STOW: The Stow-Munroe Falls School Board had a brief, yet tense, regular meeting last week at Stow-Munroe Falls High School.
Disputes surfaced during the approval for minutes from the school board’s Oct. 22 meeting, when board member Rod Armstrong refused to vote on the motion to approve the minutes until they were amended to reflect more detail about the discussions that day.
Armstrong said the minutes online were not detailed enough for the public’s understanding, which he believed violates a board policy, calling for detailed minutes the public can understand.
During the Oct. 22 meeting, Armstrong did not support a personnel resolution because he did not support a change made at Lakeview Middle School.
After a physical education teacher retired, each student received one less period of gym, which was replaced with a newly created Spanish course. Armstrong, citing the increase in childhood obesity and the overall curriculum change, did not support the personnel measure at the last board meeting.
When Armstrong reviewed the minutes available to the public, he did not think an average person would understand why he dissented from the rest of the board.
Armstrong said the board typically votes on a consent, or condensed, agenda, which combines many similar items to make voting quicker and easier. However, if a board member disputes an item placed in the consent agenda, the board, without a second motion, must review the item individually.
According to Armstrong, none of this occurred for his problem with the way the notes were written.
The board voted 3-1 to approve the minutes, with Armstrong dissenting. President Karen Powers was absent from the meeting.
Armstrong was also the only dissenting vote to approve an appropriations resolution because he did not think the amount of appropriations votes the board makes is necessary, and he would like to see a more detailed list of each item changed on the appropriations measures from this point forward.
