On Thursday, Dec. 3, despite some people’s opinion, the school board decided not to reorganize the board. According to the school board of FHSD, Director Mark Lafata had the opinion that it was “time for a change.”

At the board meeting a motion was put on the floor by Lafata for reorganization of the board. Lafata was President for four years and believed that there was now a lack of leadership from the current President Mike Sommer. Lafata attempted to bring the subject matter onto the agenda at the previous meeting on Nov. 19, but it was instead scheduled to be discussed at the last board meeting because it hadn’t been added to the agenda 24 hours in advance.

At the meeting the board members were able to put forth their opinions on the subject, the main purpose was for them to start working as a team.

“I don’t know what the outcome of this meeting is going to be but all I want to say is whatever we vote on we all need to back and give a hundred percent support to what has been decided on and we can all focus on moving the District forward and not on the commotion going on around us,” Director Sandy Sanders said at the beginning of the meeting.

The reason this motion was brought to the board was because of the way a meeting was lead that happened around a month ago. It was said that the negotiations were handled poorly at the meeting and the information
given lacked substance and direction from the board. The lack of communication between board members was a concern at the meeting, and according to some board members, has been a problem for a while now. They felt they are not being informed as well as they should be on schedules, decisions and more.

“This is a seven-member board but it’s not functioning as a seven-member board,” Lafata said. “It’s functioning as a three-member four-member board at times and seven people were elected into this position and three people maybe four people know what is going on half the time.”

Later in the meeting, it was brought up that each member
of the board has their own commitments and that they all needed to put forth the effort to understand what was going on with the decisions being made. Treasurer Mike Hoehn feels that being informed is a matter of personal responsibility.

“We all take the time to read, keep ourselves informed on the issues that are presented to us on a regular basis,” Treasurer Mike Hoehn said. “We all have to put the effort forward, if you don’t put forth the effort you’re not going to know what is going on.”

Most of the board members feel that the problem does have a solution.

“Until all members of the board decide the outcome is to work together [we won’t have a solution],” Vice President Marty Hodits said. “And we’re going to respect each other and respect the knowledge of each other. Until that time, there is nothing we can do so I am just going to make my statement now that I will not become President because I don’t think that I can fix the problems. I don’t believe that I could fix this even though I have tried.”

Towards the end of the meeting, Sommer discussed his views on the subject and said that if he could go back to the meeting he would change the way the last board meeting was run. When the members voted on the reorganization of the board the motion failed 0-6-1, with six of the members voting against the motion and Lafata abstaining. The District is now focusing on moving forward to help the District and its students.

“Going forward and remember the main reason we are sitting in these seven chairs is the kids in the classroom that is why I am here and I hope that is why the other six of you are here each and every month,” President Mike Sommer

said. “There has been an attempt to try and make sure that we are all together it hasn’t always been successful but we are going to continue and try. I am not going to give up trying to make this Board of Education a successful one because of we are successful up here then the kids are going to continue to have the chance to be successful.”

If the motion to reorganize the board would have passed, Sommer would have passed the gavel onto Superintendent Dr. Schuster who then would have started the nominations for a new President. Once a Presidential nomination was made, the nominations would have continued through the rest of the board members. And because there were seven board members present at the meeting, four members – the majority – would have had to second the motion.