BY KARISSA MILLER
Iredell-Statesville Schools Board of Education members voted unanimously Monday to end their meeting abruptly due to rising tensions between some board members. As a result, the portion of the meeting when district staff and students are recognized and the board takes action on official business was postponed to a later date.
The meeting began going off the rails when board member Anita Kurn asked Chairman Kevin Angell to clarify how new matters are added to the agenda during the 4 p.m. meeting, which is generally attended only by the board and I-SS administrators.
“Point of information: When we want to adjust the agenda and want to request a change, how do we send an adjustment to the agenda in an email without being attacked?” Kurn asked.
“Mrs. Kurn, you’re out of order,” Angell replied.
“It’s really offensive,” Kurn responded, “to say I’m using the proper method … then you get accused of being manipulative.”
Kurn’s comments came as the board was considering a motion to approve the 6 p.m. meeting agenda.
“I will not answer your question. The motion, on the table, is to approve the agenda as outlined,” Angell said.
The back-and-forth between Kurn and Angell prompted Vice Chairman Doug Knight to intercede and help the chairman regain control over the meeting. Knight made a motion to adjourn the meeting, which was then seconded by Mike Kubiniec.
Earlier in the meeting, Kurn began her criticism of the chairman.
“Are we going to have these long diatribes of board policy as we go through this constantly?” she asked
“We aren’t discussing your personal comments … I expect to be given the right to speak without interruption … we have to respect that,” Angell responded.
In a statement issued by the district after the meeting, Angell apologized to the public for canceling the regular meeting.
“We apologize to students, families, and staff scheduled for recognitions and will ensure those occur at a future meeting. The board will conduct routine business in a respectful and orderly manner at the next meeting that will most likely be scheduled for next week,” Angell said.
Additional details, including the exact date, time, and agenda for the next meeting, will be announced by the district.
Watch the Meeting
A video of Monday’s meeting is accessible at https://youtube.com/live/EkXFNFY8t_M?feature=share
Wow! The Board members need to get over themselves and get to work within the guidelines for the work before them. This was ridiculous. Keep your personal agendas at home and get to the governance and provision for the education of our children, making a good environment for staff and the physical and fiscal operations and facilities needed.
3 buffoons. 2 can’t even follow basic rules of order. Sad state of affairs for our students. Thankful for Mr. Angell stepping into this hornet’s nest voluntarily. Stay the course Kevin. The majority is behind you.
We know what happened after the meeting was adjourned. I don’t know who you consider buffoons, but, I hope you are not disrespecting our US veterans on the school board, as apparently the chairman most certainly did.
The response by the chairman was appropriate. What do Anita Kurn, Mike Kubiniec and Brian Sloan continue this little game about the public comment period? It’s all about attention.
Sloan admitted to only reading the bible. Should tell you all you need to know. He has no business on any board, much less a school board.
Apparently Ms. Kurn wants to bring Thunderdome to the school board meetings.
Personal grievances should not be aired in public meetings. It is immature and childish.
As one who has not posted in sometime, after watching this debacle, it is apparent that Kurn and Captain Crunch had this planned. Of course Captain as usual thinks he is the expert. Robert rules are meeting guidelines and in no way law. The Chair runs the meeting, or tries to in this case. Both Kurn and Captain continued to disrupt the Chair. Robert rules are clear, you wait and show respect for the person speaking and once the Chair recognizes you, you have the floor. The sad part is my friends had students being recognized and school staff had many items that needed a vote. The losers in this case are the parents, staff, and kids. Iredell citizens, your vote matters. The clowns need to leave. A great school system has been the target of this group from day one and their damage has not gone unnoticed.
According to Policy Code 2340, “except as otherwise provided by law or by the policies of the board, meetings of the board will be conducted in accordance with Robert’s Rules of Order.” The purpose of point of order is to call attention to some possible fault in parliamentary or other procedure that would violate your organization’s rules. A point of order can interrupt a speaker who has the floor – in this case, the chairman. It doesn’t need to be seconded and isn’t debatable. Once the point of order is made, the chair then should recognize the member and ask what he/she objects to. There were missteps as far as parliamentary procedure goes. For instance, Mr. Angell made personal assumptions about board members motives in regard to an agenda item, which are not allowed; therefore, a point of order was called. In addition, another point of order was called because a seconded motion was not voted on (to move public comment). So, in these cases, board members do not have to be recognized before declaring a point of order.
As a former professor who taught law and Roberts rules you are incorrect. You can’t just begin talking over the person that has the floor, what would be the use of the rules, not laws but guidelines to have a productive meeting if everyone just spoke out while others were talking. Protocol is to be recognized. And simply the law provides the Chair the authority to run the meeting. If a member is over ruled they can appeal to the body. Hard to do when the Chair had two people orchestrating chaos.
Of course, talking over another member without recognition is not allowed. That’s different from a permitted interruption. Saying “Point of Order” is not just etiquette – it’s a procedural signal that you are invoking a specific right and are allowed to interrupt. I’m not talking about someone who simply starts speaking over another, interjecting themselves into a debate. That would be out of order. So, too, is when the chairman is questioning the motives of other members, which was taking place at that meeting; therefore, a point of order was called.
Let’s get this completely right. Roberts rules are guidelines, not law. The Chair controls the meeting, period. If you read their policy Robert rules are guidelines. It’s apparent your a Captain K and Thunderdome supporter. Anyone with common sense can see clearly a well orchestrated plan to disrupt this meeting. All were out of line. This simply shows the lack of respect from adults, adults that are here to guide our system. Total fail for everyone.
Taxpayers money spent well🤮Can we not locate enough civilized people to do this job? Sad.
Angell was out of line and ironically contradicting several of the codes of conduct he felt the need to shoehorn into his rebuttal.
Vote for clowns. Get a circus.
Plato: My arguing a point about Robert’s Rules has nothing to do with whether I support Kubiniec or Kurn, and I’m not the one resorting to name-calling and false accusations. I guess we’re going to have to agree to disagree about Robert’s Rules. I won’t respond further to your rude comments.