Concerned over paralyzing dysfunction, political infighting and violations of open-meeting laws by the Christina School Board, the state legislature last week directed the attorney general's office to spend the next year monitoring the board.
“It's one messed-up board. The meetings are just chaos,” State Rep. Paul Baumbach said. “They're following none of the rules. They're violating policies left, right and center."
Baumbach and other Newark-area legislators added the unusual monitoring requirement into epilogue language in the grants-in-aid bill that the legislature passed on its last day in session, June 30.
The provision stipulates that attorneys from the Delaware Department of Justice will spend the next year monitoring the Christina board, with a focus on transparency and adherence to public information laws.
At the end of that year, the DOJ will submit a report to the legislature detailing any violations of the Freedom of Information Act as well as any recommendations for legislative changes needed to ensure the proper operation of the board.
Baumbach expressed frustration that the state has little recourse to step in if a school board is not following the rules. Though he is retiring this year, he said the legislature may need to look at ways to amend the law if Christina doesn't change its ways.
“If they cannot get back on track, well, then you've got to have an intervention,” he said.
Christina School Board President Donald Patton dismissed the monitoring requirement as a personal attack on him by Baumbach and State Rep. Cyndie Romer.
“They started coming after me with a bunch of lies, a bunch of innuendos and a bunch of half-truths,” Patton said. “I think this is all directed at me.”
He posited that the two legislators are angry that he has been a critic of Superintendent Dan Shelton, including leading a vote of no-confidence in Shelton and a decision to suspend him for three days earlier this year. On Tuesday, Patton plans to call for a vote on not renewing Shelton's contract and putting him on administrative leave for the next year.
Board member Doug Manley, meanwhile, welcomed the state monitoring.
“I look forward to the DOJ observing and hopefully holding us accountable,” Manley said.
“Over the last year, we've had a number of meetings where the general rules of order haven't been followed. We've had motions that weren't acted upon even though they were on the floor, we've had disagreements over how amendments work, we've had just a slew of meeting-related issues at minimum,” he added. “Hopefully, with the state involved a little bit, we can get back to running meetings orderly and properly.”
A year of turmoil
The current dysfunction began shortly after board members narrowly elected Patton as board president last July.
Since then, a sharp divide among board members has emerged. Naveed Baqir and Alethea Smith-Tucker have allied with Patton. Meanwhile, Manley, Monica Moriak and outgoing board member Claire O'Neal have been critical of Patton's leadership. Y.F. Lou has been a swing vote, though he has aligned with Patton on several crucial votes, including the actions taken against the superintendent.
Critics of Patton argue that he is overstepping the bounds of his role, trying to take control of decisions that are supposed to be made by the superintendent and his staff.
“The board's job is not to run the district itself,” Manley said. “But for whatever reason, the majority thinks that is the board's job, and in particular that the board president, specifically, has that role.”
In April, Manley attempted to censure Patton and remove him from his leadership role as board president, but the effort failed due to a tie when Lou abstained from voting.
O'Neal, whose term on the board ended last month, said she is concerned that the board is not following Robert's Rules of Order and other standard procedures. One particular concern, she added, is that board members are adding vaguely worded items to the meeting agendas without explaining what they intend to bring up for a vote.
“If you're going to do that, you don't provide the public with enough time and understanding of what's actually going to happen at the board meeting,” O'Neal said. “And that runs contrary to open-meeting laws in Delaware. It also runs contrary to what the board should have as core values of transparency and public engagement."
She also accused Patton of using board meetings to air personal grievances.
Baumbach went a step farther.
“It's bullying by the president,” he said. “His actions appear that he feels that he answers only to himself.”
Patton, however, maintains he is standing up for the students he serves and holding Superintendent Shelton and other district leaders accountable.
“I ran on transparency and accountability,” Patton said. “I don't get to now get in and see all this stuff that's jacked up and just turn your head the other way.”
Manley and his allies are too deferential to Shelton and seem to think it's their job to support what the superintendent wants, Patton said.
“I don't think that's my job,” he said. “I think my job is to question the superintendent. I think my job is to ensure that what we're doing is in the best interest of students and families.”
Patton said he is limited in what he can say about Shelton due to privacy rules surrounding personnel, but he did voice displeasure in how Shelton handled various hiring decisions, including a constable and a special education administrator.
He believes it's time for Christina to move on from Shelton and find a new superintendent when his contract expires next summer.
“You can't make the district better without making changes,” Patton said. “And these folks don't want change. They want to stay the same, they want the same leaders, they want the same results.”
FOIA violations
In May, Baumbach and four other legislators filed a complaint with the attorney general's office alleging that the school board violated the Freedom of Information Act.
As is standard procedure for any FOIA complaint, the office investigated and issued a report last month. Deputy Attorney General Dorey Cole ruled that the board committed three FOIA violations.
In March, the board held a vote to rescind Shelton's contract extension without properly providing public notice, Cole ruled.
In May, the board's no-confidence vote against Shelton was also done without proper notice, Cole added.
The third FOIA violation involved a closed-door session to address parliamentary procedure. That does not fall under one of the allowable reasons for holding a closed session.
Cole recommended that the board revote on those three issues at a future public meeting.
A path forward?
Romer and Baumbach said fixing the school board needs to be a priority as Christina enters a crucial time in its history.
The district is due for a funding referendum in the next year or two, and the legislature is expected to vote soon on a plan to remove Christina from the City of Wilmington and move those students to other districts. That would constitute one of the largest changes in public education in New Castle County in several decades and have wide-ranging ramifications for Christina's finances and student population.
“There's a lot of really, really important things that are going to be going on in the Christina School District, and we really don't need a dysfunctional school board,” Romer said.
Manley said he hopes that his colleagues will be cautious now that they know the attorney general is watching. If not, he invites the state legislature to find a way to intervene.
“Our job is to be a public body and accountable to the public, and we're not seeing that in a lot of the situations here,” he said.
Though Patton disagrees with the state monitoring, he conceded that the board needs to do a better job finding a way to work together.
On Tuesday, he plans to ask the board to approve hiring the nonprofit School Board Partners to run training sessions for board members on how to sharpen their focus on student outcomes.
“We've got to get better, I'll grant you that,” Patton said. “Because if we don't get better, then I think the system for kids doesn't get better.”
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