It was a long discussion, featuring school board members, the public and administrators, but in the end, the Hamilton Southeastern (HSE) School Board ended-up taking no vote to reject a $5.7 million mental health grant.
29 people signed-up to speak for up to 2 minutes about the mental health award. Among the 29, only four spoke against the grant. Those in favor included students, mental health professionals and parents with children battling mental health issues.
The board conducted a work session and received a presentation from administrators detailing how the grant would work, and board members had questions.
When the public comment period was over during the regular session, there were questions from the board. Then, board member Tiffany Pascoe tried to make a motion to reject the $5.7 million award. A point of order was immediately invoked, saying this item was listed on the agenda as an information item, not one subject to a board vote. Board President Dawn Lang asked for legal counsel, but no school attorney was in the room.
The board did not rule out a possible vote in a future meeting about accepting the mental health grant, but no vote was taken at Wednesday night’s session.
It was pointed out as well that the school policy leaves it for the superintendent or their designee to sign grants. It really isn’t a board decision.
Wrong. The cited policy only says the staff should look for outside resources and CFO can sign for the grant. There are no restrictions placed on the board. The board has the final fiduciary responsibilitiy in the corporation and can decide to accept or reject anything related to funding.
They were not financially fiduciary by hiring a new more expensive law firm with no explanation of why
The policy states they must “pursue”, it does not state “accept”. Especially if there could be matching efforts or future fiscal obligations to the schools/taxpayers.
So, with this grant and it’s future impact would certainly need a vote. As a taxpayer I would certainly want it heavily vetted and voted.
Just let it sink in. The HSE school board, led by Tiffany Pascoe (who has no children), Dawn Lang, Ben Orr, Dr.? Juanita Albright, and Susan Thomas, want to reject $5.7 million in Federal funding to help with mental health issues in our community’s children.
How can a medical professional, Juanita Albright, sit silently as Tiffany Pascoe tries to take away resources for our children’s mental health? It is sickening. Post Covid anxiety in children is high and school social services are always underfunded, but these yahoos think it is a good idea to reject Federal funding? What makes in worse is that they were just elected and will be in office until at least 2026. Our community schools are doomed.
Is there a link to read the text of the grant? My experience has been that government money comes with requirements and conditions and those would be found in the grant. I spent fifteen minutes on the Google-box and could not locate the actual verbiage.