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The Examiner U-46 News Feed

The U-46 beat goes on: Transparency or not


By Seth Hancock
  A conversation concerning a previous closed session meeting by the Board of Education in School District U-46 on Monday, Aug. 1 again raises the question about leadership on the board, as well as who runs the meeting and if the board’s president is familiar with the board’s own policies.
  Although not holding the board’s title as president, board member Traci Ellis appeared to control the discussion as the actual president, Donna Smith, allowed her to call board member Jeanette Ward a liar and resort to personal politics while at the same time cutting Ward off. Smith denied allowing that to occur when asked by The Examiner after the meeting, but the video on the district’s YouTube page clearly shows she did.
  Ward had asked that the Jan. 25, 2014 closed session tape in which Open Meetings Act (OMA) violations have been alleged be voted on by the board to be made public at the previous meeting, a request that was ignored by Smith.
  Between the previous meeting and Aug. 1, Ward had followed Board Policy 2.190 to get that request placed on the agenda, but Smith said: “I had told Jeanette that I didn’t put it on the agenda because I went back and watched the tape, and we really did not have a discussion, and our board agreements do say, you know, a consensus of the board to put it on the agenda for a vote.”
  Ward said her attempts to listen to closed session tapes and now attempt to make this tape public “has always been about transparency.” At the previous meeting Ellis, who Smith allowed free reign to make interruptions, told Ward “to use your recourse,” and Ward noted on Aug. 1 voting to make the tape public is one of those recourses.
  “As I stated last meeting, I don’t wish to get anyone in legal trouble,” Ward said. “I don’t wish to waste any more of the court’s time on this. I want to solve this as a board. I wish to make this board as fully transparent as possible. And, if there is an (OMA) violation, making this recording public would remedy that.”
  There were no legal reasons to keep the tape secret according to Ward who added “if there is any legal reason, then I’d like to hear it.”
  Ward reiterated that Board Policy 2.201 explicitly requires the board to make closed session tapes public if confidentiality is not needed. She noted that there are legal reasons tapes may need confidentiality or some things may need redaction, but “those reasons need to be clearly defined in our policy.”
  Pointing out that she heard a taxpaying member of the public on the closed session tape being maligned and slandered, Ward went on to say: “For too long one member of this board has been allowed to resort to personal attacks. Instead of discussing differences of opinion with counterpoints, the board member resorts to name calling and making false accusations. I choose to compete on the battleground of ideas; it is never about a person and always about ideas.”
  Ward, who never named Ellis as the one making disparaging remarks, said the member of the public was maligned as a part of the “21st century brand of the KKK.” She was cut off by Smith when she attempted to ask her, Sue Kerr and Cody Holt to clear up a “false accusation” made by Ellis who took to her public Facebook page to call Ward a liar. Phil Costello and Veronica Noland did not attend when the tape was reviewed.
  Smith interrupted saying “Jeanette, I really” to which Ward replied: “I have the floor, I’d like to finish. I’m almost finished.”
  Despite allowing Ellis to call Ward a liar, Smith wouldn’t allow Ward to clear her name as she said “I understand, but… I regret not stopping that conversation” at the last meeting. Smith claimed closed session content should not be made public, although Ellis did tell Ward she could say anything she said during closed session meetings.
  Ellis previously did divulge content of that closed session meeting on an Elgin-based radio show on June 16, but Smith said nothing then.
  Ward then asked that the board agree to put the tape on the next meeting’s agenda, on Aug. 15. The board will vote on whether or not to make the full tape public, which includes a board self-evaluation as well as a superintendent’s evaluation, and if denied a vote will take place on the self-evaluation portion.
  “I think it’s in our policy that we have to consider that as a matter before we discard any tapes,” said Costello. Holt agreed and added “we should reevaluate what our policy is for how things go on the agenda.”
  Smith then attempted to deny the existence of policy 2.190 saying “well, it’s not actually policy, it’s part of our agreements that we had agreed to. I don’t think it’s actually in our policy.”
  “Well, I was just going off what I had heard from Jeanette,” replied Holt, which Smith replied, “right, and I just wanted to clarify with you,” as she laughed.
  Ward then reiterated the specific policy number, which indeed does say a board member can have agenda items placed if given “in writing” to the administration “at least five days prior” to the meeting, which Ward did. Now needing to recognize that fact, Smith said “board agreements” require a discussion by the board first.
  Ellis then got into the discussion and said: “So, Jeanette keeps throwing around a certain board member when everybody knows she’s talking about Traci O’Neal Ellis… When you tell a lie, that makes you a liar.”
  Smith tepidly said “well, can we,” then allowed Ellis to continue: “Stop, because she accused me of something and I’m addressing that. That’s what I’m talking about. I did call Jeanette a liar, and I’m going to reiterate that if, you listened to the tape, if you think and you seem to feel strongly that there’s an [OMA] violation on, time is ticking Jeanette. You’ve got till Aug. 25 Jeanette. File something. Come after me.”
  Ellis was given free reign yet again to interrupt forcing Ward at one point to call a “point of order. If I’m going to be cut off…” and Smith interrupted while allowing Ellis to continue “what you didn’t want to be the discussion was (Ward). What she did was she violated and said, think things that were allegedly said.”
  Eventually Noland and Kerr said a vote should be taken to get this issue over with. Ellis eventually agreed despite initially saying “I disagree with putting it on the agenda.” Among the multiple interruptions by Ellis, she said: “I’m not talking about the contents. I, unlike Mrs. Ward, haven’t divulged anything that was said in a closed session board meeting. I’m not talking about that.”
  The Examiner previously gave those board members who listened to the tape a chance to answer if a member of the public was disparaged in closed session. Holt backed up Ward’s claim while Ellis, Kerr and Smith did not respond.
  While allowing Ellis to continue calling Ward a liar on Aug. 1, Smith was again asked the question but said: “You know what, I’m not going to talk about that. I made my statement.”
  Confronted with the fact she allowed Ellis to continually call Ward a liar, Smith said: “I did not allow anything. I did not allow that to happen.”
  Ward told The Examiner after the meeting that Smith “conveniently cut me off” before she could ask to have her name cleared. She said she told Smith before the meeting and was not told she couldn’t raise that issue during the meeting.
  “I honored the no surprises rule, unspoken rule, with board members,” said Ward who added: “So I get cut off and Ms. Ellis goes on, and on, and on and on. The only way I interrupt is to say point of order.”
  Regarding the issue of taxpayers being disparaged the public can form its own opinion about who should be trusted, Ward who made the allegation and is attempting to make public the evidence that can prove her right or Ellis who calls Ward a liar while fighting to keep the evidence secret?

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