Nearly 100 teachers, parents, and concerned community members attended tonight’s (Thursday) Carroll Community School Board of Education meeting in a show of support for staff members who claim their complaints against an administrator have been ignored. The regular boardroom at Adams Elementary reached capacity well before the meeting got underway, and officials moved the proceedings to the cafeteria to account for the large crowd. School officials limited the public forum to 25 minutes with a three-minute maximum for each speaker. Before opening the floor to comments, Board President, Cindy Johnson, reminded those in attendance that the board would be unable to take immediate action on any issues brought up during the forum. High School Language Arts Instructor, Becky Boes, was the first to speak and outline the history of staff complaints. Your browser doesn’t support HTML5 audio Your browser doesn’t support HTML5 audio Your browser doesn’t support HTML5 audio Your browser doesn’t support HTML5 audio
According to another teacher, Katilynn Kaufman, at least 50 complaints have been filed against the administrator in question since they began at the district. She suggests multiple instructors, teacher associates, administrators, and other staff members have resigned due to the lack of response from school leadership. Staff had compiled a list of these complaints, and Kaufman offered the board a chance to review the documents themselves.
The board declined to take the offered binders. Several parents also spoke in support of district staff, including Casie Forke-Burke, a mother of four children who attend school in the district. She says staff morale is plummeting due to the lack of response from school officials.
Five other parents, teachers, and former staff members also spoke during the public forum, and all urged the board to investigate the over 50 complaints that had been filed. Johnson extended the forum a few minutes to allow the scheduled speakers to finish their remarks, then closed the public forum. Again, Iowa law prohibited the board from taking action during Thursday’s meeting, but school officials will likely meet for their next work session on Monday, May 2. Thursday’s meeting was also live-streamed via Zoom, but capacity was limited to just 100 viewers. Full audio from the public forum can be found included below.
PUBLIC FORUM AUDIO–APRIL 21, 2022