Several residents on Wednesday questioned recent actions of the Oxford Community School District as the school board rescinded the current superintendent’s contract and named Deputy Superintendent Tim Throne to the post.
The actions during the special school board meeting came in the midst of allegations from community group TEAM20, a grassroots organization? consisting of concerned residents who are against the construction of an international student dorm and are looking into a 20-year contract to educate about 200 Chinese students per year in Oxford schools.
The community group alleges that some administrators are recording lavish expenses, are keeping information from the district’s board and Oxford residents and more. The group has filed several Freedom of Information Act requests with the district since its creation.
During the prearranged public comment portion of the meeting, which was attended by more than 30 residents, TEAM 20 community director Kallie Roesner-Meyers said the group uncovered a letter of resignation from former Oxford schools Controller Fred Shuback that wasn’t shared with the board until the TEAM 20 Freedom of Information Act was honored. Shuback resigned a month prior to the letter being shared, said Roesner-Meyers.
“You have the responsibility to be fact finders and report to the people on the board and to the community,” Roesner-Meyers said to the school board.
“That letter should’ve been presented to the public as soon as it was published. It shouldn’t have been buried somewhere. … I have no words.”
About six residents spoke up during the charged board meeting, referencing expenses they said Skilling was wrongfully charging, alleging violations of the Open Meetings Act, misconduct from board members and not enough focus on other aspects of the district.
Eugenia Calocassides, another TEAM 20 member, said Board President Jim Reis should also step down.
“I think that a lot of the public trust has been violated here,” said Calocassides.
“I’m concerned with the lack of transparency with the board. … If you’re withholding some information from the public, it makes you wonder what else is going on.”
Most board members declined to specifically address the various accusations, but Reis said there are a lot of things in the district that wouldn’t be in place now if it weren’t for Skilling, including the international student program.
“We couldn’t have done it without everybody working together and buying into it … all board members here bleed blue and gold,” said Reis, adding that residents are invited to an open forum May 12 at the Oxford schools administration building.
Some residents also questioned the district’s budget during the public comment of the meeting.
Skilling said that the district is in good shape financially, and would “end the year in the black. This time in 2010, we were looking at a $4.3 million deficit and ended up in the black.”
Skilling, who began the schools international push, including the international student dorm that was recently passed, also has a contract to consult for the district in its partnership with Weiming Education Group – the Chinese company that will be building the planned 40,000-square-foot, 200-student dorm. He originally was slated to resign that role in August, but the board on Wednesday also voted for his contract to end June 30.
Tim Throne, who will be stepping into the Superintendent’s role beginning Thursday, May 7, said he feels what the community years for is communication.
“To me, (the reactions during the meeting) was a catalyst of the concerns that have been welling over time,” said Throne.
“Are there things we should have communicated a long time ago with regards to our contracts and what we were trying to do with the dorm? Absolutely. I can tell you that starting right now and starting tomorrow morning, … I really have two things that have the highest priority: One, I have to communicate, or over-communicate, with the board, and I have to get them trusting each other … because you can’t do any kind of business without trust.
“The second thing is that I think I need to try and communicate better with the Oxford community. … I’m sure going forward exactly how that’s going to look, but I’m thinking about something like office hours twice a month.”
The district’s contract with Weiming has not changed, but Throne said that if in a few years, the program doesn’t perform, the board may need to take another look at it.
TEAM 20 has more than 150 members.
