KC board offers current steps for improving safety at CMHS

Decision comes after executive session

MILL HALL -- After hearing from the public about their concerns and potential solutions regarding safety at Central Mountain High School, the Keystone Central School Board of Directors offered insight into immediate steps being taken.

The topic came following public comment during a special meeting on Wednesday in the high school's auditorium.

The highly anticipated saw nine visitors speak including two current students, one substitute teacher in the district and six community members, some parents.

From the beginning, issues were contested and people became more and more vocal as the meeting continued.

Immediately after Board President David Dietrich opened the meeting, points of contention were brought to the forefront.

"School board members, tonight, are being asked to respectfully listen to ideas and not comment on the ideas that are being presented," Dietrich announced.

In response to this, Butch Knauff, chair of the safety and security committee, questioned why the school board was not permitted to comment during the meeting, as there was much confusion surrounding the meeting's established procedure.

"Mr. President, I just have a question for clarification," Knauff said. "What you basically said is that the school board is not allowed to comment tonight?"

Dietrich restated, "School board members will not be commenting on the ideas that are presented."

"So you're denying me the right to speak?" Knauff interjected.

"That is the typical standard practice of this school board during public presentations," Dietrich explained.

Questioning further, Knauff persisted by asking, "Normally we all have microphones, not just the president. Can I ask why the rest of us don't have microphones in case we want to ask questions for clarification? Why are we not allowed?"

Dietrich repeated, "This is the typical standard practice of this school board during public presentations."

The KCSD Policy Manual outlines what is and is not permitted. The point of contention, in this case, can be found under Policy 903 of the manual:

"All statements shall be directed to the presiding officer; no participant may address or question school directors individually."

This stipulation required any and all comments to be provided by Dietrich exclusively, as he is appointed the presiding officer.

Policy 903 was not the only policy related item to be in the spotlight during Wednesday night's meeting; another policy regarding school board procedures was called to attention as well when Board Vice President Roger Elling suggested the meeting be temporarily adjourned so that board members could hold a brief executive session to seek legal advice from solicitor David Lindsay, who was present at the meeting.

This came after Dietrich moved forward with the agenda to the segment he titled, "Ideas we are taking a serious look at (potentially doable within the next month or so)."

"The last item on the agenda for this evening is for us to let you know about some of the ideas that we're taking a serious look at implementing in the near term," Dietrich said. "Butch, are you prepared to talk about that?"

In response, Knauff stated, "I'm not allowed to speak tonight," as he had previously been told that school board members would not be permitted to provide comments during the meeting.

Dietrich moved on to the district's safety officer and security coordinator, Mark Condo.

"With all due respect, my understanding is that the topics that were discussed were during an executive session," Condo told the board.

The executive session Condo referred to was held on March 16. In reference to that session, he stated, "My understanding was school law and the Sunshine Act would require an active board giving permission to speak about that."

Executive sessions, per the Sunshine Act, are not open to the public for confidentiality reasons due to the nature of the topics that board members may discuss. The only information provided to the public in regard to an executive session is the reason for holding it.

Dietrich responded with the question, "Would anybody like to make a motion to allow Mark to describe or talk a little bit about the ideas that we have tonight?"

It was at this point that a number of members in the audience, anticipating this information from the outset of the meeting, became extremely vocal, yelling out things like, "What is the point?", "What are you afraid of?", "So what are we here for??", "Where's the transparency and accountability?", "Let the man talk!", "I've got a few questions! What do you think about the Sunshine Act? What's it about since it's so vital?!", "You called all of us here for this!", "You should have done this ahead of time!", "You're dealing with our kids!", "We don't have all night!"

Finally, Board Vice President Roger Elling interjected, bringing order back to the auditorium. Once the room quieted, Elling suggested the board hold an executive session to seek legal advice on "whether we should actually do this now, or just wait until our actual meeting in which we had already planned on discussing all of these things?"

The executive session lasted roughly 20 minutes outside of the auditorium before the board returned and voted to waive confidentiality in regard to the March 16 meeting.

When the meeting reconvened, members stated their votes aloud. The motion was passed after members voted 8-1, member Wayne Koch being the only exception.

Consequently, Knauff addressed the crowd, discussing the contents of the previous executive meeting.

Knauff began by first stating that "most of the stuff you've talked about, we've already talked about" and continued to speak about topics ranging from school board actions already implemented to prevent future misconduct and violence at CMHS, ideas that the board is still considering implementing at the school, and clarification on a few topics that visitors spoke about during their presentation.

According to Knauff, "We're trying to find a way to monitor the classrooms. There are some devices that we're looking into that can be installed to help."

Knauff noted that changes were already being made in term of hallway monitoring.

Some new rules and repercussions have been implemented as well, Knauff continued,

"If students have infractions, they can't park on the property," he said. He also stated that the school board is actively trying to "limit the amount of people in the restrooms at a time."

Knauff mentioned that the board had a meeting set with a behavioral health expert and further stated, "Unfortunately most of the problems we're having are stemming from mental and behavioral health."

Short-term changes that Knauff mentioned were efforts to "increase the number of staff members, whether it be security, hall monitors, or behavioral experts." He explained to the crowd that the board is "torn between whether we need to provide more security or more mental and behavioral health personnel."

After the meeting,Superintendant Jacquelyn Martin provided The Express with her comments, "In addition to the safety committee meetings that have been held, my recent meetings with students, along with communications from community members have yielded some viable options for us to consider as we continue to improve our school safety efforts. Students, families and community members are encouraged to contact the principals and me to share their concerns and any ideas for improvement."