3 days Ago
The Saugus Union School District governing board named Patti Garibay as the new board president on Tuesday night after several failed nominations of other members, including Christopher Trunkey, who was considered next in line for the role but has drawn fire for actions that critics say diminish the public’s ability to provide input on board decisions. In the days prior to the board’s organizational meeting, multiple Saugus community members expressed concerns over board members casting votes on agenda items before they listened to public comments, which was suspected to not be consistent with California Education Code, according to board member Matthew Watson. “We reached out to our legal counsel for guidance and have received their counsel this afternoon out of the abundance of caution and in the state of transparency and collaborations, I would like to make a motion that we amend this evening’s agenda to move item 2K to precede item 2A,” said Watson at the meeting.
“Meaning that we would vote to approve the two sets of minutes on the agenda next and then hear from the public before we vote on anything else this evening.” The motion was approved and allowed for several attendees to speak about topics concerning them. The first speaker, Karen Frost, said it was disheartening to find out when the meeting’s agenda was released that public comment would be after the election of president and clerk.
She said she was thankful that the board decided to amend the agenda to hear from the community first. She discussed how it has been standard procedure for the board clerk to rotate into the spot of board president, but it was not a policy. “I’d like to suggest that because of these behaviors, some of these attitudes and some of the actions of the last couple months that this board takes under strong consideration that maybe somebody else take on the role of presidency for this next term,” said Frost.
Several other attendees spoke against nominating Trunkey for the position after witnessing what they described as his alarming actions at the Nov. 25 special meeting. Karan Carville used two of her three minutes to play an audio recording from the meeting that replayed Trunkey speaking over board members.
“On Nov. 19, Ingrid Boydston spoke on her deep dissatisfaction with the district and the school board,” said attendee Denna Koeller to the board. “Two parents offered to give her their allotted minutes to speak.
Per bylaw, you are not able to do this, however, as a board, you could have allowed this to happen if you chose.” Addressing Trunkey, Koeller said that he had three board members request that Boydston be heard. According to Koeller, board member Anna Griese tried to speak nine times, Garibay two times and Watson two times but Trunkey spoke over all of them and failed to allow the minutes to be given to Boydston to speak.
Koeller added that Trunkey was not treating other board members respectfully and should step down if he could not conduct himself with respect. Attendee Tammy Messina asked Watson, as her Area 4 representative, and other board members that they carefully consider their next choice for the next president. “Unfortunately, Mr.
Trunkey has made it crystal clear at the last two board meetings that he is not willing to abide by the Saugus Union School District board governance norms and has therefore disqualified himself for board leadership,” said Messina. She added that Trunkey failed to ensure a positive personnel climate existed as evidence from comments by teachers, administrators and staff, and that he did not act with a professional demeanor. After the public comment session was completed, Watson made a motion to elect Katherine Cooper to be the next president, but none of the board members seconded the motion.
Watson then allowed other nominations to be heard. Cooper nominated Trunkey, which prompted some in the packed board room to speak out in objection. Cooper said her reasoning was because Trunkey was attempting to enforce what he believed the bylaws were and that she agreed with his interpretation.
No board members seconded the nomination of Trunkey as president, opening the nomination up again. Trunkey nominated Garibay to be the president and Cooper seconded the motion. He said in a phone interview on Wednesday that he was happy to nominate and vote for Garibay as the next board president and he has every confidence she will do a great job.
Trunkey did not comment in response to any of the speakers or the board’s discussion during the meeting Tuesday night, and when reached on Wednesday afternoon he said he would have no comment to make in response to those who spoke at the meeting. “Mrs. Garibay, I think you are an honorable member of this board and certainly worthy of the position,” said Watson.
He said that traditionally there is a training that needs to be done before serving as president that Garibay did not have the chance to do earlier in the year but if she accepted the position then he would vote for her. The motion passed, electing Garibay as the new president, 4-1, with only Griese voting against it. Griese was nominated and elected as clerk for the next year, in a 5-0 vote.
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