Tensions flare at school board over JES

Ashley Hunter
ECB Publishing, Inc.

As with any Jefferson County School Board meeting, the Monday, December 10 regularly scheduled gathering of the school board began with a prayer, pledge of allegiance to the flag and a call for public comments.
The only citizen who had signed up to speak was Merry Ann Frisby.
Coming to the podium, Frisby had concerns over whether or not the lease that had been prepared for the Jefferson Elementary School (JES) building for the 11th Episcopal District of the AME Church, Inc. was an “imperfect notification”.
“The lease has, in fact, been on the school board website for five or so days, but the proposal has only been on the website overnight - that’s not very long,” said Frisby.
When reviewing the proposal and the various uses that had been laid out in the 11th Episcopal District’s proposal to the school board, Frisby, a local planning officer, had noticed that several uses for the facility did not agree with the property zoning in which the JES grounds were situated.
“I know you are a sovereign body, but you still have to abide by and comply with the regulations of the city and county and state, so I question the zoning,” said Frisby, before adding that the proposal contained a ‘laundry list’ of uses, as the 11th Episcopal District’s proposal included everything from childcare, retail, and medical services when sharing the ways that they plan to use JES.
“It lists for-profit operations and other social services that will require a great deal of upgrading and permitting,” said Frisby.
Further, Merry Ann Frisby asked if the board was going to allow the 11th Episcopal District to sub-lease to other businesses in order to support the proposed venues and businesses that they had in mind and whether any of the businesses were going to compete with already established local trade.
Some of those proposed social services included day programs for elderly citizens and children, which concerned Frisby due to the state of the building.
“This is a building that has been burned, has had water intrusion, it has mold and there has been mentioned of asbestos problems, and... it has not been inspected since 2013,” stated Frisby, further asking if the school board was willing to lease out a building that may not be safe for such programs.
“I suggest that it would be a good idea to pause a little bit and wait until this building is inspected so that everybody knows what’s wrong with it,” suggested Frisby.
School Board Chairperson Shirley Washington thanked Frisby for her observations, and the school board did not offer commentary on any of Frisby’s concerns.
The school board moved to address other items, but the discussion regarding JES eventually returned to the agenda.
As the school board members had examined and reviewed the prepared lease agreement, Chairperson Washington expressed concerns over the written-in 20-year agreement; in Washington’s opinion, that was not long enough.
“There’s a whole lot of renovations for the projects you plan to implement [and] I’m concerned about just the 20 years. I know you’re going to put a lot of money into it ...you are looking out for a long-range plan,” stated Washington.
She questioned what would happen should the 11th Episcopal District’s contract end after 20 years of laboring to revive the falling-apart school building, only for it to be handed to another interested party.
“If we aren’t careful...someone may want to come along and open another school, and that building will be all well prepared and put together for whatever someone may want to use,” implied Washington.
At this, 11th Episcopal District representative and local Monticello pastor Rev. Hill asked if it was possible to expand the lease agreement to the longest possible allotment of time.
“There will be an investment in the building, and to have it for 20 years and then we no longer have it, that’s going to be a great loss to us,” agreed Rev. Hill.
Board member Sandra Saunders also asked if it was possible to add options for the 11th Episcopal District to buy the property or renew the lease at the end of the agreed upon years.
In addition, Saunders commented on the fact that the JES facilities had not recently received an inspection.
Saunders said that she did not feel like it was required for the district to have someone perform an inspection in order to lease out a piece of property or a building.
“It would be up to the 11th Episcopal District to get [their] building inspections and get [their] walk through and see what needs to be done,” added Saunders.
At prompting, School Board Attorney Tom Reeves pointed out language in the prepared contract that would seem to agree with Saunders’ belief that inspections would be the jurisdiction of the 11th Episcopal District.
Superintendent of Schools Marianne Arbulu mentioned that there had been some conversation brought to her regarding an individual who had offered to inspect the building free of charge.
The school board, however, was skeptical.
Saunders asked whether providing a free inspection is typical (Arbulu said it is not) and Washington disapproved of the fact that the offer had been brought to the Superintendent and not the school board.
“I think that if this lease is between the 11th Episcopal District of the African Methodist Episcopal Church and the school district here, that should be up to you guys (the 11th Episcopal District), who you want to inspect it and how you want it,” Saunders suggested.
At this point, a citizen in the audience, Beth Frisby, stood.
Frisby criticized the board’s negligence to provide an inspection for a dilapidated building and attempted to convey her concerns over the district handing over the JES buildings uninspected.
Chairperson Washington banged her gavel and called for Frisby to quiet down.
“You’re out of order,” said Washington, with Frisby snapping back that she “did not care.”
“I can ask you to leave the meeting,” argued Washington. “This is going to be an organized meeting and if you are here to disrupt this meeting, then you should not have come.”
Frisby argued that, as a taxpayer, she had a right to speak.
“I tell you what, you can leave. You can leave. You can leave,” Washington ranted.
When Saunders asked Washington if she could continue speaking, Washington said Saunders could, but only if Frisby didn’t interrupt the meeting again.
“We might have to have an officer come to these meetings from now on,” said Washington, before directing School District Administrative Assistant Ramona Kinsey to call the Monticello Police Department in regards to Frisby’s interruption of the meeting.
“I’m going to be respected in this meeting,” continued Washington. “And if you’re a citizen, whether a taxpayer or not, you’re gonna respect this meeting.”
Washington allowed Saunders to speak again, providing that she was not going to be interrupted by Frisby again.
“If you are, we will not going to go any farther in this meeting until the officer comes,” Washington added.
At this point, Frisby said she would leave, but not without providing her views to the chairperson and school board.
“I will publically say, shame on you two (Washington and Saunders). Shame on you two for doing this to the taxpayers,” said Frisby, before leaving.
Shortly after her departure, two MPD officers arrived at the school district office and would remain present until the end of the meeting.
Washington apologized to her audience for the “behavior that was just exemplified” by Frisby.
Saunders was able to resume her discussion, claiming that her point of view came from both being a board member and a taxpayer.
“Even though everybody has got their feelings into this elementary school - and that’s ok, taxpayers can do that - this building has been sitting here two years. Nobody wants that school,” said Saunders. “If we are going to lease a building to an entity, then it is up to the entity to decide when they are going to do the inspections.”
Washington agreed with her point, adding that the 11th Episcopal District will “take care of whatever needs to be taken care of.”
Rev. Hill said that they were well aware of the fact that the JES building will need to be inspected in the future, but that they weren’t going to go ahead and handle inspections until they had been given the contract.
“Once we get a contract, then we will start moving forward to do the things done that need to be done with the building. We are aware of so many things that has to be done - but until we get a contract, we’re not going to do anything.”
Further, he said that the 11th Episcopal District is aware that the building will need to be brought up to code in order to be used for their goals in mind.
“Once that’s done, then we will move in and start providing the service that we are proposing to provide.”
With that matter seemingly handled, Washington stated that the contract had been ready for approval that night. However, due to the changes that she wanted to be made regarding the lease term length, the contract needed to go back, be changed and completed before it could be officially voted on and approved by the board; after, it will be sent to the Department of Education (DOE) for final approval.
In that matter, Board member Charles Boland had his own input.
“Madam Chairman, from the get-go, I thought we were doing this in a backward way. I thought that this lease should be sent to the DOE before we approved it, but I was voted down on that. We don’t know what DOE will do with this,” said Boland. “I think this ought to be put back and sent to DOE until the DOE either approves it or disapproves it.”
Washington disagreed.
“We need to learn to do something’s ourselves. We are a board,” stated Washington.
“We can’t do everything ourselves,” argued Boland, referencing the fact that the Jefferson County School District is under emergency management by the DOE.
When Washington attempted to interrupt him, however, Boland quickly asked if she planned to dismiss him from the meeting as well, alluding to the earlier incident with Beth Frisby.
“You just can’t kick me off the board, now,” said Boland. “You can’t kick me out of here when I give my opinion on something.”
“Did I say, one time, that I was going to kick you off the board?” chastised Washington, further saying that it was possible for people to misunderstand each other and say things and give people the wrong impression. “I’m chairman of the board, and I’m saying that we should be able to do things ourselves. If DOE rejects it, then we will know where we stand, Do you mean to tell me that we can’t do anything on our own? We can do this.”
Boland expressed concerns that it wasn’t fair to drag this process along with the 11th Episcopal District before even knowing if DOE will permit the school board to lease out JES at the proposed price and for the proposed length of time.
Superintendent Arbulu then stated that the contract had already been sent to DOE, but it had not been responded to yet and since the board was making revisions, she would need to send the new version back to the department.
Board member Saunders also had a few more comments regarding the level of public interest and concerns regarding the school board leasing out the JES building to the 11th Episcopal District.
“We’ve leased buildings out before and we’ve never had to go through all of this. We’ve never had this issue or problem to erupt like we’ve seen tonight. I just don’t understand,” said Saunders. “They are going to do a whole lot of things for this county. It’s a community project. It’s not for the 11th Episcopal District only - it’s community. It’s all good stuff that they are going to be doing.”
Saunders also wanted to clarify the situation regarding her supposed conflict of interest in this contract.
A member of an African Methodist Episcopal church in Monticello, Saunders had been accused of having a conflicted interest regarding the transfer of the JES building to the 11th Episcopal District.
“I’m not going to gain anything, whether they get it or don’t get it,” said Saunders, adding that she would adhere to the suggestions of the school board attorney regarding whether she should, or should not, vote.
School Board Attorney Tom Reeves addressed the conflict as he had done at previous board meetings, and stated that in his opinion, Saunders had no conflict that would prevent her from voting.
Reeves said that Saunders’ membership in a church that was affiliated with the 11th Episcopal District would not cause her any personal gain, so she was not conflicted and would be able to vote on the contract for JES when the time came.
School Board member Sandra Saunders asks that anyone with any further complaints or inquiries about the conflict address those concerns towards the school board’s attorney.
Feeling satisfied that those various concerns had been cleared up, the school board directed Attorney Reeves to update the contract so that it would extend the lease period from 20 years to a 25 year period (with the option for another 25 years at the discretion of the 11th Episcopal District).
The improved contract will also add the option for the 11th Episcopal District to purchase the JES facility or renew the lease (should the church group decide to do so), and a property insurance policy was added to the lease.
Attorney Reeves will make the changes, and then the board will vote on it at the January meeting.