During a routine discussion of agenda items in a Jan. 21 District 203 Board of Education meeting, board members levied accusations at each other including “shirking responsibilities,” a “problematic” tone and “political agendas,” centered around board member Melissa Kelley Black’s conduct.

Kelley Black was censured at the Jan. 7 board meeting due to alleged conduct “in violation of her fiduciary duties as a board member.”

During the meeting, Kelley Black initially pulled Board Meeting and Closed Session Minutes from Dec. 16 and Jan. 7 from the agenda for discussion. Board member Charles Cush followed by pulling item 7.01, Bills and Claims for discussion.

7.01 – Bills and claims

Kelley Black was originally assigned the duty of reviewing the Bills and Claims, according to Board President Kristine Gericke. The document shows all financial transactions by the district over the past month, and a board member is assigned each month to review the document, as well as a fellow shadow board member.

“For you to decide that you are going to opt out because you don’t believe in the process, it is shirking responsibility,” Cush said. “It’s putting an additional burden on everyone else and it’s not standing in a place where you have an opportunity to review every single dollar.”

Gericke had originally been the intended shadow of Kelley Black in the Bills and Claims process, but after receiving an email from Kelley recusing herself from the process on Jan. 14, Gericke took over the responsibility. Kelley Black had been aware of the duty since Aug. 12 in an email sent to board members, according to Cush.

“The reason that I did not feel comfortable, if you recall, is that I submitted questions about the budget and the audit on Dec. 16 that we were to submit before to be addressed at the meeting,” Kelley Black said. “Those questions were not answered.”

In response to Kelley Black’s explanation behind forgoing the duties, Superintendent Dan Bridges stated that all questions submitted for consideration at the December meeting had been responded to with answers or follow-up questions.

According to Cush, during Kelley Black’s 20 months on the board, she has not taken on the Bills and Claims responsibility while all other remaining members have participated in the responsibility a minimum of three times.

Kelley Black also alleged that no items she has requested to be placed on meeting agendas have been added during her tenure as a board member, while other members have had items added.

“I just find the whole tone of the board problematic,” Kelley Black said.

Kelley Black later excused her recusal from the Bills and Claims on account of her hesitance towards potential liability. 

“Part of the process is that the person has to sign off,” said Kelley Black. “It’s a fiduciary duty, which means I’m legally liable. I’m putting my name on that this is accurate information. I’m not going to put my name on something if I don’t feel it’s accurate information.”

The meeting was held at Kennedy Junior High School with multiple members of the public in attendance, as well as over 130 viewers seen at one point on the YouTube livestream.

“Not only am I concerned with the reputation of our district with all this bickering on the board, I think that we should focus instead of pointing fingers at each other on ways to resolve it,” Kelley Black said.

The Bills and Claims agenda item ended up being passed with a vote of 6-1, Kelley Black being the lone “nay” vote. 

“People on this board have their own political agendas,” Kelley Black said. “Maybe they’re running for office.”

Following Kelley Black’s accusation of political agendas, Gericke no longer recognized Kelley Black, and stated that it was “an accusation that [was] completely unfounded.”

Following Kelley Black’s censureship and prior to the Jan. 21 meeting, she alleged in an interview with the Central Times that the censureship “looks more like they’re trying to quiet me before an election.”

7.03 – Open meeting minutes

Kelley Black pulled item 7.03 from the agenda in hopes of adding additional information in regards to a statement by Joe Perkoski, an attorney representing the district, made during the censureship agenda item of the Jan. 7 board meeting. In the now-approved minutes, Perkoski responded to a question posed by Gericke regarding the appropriateness of placing evidence from Kelley Black’s censureship in BoardDocs. The minutes state he did not wish to provide an opinion in open session.

“You have that he responded that he did not want to offer an opinion in open session,” Kelley Black said. “If you listen to the recording, you will see that he then made another comment and said that they could be released and that that would be a board decision.”

In the recording of the meeting, Perkoski can be heard responding to Gericke’s original question, and then following up shortly after with another statement, although neither are clear in the now-posted YouTube video of the meeting.

Gericke responded to Kelley Black’s request by stating that she did not believe Kelley Black’s claim to be correct.

“Then why don’t we go back and check and we can approve the minutes later,” Kelley Black said.

The agenda item passed with a vote of 6-1, with Kelley Black being the lone “nay” vote. 

7.04 – Closed meeting minutes

Item 7.04 was also pulled from the agenda, and Kelley Black started to offer reasoning behind the pull due to an inaccuracy before Bridges interrupted her and informed her that any disclosure of closed meeting minutes that were unreleased to the public would be in violation of the open meetings act.

“Yes I did interrupt you, but I am trying to protect you,” Bridges said.

According to Bridges, the board had an opportunity to voice any issues regarding the content in closed session minutes while in closed session earlier in the evening.

The agenda item passed with a vote of 6-1, with Kelley Black being the lone “nay” vote. 

Following events

The rest of the board meeting followed as normal, and featured a presentation by administration about the reasoning behind potential school day changes, as well as the emergency authorization of just under $50,000 in funds towards an emergency repair.

“We didn’t say we’re going to only do the easy parts of the job,” Cush said in an interview following the meeting. “We didn’t say we were going to avoid the hard parts of the job. We didn’t say we’re going to pick and choose parts of the job. We said we were going to do the job because that’s what the community expects.”

Cush stated in the interview that none of his statements in the board meeting had anything to do with the censureship resolution passed at the Jan. 7 board meeting.

“I think the censure embarrassed our community,” Kelley Black said in an interview following the meeting. “I think their behavior today was, I don’t think they should be proud of it.”