UPDATE: Champaign School Board cancels special meeting for appointing new member
Update at 3:00 p.m.
A staff member for the school district has alerted members of the media the Wednesday meeting has been cancelled.
Board President Gianina Baker gave the following statement with the news of the cancellation.
“As for now, we are canceling the special board meeting scheduled for Wednesday, May 1st. No doubt the hope I had of the board coming together was radical yet here we are. The past behavior of Members Holder and Armstrong indicates that they will hold true to their word and not attend. These two board members have made it clear, on now four occasions, that they have no intention of showing up. I, for one, am highly disappointed that they are not taking their roles of a board member seriously. For those stating that their stunts are what they were voted in to do, I wholeheartedly disagree and see them as adventurist. Board Policy 2:80, specific to board member code of conduct states:
“I will prepare for, attend and actively participate in Board of Education meetings. I will abide by majority decisions of the Board, while retaining the right to seek changes in such decisions through ethical and constructive channels.”
They continue to be in clear violation and, in fact, supported by fellow public elected officials to do so.
I have tried to stay the course when others continue to move goalposts. For example, I find that a board member’s attempt to possible resolution to the process to be performative and disingenuous when they had no intent on participating in a meeting. Their behavior will result in their intended outcome—to have ROE’s Gary Lewis and his committee select our new colleagues. Some may call it a win, I see it for what it is.”
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (WCIA) — As a last resort to appoint a vacancy on the Champaign School Board of Education, the president has put a meeting on the schedule.
However, some members are confident the meeting won’t meet due to lack of quorum.
The special meeting is scheduled for Wednesday at 6 p.m. at the Mellon Center. On the agenda, listed items include an executive session for the “selection of a person to fill a public office, including a vacancy in a public office.”
Betsy Holder and Amy Armstrong, two board members, have publicly said they will not be in attendance at the Wednesday night meeting. Under the Illinois Open Meetings Act, the board will not be able to meet as the public body will not have quorum.
State senator weighs in on Champaign School Board ‘chaos’
“I am extremely disappointed in the performative gestures of intentionally scheduling a meeting that won’t have a quorum and will have to be canceled, causing further confusion to potential applicants and the community,” Holder wrote on her Board of Education Facebook page.
In an email to applicants, Board President Gianina Baker did not ask applicants to attend the meeting, rather they asked the finalists to “have your phone next to you Wednesday night” in case the meeting is able to convene.
The Superintendent for the Regional Office of Education for Champaign and Ford Counties Seth Lewis previously said the decision should be made by the school board, but state law dictates his office makes the appointment if a school board can’t make one in 60 days. The board has until Monday to appoint a vacancy for the seat Jamar Brown resigned from.
Another meeting in April to discuss and appoint new board members failed due to absences from Holder and Armstrong.
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