School board president walks out for third time in four meetings…and now it is becoming contagious

By Patric Hedlund, Editor

We finally got to the flag salute at the El Tejon Unified School District board meeting last week—35 minutes late. Our voices merged in the familiar ritual cadence. For sixty seconds I felt hope that a spirit of balance and teamwork might return to the room.

But the tone for the night had already been set by the school board president and district superintendent in a wildly misguided power play. Their plot backfired.

At 6:50 p.m. on August 8, Board President Paula Regan and Superintendent Katie Kleier appeared as excited as junior high school teeny boppers hatching a “mean girls” plot.

They confronted this newspaper editor and a photographer on the ramp outside the old modular building that serves as the district conference room. We had just arrived to cover the district’s regular monthly meeting. The two told us we were to stay in the corner, without moving, and that we would no longer be allowed to take photographs using a flash. If we did not comply: “there will be no meeting, and it is your decision.” This was surprising news.

First: This school board has vital work to do to make wise choices about closing a school. Declining enrollment has created a need for belt-tightening. The clock is ticking. This decision will require a unified community. Why would they launch this sensitive effort by picking a fight?

Second: I’m a reporter. I am not the board president or the district superintendent. I do not have the authority to convene or cancel school board meetings. The superintendent and the board president were threatening to disrupt their own meeting—and they appeared to be enjoying their plan.

This newspaper has been reporting about the school board meetings on this mountain for 47 years. State law requires open meetings at which citizens are free to take photos, videos and tape recordings. Why? Because elected officials are spending the public’s money and deciding issues affecting the public’s children. The public gets to see how they do that.

As I soaked in the strange excitement Kleier and Regan seemed to be taking from the showdown they had crafted, I said slowly, “I am not in control of your choice to cancel your own meeting….”

“I am here as a member of the press, on behalf of the public, protected by California’s open meeting laws. There is no basis in law for your demand. If you choose to cancel your own meeting, that is your choice, not mine,” I said, then opened the door to the building and walked to a seat in an area with a good camera angle and the ability to hear. It was at the back of the room.

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The superintendent and the board president were threatening to disrupt their own meeting—
and they appeared to be enjoying their plan.

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I sat quietly, waiting, along with about 14 other members of the public and the district staff who were being paid to be at the meeting. Regan and Kleier stayed outside for about 15 minutes longer as the clock ticked past 7 p.m., which is the time the school board meeting is to begin. Under the California Government Code, publicly elected boards are required to follow their posted agendas. The district’s own bylaws say they must begin their meetings in a timely manner. At 7:10 p.m. Kleier and Regan entered the room together, taking seats at the board table. Regan declined to open the meeting. She announced they planned to sit there and wait until “the media” (me) complied with their demands.

Then they sat there…as did I…as did we all…. After a period of silence, with the meeting still not convened, a quorum of board members held a discussion about the superintendent’s newlyrevealed alleged disability. Trustee Ken Hurst said Kleier is sensitive to flash photography—which had apparently been concealed for two years from the public and the board who hired her—until after they voted 3-2 to give Kleier a three-year contract extension. But being in public meetings with the media present is part of a school superintendent’s job. John Fleming said it is not legal for the board to tell the media how to cover school board meetings. This entire discussion, held prior to a convened meeting, violated open meeting laws.

Paula Regan is an elected official who must pledge to uphold the law. Katie Kleier is a public employee. She is paid over $10,000 a month of the Mountain Community’s taxes. Both are required to conduct their board meetings in the public eye. That means photos and sometimes flash photography to report to the public what these officials are doing, and how they are doing it.

Regan’s refusal to open the meeting was a display of official abuse. It rivaled the unfortunate performance by Trustee Stephan Kiouses at ETUSD’s July 18 board meeting. Kiouses became a local video star when he used words like “morons” and referred to the TriCounty Watchdogs’ air monitoring project in Lebec as “garbage science”—all with no intervention by board president Regan. [See video ] A quick tap of the gavel with a reminder to display more professional behavior might have been expected. But Regan did not intervene to demand a respectful tone toward members of the public. Bully tactics have been a feature of Regan’s presidency. Members of the public often complain that she is rude, or looks as if she is falling asleep when they speak.

As president, Paula Regan has cultivated the art of the walk-out in meetings. She walked out of the July 18 meeting 30 minutes after Kiouses’ name calling—in a disagreement over another matter.

Whether her departures are a form of communication or a sign of ill health, July marked Regan’s second walk-out in the last three meetings. Then, last week—when community member Gita Nelson rose to ask why the public and the scheduled meeting were being held hostage—Paula Regan did it again. She got up and walked out. Superintendent Katie Kleier followed her.

At 7:30 p.m. Vice President Ken Hurst finally said he would open the meeting. We said the pledge of allegiance and began.

Regan never returned. Kleier came back about 30 minutes later, after missing important comments from the public about the air study and what it means for children’s health.

Regan’s departure had left the five-person board with a slim quorum: John Fleming, Ken Hurst and Anita Anderson [Kiouses was not at the August 8 meeting].

By the end of the evening it appeared that the walking-out act had become contagious. John Fleming called for a vote on allocating $14,500 to hire a San Francisco consultant—a contract desired by Kleier to help analyze whether to close El Tejon School or Frazier Mountain High School. Because Regan had left hours earlier, the quorum of three were reminded their bylaws say they must vote unanimously or the proposal will die.

Hurst and Anderson favor the contract.

Fleming said he would vote ‘nay’ and refused to table the motion.

At 10:04 p.m. the vote was going against Anderson, Hurst and the superintendent. Kleier was heard whispering to Anderson. The superintendent said under her breath, ‘you can leave….’ Anderson rose, directing a mixture of anger and frustration at Fleming, saying: “I have to go to work tomorrow; you are not being reasonable. I have to leave,” and, with tears, she did. So then there were two. Without a quorum, the two trustees remaining could not even vote to adjourn the meeting.

So the August ETUSD board meeting accomplished none of the district’s business—they didn’t even pay their bills. It was an expensive hijack that has cost this school district money, goodwill and time. ETUSD is running short on all those assets.

In an interview the next day, Anderson confirmed Kleier had whispered to her about leaving, but said she did not feel the superintendent had coached her to leave. Such tactics, however, have damaged the ability of this board to conduct business.

A change is needed. Perhaps other members of the board should ask Paula Regan to give up the president’s gavel to someone who is willing to start on time and conduct meetings from start to finish without making exits that exhibit disdain for their office, their fellow board members and the public who gave them their votes.

As always, our pages are open to Paula Regan or Katie Kleier or any members of the district who wish to express a view.

This is part of the August 17, 2012 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.

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