Open Letter to the RCS Community From Trustee Weaver
During the February 2, 2023, work session, Kevin Sutton explained to our entire board that our school district and the board are the community’s district and board. This was something that had not been presented to the board prior to that meeting.
It appears that President Bueltel is disregarding what Mr. Sutton had to say, which was mostly a replay of the best practices presented by the MASB on January 14, 2023. Bueltel emailed the entire Board on February 19, 2023, stating, “Attached is the Board Handbook with changes and additions that I had received, but this has not been reviewed by Miller Johnson yet. I also still have some questions that are marked in the margins. Please let me know what questions you may have.” I want the community to understand what this process looked like fully.
On January 14, 2023, Bueltel sent the following email after the work session.
“Hello Fellow Colleagues,
As discussed at our meeting today, our board handbook is in need of some updates. I’ve attached two files – Original Handbook with revisions, and the Dec 29, 2022…file that has all the revisions updated. It’s easier to read the latter but the first one tracks all the changes. Please note that there are some formatting issues that I wasn’t able to resolve but those would be corrected in the final version. The changes I have made are a starting point. I’m hoping you will be able to review and send me your thoughts by January 29th. After reviewing the comments, I’ll make updates and send the document to our lawyers for their review. I’m hoping that we might be able to approve the handbook updates at our 2/13 board meeting. If we need more time, we’ll postpone until our March meeting. Keep in mind that while we have not reviewed or updated the handbook in some time, it should be a living document that can be updated as needed. This could be the first of multiple changes. In this first pass, I’m just trying to clean it up and correct outdated information.
Thanks,
Michelle”
Transparency?
Here we have major changes being made to one of our governing documents by Trustees sending emails to the Board President and then the work being done out of the view of the entire board and community.
Bueltel was a leading voice to defeat the motion to limit the time the community members had to speak, but the proposed changes include one to limit the speaking time of Trustees. Robert’s Rules (which are listed in our bylaws) already have rules to address how the debate is to be handled. I have asked Bueltel why we need additional rules. Who does this benefit? How does this make our District or Board better?
Another proposed change gives the board president, in this case, President Bueltel, the unilateral power to work on legal issues. This keeps the entire board from knowing what is happening until it is time to vote. I have pointed out to Bueltel she has been acting outside our bylaws by taking unilateral actions and keeping the board in the dark. So, her proposed corrective action is changing the rules to make these unethical practices and lack of transparency our documents procedure.
Collaboration?
I have proposed multiple times to President Bueltel and Vice President Anness that we start to use our work sessions to work on creating and improving district policies, which we, as a board, are responsible for. This was explained to the board on January 14, 2023, and February 2, 2023.
I have asked the following question to President Bueltel (and Vice President Anness was copied on the email as well) “Who has had input on these changes other than the emails from Trustees?” As a Trustee, I find it very alarming that I would have to ask this question. If we don’t know, how could the community know?
Outsourcing
The board is outsourcing its responsibilities to the Superintendent, the MASB, law firms, and political organizations. This includes the Disclaiming Motion against me, which was outsourced to MASB, the Safe Storage Resolution, developed by Moms Demand Action/Everytown/Be Smart, and now the process for handling a complaint against a board member. When I hear that we are the community’s district and board, this is not what it looks like to me. If it does not look right to you, let the board know.
To whom it may concern,
Giving the President of the board the sole responsibility to make changes to the handbook and contact legal advice goes against a true Democracy. The board, who works for ALL of the RCS community, was chosen to represent ALL members-not just those that favor the current superintendent and board President. The power lies within the entire board and members it represents. The earmarked changes to the handbook, made by one individual, does not serve the entire board and/or community. The above items, and the time limit given to topics are nothing but a way to avoid hard conversations that need to be had. Please seek to understand the voices of ALL whom you represent.