Some of the proposed policy changes include a path to future board member payment and ways to work around state laws

Traditionally, the Custer County School Board posts its monthly meeting agenda the Thursday before the Tuesday meeting, giving the public, staff, and local media the opportunity to look over what will be discussed. However, the School Board broke with that unofficial policy this past Thursday, directing the staff to wait until the last possible legal minute to post the agenda 24 hours before the meeting.

The agenda revealed that the school board continues to use a consent agenda to jam through hundreds of pages of new school policies with a single board vote instead of publicly discussing and voting on each proposed policy change. Roberts Rules of Order describes a “consent agenda” as a “group of routine meeting discussion points into a single agenda item. In so doing, the grouped items can be approved in one action rather than through the filing of multiple motions.”

However, the consent agenda for the Tuesday school board meeting includes over 50 items, many of which include policy changes to the school and are in no way “routine meeting discussion points.” For example, one such policy change would open up a path for future school board members to be compensated for working as a school board member. Currently, policy at the school only allows members to be compensated for expenses incurred.

Another proposed policy is to direct the Superintendent and the School Attorney to actively find ways to work around or ignore state laws regarding education.

Ironically, this method of bringing in new policies breaks the board’s current policies. In the School Board Policy Process (click here to read the entire document):

Adoption of new policies or the revision or repeal of existing policies is solely the responsibility of the Board of Education. The Board shall adhere to the following procedure in considering and adopting policy proposals to ensure that they are well examined before final adoption. 1.  First meeting-the proposal shall be presented for a first reading, discussion and first vote. 2.  Second meeting-the proposal shall be presented for a second reading, discussion and final vote. During discussion of a policy proposal, the views of the public and staff shall be considered. Amendments may be proposed by Board members. An amendment shall not require that the policy go through an additional reading except as the Board determines that the amendment needs further study and that an additional reading would be desirable.

By waiting for the agenda to be posted at the last minute, it seems that the school board is trying to prevent the public from examining the 260 pages of the meeting packet. In addition, the packet must be requested and was not publicly made available online. Further complicating matters, the proposed changes are not listed in the packet, forcing someone who wants to know what the proposed changes are to compare them line by line with the current school board policies.

Also posted on the agenda are cryptic agenda titles such as “Approval of Administrative renewals: Thom Peck, Superintendent, Aundrea McCormick, HS Principal/Ad, Sydney Benesch, Elementary and Middle School Principal.” As previously reported in the Tribune, the School Board held an emergency meeting in February in an effort to quickly fire the current Superintendent, Thom Peck. A large crowd of supporters of the superintendent dissuaded the board from taking any action in a tear-filled and often angry public comment section of the meeting.  

Thom Peck’s contract is for two years, so why is there an agenda item for “approval of administrative renewals” regarding the Superintendent’s contract? It is currently unknown.

Many of the policies that the school board is proposing to be changed always receive a unanimous vote by the five board members, and most, if not all, have not been discussed publicly by the board. This raises the obvious question of when the board members discussed the changes and where and how those changes found their way into the board packets and the consent agenda.

In the name of transparency, Tribune Publisher Jordan Hedberg requested the school board not include the first and second readings of policy changes in the consent agenda as it would block the public from hearing how public policy was being made by the board. The email stated, “The attached agenda has 50 items on the consent agenda to be approved in a single vote on a first reading. This board waited until the last possible hour to post this agenda on Monday at 4 p.m., when they typically post the agenda on Thursday before. The vast majority of the items on this agenda, even as a first reading, have never been presented to the public before. This board is presenting  First Read Policies that include everything from ‘Agenda format’ to ‘Recruitment of a Superintendent and his contract’ to the ‘Discipline of staff’ and  Second Read policies like ‘Sex-Based Discrimination and Sexual Harassment Investigation Procedures.’ Not once have these issues been discussed publicly, and no draft of the first reading policies being voted on was included in the agenda. Nowhere have you discussed these enormous policy changes in a public meeting, and it seems clear to me that you are using the consent agenda to rubber-stamp decisions the board has already made in secret.”

The board has not responded to the Tribune as of noon on Tuesday. The Tribune will continue to update the public on these events.

The School Board meeting will be held at 4:30 p.m. in the school multipurpose room. A link to the agenda can be found by clicking here.

Jordan Hedberg