White reappointed to Greencastle School Board
Having already whittled the number of candidates from five down to three, on Monday night Greencastle Township Trustee Steve Butts and the township advisory board chose to retain Mike White on the Greencastle School Board.
In a split vote of the advisory board, White was chosen from among three finalists that also included Russell Harvey and Ed Wilson.
Unfortunately, the selection process was beset with questions over procedure and whether the decision had already been made in advance of Monday’s meeting.
Contacted by the Banner Graphic on Tuesday, Butts expressed his regrets over missteps that had been made during Monday’s meeting.
“I didn’t do the procedure right,” Butts said. “Hopefully we got it corrected during the meeting.”
The procedural problem came about when, following the interviews and with no action from the advisory board, Butts announced that the advisory board had ranked White their top choice.
This prompted questions both from audience members and advisory board member Russ Evans.
Asked when the board had ranked the candidates, Butts said it had happened during the executive session in which they had narrowed it to three candidates.
Audience member Leslie Hanson pointed out to Butts that all that can be done during such an executive session is the narrowing to three candidates for public interviews. Evans also said that he had not submitted final rankings.
Butts asked what he should do to make it right and was advised that a board member should make a motion, wait for a second and then have a vote.
At this, Evans made the motion to appoint Harvey, but this died for a lack of a second.
Board member Karen Ambler then moved to reappoint White, which Marilyn Clearwaters seconded.
Butts then declared the decision to be unanimous. However, Evans spoke up that he was voting against White’s nomination.
While the events of Monday evening make it seem like a decision was already made, Butts said he knew the procedure but made a mistake.
“The board picks three out of the five in the executive session and then the interview is to determine out of those three,” Butts said. “We heard their interviews but I misstepped on the procedure vote. That’s how I read it in my preparations.”
Evans also shared his perspective on the meeting, saying that things certainly looked bad with Butts’ premature announcement that the board had made a selection.
“He made it sound like the decision was already made in executive session,” Evans said. “It got really foggy to me toward the end on the process.”
What was supposed to happen on Monday was that the three finalists were to return to be asked the same questions by each board member.
Evans asked each candidate what they would do if the knew another board member had a class schedule changed to benefit a friend.
Clearwaters asked about the financial stability of the school.
Butts asked what the school board could do to be more transparent.
Ambler, however, had a different question for each member. Her questions for Harvey — an Ohio native — centered around where he was from and when he moved to Greencastle. She asked Wilson, a veteran Greencastle Police officer, what he thought of the leadership of the department.
Only her question for White pertained to Greencastle Schools, asking what can be done to improve the school’s finances.
In his answers, Harvey emphasized the need to keep the focus on students.
“We need to make sure we are not wasting money and need to make sure we are benefiting the students,” Harvey said, also noting the need to be “communicating with the community at large” on topics and issues being discussed by the school board.
Saying he considers “Greencastle home and is part of his family” Wilson emphasized what he called a “boots- on-the-ground mentality” regarding transparency. He stressed the need to Wilson talk with members of the community to hear what is going on and what issues and topics need to be addressed.
White noted the “strong” financial position of the school with money now split into separate funds of education, operations and rainy day.
Noting that it is the “school corporation’s responsibility to improve the school grade,” White said the corporation is in the process of hiring a curriculum director to help standardized thelearning process across all buildings.
When Butts asked about potential improvements to the board, White said the board is “strong”, but in an “unusual position” where there could be a potential “loss of institutional knowledge in the next two years as every (current board) member has the potential to be replaced or not run again, so you would lose a lot of institutional knowledge.”
Greencastle Superintendent Jeff Hubble was also in attendance, noting that he “liked Mike’s answer to the stability of the board and his eight years of experience on the board and as many terms as president. I’m very appreciative of the number of candidates and shows a good diversity among the candidates and their answers, too.”
Butts also expressed his appreciation for the other candidates, which initially also included Kim Fidler and David English.
“It didn’t go right and that’s what upset me bad,” Butts said. Everybody needs to be treated equally and that’s what really upset me on the thing. They are all good folks.”
As for how to avoid future problems of this nature, Hanson noted that the League of Women Voters brings Indiana Public Access Counselor Luke Britt to the community each year to help local officials with their understanding of the Open Door Law and Access to Public Record Act.
“It is your responsibility as elected officials to know the open door law,” Hanson said. “That was how I first learned about the law was I was on the park board and I learned the law.”
No longer a public official, Hanson likely remains the community’s foremost expert on and defender of the Open Door Law.
“Elected and appointed officials have a responsibility to understand the law,” she said. “And it was clear (Monday) night that they did not.”