NELSON COUNTY, Ky. — A regularly scheduled school board meeting in Nelson County ended abruptly Tuesday evening after a tense exchange between members.
The Nelson County Board of Education met to discuss steps in moving forward with a controversial decision to merge the county’s middle school and high school buildings. Specifically, the board was providing an update on merging Boston and New Haven middle schoolers to Old Kentucky Home Middle School this fall.
Near the end of the meeting, discussions turned sour after District 3 board member Tracy Bowling questioned other board members about the community’s continued frustration about the merger.
“We’ve had many people stand up here and kind of ask us questions. Maybe it’s time we actually respond,” Bowling, a staunch opponent of the merger, said.
Board Chair Amanda Deaton (District 4) said she understands parents’ concerns, but said, “There’s no perfect scenario.” She said two of the district’s middle schools – Old Kentucky Home and Bloomfield -- have a combined maximum capacity of 1,128 students.
“We absolutely do not have 1,128 middle schoolers,” she said. “I hear concerns about space, but I don’t foresee space being an issue.”
‘Clear the house’
As Deaton spoke, members of the audience began heckling the board.
“Is our school resource officer here?” she asked, turning to Superintendent Wes Bradley.
Two other board members, former chair Diane Berry (District 2) and David Norman (District 1), can be seen motioning to someone off camera to potentially remove protestors from the auditorium. However, it’s unclear from the meeting’s recording if anyone was removed.
“You have to allow us to talk and if you can’t, you’ll be asked to—we’ll escort you out, OK? That’s the way it has to be,” Deaton said.
Bowling explained that, to the community, it seems like the board has not been present during previous forums following the merger vote.
“This dialogue here, we can have all day long, but [the parents] want us to have it with them. That’s where there is this frustration,” she said. “If we’re gonna make decisions that impact our families and we’re not gonna have them at the table, you better be prepared for this every time.”
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Bowling believes there likely wouldn’t have been such a strong negative response to the merger had there been more dialogue between board members and families.
Deaton agreed to a future community question-and-answer type forum, but said many in the community have approached the board about the situation disrespectfully.
“You can’t be surprised if we don’t respond to emails that are just pure venom,” she said. “It’s just something you need to acknowledge.”
According to Berry, Bowling is the only board member who has received “nice emails” from the community.
“You’ve been [against the merger] the whole time and we haven’t, and that’s the reason they come at us,” Berry said. “The same crew shows up every almost meeting and you hear the same comments even though they get a little nastier every month.”
The former board chair said the community’s comments have been increasingly “mean and hateful.”
“I’ve tried my best to not get hateful, but it’s getting to the point now where you just turn a deaf ear because I don’t want to hear all the negativity,” she said. “They haven’t asked to be nice, just like what’s going on now, do you think that we deserve this?”
As Deaton attempted to regain control of the meeting and threatened to adjourn, Berry told her that she needs to “clear the house,” then makes a motion to adjourn the meeting.
“That’s not going to solve the problem,” Bowling responds, but the motion passed regardless.
As the meeting ended, Berry could be seen standing up to leave, but not before sharing a brief exchange with Bowling.
“I’m not going to sit here and listen to this crap,” Berry said. “How rude, how much ruder do you want these people?”
In a statement to WHAS11 on Wednesday, Bowling said she is disappointed with how the meeting ended.
"I was hopeful that the board members were going to have open dialogue so the community could hear some reasoning for the decision to move Boston and New Haven middle schoolers to Old Kentucky Home Middle School this fall," she said. "I also acknowledge that getting direct feedback from the crowd can be a distraction when the board is trying to have dialogue, it is not helpful. But I do not support ending a meeting with so many unanswered questions."
She said she hopes other board members will attend any of the future family connect events as the district prepares families and students to transition.
In another statement to WHAS11 on Wednesday, board member Nicole Milburn said:
"Last night's meeting was another sad example of the divisiveness in the community, resulting from the lack of leadership from our superintendent. Differences of opinion are to be expected, however when the board is not able to conduct a meeting due to the crowd's behavior it is evidence of the toxic situation within our district. As a BOE we take an oath to support the majority and currently that is not the case in our situation."
WHAS11 also spoke with Nelson County parents following the board meeting.
Jeff and Melissa Parrish have five children in the school district; they addressed the board for the first time at Tuesday night's meeting.
“While I don’t agree with disruption and yelling that happened last night, I think it happens because of no communication," Jeff said. "If you expect to mess with someone’s money or children and not communicate about it, you should expect disruption.”
The Parrish's are adamantly against the high school merger.
They cite their frustration with a majority of the board members not answering emails and not attending community forums.
"If you’re elected to be the voice of a community, but you don’t listen to the community or show up to any community events, when you make votes where do you get your knowledge to raise your hand yes or no?," Jeff said.
The Parrish's still back Bradley.
“It is not a reflection on the superintendent that a lot of people have tried to say," Melissa said. "He is going to do what’s best for the children no matter who they are or where they’re from. Period. And, if every single principal has been united behind him and his vision and working towards compromises, he must not be that bad of a boss.”
Parent Dr. Peter Trzop disagrees.
“You have to own the situation – and the situation is, whether you think you did a good job or a bad job, the district is divided and the kids are suffering and teachers and parents are under pressure," he said. "Most people just want their kids to graduate and have a good experience in school – they don’t want conflict and anger and hate – and we’re seeing a lot of that.”
He thinks conflict will be resolved with aligned leadership and a community effort.
“Sometimes we focus on just the kids – it’s about teachers, administrators, staff, and parents. There are so many people that make this work. If we don’t bring them all together there’s no buy in and we constantly have conflict," he said. "I don’t think the meetings are as productive. Right now there’s a lot of work that’s not getting done…when people go to meetings they need to have decorum and they need to have some level of professionalism. It doesn’t mean I’m not upset, doesn’t mean I like what’s going on, maybe I want to root for them.”
The Nelson County Board of Education’s next meeting is scheduled for March 12 at Cox’s Creek Elementary School.
On Friday, there's a court hearing for a lawsuit filed by Nelson County families against the school board.
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