Chaotic Board Meeting - Recap of the October 30 RIH BOE meeting

Tuesday’s breaking news that the Curriculum Director resigned took precedence over reporting back on the RIH meeting on Monday Oct 30.

To recap, my observations of the meeting are below. Another 3 plus hour meeting, with a short agenda, and a lot of drama and dysfunction.

This was Dr. Dionisio’s last meeting in our district. He gave a lengthy update recapping his experience and accomplishments (many) in our district. Rather than thanking the Board of Education as a whole, he said: “I must also acknowledge the Board members who partnered with us”. I think that tells us all we need to know about how the Board supported him.

Campaigning:

During the required public comment session we heard mostly campaigning, accusations and self serving statements for candidates. Board meetings are to conduct board business, in public. But some members of the public like to use the opportunity to grab the mic and use the Board’s Livestream to deliver their messages. What is worse, during the Board Discussion period, there was inappropriate campaigning from the dais, particularly by VP Kim Ansh, but she was not the only one. It was unethical and embarrassing that they were campaigning from the Board table during a Board meeting, and it continues to showcase the inappropriate behaviors and deep division on the Board.

Finance Committee Update (the $4.2 million dollar question):

It was noted that the district had a $4.2 mil operating surplus for the 2022-2023 school year. Apparently $1.2 mil surplus which existed at March 31 was ‘given back’ to the 2023-2024 budget approved in April (meaning the tax increase would have been even higher without using this surplus). The remaining $2.9 mil in surplus appears to have ‘been discovered’ between April and June. The Finance committee is recommending this money be put into Capital/Maintenance Reserves. It was unclear if there was an option to give this $2.9 mil surplus back to the taxpayers. There is an open question in my mind as to how such a large surplus appeared in the last three months of the year and no one saw it coming, and no one has clearly explained where it came from or why it can’t be returned to taxpayers . Hopefully more information on this will be forthcoming.

Walk in Motion to change the Minutes:

Judy Sullivan made a walk-in motion to change the meetings of the August 1st Special Meeting. The minutes had been voted down/tabled twice already. Ms. Sullivan’s motion was to remove the words “in her opinion” from the Board President report section of the minutes:

"BOARD PRESIDENT’S REPORT

Ms. Sullivan, referring to the July 24, 2023 resolutions: E7, E8 and E11, read a statement regarding the mental health and counseling resolutions that did not pass at the July 24, 2023 board meeting. In her opinion, the resolutions did not prevail due to insufficient and untimely information received by the Board related to these services."

So in other words, Ms. Sullivan wanted to change the minutes in order to shift blame for Board’s vote to defund mental health programs onto the Superintendent for not providing sufficient or timely information. First, board members should not evaluate the Superintendent in public like that (completely unethical). Second, the majority of the Board seemed to have enough information to vote, so it truly was HER OPINION (or her game playing). Third, this is the THIRD time this year that Judy Sullivan and her cohorts have tried to change the official Board Meeting Minutes to suit their narratives. Sullivan's motion to change the minutes failed with a 4-5 vote with Sullivan, Ansh, Emmolo, Mariani voting yes to her change and Bogdansky, DeLaite, King, Koulikourdis and Lorenz voting no. The minutes were approved as written, noting that her Board President’s report was her opinion and not a fact.

Walk-in Motion to Hire a Superintendent Search Firm:

Mariana Emmolo walked-in a motion to hire a (specific) Superintendent Search Firm. This was the FOURTH time the board has voted on whether to hire a search firm. 35 minutes was spent as Marianna tried to reargue the case to start the search now (for the fourth time). She actually tried to argue that the full Board should approve the firm ‘she' picked, because ‘she' thought it was a good idea to hire them. She failed to win the argument. For the fourth time the motion to hire a search firm failed with a 4-5 vote. Sullivan, Ansh, Emmolo and Mariani voted to hire a search firm now, and Bogdansky, DeLaite, King, Koulikourdis and Lorenz voted not to hire a search firm now.

After the failure of her first motion, Ms. Emmolo then made another walk-in motion to go out for an RFQ (request for quote) for a search firm, which also failed along the same lines.

The regular agenda (non walk-in motions) passed with little discussion and a few abstentions that did not change the outcome of any items.

So, three plus hours to listen to inappropriate campaigning, board infighting about whether to start the Superintendent Search now or later (again) and very little else accomplished.

Once again there was notable and public discord amongst Board members.

At the close of the meeting, four Board members made very complementary comments to Dr. Dionisio, one gave a very brief statement, and four board members had very little to say.

I’ll add some video from the Livestream if I have a chance, otherwise you can find the full

Livestream of the video here: https://live.myvrspot.com/index.php/showcase/view-showcase?sid=fMGI0OGUyMmVlMGMyZjViMGNlZGIxYjFhMjE1MDBjZWQ#