RIH BOE Votes Despite Protests - March 11th Meeting Recap

Four hour RIH BOE meeting tonight with a large audience and over an hour of public comment, including many students and alumni.

Most public comment was against the restructuring of the Guidance departments (by a temporary Superintendent and brand new Curriculum Director) and against abolishing Policy 5756.

The Board voted against the majority public comment:

• Vote to restructure district Supervisors passed 6-3 (Yes: Ansh, Bogdansky, Emmolo, Keil, Mariani, Souders; No: DeLaite, Koulikourdis, Lorenz)

• Vote to rescind Policy 5756 passes 6-3 (Yes: Ansh, Bogdansky, Emmolo, Keil, Mariani, Souders; No: DeLaite, Koulikourdis, Lorenz)

• The Board voted against a petition from over 1200 constituents asking them to PAUSE the Restructuring.

• The Board cited the receipt of 50 constituent emails encouraging them to abolish Policy 5756 Transgender Students and voted accordingly.

Lots more to report including statements of dissatisfaction from the teacher union. I'll try to post more tomorrow.

Sidenote: I believe new BOE member Audrey Souders committed an Ethics Violation, publicly calling out a staff member for doing something Audrey did not approve of. The BOE legal counsel was at the table and sat silently by. We'll see if anything comes of it. Ms. Souders did not use a name, instead she cited the school and position and nodded toward the employee, who was sitting in the audience. It was clear who she meant.