Liz Beavers
Cumberland Times-News
May 01, 2008 11:53 am
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KEYSER - A Mineral County resident, who said she cannot get any answers to her questions from anyone in the school system, confronted the Mineral County Board of Education and Superintendent Skip Hackworth Tuesday on several issues.
"I have found out there are very few people in the school system who actually know the answers to my questions," she said. "The answer I get most often is, 'I don't know the answer to that, but I will try to find out and call you back.'
"Most of the time," she said, "I don't get called back.
"So I started putting my questions in letters to the editor and the response I have gotten is amazing."
Joann Fout said her main question has centered around the bond issue, which was defeated Feb. 2 but is coming up for vote again on May 13.
"How often can the bond levy be put up for a vote?" Fout asked, noting that one person, whom she did not identify, told her, "'The superintendent will run the bond levy over and over again since he wants to make his mark on the county before he retires.
"He has to control everything and everyone. The board members are his puppets.'"
Fout also said she had talked to teachers who said they were "afraid to approach the school board on controversial problems because they fear being turned down for the funding they need."
They also said they feared for their jobs, according to the speaker.
"I have been told about people who spoke before this board, and felt that no one was listening as they spoke," she said.
Fout, who has attended recent board meetings along with the supporters of home schooling who have been voicing their frustration over Hackworth's opinion that home-schooled children should be limited in the amount of classes they can take in the county school system, also said she was "insulted" by how the group was treated.
"Our school board members did not even get extra chairs for people who had to stand for the whole meeting," she said.
She also noted that the home school speakers were "timed with your stop watch, but Mr. Hackworth rambled on and on."
According to Board President Mary Aronhalt, however, board policy allows each speaker a five-minute period to address the board if they have properly signed up for the "public comment" portion of the meeting.
Policy also calls for no more than three speakers to address the same topic. If there are more than three, the speakers are to elect a spokesperson.
Both stipulations are spelled out on the sheet which those wishing to speak must sign no later than 15 minutes prior to the start of a meeting.
The limits are in place, Aronhalt said, in order to keep the length of the board meetings at a manageable level and to also allow time during the meeting to address the other business at hand.
Butch Wahl, who is challenging Aronhalt for her position on the board in the primary election, also spoke on behalf of the home schoolers.
"It is my understanding the home schoolers requested a half-hour block of time" at a previous meeting, he said.
"I don't think it is too much to ask.
"Then, Mrs. (Bretta) Spencer requested one minute toward the end of the home school discussion. I think you could have suspended the rules for one minute, or someone on the board could have relinquished his time," he said.
Aronhalt pointed out to Spencer at that meeting, however, that the time for comments from the audience had come and gone.
Neither Hackworth nor any of the board members responded to either Fout's or Wahl's comments.
It is their policy, however, to accept comments without response during the public comment portion of the meeting.
Contact Liz Beavers at lizbeavers@yahoo.com.
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