In a halting, at times bizarre special meeting of the Board of Education Tuesday, May 28, 2013, the school board decided to hold a hearing into comments made by one member on multiple occasions that may have violated its bylaws. Such a hearing could potentially lead to a censure of the member, Michael Crockett.
A special meeting was called Tuesday to discuss the conduct of several school board members, although members took pains to discuss as little of the situation as possible before the public Tuesday evening; sources told Patch that the meeting was called to deal with racially inappropriate and offensive comments made by BOE members Michael Crockett and Deborah Hagenow in relation to Ron Atwater, the only black member of the school board.
Hagenow and Crockett were the only members who did not attend the meeting, and Atwater did not comment about the situation. All three are Republicans.
On several occasions Tuesday, the school board voted to conduct discussion of the incidents in a confidential executive session, which is allowed under the state's Freedom of Information Act, but on two occasions the vote failed to muster the two-thirds majority needed. School board members Neal Leon, Maria Cruz and Sarah Walton, all Democrats, voted against holding the discussion in executive session both times.
But after the school board's attorney, Richard Mills, a partner in the firm of Shipman and Goodwin, which the board retains, advised the board that discussing the matter in public could leave it open to potential liabilities, the school board voted to go into executive session. Only Leon voted against doing so the third time.
After discussing the matter in private for more than an hour, the school board reconvened and approved a motion to convene a hearing into remarks made by Crockett on January 9, March 13 and May 13 of this year. No further information was provided and board members declined to discuss Crockett's alleged comments.
Under the school board's bylaws, a member is entitled to a "reasonable notice" before a hearing date is set, and must be confronted with the allegations they are being accused of and provided due process. Board of Education Chairman Chris Pattacini said no date for the hearing had been set.
Atwater was appointed by his party to replace Kidd in December of 2012, after she resigned from the school board following a controversial arrest and reports that she harassed another school board member. Ironically, no such laws governing the conduct of school board members existed at the time of Kidd's issues, which prompted the BOE to revise its bylaws to include such provisions for the future.
When asked why he was the only member of the school board to vote against holding the discussion in executive session, Leon said it was because the school board was too often accused of doing things behind closed doors.
"I had nothing to hide, which is not to say that anybody else did," Leon said. "But everybody always says that the Board of Education doesn't do things in public, so I thought we should do this in public."
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