Jayson "Wally" Meyers, center, speaks at an Auburn school board listening event at the Auburn High School library Wednesday.
Co-facilitator Kara Georgi, center, speaks at a meeting Wednesday.
After an initial event where the Auburn Enlarged City School District heard concerns from community members, the district's board president is hopeful that communication can improve and problems can be solved as discussions continue.
Around 40 people, district residents and officials, came together for a listening session at Auburn High School Wednesday night. The event was announced by the district two days after a heavily attended board meeting erupted into shouting and police arriving at the scene, even though no physical fights broke out.
The district's original plan for Wednesday's event was to split attendees into different groups who would later come back together to discuss what they talked about. But many attendees said they expected to be able to raise specific issues with the board of education and get a response back from the body. As a result, the first half of Wednesday's conversation shifted to how meetings could be improved for the future, with people later in the meeting getting the opportunity to say what they wanted to say to the limited number of board members present.
Board President Ian Phillips said in an interview with The Citizen Friday that the session, which he originally believed would end about 8:30 p.m., lasted until about 9:30 p.m. He added that the district was compiling the messages received from that night.
"We're trying to pull out the top issues that people are experiencing, and then we hope to hold additional listening sessions and additional work sessions to try to tackle as many of these issues as possible before the school year starts and throughout the school year," he said. "This school year is so important, so we want to act with some urgency on this."
In an emailed response to a question about structure for future sessions, Phillips said "we want to provide a wide variety of formats so that everyone in our school community is listened to and feels invited to making our schools the best they can be."
Phillips also talked about how he felt Wednesday's session went.
"I think it was a very good first start of a conversation," he said. "I was happy with the turnout. I think people all got a chance to express themselves freely and openly share their concerns with the district and the board. I think we all want the same thing: For our students in our district to reach their fullest and highest potential. So we as adults have to work together and all be all in for our students."
In regard to confusion from people on the nature of the listening event, Phillips said "communication is an area that we continue to work on and improve on." He noted that the district initially stated what kind of format the event would be in when it was announced — a July 22 news release about the event on the Auburn district's website said it would follow a "'community café' style format" — and some people may have had different ideas about what that meant.
That news release said more details would be coming in the following days. The district posted more information on what the event would entail, including going into smaller groups, on social media pages on the morning of the session.
Isabelle Wellauer, a district parent who ran for a school board seat in May and has been among the large group of community residents attending meetings and expressing concerns in recent months, said in an interview with The Citizen Thursday that she felt the second half of the event, in which people addressed their concerns to board members, went better than the first half.
"I think the majority of the people from the community that wanted to attend this event wanted to attend to get their specific concerns about the board addressed," she said. "We wanted to have an opportunity to speak to board members about really specific concerns about their operations."
She thanked the event's co-facilitator, Kara Georgi, for redirecting the meeting with the community to allow people a chance to speak about their concerns. Although some community members brought up specific issues to the board members who were there, Wellauer noted that the board didn't respond to those concerns that night. She said primary points community members are worried about are board transparency and accountability.
"There's a lot of behaviors that these board members are participating in that just simply are not right," she said. "They're not following board policy, they're not following rules and regulations and laws and they're doing things behind closed doors. They're discussing things behind closed doors that they shouldn't be."
Phillips said he was glad people stayed for the entire listening event Wednesday and were able to address their concerns and also have some one-on-one conversations. He added that he and other board members talked with people after the event ended for roughly another 30 minutes.
"My door is always open. Our email is on the website. I think that communication is a difficult thing in this day and age," he continued. "We're trying to give lots of different opportunities to our school community to make their voices be heard, and once heard, their suggestions and their needs met."
One issue with Wednesday's session that upset some attendees was that just four members of the nine-person board were there.
Phillips said the quick scheduling of that first session contributed to low board member turnout.
"Our board members are all extremely engaged in our community," he said via email. "They all knew it was important that we created space to meet quickly and they all wanted to be there. On short notice, obligations to family, work or other organizations can't always be moved. All of us are eager to dig into the comments and questions we heard and work together on next steps."
Regarding the concerns about getting responses to resident concerns from the board, Phillips said the district will reply back to people who brought concerns forward last week.
"I think that folks should expect responses to all of the myriad issues. That's our goal, is to be responsive," he said. "The thing that we have to remember, as a board and community and teachers and parents and support staff and grandparents, is we are all in this together, and our children and our community will do better if we work together."
"It's not, 'You solve this problem.' It's, 'We together will solve the challenges of our community,' and that's what we as a board and as a district hope to foster, because we know that with involvement from our community, that we can do amazing things," Phillips said.
Wellauer, who said she was surprised that not every board member attended the event, said she believes there are a handful of members with "very self-serving political agendas happening," which she feels is interfering with students' educational, mental and emotional health.
"We have been pushing and asking on many different levels for them to please begin operating in a respectful, honorable manner that demonstrates respect and integrity. Integrity is what people do behind closed doors. Integrity is how they behave when no one is watching," she continued.
Wellauer added that she hopes the board will respond to community members' concerns "both in word and in action." She said she is cautiously optimistic about how the board will respond to Wednesday's event.
"I'm hopeful that last night can be the first of a series of very necessary open communication pieces between the community and the board. I feel hopeful that it's the first step in a series of steps, but I also feel a little bit cautious because this community needs to see action. We need to see the action, not just hear the words."
There was discussion Wednesday about how the next meeting should be held, she said, adding that her husband, Michael, suggested having agenda with specific topics listed.
"We are hopeful that the intention of the board is in fact to make the necessary changes and adjustments so that we can trust them again," she said. "I think that's really important, and we're really hoping that they're being sincere. I worry that a couple of them are not sincere, but I hope that the rest of the board that is sincere will get them on board."
Staff writer Kelly Rocheleau can be reached at (315) 282-2243 or kelly.rocheleau@lee.net. Follow him on Twitter @KellyRocheleau.
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