Once again, the Robbinsdale Area Schools Board of Directors spent a chunk of its meeting discussing how members talk to each other.
At the July 8 board meeting, Director Kim Holmes brought copies of a June 22 Facebook post published by Director Helen Bassett on her public page.
Bassett’s post described an alleged incident at an unspecified board meeting. Bassett also shared the post on the MN School Board Directors of Color & Indigenous Fellowship page.
The Sun Post obtained a copy of this post, as it is no longer publicly available.
According to Bassett’s Facebook post, an African American female colleague reached out to her recently. Bassett wrote that the colleague reportedly told Bassett she “was accosted during a posted public committee in our district offices by a male member of our school board in what has been described to me as an extremely vulgar and threatening manner.”
Bassett wrote that “formal complaints have been lodged with proper entities about the incident,” however, “it is my understanding that formal district leadership was in the room at the time of the incident, yet no one intervened.”
Bassett concluded her post, saying, “there are those who are tone deaf, uncaring, callous, or worse, who do not fully understand the damage that is done when behavior such as I have described is allowed to become the norm. I write today to stand with my colleague and to denounce the behavior that she endured. I am writing this morning to stand by my sister, and to assure her that she is not alone.”
Directors on social media
During the meeting, Holmes said Bassett’s post was “inflammatory” and “harmful.” Holmes also said it disparaged the board as a whole and one board member as an individual.
According to Holmes, Bassett’s post violated the board’s code of conduct, especially the portion which asks board members to, “Acknowledge that my interaction with public, press or other entities must recognize the lack of authority vested in individuals and the inability of any Board member to speak for the Board except to repeat explicitly stated Board decisions.”
“My ask is that you refrain from posting from your campaign page in that matter,” Holmes said.
Holmes also asked Bassett to apologize for creating the post.
Bassett did not apologize, saying, “I don’t feel like I did anything wrong.”
Director Sharon E. Brooks defended Bassett’s post.
“This is called love and emotion,” Brooks said of the post. “So no, I don’t think anybody should apologize for being human.”
Brooks said the she found it emotionally difficult to read the post, which depicts sexism and racism in the district.
Chair ReNae Bowman felt the story shared in the post was a serious issue that needed further action, but questioned the way Bassett shared the story.
“There was a better way to bring forth a genuine concern than social media,” Bowman said.
Bowman said Bassett should have taken the issue to the chair or superintendent instead.
“That is a call to action and it’s alarming to me that we’re gonna allow that,” Holmes said of the Facebook post.
Bassett said the post described a disturbing incident that was shared with her and that she was asked to share it. Bassett said she felt her character was being attacked for sharing her colleague’s story.
“You’re trying to diminish me,” Bassett said to Holmes.
Holmes said the story was “hearsay” until a report could come back, people could review videos and the incident could be addressed formally. Holmes continued to ask for an apology, behavior which Brooks labeled “character assassination.”
Director Greta Evans-Becker asked to table the discussion, saying “demanding an apology from a person who does not want to apologize is hollow.”
During the same meeting, Bassett asked the board to talk about behavior unbecoming of three school board members. After some conversation, including remarks by Bowman that she wasn’t properly notified that it would be discussed in a meeting; no action took place.
The board has been meeting in closed sessions pursuant to Minnesota Statute 13D.05 subdivision 2b for consideration of allegations or charges against an individual or individuals subject to the board’s authority. Holmes said she had filed the complaint. An investigation is underway.
Early intervention
At the July 8 meeting, the board also voted 7-0 to pay out what it owed for Bowman’s part of an early intervention mediation program and terminate the contract.
Bowman and Bassett were set to receive specialized “early intervention” mediation to help resolve conflicts. Bowman completed the individual portion of the mediation, Bassett has refused to participate. Bassett has claimed that although the board agreed to fund the intervention, it did not mean the board members were obligated to attend.
Bassett said she had not read the mediator’s report but was disappointed with it, calling it incomplete. Bassett said the focus should not be solely on two board members, and part of the challenges were with the administration. The report, as others have noted, did not speak to any relationships with the administrators.
The board contracted with the Mediation Center late last year to resolve board conflicts.
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