A group of Sunapee residents unhappy with the school board has sought the advice of an advocacy group on possible violations to the state’s right-to-know law.
Sunapee parent Ray Porter said school board members board failed to adequately post notice of a planned retreat, which took place outside the town limits at Millstone restaurant in New London on Oct. 24.
Porter and other parents have been critical of the school board in the past, accusing members of doing little to address bullying and stifling public comment. An attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union said the board’s limit on public comments at its meetings follows a pattern of election officials in Pembroke and Alton infringing on free speech rights.
“In a free society, governmental officials are required to tolerate harsh criticism and even a demeaning attitude toward them and cannot discriminate based on these critical viewpoints,” said Gilles Bissonnette, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of N.H.
Before the Oct. 24 meeting, residents had asked the school board if the public was allowed to attend the meeting, and were told they could, as since it was an open meeting, and would be posted just like other meetings. Porter said the meeting was posted in one place, when the state’s law requires meetings to be posted in two places.
Sunapee Superintendent Russell Holden said there was never any intent to deceive. The reason why the notice was not posted in two places was because the elementary school assistant administrator, who usually posts the meeting notice, had a substitute who posted the meeting notice in the wrong place. Holden said he was not aware of the error until the Tuesday after the retreat.
When residents, including Porter, showed up to the meeting, the school board left the building, went across the street, and quickly took a roll call and adjourned the meeting.
David Taylor, vice president of the advocacy group Right to Know NH, said the incident appeared as though the board was attempting to avoid the public. He said while having the public sit in on a retreat may be awkward, it should be allowed.
“It seems as though they did not want the public to attend, saw the public, and went across the street,” he said.
Holden defended the board’s actions, saying the meeting had to be canceled because there was not enough seating at Millstone. He said he received calls from the restaurant’s owner the day of the meeting saying multiple people had called to make reservations for the meeting, and they would not be able to accommodate all of them.
Holden said the School Board Association of N.H. told him the best course of action would be to begin and adjourn the meeting quickly while explaining the meeting could not be held due to lack of space.
Holden said the board took the meeting across the street so as not to block the venue’s limited parking spots.
“We didn’t want to put the restaurant out at all,” he said.
The board is also accused of not allowing residents to speak freely at their meetings. Sunapee resident John Brandolini attempted to speak to the board during a June 1 meeting during public forum, but was cut off by board chairman Shaun Carroll. According to the recording of the meeting, the board allowed Brandolini to speak for three minutes, even though he was not speaking about a particular agenda item.
Bissonnette said the incident appeared to be a “classic case of unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination.”
“It appears that the speaker was initially given three minutes to speak, even if it was outside an agenda item. And then, when he spoke, he was immediately shut down after simply engaging in criticism of one of the Board members,” Bissonnette said in an email. “. . . Here, when the Board allowed the speaker to speak on any topic for three minutes, it should have allowed the speaker to speak for that time period, even if the Board believed the speech was critical.”
Bissonnette compared the incident with recent cases in Alton and Pembroke.
ACLU-NH litigated a case out of Alton, where resident Jeffrey Clay was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct for criticizing select board members during public comment. A Laconia circuit judge dismissed the charges in May, and the town settled a federal civil rights claim with the resident for $42,500.
And in Pembroke, the Pembroke school board chairman said recently they would no longer censor critical comments from the public during its meetings, as long as the comments are relevant to an agenda item. The ACLU-NH became involved after the board threatened to kick Pembroke Academy parent David Pearl out of a May meeting after he was critical of how the administration handled the arrest of Rekha Luther, the Pembroke Academy dean of students who is facing heroin possession charges. Pearl died of a sudden heart attack in June.
Holden defended the board’s actions, saying the board is allowed to decide whether public comment is allowed and has a policy, listed on SAU 85’s web site as “BEDH Public Participation at Board Meetings,” where residents can only comment on agenda items.
If residents wish to address the board on an item not on the agenda, they must present their request to the superintendent, according to the policy. The policy also states speakers should conduct themselves in a civil matter and “obscene, libelous, defamatory or violent statements will be considered out of order.” The board chairman is allowed to terminate the speaker’s address if they feel this is out of order.
Holden said Carroll was justified in shutting Brandolini down because he referred to the chair as a communist. In the video, Brandolini can be heard saying “That happens in Russia, not in America,” when the chair tells him to sit down.
Bissonnette said they should have permitted him to say what he wanted to, criticism or not.
(Caitlin Andrews can be reached at 369-3309, candrews@cmonitor.com and on Twitter at @ActualCAndrews.)