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Rifts of music filled the hallways of Old Central from the Denfeld High Jazz Band, already performing in the boardroom. After the March school board meeting was called to order, the young musicians played one more number for the cameras. Students showcasing their talent was a nice note, literally, to start off the evening. I could almost imagine an audience all decked out on the ornate, deserted balcony, as the venerable old auditorium briefly returned to some semblance of what it once was.
Good teachers rank near the top of the saintliness scale. They seem to selflessly gain an inordinate amount of happiness from anything that benefits their students. After the jazz band finished its number, district music specialist Teri Akervik stepped up to the podium and happily reported the news that the district’s music department has gained three additional teachers. Music is “still struggling with the student/teacher ratio and with funding sources to provide for our programs,” Ms. Akervik admitted, and students are “not necessarily at the level we want them to be,” but she was as upbeat as she could be. She proudly announced that the Myers/Wilkins elementary school’s “World Beat” drummers are going to be the opening act for the Duluth’s HomeGrown Music Festival at Teatro Zuccone--April 26th, 6:00pm.
As the Denfeld High Jazz Band started packing up to leave, Chair Seliga-Punkyo decided to use the moment as a teachable one for everyone in the room:
“I love having all the students here because it reminds us that we are here for students. And--just a couple of things--before we go on with reading and approving of the minutes. Just remember that we are here for kids, and we want to model behavior that we would expect our students and staff to adhere to. We want to be consistent and respectful when we’re dealing with staff, the community and fellow Board members. So, just a reminder about that--to stay with the agenda…”
The primary recipient of her barbs (not to name names, but guess who?) took some exception, and the evening’s lovely beginning began its first descent into reality…

Rules of the game.
 
“Last meeting,“ Member Johnston began, “we had a discussion about the WADM. And I think it really is important that we do model behavior, as the Chair just said. (During that discussion), I was either interrupted or had my microphone shut off at least eight times. I had three Points of Order that were ignored, not even addressed. I’ve handed out to all members copies of Robert’s Rules of Order, as well as information from the MSBA (Minnesota School Board Association.) If Points of Order are made, the Chair must address them.”
Our relentless crusader, the Lone Ranger, quoted from his parliamentarian bible, ROBERT’S RULES: “‘The presiding officer cannot interrupt the person who has the floor, as long as that person does not violate any assembly rules and no disorder arises…’ This is repeated several times in Robert’s Rules: if someone has the floor, they have the floor.”
For good measure, our tireless champion of proper procedure threw in a few more parliamentary points from those Rules written by Robert: “When a member has been assigned the floor, and has begun to speak, he cannot be interrupted by another member or the Chair.” Also, (for all you budding parliamentarians): “If the Chair ignores a Point of Order that is not dilatory (intended only to muck up and delay things), the member can repeat the Point of Order a second and third time, and if the Chair still ignores it, the member can immediately put the Point of Order to a vote.”
Member Johnston requested that his Points of Order raised and ignored during the prior meeting be added to the minutes, a request duly ignored.
Regaining the floor from her long-time nemesis, Chair S.-P. responded:
“As a Board, we are required by law to follow MN statutes…The second thing we follow is Board policy or practice. Practice it’s been, really, because some of our policies are out-of-date. And the third thing we--to keep a meeting moving--we do Robert’s Rules, but they are NOT a LAW (emphasis added with a precise, clipped tone.) So I just wanted to clarify that, because we just use that to keep a meeting moving, and sometimes we get in the drudgery of going on about something that lasts quite a long time.”
A few rules the Chair apparently deems out-of-date are policy 8095 (revised in 2012), which states: “When questions of order arise, procedures shall be in accordance with Robert’s Rules of Order,” and bylaw 9095 (revised in 2013), which states: “Any question of order arising, not provided for in these bylaws, shall be decided according to parliamentary rules for the government of deliberative bodies, as defined by Robert’s Rules of Order.”
The Chair was certainly right about practice. In practice, for the past decade or so, Robert’s Rules have been regarded in the boardroom sort of like the loose rules of a pickup basketball game: “In this alley, you can take six, seven steps with the ball before anyone calls traveling, and bleeding must be profusely evident before any foul is called. And any dweeb wasting game time with a stupid rule book is gonna get his butt kicked into the next alley.”
 
A lofty vision, a few complaints.
 
The rules all straightened up now, we moved on to Member Miernicki’s favorite part of meetings: School and Community Recognition. This evening a Denfeld High student, Jordan McMillian, was the honoree. Recently named “Young of the Year,” Jordan was described as an “amazing and thoughtful young man,” by assistant Superintendent Ed Crawford.
Mr. Crawford quoted from some of the writings of this upstanding student: “My vision for America’s youth is change: to be able to stop profiling people based on their appearance, age, gender or the color of their skin. I want my generation and many more to come to be able to walk down the street without being criticized or shown hatred. My vision is to start changing the way I think, and to set examples for the ones who are younger than me…”
The Youth of the Year got a well-deserved round of applause.
Next on the agenda was public comment. Retired banker and former Board member Richard Paulson was the first speaker. Mr. Paulson was dismayed that the Board was planning a first reading to change policy 3215, which currently requires a request made to the State Auditor’s Office to perform the district’s annual budget audit every five years. Mr. Paulson has been trying to make the Board follow this policy for a long time, pointing out on several occasions that the policy hasn’t been followed since 1994.
It’s a boardroom curiosity that a former Board member is far more knowledgeable about district numbers than most current members. Mr. Paulson is old-school. He can quote figures from the district’s audits, going back years. He’s found some budget lines have remained inexplicably stagnant as far back as eight years. The figure in “Uncollectible Receivables,” for example, has been exactly $45,862 since 2007.
Maybe it’s just me, but I’m thinking it’s about time the district finds a good collection agency.
“The (private firm) auditors,” Mr. Paulson continued, “have stated significant deficiency in internal control over financial reporting since 2008.” In a mild, but stern manner, the elderly wise man pointed out that a corrective action plan monitored by the school board to address this deficiency “never happened.” He looked wonderingly up at the Board and asked, “How can any Board member deny a State audit for district 709? Please reject any change to policy 3215.”
More on this subject later in the Business Committee.
The next speaker (skipping over myself) was Marcia Stromgren. Ms. Stromgren has been quite critical of the Red Plan since it’s inception. Tonight she questioned the $5.3 million cleanup of the Red Plan currently being undertaken by Facilities Management. “Some of that money is going to be used to put drains in locker rooms that surround the brand new pool at Ordean East. Really?…My husband was a contractor. He would have never gotten away with that kind of mismanagement of funds…What are you going to do with that floor? Lift it up into the air, to connect to the drain pipes? Certainly you’re going to have to do some deconstruction. You put the drains in after the fact?”
Ms. Stromgren and the district’s Facilities Manager, Kerry Lieder, have a bit of political history. They opposed each other for the South St. Louis County District 2 Soil and Water Conservation Supervisor position in the last election cycle, a race Ms. Stromgren won.
When Ms. Stromgren began referring to Mr. Lieder by name, Chair Seliga-Punkyo interrupted and warned her against getting personal. “He (Lieder) should be held accountable for his mismanagement.” Ms. Stromgren countered, pointing out that as a taxpayer she pays Mr. Lieder’s salary. She at least got a few truncated moments of free speech for her money, before returning to her seat.
Last month, a new feature was added to Board meetings. Student representatives now give the audience a report, sort of an insider perspective from the schools. The most notable remark this evening was made in reference to a scandalous photo most people in Duluth have heard about by now.
That photo “does not reflect our school’s mentality” Denfeld student representative Thomas Olafson sincerely assured the room. For those who haven’t heard, the photo was of a 10th grade Denfeld High African American student with a noose drawn around his neck. It was circulated through social media by some of his fellow students. Needless to say, the picture was especially shocking in a town where three young black men were lynched by a mob of white men blind with rage and racism ninety-five years ago.
The photo was a sobering contrast to the Youth of the Year’s lofty vision, and another bit of bad pr the public schools didn’t need. Before the Board commenced the regular meeting, it went into closed session and expelled two Denfeld students, believed to be responsible for doctoring and circulating the photo.
 
Onward, to the evening’s business. 

The Education Committee Report was routine. Committee Chair Harala, as always, reported on all the positive things happening in the public schools with enough earnest enthusiasm to make a PTA booster blush. Member Johnston, as always, pointed out a few things less than positive, but none-the-less true. Tonight the Lone Ranger put graduation numbers under the microscope.
“A big concern I think we really have to address as a school district and as a society is the graduation rates of males versus females. Last year, males graduated at a rate of 69%; females 81%. Overall, in the State, the graduation rate for males is 79%. Ours, again, is 69%, 10% less…Denfeld High has a 71% male graduation rate, 86% female. 71% is not acceptable. I think that this a number being looked at more and more nationwide. Males are not graduating from High School in the numbers they should.”
More numbers were thrown about by the Superintendent and others during a discussion of this problem, but no one argued the problem isn’t real.
The only detailed discussion that arose from the Human Resources Committee Report was some changes being considered by Administration in regard to Civil Service Rules. Facilities Manager Kerry Lieder is spearheading what normally would seem to be a HR matter, ostensibly because the only bargaining unit affected by any change is part of his Department. The matter was eventually kicked down the road, for another day.
The Lone Ranger and Chair S.-P. actually found themselves in rare agreement during discussion of the Business Committee Report. Both expressed the need for the Board to find some way to fund a seven-period day in the district’s middle schools in next year’s budget. I guess we should all pray the Easter Bunny will visit Old Central with a big gold egg worth about a million dollars.
Even the WADM went up 15 students and didn’t engender the usual feuding. The only thing that got everyone’s hackles up was the change to policy 3215, lobbied against by Mr. Paulson. Member Miernicki is the person pushing this change. During the past few meetings, he’s been assertively proclaiming that the State Auditor’s Office “doesn’t audit school districts, and this change should have happened long ago.” During the discussion this evening, he claimed that policy 3215 as it stands is “inoperable…can’t be applied anymore.”
I called the Audit Manager of the State Auditor’s Office and was told: “If a school district were to contact us about conducting an audit, we would definitely have that discussion. We do have the authority to do an audit.”
The claim that policy 3215 is inoperable is an exaggeration. Member Miernicki got quite flustered (his voice at times loud and sneering) as he explained the main reason he wants a change to policy 3215: “Because we get criticized, (people asking,) ‘Where’s the State audit? How come we’re not having a State audit?’ I get e-mails…I’m reacting to complaints from citizens, saying, ‘You should have a State audit every year!’”
It seems unlikely hordes of citizens are asking for a State audit every year. The change to policy 3215 is being made primarily for the convenience of Administration and some Board members who do not want to be bothered anymore by Mr. Paulson and a few other members of the public, bugging them to follow a rule.
Board member Harala called the question to stop debate of the policy change, and Chair Seliga-Punkyo recognized her for the floor while other members’ lights were on. It was another violation of parliamentary procedure. Someone calling a question isn’t supposed to be able to leapfrog over other Board members already waiting in the queue to speak. Member Johnston raised a Point of Order three times before the Chair finally asked, “What is your Point of Order, Member Johnston?”
“Member Welty and I had our lights on. A member can’t just yell, ‘Call the Question.’ They have to take their turn, like everybody else.”
“Actually-as the Chair-it’s already after nine. So we’re going to have a vote on policy 3215.”
The Chair’s action was another violation of Robert’s Rules, but apparently those rules are NOT a LAW.
Besides, it was after nine and well past everybody’s bedtime.
The problem with the boardroom rules isn’t that they’re outdated. The problem is much more simple and basic. The perennial, unruly problem with the rules is that, in practice, the people controlling the room DON’T FOLLOW THEM.

*Johnston lawsuit update: A pre-trial settlement hearing is now scheduled for April 24th. Kevin Rupp is out as the district’s attorney. Taxpayer money is now being channeled to the law firm of Ratwik, Roszak & Maloney.