BOE Vote Spurs Heated Discussion on Change of Meeting Minutes

A heated discussion ensued after a vote to amend the minutes of a June 23 Board of Education meeting. The vote was related to an filed against a board member by Superintendent Walter Hrycenko.

A vote to change the minutes of the June 23 board meeting was successful despite 'no' votes from board members Kim Terebush and Len Cuppari. The vote changed the minutes to reflect that board member John Talty meant to abstain from voting on item 15 on a portion of the agenda that night instead of item 16. According to Board President Sharon Kight, Talty meant to abstain from voting on approving the contracts of tenured teachers, but he mistakenly abstained from voting on the contract for non-tenured teachers instead. Talty's brother is a tenured teacher in the district.

That vote was part of an ethics complaint filed against Talty by Hrycenko, who claimed that by voting in favor of approving the contract that covers more than 750 teachers – including his brother – he violated the state's school ethics law.

When a resident, Vic Fanelli, asked during the public comment portion of the meeting why Terebush and Cuppari voted against amending the minutes, Cuppari said he did not have enough time to review the vote. But Terebush gave a lengthier response, saying Talty should have better reviewed the agenda before voting.

"The due diligence of each board member is to review the agenda, review the minutes, review what you are going to vote on," Terebush said. "If there was any transposing, as it's being put, that probably should've been caught."

But Kight said the agenda changes frequently before board meetings, and if a board member reviewed the agenda at home, it may have changed by the time the meeting started.

"This agenda changes so many times, that item 15 could've been moved to item 16 from the time Mr. Talty printed it off to the time he got to the meeting," Kight said.

Terebush also said she had a problem with changing the vote in October, several months after it was originally cast in June. But Kight saw things differently.

"It wasn't brought to Mr. Talty's attention until Mr. Hrycenko brought ethics charges against him," she said.

Changes to board meeting agendas a short time before the meetings begin, as well as the transfer of money to and from various school district bank accounts, has been a frequent bone of contention between some board members and the district's administrators, mainly Business Administrator James Edwards. The issue has been the subject of sometimes heated debate at previous board meetings.

"I did ask that the Friday before our public meeting, that the agenda be finalized and only item of an emergent nature be added or deleted," said Kight. "The request to stop the agenda at a certain point, which is the Friday before our meeting, was made."