Wichita school board member: Don’t shut down debate

A Wichita school board member this week shared e-mails that she says illustrate how the board sometimes shuts down parent input and involvement.

Joy Eakins, who recently raised concerns about what she says is a culture of intimidation and a lack of transparency on the school board, said board member Betty Arnold last year declared that parents on a district advisory committee should not be allowed to speak at committee meetings.

In an e-mail to Eakins in March 2016, Arnold directed Eakins to tell two women who had been invited to participate in a student wellness committee “that the only role they can serve would be as observers.”

“Their attendance does not offer any special privileges such as actively being a part of the discussion and/or direction,” Arnold wrote in the e-mail, which Eakins shared with The Eagle. “Meetings are open but input from anyone other than committee members is not permitted.”

Arnold on Tuesday said her directive, made while she was board president, was intended to clarify district policy on advisory committees and not an attempt to silence parents.

“If you have figured out anything about me, you know I’m a stickler,” Arnold said. “I follow policy. I follow rules. So if that’s the rule that we follow, then it does need to be stated.”

Eakins said she shared the e-mail to counter allegations from Arnold that she had lied about bullying among board members and that Eakins had waited until the end of her term to raise concerns.

Eakins, who was elected to the school board in 2013, is not running for re-election. Her term ends in January. Arnold is running for her third full term on the board.

“I did bring up my concerns – in e-mails, in comments and in meetings,” Eakins said. “I brought concerns to board members and to the superintendent. … I have been bringing up concerns since I first joined the board.”

‘We’ve heard enough’

The dispute over the student wellness committee happened shortly after two parents – Amanda Watson and Tiffany Carmichael – addressed board members in February 2016, urging district officials to give youngsters more recess time.

Arnold said members of an advisory committee on student wellness should have addressed concerns directly to then-superintendent John Allison rather than the school board.

“That’s not procedurally how it’s done,” Arnold said this week. “It was something that the board, however, did decide to take under advisement.”

Eakins, whose clash with Arnold accelerated recently when she shared a critical text message from Arnold on social media, said the wellness committee incident illustrates a deeper problem with the board – that its adherence to protocol and its quest to streamline meetings sometimes chokes out discussion and debate.

“The message to parents was pretty clear,” Eakins said. “And I think the message was, ‘We’ve heard enough.’”

Watson, one of several parents who lobbied the board for more recess, said she was surprised and confused when she learned she could no longer speak at committee meetings.

She decided not to make a fuss at the time, she says, because she thought the recess issue was taking hold. A Facebook page, “More Recess in Wichita,” had garnered hundreds of members, including parents, teachers and former teachers, and many pledged to not give up until the district changed its practices regarding breaks for kids.

A few months later, Wichita teachers made recess an issue in contract negotiations, and administrators added a 15-minute recess to elementary schedules.

“Personally I felt that we must have gotten their attention, or they wouldn’t be so upset about it,” Watson said. “But I thought there were enough good people in place, looking at the research, and I felt supported by the other committee members.”

Listening to input

Board member Mike Rodee, who was copied on at least three e-mails between Eakins and Arnold regarding the wellness committee, could not be reached for comment for this story.

Board member Sheril Logan said she vaguely recalls Eakins bringing up concerns about the advisory committee during a board meeting. She said, however, that she didn’t know details about Arnold’s e-mail and couldn’t say whether the parents should have been allowed to participate.

“I heard about it, but I was not involved in it at all,” Logan said Wednesday. “I don’t know enough information to be able to agree or disagree.”

Logan, who joined the board in 2011 and was re-elected in 2015, refuted Eakins’ claims that board members avoid public discussions and debate.

“I really believe we try to do everything we can to be open and receptive and listen to people,” Logan said. “That’s always been my goal.”

Proposed policies

Eakins said she is making her concerns public because the board’s actions affect students, families and the community.

In coming weeks, the board will consider policy changes that she said could further alienate the public and “create distrust” in the system.

Proposed policies include one that would limit board members’ authority to pull items from the consent agenda – a portion of the meeting designed for routine business – and one that would prohibit a single board member from requesting reports from district staff.

Another proposal would add the following to district policy: “The Kansas Open Meetings Act requires all meetings of the Board to be held in public, however, Board meetings are meetings of the Board and not of the public.”

Arnold, who was board president during a contentious debate over school closings in 2012, used similar words to admonish protestors during board meetings at the time. She said the proposed sentence comes from the Kansas Association of School Boards and should be written into policy.

“That really is the rule that we have followed,” Arnold said.

“This is a business meeting that is held in public. But that does not mean that John Doe can come in and disrupt our meeting any more than they could go to the Senate floor or the Congressional floor and yell and be disruptive,” she said.

Eakins and Arnold both said they want to move beyond their recent disagreement and focus on educational issues and the future of the board.

“I don’t want this to be a feud between two board members. That’s never been the reason I brought this up,” Eakins said. “It’s my hope that we can honestly admit that there is a problem and work together to forge a solution.”

Said Arnold: “I’m really ready for all this to end.”

This story was originally published October 25, 2017 at 11:39 AM with the headline "Wichita school board member: Don’t shut down debate."