Your Voice: Is Douglas County School Board investigation illegally funded and invalid?

Unanimous consent, as practiced by Douglas County School District President Silverthorn and Director Benevento, flies in the face of state statutes, Board Operation procedures and Robert’s Rules of Order.  The erroneous use of unanimous consent invalidates the appointment and the work of the investigator. Motions made at the Board meeting remain to be voted on, due to breaches in Robert’s Rules of Order.

Minutes and live stream recording of the April 19, 2016, meeting of the Douglas County School District Board reflect meeting minutes and Livestream recording reflect how the investigation of the treatment of Grace Davis by the presiding members of the Board was authorized.  Robert’s Rules of Order (RRO), Board Operations Procedures (BOP) and Colorado Revised Statutes (CRS) all demonstrate that proper procedures were not followed.

Figure 1.  Hand Objection By Director Lemieux to Proposed Unanimous Consent by Director Benevento as Grace Davis Tries to Help Her Teachers Save Their Jobs

During public comment, student Grace Davis requested that the President Meghann Silverthorn and Vice President Judy Reynolds (“Silverthorn and Reynolds”) step down from their Board positions.  The request was based on the way that she had been treated by the Silverthorn and Reynolds in a private meeting at her school.   With no notice to parents or student, the Directors arranged this meeting to interrogate Ms. Davis regarding the organization of a student protest that she was planning due to high turnover of teaching Staff at Ponderosa High School. The analysis of the subsequent meeting procedures is presented below as summarized in Table 1.

Director Vogel made a motion and Director Lemieux seconded for the Board to ask to ask Silverthorn and Reynolds to resign, which was a valid action during a pause in public testimony at a regular meeting (see references in Table 1).  Director Benevento objected, since it was not on the agenda, which was not a valid reason (see references in Table 1)  .  President Silverthorn accepted the main motion and ruled the main motion out of order.  Director Vogel appealed the ruling, which was seconded by Director Lemieux. President Silverthorn ruled the appeal out of order, which was a breach of RRO, since motions are allowed at that time.  President Silverthorn requested a vote on the appeal which was 3-3 and Director Vogel raised a point of order that the tie resulted in the main motion not being out of order.  President Silverthorn allowed the discussion to proceed on the main motion.

During the discussion, Director Benevento suggested an independent investigation be authorized by unanimous consent, even though the main motion was still being debated and Director Lemieux had her hand raised trying to be recognized by the chair, as shown in Figure 1.  Many of the out of order actions are a breach of RRO and/or BOP, as referenced below, and railroading through a unanimous consent is suspected to be against the law and misuse of executive authority, as referenced below in state state statute and RRO.  Voting is not allowed that does not identify the person voting and position taken.   Illegal  voting procedure is suspected to invalidate the authorization of the independent investigation by unanimous consent proposed by Director Benevento and accepted by President Silverthorn.  Only a roll call vote is allowed under the statutes governing the operation of school boards and the Douglas County School District Board Operations manual.  See references below.

In conclusion the request for  Silverthorn and  Reynolds to step down by student Grace Davis, which was put to a valid motion was mishandled by the majority reform board members, Director Benevento and President Silverthorn.  The minority free public school Directors Vogel, Lemieux and Ray made every effort to resolve the situation quickly and involve all stakeholders, following procedures mandated by Colorado Revised Statutes, Douglas County School District Board Operations manual and Robert’s Rules of Order.

In contrast, the following observations were made in the redacted report by the hand picked investigator:

“Several witnesses we interviewed observed that the public admonishment of Directors Silverthorn and Reynolds during the April 19 meeting constituted a public censure.   Some likened it to a public hanging. A number of witnesses felt the resignation demands were premeditated.  Some Board members felt the calls for resignation were politically motivated.  Others felt the resolutions were directly proportionate to Directors Silverthorn’s and Reynolds’ conduct.      The Code of Conduct allows a public censure where a substantial violation is found by the Board. The Code of Conduct thus implicitly contemplates an investigation into whether a substantial violation occurred.

The conduct of the April 19 Board meeting thus takes on additional significance because, if the Board finds any substantial violation of its policy after a review of this report. it should consider whether public censure has already occurred.“

The investigator chosen, Gordon Netzog, was not independent of the reform majority on the Board.  He was a Board member of the Alliance for Choice in Education (ACE) Board since 2009, until recently, which coincides with the reform candidate takeover of the Douglas County School District Board.  ACE founders were mostly responsible for large political campaign contributions (>$5K) to reform candidates during 2009-2015 totaling $265K.  Bob Beuprez also gave a total of $1000 in gifts of tickets  to an ACE function to four of the reform Directors, including Benevento and Silverthorn in 2009.  President Silverthorn’s recent gift of $1.7K to ACE was a result of having to close one of her two campaign committees that she had open at the same time, which was in response to a complaint. Having two campaign committees open was  illegal.

After reviewing the minutes and Livestream, one will conclude that Directors Lemieux and Vogel were being sent in circles for trying to follow Robert’s Rules of Order. Director Benevento was very concerned about whether or not a law was broken but not the legality of his voting procedures.  There sat Grace.  The fact that Silverthorn and Reynolds continued to participate in matters from which rightly they should have recused themselves was not explained.  Robert’s Rule of Order 45 and state statute. Why was there no  consideration of her feelings during the April 19th meeting by the investigator?  Put the question! Review the legality of this proceeding, too!

This reviewer recommends that the motion made by Director Lemieux for an investigation panel of off-site principal, teacher, parent and attorney, rather than a single attorney, was a proper motion and is the correct alternative,  as it will produce a more unbiased report on validity of actions at Board meetings as well as the Grace Davis incident.

The comparison of the April 19, 2016, meeting to a public hanging was uncalled for and unprofessional.

#IStandWithGrace

Table 1.  Summary of April 19, 2016 Douglas County School District Resignation Motion Activities, Rules and Statutes