Unit 4 Superintendent Shelia Boozer and board President Gianina Baker at Monday night's meeting. To subscribe, click here. To submit a letter to the editor, click here.
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Sign up for our daily newsletter here CHAMPAIGN — A thorny issue that’s been festering for weeks reached a boiling point at the end of Monday night’s Unit 4 school board meeting, when two members went public with their frustration over information not being shared and policy they say is being violated. “We used to come in here and at least have congenial conversations,” Amy Armstrong said. “That’s not the vibe — because trust is completely gone.
And for me, it’s 100 percent gone.” Replied Heather Vazquez: “The only thing board member Armstrong and I agree on is board trust is done.” Armstrong and Betsy Holder both spoke out during a tense discussion about reorganizing leadership of a board that last spring added Sam Banks and Mark Holm to fill the seats of Jamar Brown and Mark Thies, who resigned in frustration less than a year after being elected, Brown citing a culture of “mistrust, missteps and misinformation” in the district.
It’s been, as Holder put it Monday night, an “exhausting” experience ever since. Monday’s was the third straight regular meeting that “board reorganization” had appeared as a discussion item.
