2024-09-13
September 13, 2024
The September general meeting was held on September 11, 2024. Another meeting, another round of chaos. However, this time, Baqir wasn't around at roll call to receive the usual point of order objection, but he did suddenly appear to help Patton muck up the district some more later on in the meeting.
Agenda Item 4: Approval of the agenda
Unlike at the previous few meetings, Baqir was not on the call during the approval of the agenda, so Patton didn't have the votes to remove anything that I wanted to talk about. In particular, I had an item covering Baqir's residency on the agenda, and it actually stayed on this time.
Agenda item 5: Approval of minutes
The original minutes did not reflect my point of order with regard to Baqir, nor my protests at a number of votes in which his vote was the deciding vote. They also did not reflect the fact that the meeting never technically adjourned. All such items were corrected.
Agenda item 6: Public comment
The interesting specifics of public comment were covered by the following articles; I won't get into it here:
During public comment, someone named Yvonne Patterson registered to give comment over Zoom but for some reason couldn't make herself heard when her name was called. She sent me a copy of her statement and requested that I read it out loud during my report like I did last month with Kevin's public comment. More on this later.
Agenda Item 8.02: Board president's report
For a guy who complains about people leaking confidential information, Patton sure does leak confidential information directly to the public. This time, he attached four documents to the agenda under his "President's Report"; all four were e-mail chains. Two showed that he forwarded baseless accusations and possible slander(?) from Mark DegliObizzi and Kane Dennison-Gomez to my fire company. Two concerned Trauth's replies to those same people.
While this was not as exciting (and as bad for him) as releasing not-yet-seen district personnel data like he did last month, it's still not good, and he'll probably be receiving another demand letter or two from some lawyers.
He also picked a metaphorical fight with Representative Paul Baumbach, who has been quite critical of the board's behavior in recent months. See the two articles that I listed up in the public comment notes above for more information.
Agenda Item 11.02: Interim superintendent
Motion: No (carried: yes)
This was to approve the contract for Bob Andrzejewski to begin work as interim superintendent on October 1 (since when they voted to approve him last month with no discussion, he didn't have an active license, so he won't be legally able to be interim superintendent until then).
Andrzejewski might be the least bad option for the district if they're going to keep Superintendent Shelton suspended until his contract runs out next summer, but I'm still not going to support any effort to deny our one employee his due process. Moriak voted in favor of this because she'd rather have something in place than nothing in place, but that's where we differ on these kinds of things.
Agenda Item 11.03: RFP for a firm to search for a superintendent
Motion: No (carried: yes)
Similar to how I don't support hiring an interim superintendent when we already have one, I don't support paying a firm to help us look for a new one when we still haven't even conducted the performance review of the one that we already have. Maybe we'll get lucky and Baqir will be legally removed and the other three will be sued into bankruptcy by Shelton before this actually matters.
Agenda Item 11.04: University of Delaware
Motion: Yes (carried: yes)
If you'll recall, a student of ours who graduated last year was roughed up and arrested on graduation night for some bullshit reasons by University of Delaware police. A few months back, that student (Mohammed Sanogo) sued the University of Delaware and the officers involved. The board voted to express its support for his continued quest for justice.
Get their ass, buddy.
Agenda Item 11.12: Naveed Baqir's residence
I've been making points of order around Baqir's residency for a few months now. It is plainly clear that he does not live in the United States of America, let alone Christina School District anymore. He has been in the country around 5 days in all of 2024, and his presence was splotchy at the end of 2023. He lied earlier in the year, telling people that he was "travelling" when he damn-well knew that he was living in Pakistan; he's enrolled in medical school there.
When asked when he was coming "home", he could not give an answer.
When asked why he wouldn't resign, he literally said that it would result in a split 3:3 board, implying that his faction couldn't do whatever they wanted without him there.
The gang at The Highlands Bunker Podcast let me into the bunker yesterday to chat about Patton's dear friend Baqir; to hear more about Baqir's doings and also learn a bit about school finances, check out episode 311, "A Pile of Dead Charter Schools (w/ Doug Manley)".
Refer the matter to Department of Elections to investigate
Motion: Yes (carried: no)
Since Baqir clearly doesn't live here anymore, the Department of Elections should determine his residency status and remove him from the database or whatever they do with election information. The motion was to refer the matter to them.
Obviously, this was defeated 3-3-1 (at least Baqir abstained).
Refer the matter to Department of Justice to investigate
Motion: Yes (carried: no)
Since Baqir probably committed election fraud to even get elected, the Department of Justice should look into it. The motion was to refer the matter to them.
Obviously, this was defeated 3-3-1 (at least Baqir abstained).
Censure Baqir for abandoning the district
Motion: Yes (carried: no)
Since Baqir abandoned the district, he should be censured for it. The motion was to censure him thusly.
Obviously, this was defeated 3-3-1 (at least Baqir abstained).
Small (but important) point here: Smith-Tucker rushed to Baqir's defense and said that with modern technology, Baqir can work from anywhere. And that's cool for a desk job. But a local school board member, a politician, is not a desk job. It's a public role that must be accountable to the public. People need to be able to protest at his house, say mean things to his face, etc.—in other words, he must be available to his constituents like any other politician. And he's not, and he won't be, and that's wrong. I get shit from people all the time, usually put up by Patton in some way, but I don't get to turn off my video and walk away; I have to listen to them address me, in public, in front of a whole auditorium full of people. I have to listen to them on the street, in the grocery store, anywhere they run into me because it's a local office and you're supposed to be around the people you represent. Being accountable to the public is part of the job, and he's completely neglecting it.
Agenda Item 13.02: Board member reports
Much like last time when I was asked to read public comment from someone who registered to give public comment, I read Yvonne Patterson's comment as part of my report. I don't agree with it, but I do agree with her right to say it, so I read it alout.
Naturally, Patton threw a fit when I started to read the public comment out loud and tried to silence me again, but we know how this goes. He tried to kill my mic, but he pressed the wrong button and killed all the mics, and Smith-Tucker lost her fucking mind and started screaming at Bob Goff (the district's tech guy) accusing him of doing it. Really professional stuff from these clowns.
Anyway, as read into the record on Wednesday night, here's Yvonne Patterson's public comment:
Good evening Christina board, families, and concerned tax payers.
My name is Yvonne Patterson and I work and live in the Christina School District. I am here tonight to voice my concerns about the money that might be spent on Kirk, Gauger Cobbs, and Shue Meddill for renovations, demolition, and a rebuild. As a new resident and tax payer of New Castle County, I became concerned at the last board meeting by what the district was proposing. Kirk and Gauger Cobbs are 1.5 miles away from each other and both are housing students below building capacity AND have been projected to have a lower enrollment during the next 5 years. My question to you, why are we even proposing to tear down Gauger-Cobbs and rebuild and put the same lower number of students into 3 buildings when in reality, our school district could handle the amount of students in the 2 already established buildings. In the long run, save taxpayers AND the district money.
This time, they didn't rage-quit the meeting, so we did actually adjourn, and on time, too!