The money shot of Superintendent of Schools Steve Pauley and Boone County B.O.E. President Bobby Hale, might be missing from this article.
Yet, the image of Assistant Superintendent of Schools John Hudson holding onto the coat sleeves of Superintendent of Schools Steve Pauley in the age-old gesture of “holding someone back,” as he and Board President Bobby Hale stood face-to-face, will replay itself in the memory of those in attendance during Thursday’s regularly scheduled B.O.E. meeting.
Ignited by a heated debate about the merits and hindrances of having maintenance vehicles parked at the Operations Complex, versus driven home every evening by maintenance department staff.
Tempers seemed to soar between audience members, the majority being maintenance personnel, and board members as each side argued the merits of either keeping the maintenance vehicles at the Operations Complex (as argued by the board), or allowing the vehicles to go home with on-call personnel (as argued by maintenance personnel).
“I think it’s a bad idea to park the vehicles at the warehouse. I can understand the economics of it and I can understand that you want to save money and cut back on spending. But I don’t feel it’s benefiting the kids. I’m not for it,” said maintenance person Fred Bartley.
“If I’m called out, say a freezer goes below 32-degrees, if it stays that way for more than one hour, everything spoils and has to be destroyed,” Bartley argued. If that happens at a school in Whitesville, he asked board members, how is it benefiting or saving anyone money for him to have to drive from where he lives near Racine all the way to Rock Creek, and then back to the Whitesville area?
Maintenance personnel in attendance cited being called out in the middle of the night to fix things such as broken heaters, broken locks and broken windows.
At least three maintenance personnel indicated that they had been called out after their normal work hours, mostly in the middle of the night or early morning hours, at least 50 times in one month.
Board members asked those in the audience who were maintenance personnel to raise their hands. At least nine hands were raised. When asked how many of those with their hands raised took their vehicles home with them at night, all of the hands remained raised. This seemed to reinforce the board’s position that too many of the vehicles were being taken home during the evening.
At one point, Board of Education President Bobby Hale noted, “80% of fuel costs reimbursed by the state are for buses only; not service personnel vehicles.”
A lot of the maintenance employees in attendance at the meeting reported that they were not turning in a lot of their time and those late-night calls and calls while “on call” were not logged or billed to the BOE.
“Nobody has to work overtime. Nobody is forcing you to work overtime.
We’re not going to make you work it if you don’t want to. But it sounds as though you’re saying that if we don’t allow you to take the vehicles home with you, you are not going to work overtime,” board member Bobby Hale stated at one point in the discussion.
“The previous board purchased three new vehicles. Two of the three are being driven home and all of them were suppose to be parked at the OC. We’re just following up on a policy that was already suppose to be in place,” Hale told the audience.
The goal, according to board member Mark Sumpter, was to try to get some of these 400,000-mile vehicles out of the system and require a moratorium on new employees in the maintenance department taking them home with them.
“It’s not by us driving them home that they have these high miles. When the vehicle was given to me, it had 389,000 miles on it. It now has 430,000 miles on it now and I’ve had it for five years,” one unidentified maintenance worker shared with board members.
Discussion turned to the fact that certain board of education employees have the use of a company/B.O.E. vehicle built into their contract – such as Superintendent Steve Pauley, Assistant Superintendent John Hudson, employees Lou Eversole and Steve Bradley, transportation director for Boone County Schools.
Maintenance personnel also argued that other board of education employees, such as bus drivers, were able to take their buses home with them.
“The last person who gets off the bus does so near their house, which is why they take the buses home,” Hale explained.
Hale also told the assembled maintenance personnel that there were complaints from professional employees, or teachers, who complained it was not fair for maintenance department workers to be provided with transportation at the board of education’s expense.
“What you guys need to understand is that we’re not trying to play hard ball with you,” Hale said. “I’m sure if a lot of professional employees knew you were going to be here tonight, they could have outnumbered you 10 to 1.”
“The administration wanted to do this for several years but didn’t take the move because they thought if they did it they would have to undo it when you guys came in complaining about it,” Hale said and then asked Superintendent Pauley for verification that the Administration was in agreement with current board members.
“We didn’t initiate this from the beginning,” Pauley stated.
At his comment, Hale turned to Pauley and stated, “That’s a d**n lie. You’re lying. When we met in your office a month ago, that’s not what you said. It’s a straight up lie.”
Board member Joe Tagliente attempted to jump in at this point, explaining, “Three years ago we discussed a solution to the problem [of high miles on the vehicles]. That’s when we came up with the plan to replace vehicles every three years.”
At this point, the bickering back and forth between Hale and Pauley escalated, their arguing and angry words overpowering those of other board members trying to explain or make comment on the discussion topic. Both me got to their feet and Assistant Superintendent John Hudson held Pauley by the arms as he and Hale stood face to face.
At this display of uncontrolled hostility, board member Chuck Gibson arose from his chair and says, “I’m outta here” but then quickly returns to his seat once everyone is calmed down and seated.
Hale then halts the discussion on the maintenance vehicles long enough to schedule a Dec. 15 work session for “board members only.” The purpose of that meeting will be to discuss the Superintendent’s contract.
This was followed by the decision to hold a Regular Meeting on Jan. 6, to hire a new superintendent. A motion was made by Joe Tagliente to accept these recommendations. Hale, Tagliente and Gibson voted yes. Board members Cantley and Sumpter voted no to this recommendation.
“Some things are just being ignored. It seems we need to put things in a directive for them to get done,” Hale commented.
As the meeting continued, Board President Hale told the other board members, “I have informed Charles that I will no longer sign invoices other than utilities and employee salaries. We will not be paying anything until we have approved the purchases. It starts immediately. For any new invoices, we’re going to look them over and approve them before they go out and get paid.”
“Mr. Pauley, I would advise you to be very cautious of the invoices you sign. Some of these invoices that have been approved and paid may be reimbursed out of somebody’s pocket,” Hale said.
The tension in the room after the Superintendent and Board President’s display of anger had many in the audience visually upset.
At the close of the meeting, one unidentified woman was heard telling a schoolteacher, “I was so nervous to get out of there, I almost forgot my husband.”
After the meeting, Board President Bobby Hale told the Coal Valley News, “I’m tired of the Superintendent telling me something in a private meeting and then coming in here and saying something entirely different.
“Anyone who was there will attest that the discussion got a little heated,” he stated.
Superintendent Pauley reiterated this observance, the following day.
“It was just a heated moment,” Pauley stated, downplaying the moment.
“I have respect for Mr. Hale and his position and expertise,” Pauley, an employee with the Boone County Schools for 35-years, told the Coal Valley News.
When asked what his take on the board’s decision to hold a meeting to discuss his contract and to hire a new Superintendent, Pauley said, “This is something that takes place anyway. They decide if the contract is renewed or the position advertised to have other applicants.”
According to Pauley, his contract is up for renewal at the end of June.
Will working conditions be strained after last week’s standoff and how well does Pauley work with the current board members?
“All board members are different. We’ve got some new board members and I think we can work together to do some really great things in Boone County schools,” Pauley said, in response.
“I regret that I didn’t mention last night that when I was questioned about the Administration’s stance, I misinterpreted how it was worded. It’s my job to work with
Look for a video feed of the next Boone County B.O.E. meeting on the Coal Valley News web site.
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