district budget, and recognition of students who won a local writing contest.
Moreover, 10 members of the Rutland Education Association had planned to speak to remind the board that school employees have been working without contracts since July.
The raucous meeting even caught the attention State Board of Education.
At its Dec. 15 meeting, Lyle Jepson, BOE member and Rutland resident, took commissioners to task in a prepared statement, saying he was “deeply disappointed and embarrassed for our community.”
Jepson called on the board “to move forward expeditiously to return to the important work required of them and, without delay, to return to appropriate decorum that will model the behaviors we expect of our local representatives.”
“Our children are watching, and they need support right now.”
VSBA Executive Director Sue Ceglowski said school boards have faced a number of challenges this year.
She noted that boards overall are experiencing an increase in public engagement, which at times has led to disruptions at meetings.
This fall, VSBA offered a webinar for board members that provided practical advice and guidance on how to manage public comment sessions. Advice included suggested language for board chairs to read at the start of meetings to set the tone of the public comment period.
She noted that it was also important to remind everyone at meetings that children look to adults as models for how to engage with one another.
“To that end, it is the responsibility of the community to discuss meaningful topics in a manner that demonstrates civil discourse and mutual respect for one another — especially on topics where there is disagreement,” she said.
Ceglowski added that VSBA also helps individual boards navigate internal conflicts by helping them understand their commonalities as board members and establishing norms for how their board meetings are run.
As both internal external conflict has increased over the past year, Ceglowski acknowledged that sometimes both the public and board members don’t understand or remember that a school board has a clearly defined role to play within a school district.
“The purpose of the school board is governance. It is not operations,” she said.
She explained there are six areas of school board work: establishing a vision and engaging the community, establishing policy, ensuring a productive partnership with the superintendent, developing a budget and providing financial oversight, monitoring progress and performance, and operating in an effective and ethical manner.
“Effective operations are crucial to a strong school board,” she said. “And those are characterized by well organized meetings with agendas that focus discussion and decision making, engaged board members who have the information necessary to make informed decisions, and practices and policies that are legally compliant.”
Ceglowski said anyone considering running for a school board seat should understand that being an effective board member requires a “significant time commitment.”
“Vermont school board members are among the most dedicated public servants in the state,” she said.
Maria French, who has been a member of the Mill River Unified Union School District Board since 2018, understands the commitment and challenges that come with being on a board.
Over past year, the board has been a lightning rod of controversy.
Efforts to display a Black Lives Matter flag at the high school brought out a handful of residents who have regularly voiced their opposition at multiple meetings for more than a year.
Other topics, such as the district’s equity initiatives and various LGBTQ-related issues, have also drawn the ire of some residents.
The result has been combative public comment sessions — some of which stretched to nearly 90 minutes — and heated email and social media exchanges between board members and district residents.
French acknowledged that meetings have gotten increasingly tense in the past year but said, as a board member, she is committed to making sure people feel heard — as long as order is maintained.
“A public meeting is not a meeting of the public. It’s a meeting of the board that we make public, because that’s the right way to do it. But it doesn’t mean that it’s a public discussion,” she said.
And while she feels it’s important to set rules and expectations for public comment, the goal should not be to shut people down.
“It’s about remaining human and not being so rigid that people don’t feel like there are actual people listening to them — that they just think they’re part of a process, that they’re just brushed aside.”
French said that when she joined the board, she had concerns it was not engaged enough with the community, so she and her fellow board members decided to form a community engagement committee to explore how the board could more effectively connect with the public.
About a year ago, the board began holding regular community conversations throughout the district to give the public access to board members outside of the formal setting of a meeting.
French said that while turnout generally has been low, the conversations are substantive and satisfying.
“We almost always have a really wide range of people who do come to it,” she said.
Interestingly, she added that community members who regularly show up to challenge the board during meetings typically do not attend these conversations.
French admitted that, in the face of so much tension and vitriol, it’s easy to get discouraged.
“I know a lot of us probably weigh — on a daily, weekly or monthly basis — whether this effort for the board is really what we want to be doing,” she said. “But we’ve learned a lot about our community and our community has learned more about the board, I’d like to think, about the process and what we actually have control over or not.”
French encouraged anyone interested in running for a school board to first attend meetings to learn about the issues and get a better understanding of how a board functions.
She’s also put together a handbook for new board members that includes info about open meeting laws and advice from past board members. It’s a resource she offers to all new members and anyone interested in running.
“One of the first things I learned getting on the board was that everything happens really slowly,” she said.
French also offered some advice to the single-issue candidates considering throwing their hats in the ring: Don’t be surprised at how many other things you’re going to be working on.
“(They) may be frustrated, and coming frustrated to a meeting with lots of people — it’s not a productive way for anything to go,” she said.
jim.sabataso @rutlandherald.com
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