A man tried to approach the stage at the Manitowoc School Board meeting Tuesday. It's one of several disruptions in the past year.
MANITOWOC - A Manitowoc man approached the stage where the Manitowoc School Board was holding its meeting on Tuesday during public input, causing Superintendent Mark Holzman to get up and try to physically bar the man and School Board Vice President Lisa Johnston to adjourn the meeting momentarily.
The meeting was held in the auditorium at Wilson Middle School to accommodate the large number of people wanting to attend school board meetings. The board members were arranged on the auditorium stage while the audience was seated in the auditorium chairs with a podium facing the stage for public input.
The man, Michael Mealy, cannot be seen in the video recording (around the 22:00 mark) of the board meeting, but moments later, Holzman is handing papers to the school board members that detailed an open records request to either inspect or copy Holzman’s and each board member’s public official surety bond.
According to Wisconsin State Statutes, every public official must subscribe and swear to a written oath and bond, which promises the official will pay for damages incurred if they fail in their duties of office as written in the statutes. These oaths and bonds are kept with the school clerk.
Mealy did retreat from the stage where the board members were gathered, and after a short comment on the open records request, returned to his seat. The rest of the public input session proceeded without interruption.
However, when public input was closed, members of the audience still tried speaking with the board. In the first few minutes of the meeting, a woman yelled to board member Kerry Trask to speak up.
Trask, who was speaking to the board through a microphone, replied that this was a meeting for the school board, not the public.
Most public committees and boards, including the city council, allow members of the public to speak during a public input period. Once that period is closed, the public is no longer allowed to interact with the board, committee or council for the remainder of the meeting, unless invited to speak.
The woman continued to speak from across the auditorium, causing Trask to tell her she was “out of order” and Johnston to call a five-minute recess.
When the board came back from the break, Holzman addressed the audience.
“We have board business to take care of tonight,” he said. “I appreciate the fact that everybody wants to hear, but there is a reason we are in the auditorium tonight and that is because it has more space. … I need everybody to understand that if they want to make comments and disrupt the Board of Education meeting, this board will choose to go into a separate room and conduct the meeting virtually, and you’ll have to watch it online.”
Immediately after Holzman was done addressing the public, a woman again spoke up about talking into the microphone so people can hear the board.
“What did I just get done saying?” Holzman said. “Hold your comments to yourself.”
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The Manitowoc School Board has held its regular monthly meetings in the auditorium at Wilson Middle School since October to accommodate the dozens of people wishing to attend the meetings. Many of them also sign up to talk during the public input sessions of those meetings to express their opinions on the district’s COVID-19 protocols, student performance, critical race theory and other topics. There are several instances from the past year that audience members to school board meetings had to be asked to be quiet during the meetings.
During the July meeting, Board President Dave Nickels tried to read a letter submitted to the school board from a Lincoln High School alumnus who now resides in Minnesota. People from the public repeatedly interrupted Nickels, culminating in him yelling for people to sit down. He gave up on reading the letter and moved on with the meeting.
The school board has weathered a lot of scrutiny in the past year. The board has heard several comments criticizing its COVID-19 protocols for shutdowns and wearing masks. The district was also accused of teaching critical race theory in schools, something many citizens believed does not belong in the classroom but which Nickels said has never been discussed by the school board.
An attempted recall initiated in October brought further scrutiny to the school board. A group of Manitowoc citizens attempted, but ultimately failed, to gain enough signatures to begin a recall of Nickels and Meredith Sauer from the school board.
Both Nickels and Sauer, as well as Johnston, are running for reelection to the board in the spring election. They are running against challengers Chris Able, Matthew Spaulding, Matthew Phipps and Tony Vlastelica.
A primary election to narrow the candidates down to six will take place on Tuesday. To vote, people must register either in person at their municipal clerk’s office, in person at the polls, or online at myvote.wi.gov. People will need to provide proof of residence in the form of their driver’s license, a bank statement, utility bill, etc.
Contact Alisa Schafer at aschafer@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @AlisaMSchafer.
This article originally appeared on Manitowoc Herald Times Reporter: Manitowoc school board faces anger over critical race theory, COVID-19
