There are several important points that need to be unpacked from the July 15, 2025 Board of Education Business meeting. Some comments made by board members warrant a closer look.
+ When April Zentmeyer announced the start time for Board of Education Business meetings was being moved back to 6:00 p.m., she said: “It was a trial, and our trial is up. It was with the intent of reducing costs and keeping public comment accessible in the evening hours”. Why would the Board have even considered a “trial” that would reduce the community's ability to participate in public discourse?
Additionally, there were changes to Policy KD that are objectionable.
- Reducing the time allocated to each speaker during Public Comment from 5 minutes to 4 minutes.
- Limiting the number of speakers to 15. This makes it harder when there is a decision that affects a whole community for all members to be able to voice their concerns.
- The changes to Policy KD.C.2 are contradictory. The policy now states that a person is required to sign up to speak no later than 4:00 p.m. on the Monday proceeding a business meeting OR prior to the start of public comment. How is it permissible to sign up at the meeting prior to the start of public comment if one is REQUIRED to have signed up sooner?
Rising To Learn sees these decisions as restrictive to the community and not warranted. While Rising To Learn appreciates that the Board has restored the meeting start time to 6:00 p.m., the announcement notably omitted the placement of Public Comment at beginning of the agenda rather than at the end, an important adjustment that supports greater accessibility and stakeholder input.
Policy KD as it has been revised now further restricts and impedes the public's ability to engage with the Board and voice concerns. That said, Rising to Learn acknowledges and appreciates Dr. Zentmeyer for her comments regarding the value of community input.
+ During the time set aside for the Board members to respond to Public Comment, Board member Darrell Evans stated, “There are times where the majority of the board does not necessarily agree with the recommendations of the staff, but to call it a trend I think is, I’ll just say, flat out wrong…. Overwhelmingly, we do go and take the advice of the board (sic), and I would argue that the trend is that we do go and follow what staff is saying.”
Mr. Evan’s was addressing remarks made during Public Comment by Rising to Learn’s Communication Director, Roger Stenerson. Mr. Stenerson had given two examples of elected board members rejecting sound input from groups of employees on two separate issues in two separate Board Work Sessions and the recommendations made in a Board of Education Advisory Committee report.
Let’s first define trend.
Trend: the general movement over time of a statistically detectable change, to show a tendency
A reorganized Board consisting of 3 veteran members and 4 newly elected members took office in December, just 7 months ago. In those 7 months there were several changes made by the board that contribute to what can be described as trending behavior:
- The school system, employees and Board of Education’s Budget Advocacy and Review Advisory Committee (BARC) supported an increase in the number of School Security Officers. The Board eliminated School Security Officers from the Superintendent’s recommended budget, rejecting the Superintendent’s recommendation and those of schools administrators and teachers, and one of its advisory committees.
- Due to a decline in enrollment and on the recommendation of the Superintendent and senior staff, the Elementary ABLE program was discontinued following the 2023-2024 school year. Data showed that overall attendance was lower than the rest of the school system (some grades as low as 83%), on both the ELA and the Math MCAP the percentage of students who scored proficient was considerably lower than the rest of the school system, and this in conjunction with the low enrollment resulted in a high per pupil. However, despite these factors, the Board made re-opening ABLE a top priority and included its funding in the BOE’s FY26 Operating Budget.
- The Superintendent and staff did not recommend or include in the Superintendent’s FY 26 Recommended Draft Budget Summer Schools for Elementary or Middle Schools students due to funding loss. Instead of noting to make Summer School a priority for the FY27 Budget and thereby allowing enough time for proper planning, the Board decided to go against the recommendation of the Superintendent and staff and include Summer School for Elementary and Middle School students in the budget. Consequently, money was spent to open with only a handful of students participating at the various sites.
- Despite support expressed during Public Comment and through email by stakeholders to retain the position of Supervisor of Equity and Excellence. The Board eliminated the position from the FY26 Budget.
- During a Board Work Session on the FY26 Budget, individual board members pushed back on the Superintendent’s and staff’s recommendation to have the position of principal of Cascade Elementary School be increased to a 12-month position. With barely sufficient support the recommendation was included in the budget.
- Most recently, in a Board Policy and Review Committee Meeting, a concern and recommendation from school administrators was shared. This involved a change to Policy JFCA – Student Dress Code and its accompanying Administrative regulations to prohibit the images of firearms on clothing worn in schools. Two of the three board members who comprise the committee were present. One of them, Board member Darrell Evans, opposed the recommendation and the suggested change to the policy and regulations. Without further review and investigation and on the say of one of seven board members the administrators’ request was rejected and denied. Rising To Learn maintains that those who know the most about disruption to learning and creating positive learning environments are the ones closest to it. In this case it’s school administrators, not school board members.
Mr. Evans is more than welcome to disagree, but Rising to Learn stands by the use of “trend” in describing what’s been happening throughout the decision-making process. Intentional or unintentional disregard for employee and other stakeholder input; whichever it is, it is contrary to the Board of Education’s own policy. Whether input is received from professional employees or community organizations and individuals, the pattern of disregard for input is visible, and Rising To Learn hopes that the Board reverses this trend to comply with its own policies and make decisions that are in the best interests of ALL students.