A Disconcerting Special Session Board Meeting
I am writing concerning the West Bonner County School District “special session” board meeting that took place on Wednesday, June 14th, at 3:30 P.M.. After attending, I am in shock at what I witnessed. Never before have I seen the level of disrespect and outright violation of the rules set for these meetings. The board had to call an abrupt end to the gathering after only ten or so minutes due to screaming, disruptive and disrespectful community members, many of whom, I am sad to say, were parents. Some of them had even brought their children with them to witness their parents acting highly inappropriately. The schools in West Bonner County have had a notoriously bad problem with bullying amongst the student population and after seeing this, I no longer wonder why that is. I want to be clear: this outspoken group in no way represents the majority of parents and community members at large in WBCSD, as they would never act like that. It’s sad to see a small number, most of whom never attend the monthly school board meetings, show up just to bully the board members who won’t meet their demands.
Those acting like petulant children were there in protest of the board’s decision to hire Branden Durst as superintendent. He is calling for much-needed change with these failing schools. As a father and WBC community member myself, I encourage you to stand behind Durst, the three board members who voted in favor of hiring him, and the community here in WBCSD that voted for scrupulous, detailed audits before we would ever begin to think about receiving a levy of millions in hard-earned tax dollars, destined to be put into a system that has not been fixed with more and more money – money that looks to be going to highly questionable places. He is what our community needs, as our last superintendent was bullied into resigning because the vitriol she received from some members of the school system was so severe. Branden Durst will not put up with that, and some who are either ignorant, or just have special interests over what is best for students in WBCSD are trying to intimidate him and the school board. Don’t we all love politics?! People are tired of this kind of behavior – it’s high time for big change.
Jason Brenneman
Spirit Lake, ID
West Bonner County Zone 3
Related: Welcome to North Idaho Mr. Durst
Dear Mr Brenneman:
Is this the incident you are referring to?
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/idaho-lawmaker-heather-scott-escorted-out-of-volatile-school-board-meeting/ar-AA1cBsZZ
It is ashame to see an elected offical behaving like this. She should be recalled and removed from office.
I’m sure that MSN is not giving both sides, I have a call in to Rep. Scott and will post anything applicable. I know the union is vicious (an association that fulfills all the functions of a union is a union) so I’ll wait on both sides to pass judgement on MSN’s wordsmithing.