By SARAH PARKER | County Line Editor
During the public-comments segment of the Norwalk-Ontario-Wilton Board of Education meeting on Monday, Anna Allison, founder of the Ontario-based group called “Education, Not Propaganda,” gave a follow-up on a recent private meeting she and other district residents had with N-O-W Superintendent Travis Anderson and two board members.
Allison and other residents have been reproachful of the school board at recent meetings, accusing the district of teaching critical race theory (the board of education has responded that it’s not taught) and being unpatriotic, among other charges. Monday’s public comments were more subdued compared with those at previous months’ meetings.
To promote a better understand of each side’s position, Allison and a handful of other district residents — Doug and Patti Broxham of Ontario, Cori Wilson of Ontario, and Jen and Andy Wallman of Wilton — had met with Anderson and school board members Justin Arndt and Cari Keith earlier this month.
At Monday’s school board meeting, Allison said of the earlier meeting, “It pretty well was okay. There were suggestions from both sides.”
Allison suggested that her group recommended that Anderson give monthly reports on “problems that the school has had … parents’ and children’s problems … some of them solved … I don’t know if that’s exactly what they wanted or not.”
Allison maintained that someone from the administrative team/school board had suggested that a school board public-comment session isn’t necessary.
“That part I disagreed with,” she said.
In an interview with the County Line on Tuesday, Anderson said that the administration and board were not considering eliminating the public comment period, but rather had told Allison’s group that it might not get the board interaction it had sought at regular meetings. Generally speaking, N-O-W considers the public comment section to be a time mainly for residents’ input, rather than for board discussion.
At her earlier meeting with Anderson and the two board members, the group had touched on proper behavior at board meetings, Allison said.
“I do agree that decorum at school board meetings should be a lot better than it was last month,” Allison said. “The Bible says when you have conflict with somebody, to go to that person first, and then if that doesn’t correct the problem, take somebody else with you and go to them … another witness … but then you can take it publicly … where you have the conflict. I think some of the times, problems have been addressed, and some of the times, problems have not been addressed. The decorum, as far as I see, has been on the public and some of the school board members at times. I think everyone has to work on that.”
As a side note, Allison’s group’s request, the board now is leading the “Pledge of Allegiance” at the beginning of each meeting. (The “Pledge of Allegiance” has been recited in each N-O-W classroom every day.)
Also during the public comment session, Cori Wilson of Ontario, a parent of four, suggested that the district needed to encourage student consumption of media representing different ideologies. To that end, she recently distributed a handout to N-O-W staff.
“What we hear back at home from our kids, it’s mostly left-leaning stuff, which is fine. I’m not in any place to say that we can’t. I just suggested that to bring people together, it would happen a lot easier, a lot faster, if we all got the same facts and the same news, if we’re all reading the same things because the news doesn’t report it that way, and it causes a lot of conflict and division.”
Other business
• Homecoming week will be from Sept. 27 to Oct. 2, with a mock crash at 1:40 p.m. Wednesday, the parade in Norwalk at 2:30 p.m. Friday, and the dance on Saturday.
• N-O-W Elementary School had a roughly 87 percent attendance rate at Back to School Night on Sept. 1, according to Principal Melissa McKittrick.
McKittrick also noted, “The hum in the building is consistently settling thanks to the hard work of our teachers, who have been regularly teaching and reinforcing our elementary expectations.”
• At the Brookwood FFA’s crops fair on Sept. 9, students Brady Hansen, Payne Clark, Jaden Brandau and Cora Brandau received best-in-class awards. Also, Payge Clark won best in show for her decorated jack-o-lantern.
• New music teacher Wade Behrens has been working on getting a fifth- and sixth-grade band set up.
• The board accepted the resignation of network administrator and computer technician Holly Ziegler, who has accepted a position with Monroe County government.
• The art department has a new Skutt kiln for firing ceramics, along with a Brent potter’s wheel for each of the two art classrooms. The latter purchase was covered by an Elaine Paul Art Grant.
• The following are the participation numbers for fall sports: high school football, 28; junior high football, 25; high school volleyball, 25; junior high volleyball, 26; high school cross country, 14; junior high cross country, 13; and cheerleading, five.
• Nightshift custodian Joann Brueggeman will take over a part-time position in the food service department. The district is accepting applications for the custodial position.
• Alex Peterson, formerly the district administrative assistant, now is a paraprofessional in the Title I reading room. Interviews for the administrative assistant position are set for next week. Also, the district is seeking a special education aide.
